300 OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION: BULLETIN 332 



Life history and habits. — The females only of the terrapin scale 

 survive the winter months and these are in a partially matured 

 condition. By early June of the year following, maturity is reached ; 

 eggs are deposited and the young appear in late June or early July, 

 the process extending over a considerable period of time. The 

 males prevail during late August, function and die. Sometime later 

 the females migrate to the underside of the smaller twigs and settle 

 themselves for the winter. There is but one generation annually. 



Nature of work. — Sapping the twigs in spring and fall and the 

 leaves during a portion of the summer, the maple terrapin scale is 

 capable of inflicting great injury to the host when the infestation 

 is severe. Moreover, the excretions from the insects, collecting 

 upon foliage and twigs, promote the development of a sooty fungus 

 which mars the beauty of the host and must, to a considerable 

 extent, interfere with the process of transpiration. 



Food plants. — ^While called the maple terrapin scale, this insect 

 does not confine its attacks to maple trees, but is almost equally 

 injurious under Ohio conditions to sycamore. Occasionally in Ohio, 

 and more frequently in the eastern states it is an important enemy 

 of peach. In addition to these hosts the following have been re- 

 ported as infested: plum, apple, pear quince, Crataegus sp., Caro- 

 lina poplar, olive, blue-berry {Vaccinium sp.) Brumelia and spice 

 bush (Benzoin benzoin.) 



Distribution. — The area of greatest prevalence of this insect 

 is the Eastern United States but according to Sanders (45) it occurs 

 in every state east of the Mississippi and in Missouri, Arkansas, 

 Louisiana, Texas and Minnesota. It is also reported from the 

 Province of Ontario, Canada. 



Natural enemies. — The following hymenopterous parasites 

 have been recorded for this scale (46) : Coccophagus lecanii Fitch, 

 C. cinguliventris Gir., C. longifasciatus How,, Aphycus stomachosus 

 Gir., A. cognatus How., Anagyrus nublipennis Gir. and Eucyrtus 

 sp. The ladybird, Chilocorus bivulnerus, is reported as is also a 

 fungus, probably Cordyceps clavulata. 



Control. — Summer operations against this insect with a view of 

 destroying the newly-hatched larvae are not practicable because the 

 larvae appear over a rather extended period, thus necessitating sev- 

 eral sprayings, and because the presence of the foliage precludes 

 thoroughness of application. The most satisfactory control, there- 

 fore, lies in early spring applications directed against the hibernat- 

 ing females. Lime-sulphur and the other sulphur sprays are in- 



