262 



FRUIT INSECTS 



Fig. 227. — The European fruit 

 Lecanium, eggs rolling out from be- 

 neath the female scale in June. En- 

 larged. 



in form and color assumed when growing on different plants. 



Although widely distributed throughout the United States and 



Canada and infesting such a 

 wide range of cultivated plants, 

 it has become of economic im- 

 portance only a few times and 

 in restricted localities. 



The most serious outbreak 

 occurred in 1894 and 1895 in 

 the plum orchards of western 

 New York. The pest appeared 

 suddenly in extraordinary num- 

 bers and excited widespread 

 alarm among the fruit-growers 



of that region. Fortunately, severe winter conditions, the 



attacks of parasites or some other cause so reduced their num- 

 bers that within a year or two the pest 



again subsided into comparative obscurity. 

 This scale insect has been studied prin- 

 cipally as a plum pest. The winter is 



passed by the young, flat, spindle-shaped 



brown scales (Fig. 229) on the bark of 



the tree, mostly on the smaller branches. 



They are then about 2t i^ch in length. 



Early in the spring, about April 1 in 



New York, they establish themselves 



mostly on the underside of the smaller 



branches (Fig. 228). The females grow 



rapidly and by the middle of May many 



are mature. They are then about \ or 



3^ inch in length and remind one of small 



halved peas colored brown. The male 



scale is much smaller, flatter and more elongate and is of a 



whitish color. About the time the females become mature the 



Fig. 228. — A plum 

 branch infested with the 

 European fruit Lecanium. 



