106 



the hinder space being entirely rilled with white oval 

 eggs, amounting sometimes to 50 or more, (fig. 5) ; 

 they are rather larger than in most species, and pro- 

 duce little white fiat cocci, with two antennae and six 

 legs ; they are lively, and nm about for several days, 

 but having fixed themselves, then grow, and by degrees 

 become very different creatures to what they were im- 

 mediately after their birth. 



On opening the scale, and taking out the female, it 

 will be found that she is not attached to the shield, 

 and that consequently this mussel-scale is not a true 

 coccus, but an aspidiotus : it is a fat yellowish green 

 maggot, nearly orbicular, very convex, shining, with 

 distinct transverse stride, indicating the abdominal 

 segment ; a pale brown line visible down the back, 

 from the alimentary canal, shining through the thin 

 and transparent skin (fig. 6). 



A contributor to the Gardener's Magazine says, 

 " A scale of a brown colour, pointed at both ends, 

 and less than half the size of a seed of common flax, 

 abounds in the north of Cambridgeshire, on the 

 branchlets of old apple-trees ; and in unlading the 

 trees in autumn of their ruddy riches, here and there 

 an apple occurs to whose rind one or more of these 

 scales firmly adhere, and where it must have become 

 fixed before the apple's growth was finished; as, 

 when the scale is removed, a slight depression in the 

 rind of the apple is perceptible.' 3 The same scale, it 



