U. S. D. A., B. E. Tech. Ser. 16, Pt. I. Issued April 23, 1908. 



PAPERS ON COCCID^ OR SCALE INSECTS. 



THE NATIONAL COLLECTION OF C0CCID2E. 



By C. L. Marlatt, M. S., 

 Entomologist and Assistant Chief of Bureau. 



The collection of scale insects or Coccidae, accumulated chiefly 

 through the agency of the Bureau of Entomology of the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture and forming a part of the national collec- 

 tion of insects, is undoubtedly the most valuable and complete in 

 existence. This has come from the early interest of the Bureau in 

 the subject through the work of Prof. J. H. Comstock, and as a result 

 of the generosity of many of the describers of new species of later 

 years in depositing types or cotypes in the National Collection. It 

 may not be out of place, therefore, to give a brief historical summary 

 of the National Collection of Coccidse, together with a description 

 of its present condition, an account of the methods of installation 

 and preservation of material, and a numerical statement of species 

 and types represented. 



HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 



The knowledge in America of this important group of insects was 

 very scant prior to 1880. During that year Prof. J. Henry Comstock, 

 then Entomologist of the Department of Agriculture, in the course of 

 an investigation of the insects injurious to orange trees, begun the 

 previous year, noted that the greater part of the insect injury to citrus 

 fruits was due to scale insects. This led him to make, during 1880, a 

 particular study of the family Coccida?, broadening the inquiry to 

 include the study of all scale insects affecting cultivated plants in the 

 United States. Professor Comstock personally collected many south- 

 ern species in a trip through Florida in January and February, 1880, 

 and during the following summer spent three months in the fruit- 

 growing sections of California and Utah investigating the subject and 



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