434 INSECTA. 



FAMILY III. 

 GALLINSECTA. 



In this last family there are but five joints in the tarsi, with a 

 single hook at the extremity. The male is destitute of a rostrum, 

 and has but two wings, which are laid horizontally on the body, 

 one over the other; the abdomen is terminated by two setae. The 

 female is apterous and provided with a rostrum. The antennas are 

 filiform or setaceous, and most commonly composed of eleven 

 joints. 



They constitute the genus 



Coccus, Lin. 



The bark of various trees is frequently covered with a multitude of little 

 oval or rounded bodies, in the form of fixed shields or scales, in which, at 

 the first glance, no external organs indicative of an Insect are perceptible. 

 These bodies are nevertheless animals of this class and belong to the 

 genus Coccus. Some are females, and the remainder young males, the 

 form of both being nearly similar. An epoch, however, soon arrives in 

 which all these individuals experience singular changes. They then be- 

 come fixed; the male larvae for a determinate period, requisite for their 

 ultimate metamorphosis, and the females for ever. If we observe the latter 

 in the spring, we shall find that their body gradually increases to a great 

 volume, and finally resembles a gall-nut, being sometimes spherical, and at 

 others reniform or scaphoid. The skin of some is smooth and level, that 

 of the remainder presents incisures or vestiges of segments. They slip 

 their eggs between the skin of their abdomen, and a white down which 

 covers the spot they occupy. Their body then becomes desiccated and 

 forms a solid crust or shell which covers their ova. Other females protect 

 theirs by enveloping them with a white substance resembling cotton. 

 Those which are spherical form a sort of box for them with their body. 

 The young Cocci have an oval body, much flattened and furnished with 

 the same organs as that of the mother. They spread themselves over the 

 leaves, and towards the end of autumn approach the branches* on which 

 they place themselves to pass the winter. 



The Gallinsects appear to injure trees by a superabundant sudoresis 

 through the punctures they make in them, and of course those who culti- 

 vate the Peach, Orange, Fig and Olive are particularly on their guard against 

 them. Certain species fix themselves to the roots of plants. Some are 

 valuable for the rich red colour they furnish to the art of dyeing. Further 

 researches on these Insects might eventuate in the discovery of others which 

 would prove of similar utility. 



