1900] WIMTK WOOMiY (MJKllAN'r SCAIJ'). 51 



fcliafc is, of a ibittoned oval, livoadest near tho head; deeply cleft at the 

 tail, with a long hair, or filament, on eacli side of the cleft, and in 

 the centre of the cleft a long cylindrical process. 'I^he l)ody was 

 somewhat raised along the centre with side ridges from it, and the 

 surface slightly sprinkled with white or woolly morsels. Eyes dark 

 or black. 



Although perhaps mention of the following distinctions are not of 

 any great use in liritish identification, it may be observed that this 

 Scale (/'. viheHur) is distinguishable from the nearly-allied species 

 P. vitis by being " smaller, thicker, rounder, more heart-shaped, and 

 of a deeper brown " ; and in larval state by being of a longer shape, 

 with shanks and feet much shorter, and half less in size. Also the 

 larvte of P. rthesicB bear five hairs, those of I'. vitiH six. These minute 

 distinctions cannot be easily conveyed in a figure only so much 

 magnified as that at p. 48 ; but detailed descrii)tioii will be found in 

 the work quoted below.'' 



One special characteristic of the genus I'ldviiiaria is that the female 

 forms an " ovisac " — that is, a bag for the eggs ; .scienlifically stated, 

 " the females after fecundation secrete below and at the posterior end 

 of the body a mass of cottony material, which forms a nidus for the 

 eggs." 1 



For practical purposes as a Currant attack the white mass with the 

 dried-up Scale at one end and the white filaments scattered in untidy 

 bunches on the bushes are quite enough for identification, and the life- 

 history is much lilie that of Scale insects generally. The little larvjc 

 come out from the sheltering cottony secretion beneath (or by what is 

 by that time the mere dead brown husk of) the mother Scale, and 

 disperse themselves in great numbers and with great activity (by 

 means of the six legs which they possess in early life) on the bushes, 

 where they have a capability of doing )nuch harm by piercing into the 

 bark and drawing away the juices with their suckers. I have found 

 them present in extraordinary numbers at the beginning of July. In 

 due course these larvae settle down into stationary pupas, and in the 

 case of the female produce, as mentioned above, the eggs which lay 

 the foundation of the next generation. 



The various observations sent show that the Woolly Scale infests 

 the Black Currant, as well as the red and white kinds, and likewise 

 the ornamental kind, lUbea aawjiunt'iiin,, sometimes known as the 

 " Flowering Currant." 



* See ' Essai sur les Cochenilles, 15, Fulviiuuia ribeaioi iiobin,' par M. le Docteur 

 Signoret, p. 219, vol. i. of Collected EsKayH. Translation also given in my ' Thir- 

 teenth Annual lieport,' p. 44, and ' Handbook of Insects Injurious to Orchard and 

 Bush Fruits,' p. 76. 



t ' Keport of Entomologist for the year 1880,' by J. Henry Comstock, p. 'd'di ; 



Washington, 1881. 



K 2 



