promuscis), springing as it were from the breast, but capable of being greatly porrected, and inserted in the cuticle of the plant, and through this she abstracts her nutriment.  In the early pupa state the female is easily distinguishable from the male, by being more elliptical and much more convex.  As she increases in size her skin distends and she becomes smooth and dry; the rings of the body become effaced; and losing entirely the form of an insect, she presents, for some time, a yellowish pustular shape, but ultimately assumes a roundish conical form, of a dark brown colour.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Figs. 6 and 7.  There are many other species of the Coccus tribe in Ceylon, some (Pseudococcus?) never appearing as a scale, the female wrapping herself up in a white cottony exudation; many species nearly allied to the true Coccus infest common plants about gardens, such as the Nerium Oleander, Plumeria Acuminata, and others with milky juices; another subgenus (Ceroplastes?), the female of which produces a protecting waxy material, infests the Gendurassa Vulgaris, the Furrcaea Gigantea, the Jak Tree, Mango, and other common trees.]

Until she has nearly reached her full size, she still possesses the power of locomotion, and her six legs are easily distinguishable in the under surface of her corpulent body; but at no period of her existence has she wings.  It is about the time of her obtaining full size that impregnation takes place[1]; after which the scale becomes somewhat more conical, assumes a darker colour, and at length is permanently fixed to the surface of the plant, by means of a cottony substance interposed between it and the vegetable cuticle to which it adheres.  The scale, when full grown, exactly resembles in miniature the hat of a Cornish miner[2], there being a narrow rim at the base, which gives increased surface of attachment.  It is about 1/8 inch in diameter, by about 1/12 deep, and it appears perfectly smooth to the naked eye; but it is in reality studded over with a multitude of very minute warts, giving it a dotted appearance.  Except the margin, which is ciliated, it is entirely destitute of hairs.  The number of eggs contained in one of the scales is enormous, amounting in a single one to 691.  The eggs are of an oblong shape, of a pale flesh colour, and perfectly smooth.[3] In some of the scales, the eggs when laid on the field of the microscope resemble those masses of life sometimes seen in decayed cheese.[4] A few small yellowish maggots are sometimes found with them, and these are the larvae[5] of insects, the eggs of which have been deposited in the female while the scale was soft.  They escape when mature by cutting a small round hole in the dorsum of the scale.

[Footnote 1:  REAUMUR has described the singular manner in which this occurs. Mem. tom. iv.]

[Footnote 2:  Fig. 8.]

[Footnote 3:  Fig. 9.]

[Footnote 4:  Figs. 10, 11.]

[Footnote 5:  Of the parasitic Chalcididiae, many genera of which are well known to deposit their eggs in the soft Coccus, viz.:  Encystus, Coccophagus, Pteromalus, Mesosela, Agonioneurus; besides Aphidius, a minutely sized genus of Ichneumonidae.  Most, if not all, of these genera are Singhalese.]