The manner of feeding upon the plant is the same as in all the families of Homoptera--namely, by means of a protruding rostrum, beak, or trunk, situated on the under-side of the insect. As there is not, in the female Coccididæ, any well-defined division between the head and the rest of the body, this rostrum is seen, on turning over the insect, in the form, usually, of a minute conical projection between, or nearly between, the first pair of legs, if the legs are present, or a little within the circumference, if the legs are absent (Plate i., Fig. 5). An ordinary lens will generally show, springing from the point of the conical rostrum, three or four longish, very fine, curling bristles. These bristles are, in fact, hollow tubes, and the insect, inserting them into the leaf or bark of the plant, sucks through them its food. It is thus plain that, with often great numbers of scale-insects sucking at it--pumping, as it were, its life-blood through their rostra--a plant must of necessity suffer greatly. Birds do not, as a rule, seem to care much about eating the Coccididæ, whose work is thus little interfered with by them. The "white-eye" (Zosterops) or "blight-bird" has been seen feeding on scale-insects; but its visits are few and far between, and its assistance to the gardener in this respect not great. The Coccididæ are, however, much subject to attacks from Hymenopterous parasites, of which some account will be found in a subsequent chapter (Chap. IV.). The effects of the Coccididæ are not confined altogether to damage to plants: there are some species producing materials useful to man. For example, _Coccus cacti_ produces cochineal; _Carteria lacca_ produces shellac; _Ericerus pé-la_ is used by the Chinese for candles: and others might be mentioned. But, so far, no New Zealand species appears to be of any commercial use. _Dactylopius alpinus_ makes a rather rich red dye in alcohol; _Cælostoma zealandicum_ constructs thick, waxy coverings, which might possibly be turned to some account; but even these are probably not worth much. _Groups._ The groups into which the Coccididæ are, in this work, divided are as follow:-- 1. Female insects constructing for themselves shields composed partly of secretion, partly of the pellicles discarded from earlier stages; abdomen not cleft; legs lost at full growth. Diaspidinæ. 2. Female insects naked, or covered with shields of secretion, either waxy, horny, cottony, or felted; abdomen in all stages cleft; legs either lost or retained at full growth. Lecanidinæ. 3. Female insects naked, or covered with shields of waxy secretion; abdomen of larva ending in prominent processes, abdomen of adult cleft; legs either lost or retained at full growth. Hemicoccidinæ.