1900] WHITE WOOLLY CURRANT SCALE. 49 



In the course of correspondence it appeared that, though specimens 

 had not been previously sent for identification, this white woolly in- 

 festation had been noticed on Currant bushes for some few years 

 before, and a glance at the figure on p. 50, taken from a photograph 

 of an infested Currant shoot, will show that for practical purposes the 

 appearance of the attacked shoots hung about with masses of white 

 web and dotted with brown Scale insects is unmistakable. 



In the course of the past season notes were sent me, on May 5th, 

 from Petersfield, Hampshire, by Mr. Lavender of his having observed 

 the attack in May of the previous year — that is, of 1899 — and although 

 only referring to one attack, this is of some interest with regard to 

 locality. 



In the year of first observation, with the exception of Wakefield 

 and Huddersfield ni Yorkshire, all the places reported from were m 

 the East of Scotland, namely, from the neighbourhood of Banff, 

 Aberdeen, Stonehaven, Arbroath, Edinburgh, and Berwick-on-Tweed, 

 and on or near the sea-coant, excepting in the case of Ballater, in Aber- 

 deenshire, which is not very far inland. 



In the recent instance of observation, at Petersfield, this is quite 

 in the South of England, and not far from the sea, as it is about 

 fourteen miles from Emsworth on the north of Chichester harbour, 

 and about eighteen miles by road from Portsmouth, to which (and, I 

 believe, also to Emsworth) French sailing-boats bring cargoes of 

 vegetables, which foreigners hawk about the whole country-side. 



The above information, for which I am indebted to Mr. Lavender, 

 suggests a method by which it appears at least possible that this 

 Currant Scale, which is known to be a French infestation, may be 

 distributed in England. In this case Mr. Lavender mentioned that, 

 on May 20th, 1899, lie removed from a strong well-grown Red Currant 

 bush of some three years' growth a fine specimen of this " White 

 Woolly Currant Scale," Pulvimtria libesm, so closely resembling the 

 illustration of the Scale on a branch at p. 76 of my ' Handbook of 

 Insects Injurious to Orchard and Bush Fruits,' repeated at page follow- 

 ing, that it might have been drawn from it. The Scale removed was 

 fully as large, the filaments of white cottony fibre were spreading, and 

 a few yellow-brown seed-like objects (? very young larvje) were to be 

 seen upon the branch immediately below the Scale, as shown in my 

 illustration. 



The presence of the white cottony or woolly matter is one great charac- 

 teristic of the attack. At first this forms (where it is undisturbed) a 

 thick compact tuft, within which the eggs and the young Scales in 

 their earliest condition are sheltered, and on the front part of which 

 the brown Scale is raised, sometimes almost vertically. At fig. 1, 

 p. 48, the mass of woolly material is shown (much magnified) with 



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