44 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OP AGRICULTURE. 



scales adhering to the dark-green needle -like leaves ; these scales are 

 sometimes crowded together, but usually they are disposed in a row. 

 No. 51. The scale appears externally to be composed of three 



different oval scales, with their rounded ends over- 

 lapping each other. The first scale is very small, and 

 brown in color ; the second is about three times the 

 size of the first, and of a lighter color, while the third 

 and last scale is quite large and white. It is 0.10 in 

 length, and the female lays from 28 to 32 oval eggs 

 with rounded ends in the case. These eggs are pink- 

 ish in color and crowded together under the scale. 

 When the female has laid all her eggs, she dies and 

 dries up at the smaller end of the case. We have seen 

 ^=^ssE=:;;=<- the lady-birds ( Coccinella, in Coleoptera) in March and 

 April busily emj^loyed in making holes in the cases in order to get at the 

 eggs, which they eagerly devour, besides which, when the trees are agi- 

 tated by the wind, almost all the unhatched eggs are shaken out of the 

 opening made by the lady-bird and fall on the ground, where they perish. 

 Some persons have supposed this insect to be the adult stateof the Coccus 

 pinicortis, another insect which appears as a downy patch on the bark of 

 the same tree. The figure is magnified. 

 JJecanium hesperidum is another scale-insect, found upon the orange 

 No. 52. and lemon trees in Florida, but not in as great numbers 

 as the mussel-shell scale-insect first mentioned. It is also 

 not crowded so closely together, but is scattered more 

 sparsely over the leaves. It is shaped like an oval oys- 

 ter-shell, with a bro?.d fliat margin all around the convex 

 part. Anteriorly, it has an indentation on each side, two 

 similar indentations marking the thorax, and one deep 

 notch the posterior portion of the scale. These indenta- 

 tions cross the flattened margin of the scale, and reach 

 the convex and darker part. The very young insects are 

 soft-bodied and yellowish, with six legs and two antennse. 

 The posterior part is notched, and terminates with two 

 hairs or bristles, which soon disappear. Should this insect increase so 

 as to be injurious, the same remedies can be used as for the other spe- 

 cies. The adult scale is about O.OG to 0.08 in length ; color brownish. 

 The figures are magnified. 

 Lecanium acericorticis, (Fitch, 1859, p. 776.) Maple-bark scale-insect. 

 No. 53. This insect was found on a silver-maple in the Smith- 



(^^^^^3=^:^2^-^ sonian grounds in Washington, and is also found on 

 other maples in the neighborhood. It is very conspic- 

 uous from its great size and the snow-white cottony 

 appearance on the twigs and branches. The scale, 

 when mature, is of a brown color and partially covers a mass of snow- 

 white cottony down, which protects the eggs and young bark-lice which 

 are under it. Tlie young insects wander away from the parent scale, 

 and afterward fix themselves to the bark. The males are probably two- 

 winged, somewhat resembling the Lecanium juglandif ex, as described by 

 Dr. Fitch. Lecanium acericola, on maple, and Lecaniiim macluro;, on 

 the osage-orange, are probably only varieties of the same insect. These 

 insects, however, do very little injury, as they are not very abundant. 



Coccus pinicorticis, or the pine-blight, is sometimes very abundant in 

 the pine woods of Maryland. They frequent the smooth bark around and 

 especially below the axils where the limbs are given out from the main 

 trunk.. The injury appears like patches of white flocculent down, which 

 covers miuuto bark-lice, of a broad, oval, nearly hemispherical, form, about 



