4 
Indian Forest Records. 
[VOL. lVIII 
rather conspicuous pimples or processes. At the apex of two of 
these are breathing-holes (spiracles) leading to internal breathing- 
tubes (tracheae), while the third bears the opening of the anus ; here 
also is the genital opening, and it is obviously important that all these 
holes should be kept open and not blocked up by lac. We find that 
as the insect’s coating of lac gradually thickens, these holes are not 
as might be expected obliterated, but remain open ; and that from 
them protrude delicate snow-white filaments of a waxy substance 
whose presence may somehow prevent the resinous lac from gradually 
filling up these three important apertures. With good healthy stock 
this waxy fluff is so abundant that the lac looks almost white all over, 
and its amount gives a rough indication of the condition and general 
vitality of the brood. At the same time there is no reason to suppose 
that the destruction of these filaments (e.g., by ants running over 
them) results in any appreciable damage to the insect beneath though 
the reverse has been'stated. They are not (as has also been asserted) 
continuations of the tracheae, and are probably no more vital 
structures than is, for example, our own hair. 
The females of the summer brood become sexually mature in 
about six or eight weeks, and those of the winter brood in about three 
to four months. They have then a fairly thick covering of lac, and 
are ready for the males who have been developing alongside them. 
The males have a different course of development to that of the 
females, and they are distinguishable from them in early life by the 
smaller size and different shape of their covering of lac, of which they 
produce much less than the females. They do not remain for their 
whole lives imbedded in the lac, but about the time when the females 
become ripe for pairing, generally August-September and March. 
April, they crawl out from their lac cells and reveal themselves as 
having not only legs but often (in males of the winter brood) wings 
as well. The males of the summer brood are stated to be always 
wingless. 
Having safely emerged from the lac, the males crawl or (if 
winged) fly about and proceed to fertilize the females that they find, 
the long copulatory organ of the male reaching the female through 
the anal aperture in the lac. 
This emergence of males, which may be spread over a month or 
more, is another critical period in the life of the brood. Not only 
w 
