164 



FRUIT INSECTS 



Fkj. 167 6. — Full-grown femak 

 San Jose scale (x 10). 



and become permanent breeding grounds have not been realized, 

 as the pest confines its depredations mostly to fruit trees and 

 ornamental shrubs. 



The scale is a waxy secretion covering the soft, yellow, 

 sac-like body of the insect beneath. 

 The largest scales cover the fuU- 

 gro^vn females and are nearly circu- 

 lar, gray, about the size of the head 

 of an ordinary pin (yV oi an inch in 

 diameter) with a central dark nipple 

 surrounded by a yellowish ring (Fig. 

 li)7b). The smaller scales are nearly 

 black with a central gray dot sur- 

 rounded by a black de})ressed ring 

 bordered by a grayish ring. The 

 San Jose scale can often be readily 

 distinguished from the closely related species, Putnam's scale, 

 European fruit-scale and cherry scale, even with a hand-lens by 

 these peculiarities of the young scales. In the other species the 

 nipple is usually one side of the center and orange or yellow in 

 color, and the scales are not so black or lack the depressed ring 

 of the nipple. The elongate-oval 

 male San Jose scales, only about 

 half as long as the diameter of a 

 mature female scale, are dark 

 gray with the circular raised ex- 

 uvial portion near one end and 

 usually darker but sometimes yel- 

 lowish (Fig. 168). The male scales 

 are sometimes more numerous than 

 the females during the early part of the breeding season. 



In late autumn all stages of the San Jose scale, from those 

 just born to the fully developed insects, are to be found on the 

 trees, but practically only the small black scales covering the 



Fig. 



168. — Two male San 

 scales. Enlarged. 



Jose 



