472 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



central China, and was probably brought to this country on 

 flowering-peach or some ornamental plant. 



Life History. The winter is passed by partly grown insects 

 under the scales, which begin to feed with the bursting of the 

 buds in spring. In the latter part of April the insects have become 

 full grown in the District of Columbia, and the males emerge 

 and fertilize the females. The male is a small, yellowish, two- 

 winged fly. The males emerge at night and are so small they are 

 seldom seen unless reared. About a month later the females com- 

 mence to give birth to live young and continue to do so for some 

 six weeks. This species differs from most scales in having no egg 



stage, the eggs hatching in the body of 

 the female. The young insects are very 

 small, yellowish in color, and resemble 

 small mites. They have six legs, a pair 

 of antennae, and a long thread-like beak 

 through which the food is sucked, as 

 shown in Fig. 398. The young insect 

 moves about freely for from twelve to 

 thirty-six hours, then thrusts its beak 

 into the bark or fruit, and if a female does 

 not move again. White, waxy filaments 

 soon exude from over the body, and 

 in a couple of days the insect is entirely 



FIG. 395.^Tnjured by the COVe d ^ them > "J^ 88 ^7 mat down 

 San Jose" scale showing the a scale is formed which conceals it. This 

 discolored spots. young scale is whitish with a prominent 



nipple in the center. After the first molt, the females lose eyes, 

 legs, and antennae, for which they have no further use. Nour- 

 ished by the sap of the plant the insect develops rapidly and 

 is full grown in about a month. In the District of Columbia 

 there are four or five generations a year, in the South there are 

 probably more generations, while at the northern limit of the 

 species there are two or possibly three generations, as breeding 

 continues until after killing frost. As with other small insects, it 

 is the remarkable power of reproduction to which the destructive- 

 ness of the pest is due. Thus it has been estimated that at Wash- 

 ington, p. C., *the progeny of a single female would number 

 3,216,080,400 by fall, if all were to survive. It is not surprising, 



