68 



INSECTS AFFECTING THE ORANGE. 



together like a flat ribbon-like band, the whole forming, when complete, 

 a soft elastic white sack, the size, and somewhat the shape of a medium 

 sized white beau. The length, when mature, is about three-eighths of 

 an inch ; the width one-fifth of an inch. 



" Inside the sack are deposited the eggs of the female, among the in- 

 terstices of a mass of cotton -like fiber, which under a high magnifying 

 power is shown to be round, and not more than one-sixth part the 

 thickness of pure cotton fiber, with which it was compared in the same 

 field. This mass of cottony fiber is filled with a great amount of granu- 

 lar matter, for the purpose, it may be, of affording sustenance to the 

 young insects within the sack. The young hatch out in this sack, and 

 make their way out into the world through a rent in the soft and tender 

 underside of the sack. 



"The female, after finding her home and during maturity, does not 

 move, although she does not lose her legs, but clings tenaciously with 



her feet to her support, leaving the 

 body tipped up in the rear and the 

 cottony mass movable in any direction. 

 The male insect was only found during 

 a period of about two weeks from 

 Sept. 25th. This was the observation 

 of 1881, when I found them in great 

 numbers. I have failed to find the 

 male insect this season. It has a long 

 red body, six legs and one pair of very 

 long, dark and transparent wings, 

 prominent eyes and antennae very long 

 and covered with hairs, arranged very 

 much as the feathers of a peacock. 

 (The antennre are 16 or 17 jointed.) 



u The winged male is easily seen and 

 easily caught, as it moves slowly about, 

 and is not readily disturbed so as to fly 

 away. The female insect lives upon the trunk of the tree and large 

 limbs and down to the smallest twigs, around which it may be seen 

 clinging in clusters sufficiently great to completely hide the branch ; 

 also upon the leaf, along the stem and ribs of which it is fixed, both 

 above and below, although more abundant on the underside of the leaf. 

 u There are three broods of this insect in the season ; the first appearing 

 in May, the second in August and the third in October, or about three 

 months apart. I havejust observed, October loth, the mature female 

 with eggs fully grown and with the young hatched out and crawling in 

 the same sack. In 1881 they rapidly increased from about the first of 

 August, and were continually appearing, and still hatching out in De- 

 cember. 



" Every female, it is estimated, produces from 200 to 500 young. The 

 young will mature and produce a new brood in about three months." 



FIG. 25. Icerya purchasi Maskell. Females, 

 adult and young, on Orange. (After Corn- 

 stock.) 



