INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CITRUS GR01 7 ES. 499 



both absolutely and relatively. The characteristic pur- 

 ple color with the male gives to a mass of scales belongs 

 to no other species of Mytilaspis. 



The eggs are pearly white, very minute, elongate- 

 oval, . and are usually laid in four rows, but sometimes 

 promiscuously. Each female deposits from 25 to 70 eggs. 



The newly-hatched larva is irregularly oval in shape, 

 0.12 of an inch long, of a transparent white color, and 

 with fiery red eyes, which have been likened to grains 

 of cayenne pepper. This young insect wanders about 

 a very short time, and then settles upon the bark or 

 leaves; when upon the latter, preferably along the mid- 

 rib, and is soon covered with a white film of wax threads, 

 some of which stand out from the rest, and if not car- 

 ried away by the wind, they accumulate and form cottony 

 tufts or tangles. 



The shedding of the larval skin or first moult occurs 

 about three weeks after hatching, and the formation of 

 the true scale is begun. A second moult of the female 

 occurs three or four weeks later, and when nine or ten 

 weeks old egg-laying begins, the eggs being deposited 

 beneath, the scale, from beneath which the young begin 

 to issue in about a week after the eggs are deposited, 

 unless retarded by cold weather. 



The male goes through its second moult and changes 

 into a pupa several days earlier than the female, from 

 which it emerges as a winged fly, and is ready for mating 

 at the time the females are passing through their first 

 moults. 



There are three or four generations per year, but the 

 separation into distinct broods is often more or less con- 

 fused, one generation overlapping the succeeding one, so 



