604 State Boa)?d of Acjkiculture. &c. 



quite young, and growing gradually darker until it is about 

 the color of the bark on whicli it is fixed. Under each scale, 

 according to Riley, there are from thirty to one hundred 

 €ggs of a " snow white " color. The larva is very small, 

 oval in outline, of a " pale yellow, with a darker yellow spot 

 near each end." The adult males are of a grayish color, 

 the body .02 inch long, with transparent wings ; the female 

 is of a lighter color, being light yellow, length of body about 

 one-twentieth inch. A very full description of the various forms 

 of this insect is given in Riley's 5th Report. It seems to 

 be a Northern insect rather than Southern, but where it 

 occurs in the South it is two brooded. North of the Gulf 

 States it hatches but one brood annually. There are several 

 different species of insects that prey upon these bark lice. The 

 young are hatched early in June, and run over the twigs, 

 looking like white specks. In a few days the females 

 become fixed, and after a time each is covered with a scale. 

 In somewhat more than two months after hatching; the 

 insects are ready to lay their eggs. As remedies various 

 authors recommend scrubbing the branches with sal soda 

 water, though other alkaline washes than this do not seem 

 to be very efficient. From my own experience with allied 

 insects I should think that kerosene would be a very excel- 

 lent remedy, but it needs to be carefully used or it will injure 

 the buds. Carbolic acid and water, or suds made with car- 

 bolic soap, would be useful as a wash. It must be remem- 

 bered that the larvae are running about for only three or 

 four days in the spring, and can only be attacked with much 

 certainty of success at that time. Every purchaser of trees 

 should carefully examine each one before, or immediately 



