22,4 . Kuwana: The Chinese White-wax Scale 401 



The second molt having taken place, the larva is transformed 

 to a propupa. The male from now on is without mouth parts, 

 and during the dormant period is an inactive creature, able only 

 to move its front legs feebly and to wriggle the abdomen when 

 disturbed. After four or five days the third molt takes place 

 and the pupa appears, this greatly resembling the adult male. 

 As in the preceding stage, it is inactive. About the same length 

 of time is required for this stage as for the preceding one. 



When the pupal skin is cast the wings of the male are extended 

 to their full length and then folded, one over the other, upon its 

 back. As soon as the wax filaments have grown to their full 

 length, which requires one or two days, the male backs out of 

 the cocoon, or wax case, and becomes active. It immediately 

 begins searching for a female with which to mate. The life of 

 the adult male is very short, and death occurs soon after mating. 



After mating the body of the female increases gradually in 

 size, but not very noticeably until the winter is over. In Jan- 

 uary of the following year the diameter is about 4 millimeters, 

 and in March the dorsal surface becomes much developed in a 

 hemispherical form and about 6 to 8 millimeters in diameter. 

 The color becomes dark reddish brown with black spots. In 

 the middle of April the deposition of eggs is begun. In early 

 May the body becomes globular and Kermes-like in appearance 

 and brownish in color. At this time oviposition is completed 

 and the heavily chitinized skin is nothing but a protecting shell 

 over the eggs. 



Each female is capable of laying a great number of eggs, the 

 greatest number under a single female recorded by me being 

 15,028 and the smallest, 3,372. The egg stage is rather long, 

 the eggs laid in the latter part of April beginning to hatch 

 about the middle of June ; that is to say, the incubation period 

 requires about two months. 



The proportion of male and female young was not well deter- 

 mined, but in one instance I isolated 1,000 eggs from a single 

 female and kept them in a glass jar for rearing. In this series 

 the proportion was 355 females to 645 males. 



POOD PLANTS 



The following plants are recorded as hosts of Ericerus pela 

 in Japan : 



Chionanthus retusens L. and P. (Hitotsubatago.) 

 Fraxinus bungeana DC. var. jmbinervis Wg. (Toneriko.) 

 Fraxinus longicuspis S. and Z. (Koba no toneriko.) 



