328 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the first volume of the 'Entomological Transactions.* That 

 excellent entomological artist, the late Mr. Curtis, more 

 recently gave some information respecting the genus ; and 

 Mr. Westwood, at p. 446 of the second volume of his 

 * Modern Classification/ has a most interesting chapter on 

 Cocci. This summer, dry and cold in an excessive degree, 

 has been remarkable for its productiveness of scale-insects; 

 and I have received a great number of communications and 

 inquiries respecting them. One correspondent, at Canterbury, 

 who sends me a sample of whitethorn loaded with obese 

 females, avers that the " oldest inhabitant" had never seen 

 anything of the kind before, a statement which, if correct, 

 tends to prove that that venerated authority had not directed 

 his attention to economic entomology, but cannot be regarded 

 as sufficient evidence that scale-insects were unknown in 

 Kent until the wretched summer of 1871. In reply to all 

 enquiries on this subject, I cannot, perhaps, do better than 

 cite the description given by Rusticus, which, though 

 intended to apply only to the Coccus of the vine is equally 

 applicable to many other species. I must, however, interpo- 

 late some additional' details, which I have acquired either 

 from Mr. Westwood's * Modern Classification' or from my own 

 observation : — The Coccus, or scale-insect, comes from an 

 egg, which is laid in the manner hereinafter described, and 

 my acquaintance with it begins with its babyhood or the 

 dawn of its independent career. I was assisted in my inves- 

 tigations by my late friend Mr. Gratton, one of the most 

 kind-hearted naturalists it has ever been my good fortune to 

 meet with : he possessed an excellent microscope, which 

 was always at my service under his own careful manipu- 

 lation ; and we spent hours together in examining the young 

 of the scale-insect; we agreed on all subjects save one, and 

 on that we agreed to differ. Mr. Gratton regarded animal 

 life created to reveal the powers of his microscope, or, as he 

 expressed it, to "test" the powers of his microscope; I 

 believed his microscope created to reveal the wonders of 

 animal life. We were perpetually delighting in the same 

 discovery ; we were perpetually thinking, and often exclaim- 

 ing simultaneously: "What an excellent microscope;" "What 

 a wonderful object." But 1 am losing sight of the infant 

 Coccus, in the vivid recollection of the genial man who first 



