&76 new york state museum 



Occurrence in Eastern United States 



• It was quite a surprise when not long ago the discovery was 

 made that this destructive insect had crossed the continent and had 

 made its appearance in the Atlantic States. Its first recognition was 

 by Mr. L. O. Howard, of the Division of Entomology at Washing- 

 ton, in August, 1893. A supposed fungus disease on pear sent 

 from Charlottesville, Va., to the Department of Agriculture and 

 shown to Mr. Howard, was " at the first glance recognized as that 

 scourge of western orchards, the San Jose scale {Asjpidiotus jper- 

 niciosus Comst.)." 



Investigations, etc., by the U. S. Department of Agriculture 



During the autumn, two of the assistants of the Entomological 

 Division, Messrs. Schwarz and Coquillett, were sent to Charlottes- 

 ville, to examine and report upon the infestation. It appeared 

 from their examinations that it was limited in extent, being 

 almost wholly confined to a pear orchard of about a square acre in 

 area, but that it affected pear, peach, plum, apple, currant, rose, 

 quince, gooseberry, and raspberry, and that it had already been 

 present there for several years. It was subsequently learned that, 

 in all probability, it had been introduced on nursery stock pur- 

 chased from a Kew Jersey firm. Mr. Hedges, the owner of the 

 orchard, was of the opinion that it had been brought on currant 

 plants purchased in ISTew Jersey eight years previously. Mr. Schwarz 

 reported on the situation of the infested orchard, the plants attacked, 

 other infested places adjoining, habits of the scale, and its 

 observed enemies. Mr. Coquillett reported upon the infested local- 

 ity, and the conjectural sources of the scale. {Insect Life, vi, 

 1894, pp. 217-254.) 



Early in the spring of 1894, through the cooperation of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture and the Virginia State Board of 

 Agriculture, Mr. Coquillett, who had conducted very successfully 

 most of the experiments in California for the destruction of scale 

 insects by inclosing the infested trees with tents and fumigating 

 them with hydrocyanic acid gas, was entrusted with the operations 

 for destroying the scale in Charlottesville by the same method — 

 always effective when properly conducted. It appears in his report 

 submitted {loo. cit., pp. 324-326), that 326 trees and shrubs were 



