316 Fiftieth Report on the State Museum 



The San Jose Scale. 



The San Josd Scale, Aspidiotiis perniciosus Corns., has apparently found 

 the climatic conditions unsnited to its establishment in all except the ex- 

 treme south-eastern part of our state. Its existence in a few localities 

 has been reported to me, but in each instance another scale has been 

 mistaken for it. At the Kindcrhook locality where it was first discovered 

 in the Hudson river valley, it has been nearly exterminated. Recently 

 its presence was suspected by the owner of the orchard, Mr. Morrell, 

 where it had been found abundantly two years ago, but on examination, 

 the scale proved to be the rather closely resembling one, Aspidiotiis 

 jii,^'/a/is-regice Comstock. An examination of the orchard showed no 

 living San Jose Scale, but later, a single living specimen alone on a twig, 

 was brought to my office by Mr. Moirell. 



A neighboring orchard in Kinderhook was reported as badly infested 

 with the scale. On examination in July, by Mr. E. P. Felt, my assistant, 

 the scale was found in abundance on plum trees of apparently ten or 

 twelve years' growth, but upon perhaps twenty trees that were carefully 

 examined, not a single living scale was found. The trees had not been 

 treated for the scale, and it is therefore probable that the insect had been 

 winter-killed. How long they had been upon the trees, or the source of 

 the infestation, was not learned, but the age of the trees would indicate 

 that the pest had not been introduced on nursery stock. The orchard 

 was within one fourth of a mile of that of Mr. Morrell, and it is highly 

 probable that it had been carried from there upon birds or insects. 



The scale has also been reported to me recently (in August), from 

 another locality in New York, in the valley of the Wallkill river — a tribu- 

 tary of the Hudson river. A few fruit-trees in an orchard in Middletown, 

 Orange county, are stated to be infested with the scale — the trees having 

 been received from a New Jersey nursery. Inquiry was promptly made 

 of the owner of the orchard of the extent of the infestation with proffer of 

 assistance if needed, but no reply having been received, it is probable 

 that the infested trees were promptly destroyed, and that tlie spread of 

 the insect was not feared. 



The Oak Kermes. 



The pecuHar oak-kermes, Kermes gall if ormis Riley (PI. V, fig. i), which 

 bears so marked a resemblance to a gall as to be mistaken for it by everyone 

 not acquainted with it, may not be rare when one knows where to look for 

 tit, but it has always been a rarity in my own experience. One of my cor- 



