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plant is probably so much indebted to this family of beetles. They are no doubt 
in consequence held in high respect by all drinkers of beer. The beetle is accoun- 
ted rather a scarce one and is no doubt rare except in a hop-growing district. 
I owe my first introduction to the insect to Dr. Bull. On a fungus foray 
early in the season in which the prizes were to be found among the smaller forms, 
he espied a valuable spheria covering the bark of an ash sapling. After briefly 
reconnoitring it with a pocket lens he called me to the front and handed the sup- 
posed spheria over to me as belonging to the insect world, Dr. J. G. Morris who 
was of the party agreed to thesession and added an opinion that the insect was a scale 
insect, an opinion that proved to be perfectly correct. Shortly afterwards some 
smallspinouslarve were detected amongst the scale insects,'and proved to he those of 
Chilocorus Renipustulatus. This was early in July. The scale insects then were 
chiefly represented by the egg masses covered by the body-of the female insect of 
the previous year though numerous newly hatched larva also were present. The 
usual season for hatching is probably in June. I have not the name of this 
species, but it belongs probably to the genus Aspidiotus, along with the so-called 
American blight of the apple ; the scale of a similar species may often be observed 
on oranges. This Aspidiotus of the ash bark is a very minute species as compared 
with the A. Conchiformis (American blight) of the apple. What it lacks in size 
it makes up in numbers for the bark is so closely packed with them that they over- 
lap each other. The habitat is the bark of the ash where thickly grown usually 
from old stools for hop-poles. The bark of these is green with the sap immediately 
beneath the surface, within easy reach of the short beaks of the Aspidiotus, quite 
unlike the hard solid bark of an old tree. The sap they extract must necessarily 
materially injure the plants, though I could not detect by the eye any difference in 
vigour between affected trees and others. It also occurs more sparingly on the 
alder, Alnus glutinosa. 
Like the apple blight, the larva of Aspidiotus have a woolly excrescence, 
and are usually packed so closely as to give the bark the appearance of being 
covered by a greyish mould. In the autumn (August and September) they reach 
maturity. The females are apterous and scale like, the males are very minute 
delicate insects of a yellowish colour with two wings, almost veinless; the second 
pair being either very minute or wanting. 
The beetle, Chilocorus Renipustulatus passes the winter in the perfect state, 
and in April or May lays her eggs in small groups, when she finds the aspidiotus to 
be abundant. On these the larva feeds, so far as I know eating the bark-louse in 
whatever stage of existence it happens tobe. If food is sufficiently abundant the 
larve keep tolerably well together and may almost be called gregarious, especially 
collecting closely together when about to undergo their several moultings ; if their 
prey be scarce they scatter themselves more widely. Sometimes one sapling has 
hundreds of larva on its stem—a dozen or two is the more usual quantity. I do not 
know how often the larva moults, certainly three times, probably four. "When full 
grown, it attaches itself to the bark by the anal segment, head downward, and 
assumes the pupa state ; like some other of the same family the larva skin is not 
