C0CCID5: OF KANSAS, IV. 
Additional Species, Food-plants and Bibliography of Kansas Ooccidae, with 
Appendix on other Species Eeported from Kansas. 
By S. J. HUNTER. With plate ■■■ 
A. — Additional Species. 
XX 
Kermes piibcscens Bogue. Plate m, fig. 1. 
Oa white oak, Lawrence, Douglas county. 
Kermes nivalis King and Ckll. Plate fig. 2. 
On white oak, Lawrence, Douglas county. 
XX 
Orthezia yratninis Tinsley. Plate ■BB, figs. 3, 1. 
On goldenrod {Solidago sp.). Blue Rapids, Marshall county. Mrs. 
8. G. Cady, collector. 
B.— Food-plants of Kansas Ooccidae. 
In order to understand the significance or importance of the food- 
plants of Coccidte, or scale-insects, some knowledge of the life and 
habits of the insect is necessary. Scale-insects are plant parasites 
and locate themselves upon the bark or outer covering of the plants. 
They have long, slender beaks, which they are able to insert into the 
tissues of the plants and draw therefrom the plant juices. Some scale- 
insects choose but a single host-plant, and others seem to be able to 
subsist upon a very great variety of plants. This adaptability to va- 
rious food-plants has much to do with the numbers of the several 
species in existence. It is evident that if a species of insect has to de- 
pend exclusively upon a single plant variety, the chances of life for 
this insect would decrease with a decrease in numbers of the host ; 
while, on the other hand, scale-insects which have the power to adapt 
themselves to a number of jfiants have greater chances of life and 
better opijortunities for numerical increase. In animal parasitism 
the parasite tends to inci’ease as the host increases. The increase of 
the parasite, however, is generally in a greater ratio than the increase 
of the host, so that the parasite frequently becomes so numerous as 
to destroy or greatly curtail the increase of the host, and then the 
parasite must succumb likewise, or adapt itself to new conditions. 
8uch relations between host and parasite exist to a certain extent be- 
[107|-K.U.Qi-.-.y ![3-July. ’01. 
