( 407 ) 



LIST OF INSECTS INJUIIIOUS TO PINEAPPLE. 

 HEMIPTEEA. 



White Scale {Diaspis hromelUf. Kerner). Foliage and Fruit, p. 407. 

 Brown Scale [Asjndiohis bromelicn. Newstead). 



Mealy Bugs (Dactylopius citri and D. longispinus). Foliage and 

 Fruit, p. 483. 



The only pests I know of on hothouse pines are the four Coccids 

 nieutioued above. Peference is made in some gardening works to 

 the Brown Scale, which I take to be A. hromclirr. 



THE WHITE PINEAPPLE SCALE. 



(Diaspis hroinelicv. Kerner.) 



This is a well-known pineapple pest and is quite frequent on 

 imported fruit. It is well established in this country, and has been 

 since 1841, when Curtis first called attention to it in the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, Most growers of hothouse pines are, or have been 

 acquainted with it, and it is referred to in all books on fruit culture 

 as the White Scale. This insect occurs all over the plant, often 

 thickly encrusting the fruit, especially getting into the deep sutures 

 and often deep in the perianth. When on the leaves the scales are 

 often almost hidden under a scurfy epidermal layer. The female 

 scale is circular and flat and semi-transparent ; some almost pure 

 white ; the " spot," or exuvia', dusky yellowish-brown. Diameter 

 often nearly } inch. The female under the scale is pale yellow. 

 The male scale is common ; it is only ^^ i"^^^ ^^^S^ elongated, with 

 woolly fibres and with brown exuvia- in front. The winged male 

 is orange yellow. 



This insect is found all over Europe in hothouses, also in America 

 and Mexico, and I received some a few years ago from Jamaica,* 

 where it was doing much damage. 



Besides occurring on pineapples, it is recorded on liibiscus, 

 canna, billbergia, olea and ivy. 



The scales are not only disfiguring to tlie pineapples but cause 

 the fruit to rot. Their partial burrowing under the skin makes them 

 somewhat diflicult to destroy. 



* First Keport on Economic Zoology (British Museum N.H.), p. 135 (1903). 



