10 



The Bulletin. 



struction as he had ever seen by any scale-insect not even excepting the 

 San Jose Scale. Referring to this in a recent letter (April 14, 1913) 

 ]\I r. Collett says : 



"As I recall it now the trees were about four years old, and had rather 

 good cultivation, etc., but the scale had killed many of them and all were 

 so badly infested that I doubt not that they all died." 



While the Oyster-shell Scale is evidently much more wide-spread in 

 our mountain region than elsewhere, yet it is the opinion of the writer 

 that on an average it is most destructive in those scattered localities 

 through the "central" or "piedmont" sections where it has gained a 

 foothold. In our card-catalogue record of complaints we find that in a 

 large proportion of cases from the central section, we have noted that 

 the twigs sent were "badly" or "very badly infested." A possible ex- 

 planation of this is given when we come to consider the natural ene- 

 mies of the Oyster-shell Scale. 



Distribution in North Carolina. A study of the map explains much 

 of what we have already said, and shall here say, regarding the distribu- 

 tion of the Oyster-shell Scale in North Carolina. The dots only show 

 those localities from which we have received specimens, and of course 

 there are numerous Localities where it is present, but not in our records. 

 It will be noticed that the western one-fourth of the State (including 

 the mountains and the "foothills" region) is thickly enough dotted to 

 indicate that it is well-nigh universal in that region, then the dots 

 widen out to a scattering few as we come eastward. These more scat- 

 tered eastern localities are: In Mecklenburg County, Matthews; in 

 Stanly, Big Lick; in Rowan. Mount Ulla; in Davidson, Thomasville ; in 

 Chatham, Siler City and Frosty; in Alamance, Burlington; in Wake, 

 Morrisville ; and in Granville, Oxford. 



It has been already stated that this insect is known to occur in every 

 State of the Union except possibly South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas. 

 This indicates its presence in all the States to the south of us (including 

 Florida) and from this we would expect it to be widespread throughout 

 the whole of North Carolina. It may be that it is present throughout 

 all our State, for judging by its near relative, the San Jose Scale, 

 it must have been sent into numerous eastern localities on shipments 

 f trees; — and yet our records, kept carefully for over ten years 

 now, show no record of it east of Raleigh, so the writer is forced to 

 conclude that throughout the eastern part of the State it can not now 

 be a serious pest, even if it is present and even if it should later become 

 serious. 



And yet, curious as it may seem in the light of what has just been 

 said, it is our suspicion amounting almost to a settled conviction, that its 

 average severity is greatest in the few more scattered localities east of 

 the "foothill" region. It has long been our custom to make a card-cat- 

 alogue note of every complaint of insect damage. Looking back through 

 this record for some time previous to when this is being written we find 

 that out of fourteen cases from the western end of the State we noted 

 that this scale was "bad" in two cases, and "slight" or "moderate" in 

 twelve cases. But during the same period out of only five cases, from 



