ABSTRACT
Most scale insects were not recognisable as insects, but were considered as seeds or berries and were given the ancient Greek word “Kokkos” and then the later Latin word “Coccus,” meaning a berry. Scale insects are known by various names depending on the family to which they belong, e.g., the armoured scales, the mealybugs, the putoids, the soft scales, the felt scales, ground pearls, lac insects, cochineal insects, and ensign scales. The taxonomy of scales is based mainly on the microscopic cuticular features of the adult female. Scale insects are generally divided into two informal groups, the archaeococcoids and the neococcoids. Work on Indian soft scales was initiated by T. V. Ramakrishna Ayyar in 1919 contributing mainly to the knowledge on coccids of south India through publishing new records from different parts of the country and finally by publishing a checklist of the Coccidae from the Indian region and Indo-Ceylonese fauna.
