CE Ar i@eire iT 
CHARACTERS, LIFE-HISTORY, AND METAMOR- 
PHOSES OF THE COCCIDIDA. 
Tne first principal character separating the Coccidide from the 
rest of the Homoptera, and distinguishable without microscopic 
examination, is the absence of wings in the females at all stages 
of their existence. 
The second principal character is the absence of any 
apparatus for feeding and digesting in the males. 
From these two characters it follows that the females can 
only extend their operations by, at the best, crawling from 
plant to plant, or by being carried about by birds or other 
agency; also that the males cannot cnjoy more than a very short 
existence, their work being entirely confined to impregnating 
the females. Hence, in any endeavours to destroy these insects, 
the males may be disregarded, and the females only attended to. 
Other distinguishing characters, chiefly microscopic, are— 
1. The presence of only one jomt in the tarsus or fourth 
joimt of the leg, in both males and females (Plate i., Figs. 6 
and 7, ta) ; 
2. The presence of only a smgle claw terminating the leg in 
both males and females (Plate 1., Figs. 6 and 7) ; 
3. The presence of only two wings, with two halteres, in 
the full-grown males (Plate xxi) ; 
4, The presence of two or more eyes or ocular tubercles, in 
addition to the ordinary pair of eyes, in the full-grown males 
(Plate 1., Fig. 14; Plate viu., Fig. 1, &, m). 
I. Tue Femare Inszcr. 
In general outward appearance the female insects present 
very variable forms. They may be either naked, or covered 
over with some kind of a shield, which may be fibrous, or waxy, 
or cottony, or they may have simply a thin powdery meal 
scattered over them. The covered insects are, of course, 
