The Bulletin. 13 



all of the more eastern records are m the last few years. If it is spread- 

 ing eastward and becoming fully acclimated as it goes, then the longer 

 warm season (suitable for its breeding) would in some measure ac- 

 count for its seemingly greater destructiveness in the .more eastern 

 localities. But our records are not sufficiently numerous to warrant 

 conclusions on this point, and it would be necessary to make careful in- 

 spections in many localities over a period of years to be certain of the 

 truth on this question. 



Life-history of the Insect. Beginning the consideration of its life- 

 history with the mid-winter season; — we may say that the winter is 

 passed by the Oyster-shell Scale in the egg stage only. During the 

 winter just closed (1912-'13) we closely examined many twigs in all 

 degrees of infestation but found no living scale-insects. The eggs are 

 abundant under well-developed female scales— but the body of the 

 female insects are dead, shriveled and dry in mid-winter. Young 

 scales have no eggs; ones nearly full size may have eggs, but not 

 in full numbers; but those female scales which are of full size con- 

 tain great numbers of eggs. These over-wintering eggs are oblong and 

 pearly white. They hatch in early spring to tiny yellowish "lice" 

 which crawl actively about in search of suitable places to locate on the 

 bark. On finding a suitable location the insect inserts its beak into the 

 bark to suck the sap— and once this is done it is believed that it re- 

 mains attached at that spot. Soon the skin is "shed," the short legs dis- 

 appear, and the insect has become covered by the first beginning of the 

 "scale," which grows, hardens, and darkens with age, but the insect re- 

 mains underneath, a tiny, yellowish creature of rather indefinite shape. 

 Quaintance and Sasscer say: 



"The female molts twice in the course of her growth, and in the adult 

 condition is entirely without legs or eyes, being nothing more than a repro- 

 ductive sack with her sucking mouth-parts, through which the food is 

 taken, inserted in the tissues of the plant. The adult male differs radically 

 in that it is provided with antenna? (feelers) and one pair of wings. * * * 

 During the process of metamorphosis (development) the mouth-parts of the 

 male entirely disappear, and a second pair of rudimentary eyes assumes 

 their place. Being without any means of taking food the adult male is nat- 

 urally very short lived, its only mission appearing to be the fertilization 

 of the female." 



In North Carolina the Oyster-shell Scale presumably produces two 

 broods each year, and quite possibly more when the season favors. 

 Young may be found crawling in April, and dead specimens in many 

 stages of growth are found on twigs in winter. 



Time of Hatching in Spring. The exact time of hatching of the 

 over-wintering eggs has always been emphasized as important, because 

 while the first brood of young are crawling the trees may be sprayed to 

 kill them — and as the young insects are very delicate the solutions 

 would not have to be so strong as would be required to penetrate the 

 protecting scale in winter. 



Quaintance and Sasscer state that the time of hatching "will, of 

 course, vary with the season, but in general will for any locality be 

 shortly after the time of the falling of the blossoms." 



