684 BULI^ETIN 83. 



lively little attention from systematic workers in etomology, it is 

 not easy to definitely decide whether a Lecanium found on a cer- 

 tain plant is new to science or is a species which received a name 

 years before. This plum scale has been in the hands of experts 

 for several months, but different opinions still prevail as to what 

 it shall be called. It is probably some European species described 

 a half century or more ago. ^- 



THE DISTRIBUTION, DESTRUCTIVENESS, AND PAST 

 HISTORY OF THE INSECT. 



The present uncertainty regarding the name of this Plum Scale 

 makes it impossible to draw any definite conclusions about its 

 histor)^ distribution, or destructiveness previous to 1894. How- 

 ever, we believe it is an European insect which has been present 

 in eastern plum orchards for many years. A careful examination 

 of several orchards which were apparently free from the insect, 

 revealed the scales scattered here and there on the trees, some- 

 times not more than one or two on a tree. Certain conditions, 

 perhaps climatic or possibly the presence of many active enemies, 

 seem to have thus far held the insect in check in a majority of 

 orchards. While in other localities, especially in the counties of 

 Niagara, Monroe, and Ontario in our state, certain unknown con- 

 ditions have favored the increase of the pest during the past three 



* Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell, who has given considerable study to this group 

 of scales, concludes that the pest is the Butternut or Walnut Scale {Lecanium 

 tuglandis Bouche) with which Dr. Fitch's L. juglandifex is synonymous 

 (" The Entomologist " for December, 1894). There is a I,ecanium, which is 

 quite common on butternut in our state, that is very closely allied to if not 

 indentical with, this Plum Scale ; but no butternut trees occur near some of 

 the worst infested plum orchards. The pest may be identical with Dr. 

 Fitch's L cerasifex described in 1856, but this scale has not been again rec- 

 ognized since it was described, so the identity of the two scales could not be 

 definitely established. ]Mr. L. O. Howard, U. S. Entomologist, writes us, 

 under date of December 17, 1894, that "the most careful studies I have made 

 have failed to lead me to any definite conclusion, beyond the fact that I feel 

 sure the species is not V\tc\i' % juglatidifex . I simply drop the whole subject 

 for the present, pending the receipt of specimens of the European species 

 from Mr. Douglas." Perhaps this western New York Plum Scale has not 

 yet been christened, who shall say ? 



