AMERICAN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 217 



Peach-trees imported from China by one James Lick, who 

 in 1 87 1 and 1872 had an estate in the San Jose Valley, were the 

 means of introducing- the pest into the New World. It was not, 

 however, till a special expedition had been dispatched to the 

 Far East that this was definitely ascertained, and the habitat 

 of the mysterious scale definitely located among the mountains of 

 north-eastern China. To the secluded nature of this habitat, and 

 the comparatively few and unfrequented trade routes by which 

 it is traversed, is due, it would seem, the circumstance that the 

 pest had not long ago penetrated into other parts of the world. 

 It is true indeed that at some apparently unknown date it had 

 made its way into Japan (of which it was at first supposed 

 to be a native), but there it stayed without making its unwelcome 

 presence manifest elsewhere. 



Athough, as we have seen, introduced only in 1871 or 1872, 

 so early as 1873 the Chinese scale had already become a serious 

 pest in Californian orchards immediately around the estate 

 where it first appeared ; and seven years later the damage due 

 to its ravages was enormous, whole orchards of well-established 

 trees in fine bearing condition being more or less completely 

 destroyed. For it is a peculiarity of the visitation that the 

 insignificant-looking little flat horny scales under which the 

 insects undergo their development infest all parts of the infected 

 trees (chiefly apples and oranges), from the stem to the leaves, 

 blossom, and fruit, and thus, if left undisturbed, ultimately lead 

 with almost unerring certainty to their death. 



Such a vigorous invader was not likely to be long content 

 with the comparatively narrow limits of California ; and slowly 

 but surely the pest crept along the Pacific States till by the 

 early years of the closing decade of last century it had reached 

 the plantations of tropical New Mexico in the one direction 

 and the orchards of temperate British Columbia in the other. 



Currant-bushes imported from New Jersey were responsible 

 for the appearance of the dreaded pest in the luxuriant orchards 

 of Virginia in the summer of 1893 ; and a few years later the 

 insect had invaded most of the eastern United States, while 

 at the present day there seems to be scarcely a county in the 

 Union which is altogether free from its detested presence. 



One of the objects of dispatching an expedition to ascertain 

 the native home of the scale-insect was to find out the 

 indigenous species which made the pest their prey, in the hope 



