FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 29 



in the portion of the limb remaining on the tree, but as a rule it drops with the severed 

 branch. The life cycle is probably completed under natural conditions in one year, 

 though when breeding in dry twigs the period may be considerably extended. . 



This twig primer not only attacks maple and oak, two of its favorite food plants, 

 but has also been recorded from a number of others. A few of the more important 

 are: Apple, pear, plum, peach, grape, quince, orange, osage orange and hickory. 



Remedies. The fallen branches usually contain the larva and should therefore be 

 collected and burned sometime during the winter. 



Cottony Aaple Tree 3cale Insect. 



Pnlt'iiiaria innumcrabilis Rathv. 



This species is generally distributed throughout the greater part of the state, and 

 occasionally becomes excessively abundant, specially on the soft or silver maple, one 

 of its favorite food plants. This scale insect flourishes, particularly in certain seasons, 

 on Long Island and in its vicinity. Sometimes the trees are fairly festooned with 

 masses of conspicuous females. In 1890 it was so abundant in Brooklyn, N. Y., as to 

 lead Mr. A. S. Fuller to report that thousands of trees were dying from its attacks. 

 It was present in large numbers at Buffalo, N. Y., the same year and in 1898 many 

 complaints of serious injury were received from widely separated localities. 



Description. This pest most often comes to notice after the females have attained 

 their full growth late in June or early in July and have excreted an abundant cotton- 

 iike substance, which protrudes from under the scale covering the insect, as repre- 

 sented at figure 11, on plate 3. Frequently the entire under surface of the limb is 

 covered with these insects. The cottony fibers are full of minute eggs and young. 

 A recently hatched scale insect is represented very much enlarged at figure 10, on 

 plate 3. The young soon forsake the protecting filaments of the mother, wander to 

 the leaves, settle along the veins as a rule, secrete a scaly covering and in the fall 

 present the appearance shown at figure 12, on plate 3. 



Life History and Habits. This species is very prolific. One female rarely deposits 

 less than 500 eggs and must frequently produce over 2,000, as estimated by J. D. 

 Putnam, who has published an exhaustive paper on this species in the proceedings of 

 the Davenport Academy of Natural Science, of Iowa. Certain facts regarding the 

 life history of this insect are taken from his treatise on this scale insect. The young 

 leave the mother in immense numbers about the latter part of July, in the latitude of 



