SALTBUSH SCALE. 101 



CHAPTER CXXIY. 



SALTBUSH SCALE. 



(Pulvinaria Maskelli, Olliff.) 



Order : Homoptera. Family : Coccidce. 



This singular scale insect was first sent to me from 

 Wentworth, New South Wales, where at the time it was 

 making great havoc among the Saltbushes (Atriplex), 

 and bade fair to wipe out these valuable fodder plants of 

 the squatter and grazier. The first known specimens 

 submitted for scientific investigation were sent by myself 

 to my friend, the late Mr. Maskell, who at the time was 

 our leading specialist on scale, insects. Mr. Maskell was 

 at work on Australian Coccidce, and found the scale to be 

 a new one of very peculiar features, and, after a careful 

 examination, it was placed in the genus Signoretia, so named 

 on account of the well-known writer on scale insects. The 

 species name of Atriplicis, after the plants on which the 

 insects were first discovered, was bestowed on it by the 

 late Mr. Olliff, then Entomologist to the Department of 

 Agriculture of New South Wales. On further critical 

 examination, the genus Signoretia was in this case discarded 

 by Mr. Maskell, and the name given by Olliff allowed to 

 stand. Mr. Maskell also mentions a variety of this species 

 which was sent to him by the late Mr. Eraser Crawford, of 

 Adelaide, and also by myself, as having been found on the 

 Murray Pines (Frenela), and this insect has been named as 

 a variety (spinosa). 



When I first received the specimens from Wentworth, 

 they were described as rapidly destroying the saltbushes 

 in that and the outlying districts. As this scale is of so 



