8o THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



injury is not confined to the apple, but peach, pear, pknn, 

 quince, and cherry are all attacked. 



In fact the sour cherry is about the onl}- one of our fruits 

 which is not seriously injured by it. The winter is passed in 

 a partially grown condition, and when spring- comes the in- 

 sects continue to feed and increase in size until about the last 

 week in June, when the breeding season commences. The fe- 

 males do not lay eggs like most other scales, but bring forth 

 living young. When first born, the young are yellow in color, 

 and crawl about for a few hours. They then find a suitable 

 place to begin feeding, insert their sucking tubes in the tissues 

 of the bark and begin to suck the sap. After this they are 

 stationary upon the tree. They begin to contract in -length 

 and assume a circular shape. On the back several slender wax 

 fiJaments are given out, and after three or four days these wax 

 filaments melt down, and the insect molts. The wax and the 

 cast skin form the beginning of the shell or armor. Then 

 comes a period of about four w-eeks in which the insect is suck- 

 ing sap and increasing in size. The females keep the circu- 

 lar form of shell throughout their existence, but when about 

 half grown the males can be recognized from the females by 

 their elongated shells, and finally a pupa stage is entered by 

 the males terminating in the appearance of the adults. The 

 adult emerges from under the shell, has wings, legs, antennae 

 and eyes. It flies about, but it does not take food after reach- 

 ing this stage : in fact, it has no digestive system. The female, 

 on the other hand, remains under the shell, and if we examine 

 a specimen we find that a di fife rent development has here taken 

 place. The female has no antennae, eyes, wings or legs, but 

 the mouth parts and digestive system are very strongly devel- 

 oped. Between three and four generations occur each year 

 in Connecticut, depending somewhat upon the season, and al- 

 though the breeding season is late about commencing, each 

 brood IS far more prolific than the preceding brood, and toward 

 the latter part of the season vast numbers of young are pro- 

 duced, and often the trees are coated over completely in a 

 short time. 'The breeding season lasts until about December 

 first. The San Jose scale is carried from one tree to another 

 on the feet of birds or insects which mav alight on the infested 



