No. 4.] 8CALE INSECTS. 425 



SOME IMPORTANT SCALE INSECTS. 



I5V 1>K. 11. T. KKKNAl.U, PKOFESSOi: OF ENTOMOl.OGV, MASSACHUSETTS 



A(iKICULTUliAL COLLEGE. 



During the past fifteen years injuries to })lants, slu'ubs 

 and trees by scale insects have become very noticeable, and 

 several of the Avorst pests belonging to the group have made 

 their appearance in this country and have caused the loss of 

 millions of dollars, often because their small size enabled 

 them to escape notice until it was- too late to save the i)lants 

 the}^ had attacked. The destruction caused by these insects 

 has attracted much attention recently, and in Massachusetts 

 the demand for information concerning them has exhausted 

 the entire edition of two previous ai-ficles on this subject, 

 published in the Crop Report.* Since these articles were 

 written additional facts about some of these pests have been 

 learned, and we now know better how to keep them in check. 



The Sax Jo8e Scale. 

 {Aspkliofus peniiciosus Comst. ) 

 The home of this, perhaps the worst scale pest, was long 

 unknown, but it now seems probable that it is a native of 

 China. In the United States it was first discovered in Cali- 

 fornia, where it seems to have appeared about 1870, In 

 1880, when it was first described, Professor Comstock, after 

 giving a detailed description of the insect, Avrote : "From 

 what I have seen of it, I think that it is the most pernicious 

 scale insect known in this country," and this o})ini()n has 

 certainly been sustained by its subsequent history in the 

 United States. 



* Mav, VMM, and June, 19<32. 



