482 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



bark or under bandages placed around the tree, tlie male often creep- 

 ing under clods of earth. Both the female and the male, in adoles- 

 cence, are most active during the hotter parts of the day and remain 

 stationary at night; but the perfect or winged male is rather slug- 

 gish during the day, usually remaining motionless on the under 

 side of the leaves of low plants or high trees, in crevices of the bark, 

 or wedged in between females on the tree. There seems, in fact, to 

 be a well-marked attempt at concealment. The recently developed 

 individuals are found abundantly on or under clods of earth near 

 their pupal cocoons, and they issue most numerously during the lat- 

 ter part of the afternoon. They are at first weak, awkward, and un- 

 gainly, and instinctively seek some projection on the tree or elevation 

 on the ground from which to launch on the wing. 



At the approach of night they become imbued with a very high 

 degree of activity and dart rapidly about on the wing. At such 

 times they swarm around the infested trees, and many of the females, 

 even some with large egg-masses, hold their bodies raised obliquely 

 from the bark, as though aware of the presence of tlie males. In 

 September and October Mr. Koebele noticed that the males began 

 their flight about 5 o'clock, and as soon as it was fairly dark they 

 again settled down to rest. None have been observed flying at night 

 and none have been attracted to the electric lights. 



EXUDATION OF THE HONEY-DEW. 



It required but a few hours upon our first visit to Los Angeles, the 

 latter part of March, to become familiar with the insect in all its 

 habits and conditions, as at that season the species is to be found in 

 all conditions from the egg through all the stages of both sexes. But 

 the characteristic of this remarkable insect which most obviously at- 

 tracted our attention and distinguished it from all other s]3ecies of 

 the family, even where there were no gravid females with the fluted 

 cushion, was the saccharine exudation. As with most Aphid s and 

 Coccids, this sweet liquid is exuded at all stages of growth, but is 

 most copious from the adult female just before oviposition begins. 

 It is expelled with considerable force from the large pore already de- 

 scribed, and in hot weather with sufficient rapidity to produce all the 

 effects of honey-dew. Usually it is limpid enough to soak and dis- 

 color the trunk and to drop as it accumulates from the leaves, some- 

 times being so copious as to remind one of a shower; but at other 

 times, and especially during dry weather, the sugar condenses and 

 forms large drops or masses of white, semi-opaque, sirupy liquid, 

 which adheres to and often completely covers the insect, so that the 

 trunk of the tree looks much as if it had been bespattered with caustic 

 potash or melted stearine. At other times the liquid parts evaporate 

 entirely and leave masses of pure white powdery sugar. 



Honey-loving insects seek this sugary secretion in numl)ers, and it 

 is always followed by tlie black mold or smut {Capnodium citri), 

 which is so universal an accompaniment of all honey-secreting Ho- 

 moptera, living as it does on the saccharine deposit. TJie secretion 

 being so very copious from Icerya, the smut is equally thick and co- 

 pious in her wake. Indeed, the*^ great prevalence of this smut in the 

 Icerya-iufested groves of California (rendering it necessary to wash 

 or cleanse the gathered fruit) is as characteristic of tlie Pacific coast 

 as the rusty effect of tlie Rust -mite (which is unknown there) is of the 

 orange groves of Florida. 



