DESTR UC Tl VE INSECTS. 



167 



its scaly covering is nearly white in color. It is two-brooded 

 even in New York, and from ten to seventy-rive purple eggs 

 winter under each female scale. 



This scurfy scale is best controlled by the same methods as 

 the preceding species. 

 San Jost Scale (Aspi- 

 diotus pcrniciosus}, Fig. 

 229. This insect first 

 appeared in California 

 many years ago. 

 About 1887 it was in- 

 troduced into the 

 Eastern United States 

 on nursery stock; and 

 it has since attained 

 international import- 

 ance, and has been 

 widely distributed 

 throughout this coun- 

 try. It is recognized 

 everywhere as a most 

 destructive and dan- 

 gerous fruit pest. It 

 spreads all over the 

 tree and fruit, at times literally covering it in such cases 

 often killing it, if undisturbed, in a few years. It thrives on 

 all kinds of fruit-trees, and on the small fruits as well as on 

 most other deciduous trees or shrubs ; peaches usually suc- 

 cumb to its attacks more quickly than any other fruit-trees. 

 It can spread only by direct contact of the 

 living female with a live tree, either from 

 the interlocking of the branches of an infested 

 tree with others, or by being carried from 

 one to another by birds or insects. Infested 

 nursery stock is the most fertile source of 

 distribution. While it is often found on the 

 fruit, there is yet no definite evidence that 

 such fruit was the source of any infestation. 

 The reason this scale is so much more dangerous than either 

 of the two bark-lice just discussed is because of its greater 



FIG. 224. FIG. 225. 



The Scurfy Bark-louse. 

 :, Female ; d, male. FIG. 225. Female 

 scales. FIG. 226. Male scales. Figs. 225, 226, 

 natural size ; Fig. 224 enlarged. (U. S. Div. 

 of Entomology.) 



FIG. 227. San Jose 

 Scale. (Greatly 

 magnified.) 



