CURRANT AND GOOSEBERRY SCALE. 



41 



Mr. Gibbon also mentioned that this species of Scale insect is very 

 destructive to Gooseberry and Eed and Black Currant bushes. I was 

 not then aware of it having been observed on the Black Currant, but 

 on examination of Black Currants in my own, and in an adjacent 

 garden, I found it very definitely present on the boughs, though not 

 to any great extent. On Ked and White Currants it was only too 

 noticeable. 



The first observations which were forwarded during the past season 

 of infestation of this Scale insect, were sent me on the 8th of February, 

 from Caldewell, Pershore, by Mr. Charles Whitaker, with samples of 

 Gooseberry twigs accompanying, infested by numbers of the female 

 Scales, and also of the little flat dull reddish larvse, already on the move. 



On March 10th, I found the same kind (both females and larvfe) 

 were very prevalent on Gooseberry bushes in my own garden at 

 Torrington House, St. Albans. The female Scales were numerous on 

 the old wood, and mainly beneath the branches where they were 

 sheltered from weather, and where the bark was often split or peeled 

 away so as to expose the under surface ; but the infestation was not 

 noticeable (up to this date) on shoots of last year's growth, although 

 the larvffi, and necessarily the female Scales, had for some time pre- 

 viously been observable on the bushes. 



The larvae, or maggots, were so small as to be almost invisible to the 

 naked eye, narrowly oval in shape, with six legs, and a pair of horns 

 (see much magnified figure, p. 39). The colour various, of some shade 

 of puce or reddish, or ochrey tint, and the boily somewhat raised along 

 the middle so as to form a slight keel, and the abdomen of the larvae, 

 as well as the female Scales, showing a more or less noticeable caudal 

 cleft. 



The female Scales were hemispherical in shape, sometimes curved 

 slightly outwards at the lowest edge ; the colour some shade of nut 

 brown or rich brown ; the size variable, ranging from an eighth of an 

 inch to rather more ; the width about equal to the length ; the height 

 about one-twelfth of an inch, or rather more in the middle. In the 

 best defined specimens the border was finely ribbed transversely ; the 

 rest of the surface was so irregularly varied, according to age or condi- 

 tion of Scale, as to make it impossible to give a precise description. 



Later in the season (on the 6th of June) the female Scales were 

 plentiful on the old wood of some Gooseberry bushes which had not 

 been particularly attended to, and in most instances were full of eggs. 

 Sometimes the old skin of the mother Scale was almost empty, but in 

 others the quantity was beyond counting, the exceedingly small oval- 

 shaped bodies falling like a shower of white dust, which might be said 

 to cover a space of half an inch square, and well sprinkle about an 

 inch. The Scales which frequently contained the lobed, fleshy, greyish 



