UIIYXCOTA. 
41 
Every stroller in liis garden must be familiar with 
the “blight” covering whole branches of the apple 
trees with white down; inspection with a lens will 
reveal countless thousands of little Mealy-bugs in 
different stages of growth. The female represents a 
convex brown scale about the size of a small split pea 
in some species ; she is a most curious and anomalous 
creature, and exhibits, as Westwood truly says, an 
instance of an annulose animal becoming more and more 
imperfect as it approaches the imago state ; for the 
female Coccus has lost all trace of articulations in the 
body as well as of articulated limbs ; there is no head, 
legs, or body-rings ; many of the females in the typical 
groups being in fact “ inert and fixed masses of animal 
matter, motionless, and apparently senseless/' resembling 
vegetable galls more than insect life. The account of 
the habits of Coccus aceris , communicated to Mr. West- 
wood by the late Mr. Curtis, will show the habits of 
this family. The males make their appearance in the 
winged state in May, when pairing takes place. By the 
end of June the females have attained their full gravid 
size; and on lifting up their bodies, their whole 
interior, or the entire space between the under surface 
of the body and the bark of the tree is occupied by 
white flowery-like matter, in which the minute young 
are to be observed of the size of the smallest dot; the 
dead body of the parent forming a covering to the 
young. In this state they are hexapod, antenniferous, 
and furnished with two long anal setce. By the end of 
July the young quit the body of the parent, and ascend 
to the extremity of the young branches ; there they 
affix themselves by their rostrum, gradually increase in 
