THE OVUM. 5 



of Lecanium, in which I have counted between 2000 

 and 3000*. In form the eggs are more or less narrowly 

 elongate or ellipsoidal, with the sides usually straight 

 and parallel, but in some few instances they are slightly 

 curved (PL XIII, fig. 7). 



Yellow and pink are the prevailing colours, while in 

 Mytilaspis pomorwm they are colourless, in Aulacaspis 

 rosse, Bouche, and Gliionaspis salicis they are crimson, 

 and in Parlatoria proteus, var. crotonis, Doug., they are 

 dark mauve (PL XXXI, fig. 3). A fine white mealy 

 substance (wax) is usually attached to them, but is too 

 sparsely distributed to veil the character or colour of 

 the eggs. In Pulvinaria, Dactylopins, and other 

 genera the powdery substance is replaced by very 

 long, fine, white, silk-like filaments, of an exceedingly 

 elastic character, which in the former genus, when 

 ruptured by the wind, are carried long distances, ap- 

 pearing in the air like an entangled mass of gossamer 

 webs. As the young embryos mature within the egg 

 the eye-spots become distinctly visible, which generally 

 heralds the emergence of the larva. 



Coccids never lay their eggs in exposed situations, 

 as do Aphids and other allied families of the Homop- 

 tera, but provide various means of protecting them. 

 In the Din spin & they are laid beneath the shield-like 

 covering (PL XIV, fig. 3 ; XXIV, fig. 4) ; while in 

 Lecanium the female protects them with her own 

 body. With PhysoJcermes abietis they are received 

 into a very peculiar marsupium or pouch, formed by 

 the folding in of the outer epidermis, so that practically 

 the eggs never leave the body of the female. Orthezia 

 carries them between the long waxen plates at the 

 posterior extremity of the body, which are specially 

 developed for this purpose. 



Numbers of Coccids lay their eggs in sacs formed of 

 white cottony or felted material (wax), which are 



* In Walkeriana pertinax, Newst., a species recently discovered in 

 British Central Africa, 6258 larvae were taken from the body of a 

 single female ['Proc. Zool. Soo..' Loud., 1900, with plate]. 



