THE FILTED BEECH COCCUS. 13 



on a colony established on a large plant of Ribes sanguinfum, trained 

 on a south wall, and in other ways well-sheltered from cold winds. 

 The colony was established by attaching- to the plant in question a 

 small branch of Black Currant, tenanted by about twenty females, 

 with their ovisacs full of eggs. In due course the larvae hatched and 

 produced several thousand fertile females, but only one male ! Thus 

 the majority of the females were parthenogenetic. In the following 

 year the increase from the first lot of females was enormous, and 

 portions of the food-plant were at times covered by millions of young 

 larvae, thousands of which perished through want of space on the 

 seasoned wood ; here and there a few examples fixed themselves upon 

 the young and tender shoots, or more rarely upon the leaves, but none 

 reached the first moult on the latter, and very few completed a full 

 life on the former. The colony which survived on the seasoned wood 

 practically covered every available portion of it. 



" The second generation under observation produced a large num- 

 ber of males, but there was a great preponderance of females. At that 

 period (1900) the colony was in its most flourishing condition, and 

 every branch of the food-plant was glistening white with their ovisacs. 



" With regard to the males, I noted one remarkable fact they 

 were almost exclusively confined to those branches which harboured 

 the old dead females and their ovisacs of the previous year ; only a 

 very few male puparia occurred upon branches which had not been 

 previously tenanted by tue females. The wood which was tenanted by 

 the previous generation was older, and there was naturally less space 

 upon it for their successors ; but whether this fact, together with the 

 greatly overcrowded condition of the individuals, had any effect on 

 the production of males, I am unable to say ; but, taking all the facts 

 into consideration, it is not probable that it had. In the numerous 

 colonies of this species that have come under my observation I only 

 once previously met with the male puparia, and that was under pre- 

 cisely similar conditions. The plant had become overcrowded, and the 

 male puparia were fixed chiefly on the old wood among the dead 

 females of the preceding generation." 



THE FELTED BEECH COCCUS. 



Cryptococcus fagi, Barensprung. 



This most undesirable pest is undoubtedly increasing in the Mid- 

 land Counties, and it is very desirable that wherever it is noticed that 

 it should at once receive attention. 



For many years past, owing to the neglect of Beech trees on 

 different estates, this scale has been allowed to remain unmolested 

 and spread to fresh trees. 



