604 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



The Hemispherical Scale * is essentially a greenhouse pest, 

 being found on ornamental plants of many sorts in greenhouses. 

 It has some importance as a pest in citrus plantings as it thrives 

 outdoors in climates suitable for orange growth. It is of a rather 

 uniform brown color, fairly large size and is rather smooth and 

 polished on the surface. 



Other scales of this type are found on orange, lemon and other 

 trees of this type but none of them is as important as the ones 

 ^__ < m mamj mentioned. In Flori- 

 da, the Wax Scale 

 (Ceroplastes floriden- 

 si'sComstock) charac- 

 terized by a thick 

 covering of white 

 wax, and two other 

 species of the same 

 genus, are frequently 

 to be seen but rarely 

 do serious damage. 



The Cottony Cush- 

 ion Scale or Fluted 

 Scalef is possibly the 

 most famous of the 

 scales attacking the 

 citrus plants. While 

 not so injurious now 

 as formerly, it threat- 

 ened, for some years 

 after its introduction 

 into Calif ornia in 

 1868, the very exist- 

 ence of the citrus in- 

 dustry. Other efforts 

 to control it having 

 failed, a search was made by agents of the Department of Agriculture 

 at Washington, for its native home, in the hope of finding there 

 some insect which fed habitually upon it and was capable of keep- 

 ing it in check. In this search they were more successful than other 



* Saissetia hemispherica Targ. 

 f I eery a purchasi Mask. 



FIG. 528. Hemispherical scale, Saissetia hemis- 

 ica. 



