498 : QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Juxr, 1898. 
. The younger and smaller scales are darker in colour than the older and 
larger ones ; moreover, the central area (or exuviw) occupies a larger propor- 
tion of the entire scale in their case than in that of the latter. In each the 
exuyiie, moreover, are equally covered over above.* 
On raising a scale carefully with the point of a fine needle, a small yellow 
particle, readily crushed on slight pressure, will be discerned. This, which is 
the insect proper, is represented highly magnified in Plate XLI., fig. 2. It 
measures 1 mm. (;§$5 inch) long by +315 inch broad (Howard), and is almost 
circular in outline. When examined by aid of the microscope it will be 
noticed that the body-segments or divisions are slightly indicated, but that 
eyes, feelers (antennz), and legs are all wanting. There is, however, a long 
fine-curved bristle-like organ (fig. 2a) composed of four hairs, that exceeds the 
body in length. This is the sucking tube. The hind extremity is elegantly 
fringed, as represented on Plate XLI., fig. 8. This, that is usually styled 
the anal segment, presents in this fringe the characteristic features by which 
the insect may be distinguished. (They are not, however, fully displayed in 
Fig. 3.) These are as follow :— 
The median lobes (Fig. 3a) large, upright, notched on the outer margin; the first 
lateral lobes small and quite close to the median ones; the chitinous processes of the 
oval glands between the first median lobe and first lateral ones close together and of 
nearly equal size; the three smaller pairs of plates, beyond the first pair, narrow, 
finely serrate, and not fringed. ‘The groups of circular glands present in many other 
species of Aspidiotus are also wanting.—T. D. A. Cockerell, XIII, p. 7. 
A full description of the mature female is given by Comstock, I., p. 804, and 
to this readers are referred, by whom fuller details regarding it are required. 
The Male.—The fully developed male seale (Plate XLI., fig. 4) ig 
oblong-oval, nearly twice as long as wide, and averaging in length about half 
the diameter of the female scale. The position of the exuvie or cast-off skins 
of the immature insect is marked by a nipple-like prominence located. 
between the centre and the anterior margin of the scale (— Howard). In 
colour it is usually greyish and of a darker hue than is the female, the apex 
and ring surrounding it being-as a rule conspicuously lighter coloured, usually 
yellowish. When immature the shape of the male scale is like that of the 
female. 
Beneath this scale the male insect proper will be met with, but not as yet 
in its adult condition, but as what is technically known as a pupa. In this, as 
shown by a magnified representation (Plate XLI., fig. 10), there are 
indications of a well-defined head, feelers (antenne), wings, legs, and 
terminal style; all as yet folded up and protected by delicate sheaths. The 
truly mature insect that arises from this is a minute (almost invisibly small) 
two-winged fly (illustrated on Plate XLI., fig. 11), presenting the usual 
organs of locomotion and a terminal organ or style (ig. 11a), more than half 
as long as the entire body, adapted for insertion beneath the scale of its consort. 
This male insect is stated to be 0°6 mm.—or not more than +385 inch—in length, 
and is barely discernible without the aid of a lens. 
LIFE HISTORY. 
Within the bodies of the fully mature female insect may be noticed oval- 
shaped bodies of different sizes, containing more or less distinct embryos. It 
is, however, viviparous, or produces its young alive, and not as eggs, as with 
most other scale insects. our hundred may thus be born to each individual ; 
not, however, all at ouce, but during a period of about six weeks, nine or ten, 
as a rule, issuing every twenty-four hours. The young insect, or larva, that ig 
represented, highly magnified, on Plate XUI., fig. 5, measures 0:24 mm.— 
@.¢., less than 735 inch in length—and is oval in shape. It has six fully 
developed legs, each terminating (Fig. 5a) in a slightly curved claw 
eve They thus become indistinguishable from Maskell’s Aonidea Susca.—“‘ Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” 
» Ds 40. 
