177 



Brown Apricot Scale {Lccanium anneiiiaeum). 

 The scale is boat-shapi'd. when matured, somewhat wrinkled. The colour 

 is a shiny brown, darker in the centre than at the edges. It hatches from 

 the eggs during May and June. The treatment advised for the Oyster Shell 

 Scale should be followed in dealing with this pest. 



Woolly-maple Bakk-loise (Pntriiiinin iiiiiiiiiiciahilis). 



(Fig. 63.) 



This '• soft scale " insects occurs in some districts of the Province in con- 

 siderable numbers certain seasons, infesting maple. wIUdw, and alder trees. It 

 has also been reported as injuring gooseberry and currant bushes in the 

 Chilliwack District. 



They usually attract attention in the siiring. wlii'n wliitc cnttoiiy masses 

 become numerous on twigs or leaves of infested plants, increasing in size until 

 they are a quarter of an inch or more in length, and only slightl.v less in 

 diameter, somewhat irregular in outline. The mass seems cottony, but is 

 really wax or gum. When this size is reached, it forms a bedding for iunu- 

 meralile. rusty-brown eggs, very small in size, which are laid by the female 

 insects uuder the brown " scale " which seems to form the head of the mass. 

 From these eggs minute, crawling larvfe hatch, similar in colour to the eggs, 

 which spread in every direction over their host plant. In a day or two each 

 larva settles and inserts its beak into a leaf or twig, sucks up the sap. and 

 commences the formation of a small, flattened, oval scale — which gradually 

 increases in size. Most of these are fem.-iles, but there are always some male 

 insects, and these come to maturity in the latter part of summer, appearing 

 as small, two-wiuged flies; they mate with the females which remain under the 

 scales, and these, before the leaves fall, move to the twigs or branches, and 

 fasten themselves for the winter. They resume feeding in the spring, when 

 the sap begins to circulate, and then the egg masses are formed. 



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