588 



NEW JERSEY AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



THE PEACH SOFT SCALE. 



Lecanmm persicce Modeer. 



This i.s a well-kuown European species, whose general life history 

 Avas written there one hundred and sixty years ago, and in the United 

 States, in some detail, by Howard, in 1894, At that time the insect 

 was already present in ten States or territories and the District of 



Fig. 36. 



The Peach Soft Scale, Lecanium persicx Mod. : newly-hatched larva at right ; uuim- 



pregnated female next ; twig with full-grown females ; at left are females 



from above and below and cut longitudinally ; all save twigs are 



enlarged. From Howard, Div. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agric. 



Columbia, ranging from New York to New Mexico. Only a few 

 localities were known in each State except Maryland, and New Jersey 

 was not mentioned in the list of affected States. How the insect 

 was originally introduced into the United States is not known, but 

 no complaints of serious or widespread injury seem to have been 

 recorded. It is confined to peach in our experience, and when very 

 abundant has been known to cause the death, of young trees. On 

 older trees it clusters during the winter upon the twigs and young 

 shoots so as to completely cover the surface in the worst cases. 



liife History and Habits. 



The insect appears to over-winter mainly in the advanced female 

 condition, in which stage it is a hemispherical, slightly elongated, 

 mottled brown object, rather more than an eighth of an inch in average 



