216 HEMIPTERA ANOPLUR A. 



shellac, manna, and other substances of considerable importance. 

 After impregnation, the female remains attached to a leaf or 

 branch, and her dried body serves as a protection for her eggs. 

 Many of these insects are very small, and the males of several 

 species have not yet been observed. Coccus Cacti, Linn., is a 

 scarlet species which lives upon a Mexican species of Cactus, and 

 yields the well-known dye called Cochineal. C. Lacca, Kerr, a 

 West Indian species, yields shellac ; while the manna is the 

 gummy secretion discharged by the tamarisk when punctured 

 by C. Manniparus, Fabr. 1 



Among the most curious of our native Coccidce are the species 

 of Orthesia, Bosc., which are small round white creatures re- 

 sembling small woodlice rather than insects, which are sometimes 

 met with on various low plants. 



HEMIPTERA ANOPLURA. 



Antennae filiform, five-jointed; mouth suctorial; tarsi two- 

 jointed ; wings absent ; abdomen large ; habits parasitic on mam- 

 malia. 



The Pediculidce or true Lice, are now usually considered to be 

 degraded Homoptera, though some writers have treated them as a 

 distinct Order, either alone, or in conjunction with the Mallophaga. 

 They are exclusively parasitic on various species of mammals, and 

 although the same animal may support more than one species, the 

 same louse is rarely found infesting two different animals. Three 

 species infest man : the Head Louse (Pediculus Capitis, Linn.), 

 found on the head, especially in children; the Body Louse 

 (Pediculus Vestimenti, Nitsch), found in the clothes, which, though 

 clearly a distinct species, so closely resembles the first that it is 

 difficult to detect any satisfactory specific difference between them; 

 and the Crab Louse (Phthirius Inguinalis, Leach), a broader and 

 shorter insect, found in the hair on the face and body. The lice 

 infesting different races of men differ a little in colour, etc., but it 

 has not yet been positively determined whether they are distinct 

 species, or only varieties of the common ones. Other species of 

 lice infest elephants, monkeys, pigs, dogs, cats, mice, etc. 



1 Compare Westwood, Modern Classification, ii. p. 449. 



