Twelfth Kbport of the State Entomologist 295 



Both at Boston, Mass., and at Carson City, Ncv., its operations have 

 teen very injurious to the vitahty of the infested elms. The trees in 

 Albany and Troy have suffered severely from the combined attacks of 

 the elm-leaf beetle and this scale insect. The many trees that have 

 recently died, were probably killed mainly by the beetle, but many are 

 now suffering severely from the work of Gossyparia. In the early part 

 of June the secretion of honey-dew from the insects on a badly infested 

 tree was so abundant as to keep the walk beneath constantly wet and in 

 almost a slimy condition. One could stand under the trees and see and 

 feel the continual shower of the tiny drops. The injurious nature of the 

 work of the insect was more plainly evident in September, when its 

 presence could be detected at a glance from some distance, by the black- 

 ened foliage and limbs of tlie infested trees — the copious secretion of 

 the coccids on the leaf and branch having furnished the proper medium 

 for the growth of the blackening fungus, Coniotheciuni saccharinuni Peck. 

 Thus the elm-leaf beetle and Gossyparia ^oxYxng on the same trees, trans- 

 formed many from beautiful ornaments to hideous monuments of insect 

 devastation. In this City and in Troy, Gossyparia seems to prefer the 

 English and Scotch elms, although it occurs in limited numbers on the 

 American elm. In both of these cities this pest is so generally distrib- 

 uted that it will largely aid the elm-leaf beetle in the destruction 

 of our European elms, unless earnest effort be speedily made for the 

 preservation of our favorite shade trees. 



Description of the Insect. 



It is only the adult females that, as a rule, attract the attention of the 

 casual observer. They may be seen clustered along the under side of 

 the smaller limbs and resembling, in a general way, a growth of lichens. 

 The full-grown viviparous females just before giving bitth to their young, 

 are about o.i inch long, oval in outline, and with ends slighdy pointed. 

 They are surrounded with a mass of a white woolly secretion which also 

 partially indicates the segmentation along their margin (PI. XIV, figs. 2, 

 5). At this period the females are full of eggs which give a reddish 

 stain when crushed. 



The young are easily recognized on the infested limbs and leaves as 

 dark-eyed yellow specks, being less than 0.5 mm. or ^-^ of an inch in length. 

 They are of an elongated oval form, rounded anteriorly and tapering 

 posteriorly to a pair of pointed processes, each bearing a long and a 

 short seta. Each segment of the body is indicated by a lateral spine ; 

 tliere is a row of six around the anterior border of the head, and a 



