28 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE APPLE. 



yield sweet fruit. This woolly-louse is very common in 

 Europe, especially in Germany, the north of France, and 

 England, where it is more destructive than in this country, 

 and, although generally known there under the name of 

 the "American Blight/' it is believed to be indigenous to 

 Europe, and to have been originally brought from Europe 

 to America. It appears to thrive only in comparatively cold 

 climates, and in this country occurs in this form most abun- 

 dantly in the New England States. 



Under each of the little patches of down there is usually 

 found one large female with her young. When fully grown 

 the female is nearly one-tenth of an inch long, oval in form, 

 with black head and feet, dusky legs and antennae, and yel- 

 lowish abdomen. She is covered with a white, mealy powder, 

 and has a tuft of white down growing upon the hinder part of 

 her back, which is easily detached. During the summer the 

 insects are wingless, and the young are produced alive, but 

 about the middle of October, among the wingless specimens, 

 appear a considerable number with wings, and these have 

 but little of the downy substance upon their bodies, which 

 are nearly black and rather plump. The fore wings are 



large, and about twice 

 as long as the nar- 

 rower hind wings. In 

 Fig. 14 the winged 

 insect is represented 

 much magnified; also 

 a group of the young 

 lice magnified, and 

 an apple-twig, natu- 

 ral size, showing one 

 of the openings in 

 the bark caused by 

 this insect. Late in 

 the autumn the females deposit eggs for another generation 

 the following spring, a fact which should induce fruit- 



FIG. 14. 



