INSECTS AFFECTING PARK AND WOODLAND TREES 211 



Oyster scale 



Lcpidosaphcs iiliiti Linn. 



A brownish oyster shell-like si ale, about 'a iiK li loni;, may be foiind on a consider- 

 able number of food plants though usually more abundant on ash antl balm of (lik-ad. 



This is one of our more common scale insects, well known to many 

 fruit growers because of its occurring- on apple, pear and other trees pro- 

 ducing- valuable fruits. It is also occasionally quite abundant on some of 

 our forest trees and the writer has observed a numb(;r of case s where ash 

 saplings of considerable size have become literally incrusted with this 

 insect and died. It is sometimes nearly as abundant on l)alm of Gilead 

 and some poplars, though these trees do not as a rule succumb so readily to 

 attacks b\- this insect. This species has been noticed so many times that 

 only a brief summary of its life history and habits is ad\'isable in this 

 connection. 



Description. The adult female scale is about 's inch long, usuallv 

 slightlv cur\ed and widening from a slender tip to a broad rounded pos- 

 terior end. The scale has at its anterior end a yellowish \ery .small pel- 

 licle, the first cast skin of the \-(Hmg, and the small scale three times its 

 size attached to it. There is usually a larger or second cast skin, to which 

 is attached the largest or chief part of the scale which is of a varialilc 

 brown color marked with ciu'ved, transverse lines or wrinkles. The female 

 is found beneath the scale, and when alive is a yellowish, legless, wingless, 

 eyeless form about ' u inch in length. The female scale turned over in 

 winter will l)e founil t(.) contain a large numl)er of minute whitish eggs, and 

 near its anterior end the shriveled yellow or brown body of the female 

 may be detected. The recently hatched young are very minute, j'ellowish, 

 and t(j the naked eye appear like specks \scc \A. 13, fig. 9-14]. 



Life history. This insect ])roduces but one generation amuially in the 

 northern states though in the south there may be two. The winter is 

 passed in the egg under the protecting scale of the female, and the young 

 appear from the middle of May to early June, and in the case of badly 

 infested trees, parts of the twigs may be lite-rally yellow because of their 



