58 JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY 
dormant condition of ‘‘whitefly’’ in Florida at this season and 
also to the severe weather of that winter, both the beetles and 
the Prospaltella failed to survive. 
With proper preparation of a stock of the insect food for 
the parasites, and with proper regulation of temperature and 
other conditions, Mr. Woglum thinks that another trial at im- 
portation could be carried to a successful conclusion. 
W. G. Brewster. 
THE PURPLE SCALE (LEPIDOSAPHES BECKI) 
H. J. QUALE 
Bull. No. 226, College of Agr. Univ. Cal. Publications 
In this bulletin a history of the purple scale is given. This 
scale was introduced into California in 1888 or 1889. From all 
indications it came directly from Florida with a shipment of 
trees. 
Some of the leading entomologists of the state knew that 
the Florida stock was infected with the purple scab, but they 
had reason to believe that it was harmless in this climate. The 
result of this has been that at present the purple scale occurs 
in the following counties of California: San Diego, Orange, 
Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara. The reason that it 
does not occur in some of the other counties may be due to the 
rigid quarantine that has prevailed against the scale in those 
sections. 
From an economic standpoint the purple scale ranks third. 
Its distribution is not so wide as the black, red, and yellow, but 
when it does occur it is the most serious of all, because it 
becomes so incrusted on the leaf, branch, and fruit which it 
attacks, that it yields less to treatment. 
The purple seale in this country is almost entirely a fruit 
insect. It rarely attacks common trees or shrubs growing in the 
vicinity of citrus trees. The eggs are oval in shape, about .25 
mm. long. The larva is flat and oval, about .78 mm. long. It 
usually wanders over the plant for a time before coming to 
. 
