550 INSECTS AT HOME. 



of the female, and Mealy-Bugs, on account of the white sul>- 

 stance which envelopes the young Cocci. Mr. Westwood re- 

 marks that these form ' one of the most anomalous tribes of 

 insects with which we are acquainted, and which already prove 

 that annulose animals may exist, which become more and more 

 i'mpcrfect as they approach the Avinged state, and which in 

 that state lose all trace of articulation in the body as well a? 

 of articulated limbs (as in the female Cocci), leaving, in fact, 

 inert and fixed masses of animal matter, motionless and ap- 

 parently senseless, and which resemble nothing more nearly 

 than the vegetable excrescences called galls.' The same 

 eminent entomologist also points out the remarkable analogy 

 which exists between the Coccidae among the insects, and the 

 Cirrhipeda, or Barnacles, among the Crustacea. 



It is rather difficult to find a starting-point for the history 

 of this remarkable insect, but we will begin at the early larval 

 condition. In this state both sexes are alike, very small, and 

 nearly as large as. the dot over the letter i ; six-footed, active, 

 and having two long and slender bristles at the end of the 

 body. When they are large enough to shift for themselves, 

 they proceed along the branches and fix their beaks into the 

 bark of the twig, or the spider-veins of the leaf, and remain 

 from that time motionless, growing rapidly in size, but losing 

 the tail-bristles. Thus they remain throughout the winter, 

 and not until the following spring do the sexes develope them- 

 selves ; the males assuming their wings and taking to flight, 

 and the females remaining where they were. The subsequent 

 career of the insect has been traced by Alphonse Karr, in his 

 'Voyage autour de mon Jardin,' a translation of which was 

 published by Messrs. Routledge and Co. in 1854 : — 



' The journey once completed, it will repose after it for the 

 rest of its life. It will fasten itself to a young branch, and 

 not only will it never leave it again, but, still furtlier, it will 

 never quit the point of the branch upon which it has established 

 itself. It grows — that is its mission, that is its duty. When it 

 become as large as a pea, there comes a most singular little 

 fly, of a deep red, with two wings twice as long as its body. 

 These wings are of an opaque white, ornamented on the out- 

 ward side by a rich carmine band. These little flies are the 

 males of the animated tubercles. 



