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that in general the time required for development is from six to eight 
weeks. 
The young grow very slowly for the first two or three weeks and the 
growth is very uneven. Should one look at them for the first time when 
three or four weeks old he would declare they could not all belong to the 
same brood, as there is such a great difference in their size. The dif- 
ference is maintained from this on, so that it is impossible to tell where 
one generation begins and the other ends. There will be all sizes, from 
the ones just hatching to the female forming a woolly mass. About 
half of the brood are regular enough, however, so that one can, with a 
little care, trace the generation through its development. 
When the mealy bugs become about a third grown, perhaps one out 
of every eight or ten will be seen to travel off a little apart from the rest 
and begin to construct a light fluffy cocoon around itself. It is the 
young male preparing for his transformation to the winged state. The 
material of which the cocoon is constructed is similar to that used by 
the female in covering her eggs, except that the thread is finer and more 
downy. The cocoon is oblong in shape, being from 1 to 2 mm in length 
and half as thick. The construction is alike throughout, with no hard 
portion except the cast-off skin which is left behind. The transforma- 
tion is very rapid, taking, as nearly as I can ascertain, only three or four 
days, or a week at most, when the 2- winged male comes forth with quite 
a different appearance from what it possessed before. The males are 
very delicate and slender, measuring less than a millimeter in length 
and with an expanss of wings from 2 to 3 mm . The flight is slow and 
steady, and although they are so very minute, when one has become 
acquainted with their appearance on the wing, he will readily recognize 
them and can easily catch them by a quick thrust of the open hand. 
The body is an olive brown and is more or less flecked with the mealy 
covering. At the extremity of the abdomen are the two white anal 
filaments nearly as long as the body itself. The wings are milky white, 
extremely fragile, and with only the two customary veins. There are 
now 10 segments to the antenna) instead of 7. The mouth parts are 
either wanting or are very rudimentary. Perhaps the most interesting 
change is in the placing of the eyes. On the top is a pair of large dark 
red eyes with a lighter ring of red around them. On the under side of 
the head, separated nearly as far as they can be from the ones above, is 
another similar pair. On the sides of the head are the two dark eyes, 
the same as seen in the immature stage. 
Mating with the half- grown females occurs soon after the males issue. 
Some one has said that the anal filaments are used for mating, but 
observation in several cases has not shown such to be the case, the 
filaments merely extending backward out of the way. 
Dactylopius longifilis differs structurally in quite a number of minor 
details from destructor. Perhaps the most- evident character is in the 
long posterior filaments of the female, which gives the species its name. 
