The Bulletin. 7 



here and there, to complete incrustation where the scales are so thickly 

 matted together that the true bark can not be seen unless the scales are 

 scraped away. A good idea of its appearance can be had by comparing 

 this description with the illustrations. 



Among the full-sized female scales will be found numerous scales of 

 smaller size which are males, or younger partly developed females. In 

 spring and summer one may (at times) find countless thousands of the 

 tiny yellowish young, crawling about in search of suitable places to 

 locate. In winter the young will not be crawling, but the scales, of dif- 

 ferent sizes, will be found. At this (winter) season if some of the grown 

 female scales be turned over carefully the small pearly- white eggs will 

 be found under the hinder part of the scale, while the dead body of the 

 female will be under the front (more pointed) end of the scale. 



Fig. 2.— Oyster-shell Scale on 

 apple-twig, the twig whitened 

 to better show the shape and 

 size of scales. Natural size. 

 Photo by C. L. Metcalf. 



History and Distribution. Messrs. Quaintance and Sasscer state thai 

 the original home of the Oyster-shell Scale is not certainly known, but 

 that it was introduced in New England at an early date, the first Ameri- 

 can account appearing in 1794, and that it is now known to be of world- 

 wide distribution. They state that it "occurs in every State of the 

 Union with the possible exception of South Dakota, Oklahoma, and 

 Texas." But its known existence in all the other States makes it prac- 

 tically certain that it is in those States also, even though not a matter of 

 actual record. 



This is sufficient to show us that the Oyster-shell Scale is a well estab- 

 lished, permanent pest, and that we have no reason to believe that it will 

 "die out," which is an often-expressed hope in regard to pests of this 

 character. Further on in this Bulletin we consider its distribution in 

 North Carolina in more detail. 



