290 new york state museum 



The San Jose Scale in Ohio 



It is learned from Prof. F. M. "Webster, that an infested locality 

 in Clermont County, Ohio had come to his notice in December of 

 1894. The scale had probably been introduced in 1801 on apple 

 trees purchased of the Lovett Company, of Little Silver, N. J. 

 Prof. Webster reports : " The orchard comprised about 600 trees, 

 probably one-third of which were more or less infested — twenty- 

 five at least so badly as to preclude all possibility of saving them, 

 and at least double that number that could only be utilized by cut- 

 ting or! the trunks at a short distance above the ground and graft- 

 ing them, first disinfecting the stumps. The pest had been noticed 

 the previous year. * * * A smaller orchard set at the same 

 time and with trees from the same nursery, was found infested to a 

 much less extent, though the scales were badly scattered through 

 the orchard. * * * The owners of these two orchards will take 

 this scale in hand and stamp out the pest before it gets a stronger 

 foothold or becomes more widely spread." {Bull. 56 Ohio Agr. 

 ffltper. jSL } December, 1891.) 



Description of the Scale 



The female scale, greatly enlarged is shown at Fig. 4 of Plate Y 

 and at o in Fig. 2 of Plate YI. It is fiat, almost circular in out- 

 line, dark mottled with gray in color, with a small elevated spot at 

 or near its center which is black or yellowish ; it measures about 

 one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, but under some favoring con- 

 ditions may attain a size of one-eighth of an inch ; in its original 

 description it is given as 0.08 of an inch. 



Professor Comstock described the male scale as " black, some- 

 what elongated when fully formed. The larval skin is covered with 

 secretion ; its position is marked by a single nipple-like prominence 

 which is between the center and the anterior margin of the scale. 

 The scale of the male is more abundant than that of the female." 

 It is often oval in shape, and of a smaller size than the female. It 

 is represented at 5 in Plate Y. 



When occurring upon the bark of the twigs or leaves and in large 

 numbers, the scales lie close to each other, frequently overlapping, 

 and are at such times difficult to distinguish without a magnifying 

 glass : see Fig. 1 of Plate YL The general appearance that they 



