COC'CID1E (Neo-Lat. nom. pl., front Lot. eocccun, (Ik.K6KKos, kokkus, berry). A t:ruily of bugs, including the scale-hugs or hark-lice, the mealy bugs, and others wit bout pui cii ha r names. 'Phis faunily not only departs the most widely from the hiemiptera, hut in it 111e most anoma lous forms among insects a re found ; and the most extraordinary diversities occur, even in the two sexes of the sure species. The habit of secreting a shell or covering of some sort it common to all the Coecid;e, must frequently in the form of a scale made up of cast skins and excreted (natter. Soncetinrxs, as in the ease of the mealy bugs, the covering is white and powdery: and Hi the it is glassy or shell-like, and may entirely encase ticc insect. A few gall fornriug species occur in Australia. The young mile-hike females at first have the power of loco motion. The perfect male has only unc pair of wings, like flies. Sexual reproduction is the normal method, while parthenogenesis and vivip arous reproduction, so common in the aphids, is a rare method among the Coceblar. Almost com plete histolysis may occur in the female, lasting for several years. The young of both sexes sink the rostrum into plants, suck the sap, and secrete a waxy coating or shield of some sort, tinder which they imdergo subsequent development. Coeeida: occur on bark, leaves, and fruits of vari ous trees, and as they are sap-stickers they may greatly impoverish or kill the plant. The black
or brown scale-like spots on oranges and lemons are really scale-insects, and by such transpor tation they gain world-wide distribution. lloney-cicw is secreted by the CoeeiclH. but usually not so plentifully as by the Aphidar, yet R0aunnu• records a case where it dripped to the ground and tasted sweet. The 'man' still used by the Arabs for food is probably the mamma of Exodus, and is secreted by a coc cus. White wax is secreted by a species in India, and another produces in China the wax couuue rein llv known as China was. The shells resinous scale produced by another for))) is the lac or shellac of commerce, while the body of the lac-producing insect affords the red dye known as lake. Other Asiatic and European species furnish dyes. The tropical American C'oeeus cacti, however, yields the most famous of the insect dyes. known as cochineal (q.v.). - in and axinic acid rre prochmee h by another \lexicon coccus. l or the latest information con cerning the family, consult: (seen. ('orcida of ('erylocc ( London, I896-9(1) ; Newsteacl, Jl of tic.e ('occidcr of (ice I;ritis/c Isles (Hay Society, London, 1900) : also yuhi1ieatinns of the United States Department of Agriculture, arid articles by (ockerclI in (lie ('onadiecc En tract dugist. See `cAU•: 1\sECT.