New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 585 



with insects, to some degree at least, and especially with scale 

 insects, be might easily fail to recognize at first sight these ])eciiliar flat 

 creatures as being insects at alb tor, from an upper view, they appear 

 to be without legs or antennas or even a head. They look more 

 like little brown pods which have been stuck on the bark. If one of 

 them is removed, however, and examined with a hand lens, the legs 

 and antenniB will be found drawn under the body and extending 

 backwards. 



Jlihernation., — The young scales remain thus attacked during the 

 winter. They now measure from .03 to .04 of an inch in length. 

 Plate IV is from a photograph, of two twigs cut from one of 

 the larger limbs of a plum tree infested with the hibernating 

 scales. As has been previously mentioned, these scales, unlike most 

 other scale insects, are not protected by a scaly covering either 

 during the winter or at any other time of their life-history. As 

 has already been pointed out by Mr. Slingerland,* this is undoubt- 

 edly the weakest part in the life-history of this insect, for, although 

 they are more susceptible when just hatched to the effects of 

 insecticides, they are more easily reached at this time with a spray 

 than when the foliage is on the trees. 



Appearance in the spring ; the Female. — During the latter part 

 of March or early in April, the young scales begin to move about 

 apparently seeking a suitable place to again insert their tiny setae 

 to suck the sap. They are soon settled, however, and begin to 

 grow with astonishing rapidity.f From the small hibernating scales 

 of the winter previous, the females grow in about two months to 

 large, oval, fleshy scales, measuring nearly an eightli of an inch in 

 length. Plate Y is from a photograph of an infested branch 

 of the Bradshaw plum. These scales are full grown. The lines 

 on the right represent the length and width of an individual scale. 

 During this period of rapid growth, secretion of ^loney dew again 

 takes place causing the leaves and limbs and whatever the honey 

 dew falls upon to become sticky and Anally blackened, causing a 

 badly infested tree to present a very unsightly appearance. These 

 large scales are soft and stick quite firmly to the bark and, when 

 removed, leave a white mark in a manner somewhat similar to the 

 old shells when removed during the winter. 



* Bal. 83, Cornell Agr'l Exp. Sta.. p. 692. 



tMarch i^ (1S!)5). the writer found numerous scales on plum trees at Hector that were be- 

 ginning to grow. 



