50 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA: 



As to the best means to be adopted for keeping under the 

 scale on large trees or shrubs in our gardens and public 

 recreation grounds, it would indeed be a somewhat diffi- 

 cult task to undertake. Thanks, however, to the enter- 

 prise of our American friends especially, and others, we 

 have the gas-tents, spraying machines which will send jets 

 of liquid for the purpose of destroying insects to a height 

 of at least 30 feet, which, together with steam sprayers 

 and a judicious thinning-out of any badly -infested plants, 

 should render the task by no means an impossible one. 



We may some day have to deal with another, I should 

 say, almost irrepressible pest. I allude to Aspidiotus 

 Bossi, so named by the late Mr. F. Crawford, of South 

 Australia. This scale has, so far, kept chiefly to the native 

 shrubs and trees, but has also already tackled the olive, 

 cork-oak, and other valuable trees near Melbourne, and 

 in many places in the country as well. As an instance of 

 the difficulty in killing this scale, I may cite a case where, 

 near Brighton Beach, some native plants, notably an 

 Alyxia, which grow just above high- water mark, are 

 covered with A. Rossi^ and over a portion of these plants 

 the sea frequently washes. The scale, however, would 

 appear to be in no way affected by these constant 

 drenchings with sea water, and, not contented with this 

 hardy nature, I have discovered and brought under the 

 notice of Mr. Maskell that it is able to alter its form from 

 an almost perfect circular shape to that of a long oblong, 

 so that it can adapt itself to the foliage of a plant, 

 Ricinocarpus^ on whose needle-like leaves one would 

 hardly expect to find an insect of this kind. 



It would appear to be a singular fact that this scale 

 has not yet attacked our fruit trees, and as any specula- 

 tion as to this reason would possibly not help us, it will, 

 however, be well to be on the alert, as to be forewarned 

 is to be forearmed; 



Readers of this part of the book will please observe 

 that the colour of the scale on leaves as shown on this 

 plate is somewhat too bright, this having happened in the 

 lithographing ; otherwise the drawings are correct. 



