PROCEEDINGS, 1915. 43 



or less distorted by overcrowding. The cast skins are placed near the 

 centre of the scale and are large and orange colored. The scales vary in 

 color, usually being a dark ash grey in the centre with lighter margin. 



Life History. The insects winter partly grown and there is but one 

 brood a year. 



Control of Scale Insects. 



For all scale insects the most satisfactory treatment is the lime sul- 

 phur wash, dormant strength. This may be applied when the trees are 

 dormant or it may be deferred until the leaf buds show signs of opening. 

 The trees must be thoroughly drenched, so that not a single scale escapes 

 contact with the spray. If the regular summer spray of lime sulphur ap- 

 plied when the blossoms fall, be deferred a few days it will catch and de- 

 stroy the emerging young of the oyster shell scale. 



Various miscible oils are now on the market for controlling scale, but 

 as lime sulphur is used almost universally for other purposes in Nova 

 Scotia it is not necessary or advisable at the present to resort to their 

 use. The dry substitutes for lime-sulphur, viz., soluble sulphur and 

 B. T. S., are also used for controlling scale. 



Plant Bugs. 



The family Miridae (Capsidae), (Plant bugs) constitutes the largest 

 family of the Heteroptera (True Bugs) and contains many forms of eco- 

 nomic importance. They are, for the most part, plant feeders, but some 

 species are predaceous as well. 



This family contains a number of forms of considerable economic 

 importance, but only one species is known as a serious pest of the apple 

 in this province, though another the False Apple Red Bug (Lygidea 

 mendax), is known to occur. 



The Green Apple Bug. 



(Lygus invitus Say. var. novascotiensis Knight*) 



History, Distribution and Seriousness of the Pest. For a number of 

 years fruit growers in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia have complain- 

 ed of the non-bearing of certain varieties of apples, especially the Non- 

 pareil. Such trees would bloom heavily every year, but would invariably 

 fail to set a crop of anything but a few gnarled, twisted apples. At the 

 same time there came frequent reports of pears that "grew woody" and 

 were covered with corky disfiguring scars. 



No one appears to have suspected the connection between the trouble 

 in the apple and pears or that either of them was due to an insect. Ex- 

 amination of affected orchards about blossoming time showed them to 



*In MSS. 



