December, '09] JOURNAL OP ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 437 



The fact that this scale has been redescribed so frequently under 

 different names in various countries is alone proof of its exceptional 

 importance to horticulturists and gardeners and of its widespread 

 occurrence and great range of food plants. It is improbable that anj^ 

 other species of the soft scales is known to infest so many species of 

 plants in widely divergent genera. In the writings of the very early 

 European entomologists relating to scale insects, this species was 

 always the preeminent one, from which we may assume that it was 

 then the most important economic species of the region. At the pres- 

 ent time it is a pest in those regions where it is permitted to multiply 

 through the carelessness of man, or on account of favorable climate, 

 or both combined. 



The following description of the adult female by E. E. Green 

 (Coccidse of Ceylon, p. 188, 1904) is quite complete and furnishes an 

 idea of some of the variations in markings, etc., which are found in 

 this species. — "Adult female bright yellow or greenish -yellow, mi- 

 nutely specked with red-brown, the specks sometimes agglomerated into 

 transverse bars, especially on the median abdominal region : in other 

 parts tending to form dotted lines radiating from center to margin. 

 In older examples the ground color may be ochreous or pale fulvous; 

 and the maculation may form a broad median fascia. Under surface 

 of older examples with a deep purple-brown or red patch covering 

 the median abdominal area, becoming concave and forming a shelter 

 for the young larvae. Dried specimens straw-colored and much 

 wrinkled. Form oblong-oval, often very irregular in outline; nar- 

 rowest in front ; more or less concave above according to age. In some 

 individuals, generally on those protected by some shelter, I have 

 noticed a double median longitudinal series of raised glassy points; 

 but they appear to be very brittle and easily lost." Length, 2.5 — 5 

 mm. ; breadth, 1.5 — 3 mm. 



In view of the great variation in size, color and markings, there 

 are plausible excuses for the frequent redescriptions of this cosmo- 

 politan species under new names; but entomologists should take into 

 account a certain probable variability in any insects they describe as 

 new or otherwise. 



Some of the above synonymy is here proposed for the first time, 

 but several names have been reduced by Newstead, Green and Fernald. 

 For the reduction of angustatum, maculatum, terminalm, nanum, 

 flaveolnm, minimum, var. pinicola, ventrale, hesperidum var. pacifi- 

 cum, and signiferum, the writer is responsible. These reductions are 

 made only after very careful morphologic study with a high power 

 microscope of typical material, and after biological study of the forms 

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