ROSE AND RASPBERRY SCALE. 53 



CHAPTER CXIV. 



ROSE AND RASPBERRY SCALE. 



(Diaspis rosce, Sandberg.) 

 Order : Hemiptera. Family : Coccidce. 



Maskell gives the following description : " Female 

 puparium nearly circular, white, often aggregated in 

 masses, diameter about one-twelfth of an inch. Male 

 puparium white, elongated, carinated, length about one- 

 twentieth of an inch. Adult female a deep-red in colour, 

 elongated, the body deeply segmented. Cephalic region 

 very large, smooth, on each segment of the body several 

 spiny hairs ; five groups of spinnerets, no single spinnerets. 

 Adult male (see Fig. IX.) orange-red in colour ; antennae, 

 ten-jointed, with several hairs on all but the first two 

 joints ; feet slender, hairy ; digitules fine hairs. The 

 spike is somewhat long." 



This well-known and very destructive scale is easily 

 distinguished from most other kinds by the large numbers 

 of flat white scales adhering to the stem of rose bushes, as 

 shown in Fig. I. In Victoria, this scale must have been 

 introduced a long while ago, as it was here in the early 

 fifties ; the probability is that it came on roses from the 

 old country. This is a scale which, if not checked, will 

 spread very rapidly. Newly imported roses when planted 

 out are especially liable to attack. Infested plants soon 

 show the weakening effect on the plant owing to the 

 damage done by the sucking of the juices of the plant 

 through the rostrum or beak of the insect. Hence it 

 happens, as a matter of course, that the application of 

 any fluids to the trees externally, with the object of poison- 

 ing the insects in their feeding, is, as Maskell remarks, 

 useless, as their food is drawn from beneath the surface. 



