- 25 - 



The time when the eggs of the scale hatch depends 

 much on temperature, and varies with locality. On the 

 Atlantic coast it is the last of May and first of June. I 

 cannot give the date for this State, although I have often 

 noticed the young insects. Each fruit grower should 

 keep watch of the insects on his premises, and note the 

 date of their transformations, for on this knowledge the 

 success or failure of his efforts to exterminate them will 

 largely depend. 



One authority says that on their first appearance the 

 young (Fig. 2) (2) are nearly white, another that they are 

 redish. Those that I have noticed "were so dark as to 

 appear to the naked eye like a rust. Besides their six 

 legs, they have two antennae, and the female has two 

 stylets or hair-like appendages from the rear of the body. 

 Fig. 2 (8) is one of the antennae highly magnified. 

 Although at first active, the female becomes stationary 

 at the end of about ten days. 



" A white waxy secretion issues from the body in the 

 shape of fine threads." (Fig. 2) (3.) This secretion in- 

 creases and hardens into a yellowish brown, oval, scale, 

 which hides the body of the insect. An addition is soon 

 made which is wider than the original scale, and darker 

 in color, as in Fig. 2 (4). The scale continues to en- 

 large until it assumes the form seen in (7), and is about 

 i2-iooths of an inch in length, while its occupant is only 

 about one-half as long. This development occupies 

 about two months from the time of hatching. Meantime 

 the f female has lost her limbs and other appendages, so as 

 to assume the form shown in (5) and finally as in -(6). 



Ten or twelve days after her scale has reached its full 

 size, the female begins to lay her eggs, and completes the 

 process in about two weeks. She decreases in size, until 

 at last, when she dies and dries up, it is hard to find any 

 trace of her. In the Mississippi valley, there is but one 

 generation in a season, but I know of no one who has 



