The third stage larva of the female lac insect (Hem. Cocc.)

The lac insects, being cultivated as an industry in many parts of India, their biology deserves an intensive study. Among other problems it was found necessary to find the rate of growth in two or more colonies. For this purpose it was further recquired to determine the periods of moulting and also the intermediate steps between two definite stages. For example it is proposed to show here how a female larva after its second moult gradually develops until it is transformed into a young adult female. It may not be out of place to mention that in the literature on coccids usually two moults of the fe. male are generally recorded and the existence of three moults which I previously observed (1927) has been even contradicted by Negi (1929). The present communication has therefore this general interest that it goes to establish three moults of a female coccid and is a continuation of an article on the second stage female lac insect (1931).Peer reviewe