68 CITRUS AURANTIUM. 



form. It is in tliis condition that they receive the embraces of the males, after 

 which, tlioy continue to increase in size for a time, eject their ci^i^s, and gradu- 

 ally sliriiik away, leaving notliing but their dry, outer skins, aud perish on tlie 

 spot. After the eggs mature, they imperceptibly pass under the body of their 

 motlier, where they remain, until they undergo the changes before described. 



The species that commonly attacks the orange in southern l*lun)pe, the Azores, 

 and the West India Islands, is the Coccus hesperidum, which also infests the 

 myrtle. It may be known by the oblong-oval form, and brownish colour of its 

 shield, whicli is covered, as it were, with a coat of varnish. Another species, the 

 pest of Florida, for the last five years, is the Coccus ****'] It is about one-eighth 

 of an inch in length, and one tenth as wide as it is long, of a brownish colour, 

 pointed at the extremities, and straight, or curved, according to the nature of 

 the surface to which it adheres. The larvae make their first appearance at St. 

 Augustine as soon as a few warm days occur, in January or Fe])ruary ; but 

 their general hatching period is not considered to begin before March, and is 

 never suspended from that time until the commencement of the cool weather 

 in November or December. Myriads of these young insects, scarcely discernible 

 10 the unaided eye, may be observed crawling over the trees, puncturing the 

 tender shoots and leaves, and sucking their sap, by which they gradually increase 

 in size, and in about eight days, permanently fix themselves to the trunk, 

 branches, and leaves, to undergo their transformations. Soon after the com- 

 mencement of hot weather in May, vast numbers of the perfect male insects 

 may be seen, and, as the season advances, they become still more numerous, 

 until they are checked by cool weather, in September or October. In shaking 

 violently a tree infested with these insects, myriads and myriads of them may 

 be seen flying between the observer and the rising sun. And during the sum- 

 mer, the young leaves, branches, and other uninfested parts of the trees become 

 rapidly and successively covered with the scales of these insects, which are at 

 first scarcely perceptible to the naked eye, but soon increase to their full size. 

 This circumstance tends to prove that there are many broods or generations 

 in the same season. 



Th,is insect first made its appearance in Florida, in Robinson's grove, at Man- 

 darin, on the St. John's, in 1838, on some trees of the Mandarin variety, which 

 had been procured in New York. In the course of three or four years they 

 spread to the neighbouring plantations, to the distance of ten miles, and were 

 the most rapid in their migrations in the direction of the prevailing winds, which 

 evidently aided them in their movements. In 1840, Mr. P. S. Smith, of St. 

 Augustine, obtained some orange-trees from Mandarin, and had them planted 

 in his front yard. From these trees the insects went to others of the same 

 enclosure, and rapidly extended themselves to the trees and plantations to the 

 northerly and westerly parts of that city and vicinity, obviously aided in their 

 migration by the south-east trade-winds, which blow there almost daily during 

 summer ; and what is remarkable, these insects were occupied nearly three 

 years in reaching trees in the south-east part of the city, only about half of a 

 mile from their original point of attack. They have since, however, extended 

 themselves to all the trees in and about the city ; but have not yet travelled in 

 any direction beyond ten miles. Being aided in their dispersion by birds and 

 other natural causes, impossible to guard against, they must eventually attack 

 most, if not all the trees in Florida ; for the wild orange groves suffer equally 

 with those which have been cultivated, and no difference can be perceived in 

 their ravages, between old and young trees, nor between vigorous and decayed 

 ones. Various remedies have been tried to arrest their progress, such as fumi- 

 gating the trees with tobacco smoke, covering them with soap, lime, potash, 

 sulphur, shellac, glue, and viscid or tenacious substances, mixed with clay. 



