294 OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION: BULLETIN 332 



group in general appearance more than it does the typical scurfy 

 scale. It is rigid in texture, highly convex and covered with a dark 

 deposit which gives it a very somber, inconspicuous appearance; 

 thus contrasting sharply with the white or gray color of the 

 majority of the scurfy scales. The female scale is a little over one- 

 sixteenth of an inch in length and strongly pyriform. The male 

 scale is white, and much smaller than the female. (See Plate LI, 

 Fig. 1.) 



Life history and habits. — The winter is passed in the egg stage 

 securely protected by the rigid scale of the mother insect. From 

 these over-wintering eggs young emerge in late May or in June and 

 two broods at least develop during the summer. 



Nature of work. — Trunk, branches and leaves of the host are 

 attacked, frequently with fatal results to parts of or even the entire 

 host. Plate LI, Fig. 2, conveys a very good impression of the 

 destructive work of this species. 



Food plants. — The euonymus scurfy scale has been reported 

 as attacking the following food plants: Euonymus europaeus, E. 

 latifolia, E. japonica, E. radicans and E. atropureus, as well as 

 some of the horticultural varieties of these species. It has also 

 been reported from bitter-sweet (Celastrus scandens), Althea sp. 

 and orange. 



Distribution. — The writer has but three records of this insect 

 in Ohio; Cincinnati, Wooster and Cleveland. At Wooster a climb- 

 ing, evergreen euonymus (E. radicans var., broad leaf) was killed 

 by it and a clump of E. europaens very severely injured in Cleve- 

 land. The records of its distribution outside the state are as fol- 

 lows: Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 

 Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and California. 

 Further, it is reported from Cuba, France, Italy and Japan. 



Natural enemies. — One small hymenopterous parasite, Apheli' 

 mus fuscipennis, has been reared from this scale. 



Control. — The standard liquid lime-sulphur wash, used at nor- 

 mal strength as a winter spray has failed in the experience of the 

 writer to control this species. Miscible oil, however, applied in early 

 April at the strength of 1 part of oil to 15 parts of water gave almost 

 perfect results. Summer spraying with kerosene emulsion or 

 whale-oil soap may be resorted to at the time the young appear, 

 but as in the treatment of other scale insects this rarely is as sat- 

 isfactory as the winter applications. 



