SCALE-INSECTS. lt 
egg; 2, the young larva; 38, the second stage of life, or 
“pupa ;” 4, the adult, or full-grown insect. 
1. The egg. ‘This is, in all cases, of regularly-oval form, 
the colour varying from white to yellow or red (see Plate i., 
Fig. 1). It may be produced in great numbers, and in some 
cases several times ina year. As a gencral rule, the female ejects 
the eggs from her body; but there are some species, notably 
in the group Lecanidine, where the eggs are hatched within the 
body, the insect being thus, in a manner, viviparous. 
2. The young larva (Plate i., Fig. 2). This is of precisely 
the same form both for the male and the female—or, rather, 
perhaps it should be said that no definite character has yet been 
discovered to show which are male and which are female larve. 
Neglecting slight variations of form, the larva is very minute— 
seldom more than about =,in. long, often as small as ;}5in.— 
oval, flattish, possessing a rostrum and accompanying bristles 
(setae), six legs, and two antenne: and in all species it is fairly 
active, travelling as soon as hatched over the plant in search of 
food. | 
3. The second stage. Uere the first distinction is noticeable 
between the male and the female in most cases; but this dis- 
tinction usually depends not so much upon the form of the 
insect as upon the character of the covering it makes for itself. 
Confining ourselves at present to the female, there are differences 
now noticeable between the groups. In the Diaspidine the 
insect begins by slipping out of the skin of the larva; but it 
does not cast it aside altogether: it makes use of the old skin 
as part of its covering. Adding to it a small portion of fibrous 
secretion—produced by organs called ‘‘ spinnerets,” which will 
be noticed presently—it attaches itself to the plant by its rostrum 
and sete, and lies, inert and stationary, under a little shield 
composed half of its old skin and half of secretion. As it also, 
in entering this stage, loses its legs altogether, it must remain 
in the position it has chosen for the rest of its life. In the 
Lecanidine and in the Coccidine the skin of the larva is thrown 
away altogether, and the female in her second stage takes up a 
new position, in which she may be either naked or covered with 
a thin coat of secretion, active or stationary, retaining her legs 
in most cases, or losing them in some instances. In all the 
groups there is almost always some approach to the form of the 
full-grown insect noticeable in this second stage. 
