196 



ANIMAL LIFE 



footless little sac without eyes or other organs of special 

 sense, which lies motionless under a flat, thin, circular, red- 

 dish scale composed of wax and two or three cast skins of 

 the insect itself. The insect has a long, slender, flexible, 

 sucking beak, which is thrust into the leaf or stem or fruit 

 of the orange on which the " scale bug " lives and through 

 which the insect sucks the orange sap, which is its only 



FIG. 124.- The red orange scale of California, o, bit of leaf with scales ; b, adult 

 female ; c, wax scale under which adult female lives ; d, larva ; e, adult male. 



food. It lays eggs under its body, and thus also under the 

 protecting wax scale, and dies. From the eggs hatch active 

 little larval scale-bugs with eyes and feelers and six legs. 

 They crawl from under the wax scale and roam about over 

 the orange tree. Finally, they settle down, thrusting their 

 sucking beak into the plant tissues, and cast their skin. 

 The females lose at this molt their legs and eyes and 



