62 INSECTS AFFECTING THE ORANGE. 



ous orchard trees in the more northern portions of the State. It is not 

 distributed in Florida, but has certainly been introduced and is occa- 

 sionally seen upon imported plants, particularly upon the Olive. 



Lecanium hemisphcericum Targioui, according to Professor Comstock, 

 has been found upon the Orange in California. It is not known in 

 Florida. 



Of the two species of wax scales, both of which are confined to Florida, 

 Ceroplastes floridemis Comstock is by far the more abundant. C. cir- 

 ripediformis is found in certain localities, but is rare or unknown through- 

 out a large part of the orange district. Serious injuries rarely, if ever, 

 result from the attacks of the wax scales on orange trees, although the 

 young of the first named species are frequently sufficiently numerous to 

 attract attention and excite alarm. They invariably disappear, how- 

 ever, or become reduced to a few solitary individuals, whose numbers 

 barely suffice to perpetuate their race. 



Smut. The attacks of the various species of Lecauium or Ceroplastes 

 are frequently accompanied by the appearance of the sugar fungus, Cap- 

 nodium cilri Berk, and Des., of which mention has been made in the 

 introductory chapter of this work. The soot-like coating of the fungus 

 covers leaves and bark, and even the Coccids themselves, feeding evi- 

 dently upon the nectar which these insects have the power to eject to 

 a considerable distance, and not upon the juices of the plant. In proof 

 of this fact it may be mentioned that a similar black coating appears at 

 times upon objects when smeared with the nectar produced by flowers, 

 and it is always found upon sugar-cane, where the joints are not too 

 much exposed to the light. 



Not only does smut mask the operations of Scale-insects, so that it is 

 uot unfrequently mistaken for the cause of the ruin which they work, 

 but it can hardly be doubted that it is itself directly injurious in clog- 

 ging the pores and stifling the vital action of the growing parts of the 

 plant. A coating of soot, to which this fungus bears so strong a resem- 

 blance, would, it may well be supposed, have an equally deleterious 

 effect, particularly if, like the smut, it were applied to the plant with a 

 coating of some viscid liquid. 



