576 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The young louse, after finding a suitable place, settles down and in- 

 serts its long, thread-like beak into the plant and abstracts its first meal. 

 In some species the beak is never withdrawn, but the insect becomes 

 attached to this place and never moves from it. 



During the growth of the true scale-covered insect, the male sheds its 

 coat twice and the female three times. The female loses legs and anten- 

 na? at the first molt and becomes a mere sac, with a long, hose-like mouth, 

 capable only of absorbing food and getting ready to lay eggs. The 

 fringe-like spinning apparatus by which the scale is secreted is situated 

 at the rear end of the body, and by the arrangement of the different parts 

 of this fringe the species are classified. 



In due time the male changes to the pupal stage and developes wings, 

 antenna?, legs, etc., but as its life is to be very short, it has no need for 

 a mouth, and a second pair of eyes takes its place. 



After the sexes pair the eggs are laid, the female gradually shriveling 

 up and making room for them under the scale as fast as they are laid. 

 The eggs hatch at various seasons, depending on the species. Some pass 

 the winter in the egg state, while others winter in a half-grown condition 

 and deposit the eggs in the spring. In some naked species not furnished 

 with a true scale the eggs are laid under the body of the mother, which 

 shrivels up as they are laid until finally she dies, leaving her shriveled 

 skin as a shelter for her eggs until they hatch. 



SAN JOSE SCALE. 

 {Aspidiotus perniciosus Comst.) 



The most important insect pest of 1897 has been the San Jose" scale. 

 Although a single infested orchard had been found in 1896, the danger 

 from the scale was not fully realized until recently, when a number of 

 badly-infested orchards have been located. 



Even at the present time (June, 1898,) the status of this pest in Michi- 

 gan is by no means well known. The appointment of an ''Inspector of 

 Orchards and Nurseries" in September, 1897, led to some investigation as 

 to its presence in various sections, but in order to comply with the pro- 

 visions of the law relating to nursery stock the inspector was compelled 

 to give practically his entire time to the examination of the stock of 

 nurserymen and dealers, so that no inspection of orchards was practi- 

 cable. In January, 1897, the addresses of more than 400 persons in 

 Michigan were obtained who had received stock from infested nurseries 

 in the east, and examination of less than fifty such cases revealed the 

 presence of the scale in five. It was impossible for the department to 

 investigate satisfactorily the remaining 350 or more cases, and although 

 the recipients of suspected stock were all notified of the danger, and 

 many of them have stated most positively that their places are entirely 

 free from the scale, yet it is almost certain that the pest was introduced 

 in some of these shipments and that it will be found eventually in some 

 of these suspected localities. Already, almost by accident, it has been 

 located at several places in the State not on the suspected list, and the 



