INSECTS AFFECTING PARK AND WOODLAND TREES 



215 



Description. Tlic frcsli female scale is irrcu^ularly oval in outline, 

 about ' ,0 inch in dianu-ter, antl with a slight prolongation tipijcd with a 

 yellow speck, which latter is the early cast skin. The male scales are 

 elongate, narrow, and consist of a small yellowish pellicle on one end of a 

 much larger, tricarinate white scale. The turning over of an adult female 

 scale in late winter will usually uncover a mass of purplish eggs. The younrr 

 are active, reddish, and to the naked eye appear as small, snowy specks. 



Life history. The winter is passed by this species as eggs underneath 

 the protective scale of the female, and the young appear from about the 

 middle to the last of May. They soon establish themselves at favorable 

 points on the bark of the trunk 

 and branches, and begin drawing 

 nourishment from the underlying 

 tissues. Occasionally they settle 

 in numbers on the fruit, in which 

 case they may be surrounded by 

 an irregular reddish area. The 

 young grow rapidly, pass through 

 several molts, and in the latter 

 part of August or early in Septem- 

 ber, 30 to 75 purplish eggs may 

 be found under the scale. There 

 is but one generation in the 



iSOrthern btateS, though it is (After Howard, insect Ute. i8g4. 7:7) 



stated that two and possibly three may occur in one season in the 

 Southern States. 



Food plants. This species, has a special fondness for Japanese quince. 

 It has been recorded by Dr Howard as so abundant on mountain ash in 

 the Catskill mountains, that hardly a twig or branch was uninfested. Aside 

 from cultivated fruit trees, it is known to occur on the following food 

 plants : chokecherry, wild red cherry, shad bush, cherry currant, wild flower- 

 ing currant, black walnut and black alder (Clethra alni folia). It is 



