Wootton, Dorset, some leaves of honeysuckle {Lonicera periclymenum) , 

 to the under-feide o£ which were attached three larvse, nine fully-grown 

 pupae, one living imago, and several dead ones of A. lonicerce, Walker. 

 Notwithstanding the not material discrepancies above noted, there yet 

 exist sufficient peculiarities to induce me to believe that my determina- 

 tion of the species is correct, and this, considering the previous 

 imperfect English description, was desirable. 



This species must be very like A. ruhi, Sign., which is found in 

 France in great numbers on Buhus fruticosus in woods. Signoret, I. c , 

 p. 3S2, says that " the imago has only one black spot on the (white) 

 elytra ; and that the larva also resembles that of A. lonicerce in having 

 the same series of long hairs at the same places, but that, on the 

 roedian line, there is on each abdominal segment a depression which 

 is more visible at the base than at the summit." As, however, I have 

 no examples of A. ruhi in any stage, I can offer no opinion as to the 

 difference or identity of the two. 



153, Lewisham Road, S.E. : 



November •J.6th, 1895. 



ASPIDIOTUS PEBNICIOSUS,Co-mstoc-k,a^-dAONIDIA FUSCA, Maskell: 

 A QUESTION OF IDENTITY OR VARIATION. 



BY W. M. MASKELL. 



In the " Eeport of the Entomologist of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture for the year 1880," Professor Comstock 

 described (p. 304) an extremely injurious insect of the Family Goccidce, 

 to which he gave the name Aspidiotus perniciosus, or '' the pernicious 

 scale ;" and he stated that this insect attacked a very large number of 

 deciduous fruit trees in California, " excepting peach, apricot and black 

 tartarean cherry.''' Later, this pest was observed, described and dis- 

 cussed by many persons interested in horticulture, and in America it 

 is generally known by the trivial name of " the San Jose scale," and 

 is looked on as a most troublesome thing. 



An article in "Insect Life," vol. vi. No. 5, September, 1894, con- 

 tains much information relative to this insect and its occurrence in 

 various places in America since 1880. Here and there the scale appears 

 to have been found on peach, but only in small quantity ; the principal 

 victims are pear, plum, Japanese plum, apple, currant, &c., and most 

 especially pear. In a subsequent article (" Insect Life," vol. vii. No. 

 2, p. 165) the same trees are mentioned, with the addition of Japanese 

 quince and elm (American ?). Again, in the same publication (vol. 

 vii, p. 285) the pear is given as the chief victim of this scale. 



