INTRODUCTION


 THE FAMILY COCCIDAE

 Early entomologists assigned all scale insects
 to the family Coccidae. Current workers
 recognize up to 21 families of scale insects and
 restrict the family Coccidae to scale insects
 resembling Coccus hesperidum, the type species.
 Members of the family are commonly referred to
 as "soft scales".
 Soft scales occur in all zoogeographic regions
 of the world, but most species are native to
 temperate, subtropical, and tropical en-
 vironments. Such species as the brown soft scale
 (Coccus hesperidum) and hemispherical scale
 (Saissetia coffeae) have been moved by man to
 the extent that they are cosmopolitan in distribu-
 tion.
 The family Coccidae is the third largest fam-
 ily of scale insects after the armored scales
 (Diaspididae) and mealybugs (Pseudococcidae)
 respectively. Worldwide there are about 1,000
 species in approximately 100 genera. In the
 United States the Coccidae comprise about 85
 species in 25 genera. Of these 85 species, 33 have
 been reported as pests in one or more states.
 In this study 49 species in 17 genera are
 treated from the Southeastern United States.
 Forty of these species have been reported from
 Florida. Undescribed species in the genera
 Ceroplastes, Philephedra, Pulvinaria, and
 Toumeyella are not included.
 Soft scales feed on a wide variety of host
 plants. They may be found on all parts of the
 plant: leaves (including grass sheaths), stems,
 bark, crowns and roots. The Virginia pine scale
 (Toumeyella virginiana) has even been found in
 ant galleries 1.5 inches beneath loblolly pine
 bark. Some species, such as the brown soft scale
 and the European fruit lecanium (Par-
 thenolecanium corni), attack many different
 hosts, while others, like the woolly pine scale
 (Pseudophilippia quaintancii) and magnolia
 scale (Neolecanium cornuparvum), are restricted
 to a few species of plants.


 GENERAL BIOLOGY

 Most species of soft scales occur outdoors and
have one generation per year, but some species,
such as pine tortoise scale (Toumeyella parvicor-
nis) and brown soft scale, have multiple genera-
tions in the warmer southern areas. Under
greenhouse conditions, overlapping generations


often occur and several developmental stages
may be found at any one time. Soft scales
reproduce sexually or parthenogenetically, and
some species have both bisexual and par-
thenogenetic strains. Nur (1971) studied the
cytology of 33 parthenogenetic scale insects and
identified and characterized 7 different types of
parthenogenesis. Most species of soft scale are
capable of reproducing parthenogenetically.
 The females have a simple metamorphosis,
whereas the males have a complete metamor-
phosis. There are 3 or 4 instars in the female and
5 instars in the male. Females are either
oviparous or ovoviviparous. The developmental
stages can be characterized as follows:
First Instar (male and female) (Fig. 1): The first
instar or "crawler" stage is the most active
developmental stage in soft scales. Both sexes are
similar and share the following characters: eyes
present; anal plates present (Fig. 1,H), each
plate with a long apical seta; legs well developed
and 5 segmented; well-developed 5 or
6-segmented antennae; spiracular setae (Fig.
1,D) usually differentiated from marginal setae;
6 anal ring setae; multilocular pores and tubular
ducts absent from abdominal region.
 Most soft scale crawlers prefer to feed on the
leaves of their host and will usually settle there
after hatching. Crawlers feed by inserting their
stylet-like mouthparts directly into cells and suck
out the cell contents. For those species which
feed on deciduous hosts, this requires them to
move from the leaves to the twigs or stems of
their host before leaf drop in the fall. Some
species of Pulvinaria begin their development on
the leaves, move to the twigs to overwinter, and
return to the leaves as adult females in the
spring. Most soft scales overwinter as second in-
stars, but some of the wax scales (Ceroplastes
spp.) overwinter as fertilized adult females
which produce eggs very early in the spring. The
biology of most species of soft scale has not been
studied. Information on the biology of the
economically important species is critically
needed.
Second Instar Female: Sexual dimorphism is ap-
parent in the 2nd instar. The female lacks the
tubular ducts present on the dorsum of 2nd instar
males (Fig. 3,G); body shape is oval to nearly cir-
cular instead of elongate oval as in the male.
Eyes are present, as are anal plates but without
the long apical seta. An anal cleft is evident, and
the legs and antennae are reduced or well
developed. Multilocular pores and tubular ducts