INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE PINE. 



THE WHITE FINE LEAF-LOUSE. 



( Mi/tilaspis pinifolicc, Fitch. ) 



Order of HOMOPTERA. Family of Coccin^. 

 Fitch's 1st and 2d New York Reports, page 256. 



The White Pine {Plnus Strohun of Linnseus, ) is the tallest and 

 most valuable of our timber trees, and also one of the most highly 

 valued for ornamental purposes. Unfortunately its balsamic and 

 pungent qualities afford it no immunity from the attacks of de- 

 structive insects. Many distinct species and myriads of individu 

 als find sustenance in its majestic trunk or on its almost innumer- 

 able leafets. 



The species now under consideration appears in the form of 

 little oblong, white, muscle-shaped scales, one-tenth of an inch in 

 length, attached to the leaves, and differing but little, except in 

 color, from the well known scales of the Oyster-shell Bark-louse 

 of the apple tree. The insect, indeed, though it lives upon the 

 leaves instead of the bark, belongs to the same family and the 

 same genus as this last mentioned notorious species. I do not 

 know that they infest the tree in its native forest, but they are 

 very injurious to ornamental trees, not only to the White Pine 

 proper, but also it would seem to a still greater extent, to the va- 

 riety known as the Gray or Scotch Pine. They sometimes mul- 

 tiply so as to almost completely whiten the foliage, like a fine 

 snow storm. They belong to the sucking, as distinguished from 

 the gnawing division of insects, and impoverish the leaves to a 

 greater or less extent, by imbibing their sap. The leaves turn 

 brown and unsightly, and in some cases the whole tree presents a 

 sickly and decaying aspect. I have noticed that the scales with 

 which the insect covers itself assumes a different form upon the 



