Abstract

Mealy bugs belong to the family Coccidao' a category which includes some of the most serious pests of crops, ornamental plants and particularly of fruit trees also. As implied in the name, most of the species are provided with a mealy covering all over their body. The life history and habits in general are briefly as follows. The full grown females are mostly stationary, fixing themselves more or less permanently to their feeding spots on their host plants. The eggs are extruded below the body of the female. The uymphs hatch out in due course, crawl about upto a certain stage of their development and in their turn establish themselves in suitable parts. The adults and young are provided with needle-like mouth parts with which they pierce the plant tissue and suck up the juice. They occur in small groups or colonies, invariably on the tender and succulent shoots, but a good many forms are also found on other parts of the plants, like the stem, fruits, etc. The damage caused by the bugs is often serious, since the heavy drain on the coll sap would naturally reflect on the health of the host, if not kill it outright.

Keywords: