THE CURRANT PLANT-LOUSE 417 



curl and present a blistered and generally a reddish appearance on 

 the upper surface. This, like other plant -lice, may be destroyed 

 by kerosene emulsion, but is so protected within the curled leaves 

 as to be very difficult to reach. Success depends on applying the 

 remedy very promptly before the leaves become much curled. In 

 the home-garden, hand-picking will doubtless prove simpler. The 

 larvae are often destroyed in great numbers by the two -spotted 

 lady-bug. They are also subject to attack from a small hymen- 

 opterous parasite, which often does good service in depleting their 

 numbers. 



THE SAN JOSE* SCALE 



Aspidiotus pernlciosuS) Comstock. Order Hemiptera. Family 

 Coccidse. 



Comstock, Rep. U. S. Dept. Agr. 1880 : 304. Howard, U. S. Div. Ent. Circu- 

 lar 3, 2d series. Riley, Rep. U. S. Dept. Agr. 1893 : 215. 



This insect first made its appearance in California about 1870,. 

 and is supposed to have been introduced from Chili. It was de- 

 scribed by Professor Comstock in 1880, and since then has received 

 attention from numerous writers. It has worked serious injury in 

 California, and although not reported east of the Missouri River 

 until 1893, it has become widely scattered throughout the eastern 

 states. The insect is a near relative of the oyster-shell bark- 

 louse, and appears as a round, flat scale about an eighth of an 

 inch in diameter, resembling the bark in color, but with a black 

 speck in the center. It attaches itself to the fruit and branches 

 of pear, peach, apple, raspberry, gooseberry, currant, and other 

 plants. It is thus distributed both on fruit and nursery stock, a 

 fact which accounts for its rapid and widely scattered distribution. 

 The females are wingless, but when young can crawl short dis- 

 tances before becoming fixed in their position. 



Remedies. The San Jose" scale is not easily baffled. It has 

 recently caused much excitement in the pomological world. An 

 avalanche of literature and legislation has been hurled against it, 

 and remedies without number have been tried. The treatment 

 recommended by the Division of Entomology at Washington con- 

 sists in thorough spraying with whale -oil soap and water in the 

 proportion of two pounds -to the gallon, when the trees or plants 

 are dormant, preferably toward spring, since early spraying has 



