APR 20 19U4 



LecaminiT. l^i 



CHAPTER VI. 



Lecaniin^. 



The Lecaniirue are distinguished from those other families that 

 have males with simple eyes and females with setiferous anal ring 

 by the following characters : — Females with posterior extremity 

 cleft. Anal orifice closed above by an operculum consisting typi- 

 cally of a pair of triangular hinged plates (the anal plates or anal 

 scales) forming a valve. Mentum usually monomerous. Body 

 unsegmented. 



The posterior cleft is always present in the early stages, and 

 usually so throughout life, though in some species its edges 

 become more or less fused together in the adult insect. In the 

 aberrant genus Aderda—at present included amongst the LecaniincB 

 — the anal operculum consists of a single undivided plate, formed 

 by the fusion of the usual hinged plates. 



The body may be naked, as in Lecanium ; partially concealed 

 beneath a woolly or felted sac, as in Signoretia or LicJitensia ; 

 completely enclosed in a felted sac, as in Eriopeltis ; covered with 

 a glassy test, as Inglisia ; or a waxy test, as Ceroplastes ; with 

 various intermediate modifications. There may be a conspicuous 

 ovisac, as in Pulvinaria. 



The derm may be densely chitinous, or soft : the limbs well 

 developed, rudimentary, or entirely wanting. The margin of the 

 body has usually a well-defined fringe of hairs or spines, and the 

 stigmatic clefts are armed with modified spines. 



The young larva is always active ; with well-developed legs 

 and antennae, the latter having six distinct joints. The posterior 

 extremity is cleft to the anal aperture, and each of the anal plates 

 supports a longish stout seta at its apex. 



The female insect, in its second stage, is sometimes termed the 

 nymph. This stage differs from the larval form principally in 

 size in the naked forms, or by an increase of the secretionary 

 covering in other genera. 



The adult female insect may eventually differ very greatly 



A A 



