Part 1. ] 
Stebbing : Note on the Lac Insect. 
11 
(6) The insect then goes on increasing slowly for another 
Period between impreg- ^ months when 
nation and swarming of the new brood appears, 
new brood. 
V. For about two and a half months of the above period of three 
Insect how employed and a half months the female 
insect is employed in exuding 
the lac incrustation and developing in the ovaries the red 
colouring matter. 
Last period of existence 
of female. 
How found 
I’he last month is evidently a period of rest and during this time 
from all appearances it lies 
dormant and abstains from food. 
This was found to be the case 
by removing the “ dal ” lac from the twigs ; that removed 
a month before the actual time 
of swarming on the trees and 
carefully kept, gave a brood of insects at the same time 
as the seed-lac left on the trees. 
(rt) In five months the female has arrived at maturity and during 
the whole of this time she is 
Time taken by female (feriving sustenance from the twig 
to reach maturity. i i i r 
to which she attached herself. 
(^)> (^)) (/)• The lac exudation as it is formed round the female 
is viscid and this gradually hardens 
Nature of secretion. , , . , , 
on exposure to the weather ; 
but before the hardening has quite taken place the female, 
to allow for her growth, pushes the incrustation outwards 
radially, leaving a fine partition between the cells and thus 
avoiding any undue pressure. 
vi. After impregnation the red fluid is formed in the anal or ovary 
sac of the female ; it consists at 
first of a thin fluid colouring 
m atter and within this the ovaries 
float and are matured until the dormant period of the last 
month. About this time the ovaries have reached maturity 
Fluid in ovary sac and 
its nature. 
