58 INSECTS AFFECTING THE ORANGE. 



they are rarely seen to move by day, but at night they frequently change 

 their position. Finally they desert the leaves, and at maturity the 

 greater number will be found upon the bark of the twigs and smaller 

 branches. 



The- excretions of wax exude from minute orifices called spinnerets, 

 placed in groups upon various parts of the body, but chiefly upon the 

 margins. At first the wax forms in ridges, which unite and form a 

 crown around a central tuft. Smaller tufts to the number of a dozen 

 or fifteen arise about the central elevation, and the young louse, when 

 about a week old, appears as an oval white star upon the leaf. The wax 

 gradually spreads over the surface of the insect, and for a time forms 

 distinct plates ; six of these, three upon each side, are large and dis- 

 tinct ; the three remaining plates are small ; they are situate one at 

 each end and one in the center. After the insect has attained two- 

 thirds its adult size, the plates are found to have coalesced, and form 

 a thick, continuous sheet of wax, from which arise at least as many 

 tufts as there were plates. The tufts, which are merely exfoliations of 

 wax, marking the spots where the material is most abundantly given 

 off, slowly but constantly melt into the surrounding mass. At full 

 maturity, when the production of wax entirely ceases, these eruptive 

 centers become obliterated, or are marked by a few projecting frag- 

 ments which gather dust and dirt and cause discolorations and spots 

 which have been variously described by different authors. 



The honey dew produced and given off by these insects attracts ants 

 and other insects, and, as in the case of Lecanium, these lap the nectar 

 from the bodies of the Ooccids and from surrounding objects. 



Broods. The development of this insect is not very rapid, and ex- 

 tends over three or four months. The principal broods are in spring 

 (April and May) and in midsummer (July and August). A third brood 

 occurs in October or November. 



Habitat and Food Plants. This Bark-louse is found in all parts of the 

 peninsula of Florida, but is not known to occur elsewhere. Its prin 

 cipal food plant is the Gall-berry (Ilex glabra), a plant which grows 

 abundantly in the sterile " flat woods " and in low ground about ponds. 

 In these waste places, often far removed from cultivated plantations, the 

 insect may be found in such abundance that the stems of the gall-berry 

 bushes are loaded with them in dense clusters, while the leaves and all 

 surrounding objects are coated with the black smut which always ac- 

 companies crowded colonies of this and other nectar-yielding Coccids. 

 Such infested patches of Gall-berry sometimes cover acres in extent. 



Although the insect lives and thrives upon many other plants, and 

 particularly upon such fruit trees as the Quince, Apple, and Pear, which 

 in Florida do not find suitable climatic conditions, and are not thrifty, 

 yet in cultivated orchards it is seldom destructive. Upon the Orange 

 it occurs everywhere in numbers usually insignificant, but at times suf- 

 ficient to excite apprehension. The white color and striking stellate 



