Part I. ] 
Steering : Note on the Lac Insect. 
9 
in the larva and this latter is gradually becoming matured into the female 
insect. 
Some two and a half months after the period of swarming of the 
larvae the male insects mature and leave the cell by pushing up the 
lower edge and crawling out backwards. These male insects on getting 
free crawl over the lac incrustation and impregnate the females through 
the anal opening already described. After pairing the male dies. After 
impregnation further changes take place in the female^'^; the ovary becomes 
greatly enlarged, occupying the greater part of the body, and becomes 
filled with a bright red fluid in which the eggs are formed. It has been 
estimated that each female bears as many as 1,000 eggs, and as these 
become mature the mother dies, consisting at that period of little more 
than a skin. This dries and shrivels up after the young larvae have 
hatched. On hatching out the larvae either issue through the anal 
orifice or through ruptures in the skin. 
It is thus evident that as soon as the larvae have leit the shell the 
latter, i.e., the lac incrustation^ contains no further insects, and incident- 
ally it may be mentioned that it also contains a much smaller amount 
of colouring matter. 
This life cycle is repeated at least once more during the year, and in 
some places twice. 
The larvae of the first brood of the year swarm at the beginning 
of July, the females being impregnated towards the middle of September. 
The larvae of the second brood of the year swarm from the begin- 
ning of December to the beginning of January, the males, which in this 
brood have wings, impregnating the females about the middle of February 
to March. 
The production of a winged male generation in February is doubt- 
less to ensure a complete impregnation of the females on trees where 
males are scarce. The insect is probably spread from tree to tree by 
wind, birds, and insects, since the larvae are so minute and light as to be 
easily blown or carried about. 
Since the above was set up in type the following valuable notes on 
the life history of the insect in the Raipur Forests of the Central Provinces 
has been drawn up from careful personal observations by Mr. A. Lowrie, 
Deputy Conservator of Forests, and Mr. Dhanji Shaw Nasarwanji Avasia, 
Extra Assistant Conservator of Forests, Central Provinces. 
