armored scale insects
schematic drawing of a female of Carulaspis visci on a leaf of Viscum album (from Goidanich, 1961a).
The adult female, shown shadowed, sits immobile on the leaf, with her proboscis is permanent connection with a vascular bundle. Around her a circular wall has been developed. Wax glands on her body have created at all sides, but mainly on top, a hard coating that from the outside appears as a shield. The female has gone through two moults; the empty skins, more or less incorporated in the dorsal shield, are indicated by a dark hatching.
Both the fact that the wax-shield is free from the body, and the presence in this shield of the two exuvia are characteristic for the family Diaspididae. The shield always is massive, never filamentous or powdery. Contrary to most other groups of scales, armored scales do not produce honey dew.
references
Beardsley & Gonzalez (1975a), Goidanich (1961a), Malumphy (2015a), Miller (2005a).