58 THE NATUKE AND CULTIVATION OP COFFEE. 



Until she has nearly reached her full size she still 

 possesses the power of locomotion, and her six legs 

 are easily distinguishable in the under surface of her 

 corpulent body -, but at no period of her existence has 

 she wings. It is about the period of her obtaining 

 full size that impregnation takes place (Reaumur has 

 described the singular manner in which this occurs 

 Mem., torn iv.), after which the scale becomes somewhat 

 more conical, assumes a darker colour, and at length 

 is permanently fixed to the surface of the plant, by 

 means of a cottony substance interposed between it 

 and the vegetable cuticle to which it adheres. The 

 scale, when full grown, exactly resembles in miniature 

 the hat of a Cornish miner, there being a narrow rim 

 at the base, which gives increased surface of attach- 

 ment. It is about one-eighth of an inch in diameter 

 by about one-twelfth deep, and it appears perfectly 

 smooth to the naked eye, but it is in reality studded 

 all over with a multitude of very minute warts, giving 

 it a dotted appearance ; it is entirely destitute of hairs 

 except the margin, which is ciliated. The number of 

 eggs contained in one of the scales is enormous, 

 amounting in a single one to six hundred and ninety- 

 one. The eggs are of an oblong shape, of a pale fresh 

 colour, and perfectly smooth. A few small yellowish 

 maggots are sometimes found with the eggs, these are 

 the larvae* of insects, the eggs of which have been 

 deposited in the female while the scale was soft. They 



* Of the parasitic Chalcidise, many genera of which are well known 

 to deposit their eggs in the soft coccus, viz., Encystus, Coccophagus, 

 Pteromalus, Mesoscla, Agonioneurus, besides Apidius, a minutely-sized 

 genus of Ichneumonidse. Most, if not all these genera are Singhalese. 



