438 



INSECTS. 



[Chap. XII. 



the young shoots ; but she is also to be met with on the 

 margins of the undersides of the leaves (on the upper 

 surface neither the male nor female ever attach them- 

 selves) ; but; unlike the male, which derives no nourish- 

 ment from the jukes of the tree (the mouth being 

 obsolete in the perfect state), she punctures the cuticle 

 with a proboscis (a very short three-jointed promuscis), 

 springing as it were from the breast, but capable of 

 being greatly porrected, and inserted in the cuticle of 

 the plant, and through this she abstracts her nutriment. 

 In the early pupa state the female is easily distinguish- 

 able from the male, by being more elliptical and much 

 more convex. As she increases in size her skin distends 

 and she becomes smooth and dry; the rings of the 

 body become effaced ; and losing entirely the form of 

 an insect, she presents, for some time, a yellowish 

 pustular shape, but ultimately assumes a roundish 

 conical form, of a dark brown colour. 1 



Until she has nearly reached her full size, she still 

 possesses the power of locomotion, and her six legs are 

 easily distinguishable in the under surface of her cor- 

 pulent body ; but at no period of her existence has she 

 wings. It is about the time of her obtaining full size 

 that impregnation takes place 2 ; after which the scale 

 becomes somewhat more conical, assumes a darker 



1 Figs. 6 and 7. There are many and others with milky juices : 



other species of the Coccus tribe another subgenus (Ceroplastes ?), 



in Ceylon, some (Pseudococcus ?) the female of which produces a 



never appearing as a scale, the protecting waxy material, infests 



female wrapping herself up in a the G-endurassa Vulgaris, the Furr- 



white cottony exudation ; many csea Gigantea, the Jak tree, Mango, 



species nearly allied to the true and other common trees. 



Coccus infest common plants about 2 Keaumur has described the 



gardens, such as the Nerium singular manner in which this 



Oleander, Plumeria Acuminata, occurs. Mem. torn. iv. 



