C54 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



The Peach Lecanium* 



The presence of the " terrapin scale/' as this species is often 

 called, is usually indicated by the sooty appearance of the branches 

 and foliage of affected trees. This is due to the fact that the 

 scales excrete considerable honey-dew, which covers the bark and 

 leaves, and on which a sooty fungus propagates. It is a common 

 species throughout the eastern United States and also attacks 

 the apple, maple, sycamore, linden and birch, but is most injurious 

 to peach and plum. The hibernating, partly grown, female scale 



FIG. 505. The peach lecanium or terrapin scale (Eulecanium nigrofasdatum 

 Pergande): adults at left, natural size and much enlarged; young at 

 right, and unfertilized female at center much enlarged. (After Howard, 

 U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



found on the bark in winter, is about one-twelfth inch long, 

 hemispherical, and of a reddish color mottled with radiating 

 streaks of black, particularly about the margin. Sometimes 

 these streaks coalesce and form a dark band around the center, 

 while other individuals are occasionally entirely red or black. 

 Frequently trees become badly encrusted with these scales, but 

 rarely are they killed by them. The fruit on badly infested 



* Eulecanium nigrofasciatum Pergande. Family Coctidce. See J. G. 

 Sanders, Circular 88, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Dept. Agr.; A. L. Quain- 

 tance, Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agr., 1905, p. 340; T. B. Symoris and E. N. Cory, 

 Bulletin 149, Md. Agr. Exp. Sta. 



