GOOSEBERRY AND CURRANT SCALE. Ill 



from the branches. In my own garden at St. Albans I have 

 found it only too plentifully present on the stems of all the 

 above-named bush-fruits. — (E. A. 0.) 



The method of life of the scale insect may be described 

 generally, but sufficiently for practical purposes, as follov?s. 

 When the soft whitish or pale-coloured lobed female, which 

 lies without power of moving within the thin brown covering 

 scale, is matured, she produces a multitude of minute eggs, as 

 small as fine dust, which may easily be observed by detaching 

 the sheltering scale. From these eggs there hatch little 

 flattish oval maggots, or larvae, which at first have six legs. 

 These disperse themselves actively abroad on the boughs, and 

 feed by inserting their rostrum, or proboscis, and sucking 

 away the juices; presently they lose the power of locomotion, 

 turn to the pupal state, and (to common observation) change 

 in external appearance to the chestnut-coloured hemispherical 

 lumps, which are commonly known as " scale insects." This 

 thin flexible brown covering shelters the female within ; and 

 the sequence of life-history is well given in the following note 

 of observations sent me, on the 15th of July, from Seaford 

 Grange, Pershore, by Mr. Wm. F. Gibbon : — 



" I have closely watched the habits of the ' Red Scale ' this 

 season, and have verified my observations of last year. The 

 young scale emerges from the egg early in the spring; I 

 found them hatched out early in February, at first almost 

 transparent, and walking with freedom on six legs ; but they 

 soon became of a chestnut colour, and assumed the shape of 

 a small wood louse, flat and oval, and then secured a position 

 by inserting their beak into the bark, and speedily increasing 

 in size. When about three-fourths grown their covering 

 appeared very shiny and sticky, and, later on, dry and harsh. 

 In May I found the scale matured, and eggs deposited ; and 

 on the 18th of June the eggs hatched, and the young are now 

 on the move, and it is at this stage of their existence to apply 

 washes for their destruction. The young now wandering 

 about will soon afiix themselves to the bark, assume a hard 

 covering, and mature ; by autumn deposit eggs, which will 

 hatch next spring. There are consequently two generations 

 in a year."— (W. F. G.) 



The earliest date at which specimens were sent me in 1893 

 was on the 8tli of February, when infested Gooseberry twigs 

 were forwarded from near Pershore, on which were numbers 

 of the female scales, and also of the little flat, dull reddish, 

 six-legged larvse already in active state. 



About a month later, that is, on March 10th, I found the 

 same species (both in female and larval condition) very pre- 

 valent on Gooseberry bushes in my garden at Torriugton 



