118 INSECTS AFFECTING VEGETATION 



is attacked by a fungous disease which appears suddenly in July and 

 results in the death of from 25 to 70 per cent of the partly grown 

 scales. We may hope that with the aid of this disease, and by means 

 of the prompt introduction of its natural enemy, the fluted scale will 

 never play the role in Florida which it originally did in California. 

 The habits and transformations of the fluted scale closely parallel 

 those of the species of Lecanium already described. The general ap- 

 pearance of the insect, however, is strikingly dissimilar, owing to the 

 waxy excretions from the ventral plate of the adult female insect. 

 These are ribbed, or fluted, from whence the insect takes its name, 

 and becomes the receptacle of a vast number of eggs, a single female 

 being the possible parent of more than a thousand young. The waxy 

 material constituting the egg sac issues from countless pores on the 

 under side of the body, especially along the posterior and lateral 

 edges. As this secretion accumulates the body is lifted, so that ulti- 

 mately the insect appears to be standing almost on its head, or nearly 

 at right angles to the bark. The eggs are laid in the waxy secretion 

 as it is formed, the waxy fluted mass often becoming from two to two 

 and one-half times as long as the insect itself. The young are of red- 

 dish color, very active, and spread by their own efforts and by the 

 agency of the winds, birds, and other insects. The female insect is, 

 for the most part, a reddish orange, more or less spotted with white 

 or lemon. 



The early stages of the male are similar to the corresponding 

 stages of the female. Before appearing as an adult, the male insect 

 secretes itself in some crack in the bark, or in the ground, and exudes 

 a waxy covering, which forms a sort of cocoon, in which the transfor- 

 mations are undergone, first into the pupa and then into the adult 

 insect. The winged male is rather large for a coccid, and has a red- 

 dish body with smoky wings. 



The rate of growth of the fluted scale is comparatively slow, and 

 it does not normally have more than three generations annually. 

 This insect is quite active, the female traveling and moving about 

 very freely nearly up to the time when she finally settles for egg-lay- 

 ing. The male is active up to the time when it settles down to 

 make its cocoon. The fluted scale exudes a great quantity of honey- 

 dew, and trees badly attacked by it are covered with the sooty fungus, 

 characteristic of the black scale and the white fly. 



The remedy for this scale insect is always and emphatically to se- 

 cure at once its natural and efficient enemy, the Novius cardinalis. 

 Where this insect can not readily be secured, the scale may be kept 

 in check by frequent sprayings with the kerosene or resin washes. 

 Fumigation is comparatively ineffective against it, because the eggs 

 are not destroyed by this treatment. Spraying is, for the same rea- 

 son, effective only when it is repeated sufficiently often to destroy the 

 young as they hatch. 



The Mealy Bug.* The mealy bug of the orange and other citrus 

 plants is especially destructive in Florida and the West Indies. It is 

 not of much importance in California. 



* See illustration on page 195. 



