Observations on scale-insects (Coccidae)—III

Abstract

Female, adult. More or less circular or faintly pentagonal ; low convex ; pseudo-margin strongly rounded, giving the insect a markedly “crustliform” (Green) appearance ; margin very thin and shallow ; anterior stigmatic clefts well defined. Dorsum with a slightly subcentral depression, from which there arise strong radial striae extending to the pseudo-margin. Anal cleft fused. Anal lobes in the subcentral depression, so that they appear almost in the middle of the back. Colour of dorsum brownish black, with minute reddish-buff glandular spots. Venter coffee-brown. Detached scurfy particles of a somewhat glassy secretion within the pseudomargin, and six larger particles of similar material, each resting upon a minute tubercle, arranged in a parallelogram near the central depression. Derm cells closely packed together, very irregular in shape, many being markedly attenuated at one extremity; these are divided into more or less definite radial bands corresponding to the spaces between external striae; in the central area of the dorsum they are almost obscured by the dense chitin, so that only the minute central pores are traceable; in this same area are a number of larger and clearer pores varying considerably in size, the larger ones radiating from the anal lobes.