SCALE-INSEOTS. 9 
stationary, although in some cases, before reaching their ful] 
development, they move about, carrying their houses with them. 
The naked insects may be either stationary or active. 
They attach themselves either to the bark or stem of a plant 
or to the leaves. In the latter case it is rare to find them on 
the upper side ; but, on turning over a leaf, the under-surface 
is frequently found covered thickly with them. 
In many cases they exude, in the form of minute 
globules, a whitish, thick, gummy secretion, answering probably 
to the “honeydew” of the Aphidide. This secretion drops 
from them on to the plant, and from it grows a black fungus, 
which soon gives an unsightly appearance to the plant. This 
fungus or “smut” is an almost invariable indication that a 
plant is attacked by imsects,* and may, indeed, give a useful 
warning to tree-growers. It is not, however, produced im 
appreciable quantities by all species. 
The manner of feeding upon the plant is the same as im all 
the families of Homoptera—namely, by means of a protruding 
rostrum, beak, or trunk, situated on the under-side of the 
insect. As there is not, m the female Coccidide, any well- 
defined division between the head and the rest of the body, this 
rostrum is seen, on turning over the insect, in the form, usually, 
of a minute conical projection between, or nearly between, the 
first pair of legs, if the legs are present, or a little within the 
circumference, if the legs are absent (Plate 1., Fig. 5). An 
ordinary lens will generally show, springing from the point of 
the conical rostrum, three or four longish, very fine, curling 
bristles. These bristles are, in fact, hollow tubes, and the insect, 
inserting them into the leaf or bark of the plant, sucks through 
them its food. It is thus plain that, with often great numbers 
of scale-insects sucking at it—pumping, as it were, its life-blood 
through their rostra—a plant must of necessity suffer greatly. 
Birds do not, as a rule, seem to care much about eating 
the Coccidide, whose work is thus little mterfered with by 
them. The “white-cye” (Zosterops) or ‘“ blight-bird” has 
been seen feeding on scale-insects ; but its visits are few and far 
between, and its assistance to the gardener in this respect not 
great. The Coccidide are, however, much subject to attacks 
* Not necessarily a Coccid insect : the fungus may also grow on the honey- 
dew of Aphis; but it is easy to recognize the difference between these insects. 
In every case there is some insect at work where the fungus is, 
