80 REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I92I 



quently trunks should be protected from injury by horses, boys and 

 other agencies and existing wounds should be carefully cleaned 

 and covered with a protective coating such as grafting wax or paint. 

 Since the caterpillars bore near the surface, they are easily dug 

 out and destroyed. Infested trees should be examined the latter 

 part of the summer and the borers killed and again looked over in 

 early spring for evidences of recent borings. All cut surfaces should 

 be protected as indicated above. 



False maple scale (Phenacoccus acericola King). 

 The report of the State Entomologist for 1913 page 59, describes 

 a very serious infestation of certain hard maples near the New Haven 

 Railroad station at Mount Vernon. These were so badly infested 

 then that practically every leaf bore six to twenty-five of the con- 

 spicuous cottony females, while the portions between were thickly 

 spotted and in some instances practically coated with the numerous 

 yellowish young. The trunks were also liberally plastered with the 

 white cocoons of the male. 



An examination of this tree in September 1914 showed it to be 

 in a somewhat weakened condition, there being a few limbs bare 

 of leaves and a few small dead branches. The infestation was not 

 nearly so severe as the year before, though the trunk of the tree 

 was irregularly spotted with white cocoons and a large proportion 

 of the leaves bore cottony females, there being three to five on 

 almost every leaf. 



Observation in this same locality in 192 1 failed to reveal any 

 evidence of permanent injury by this insect. This conclusion was 

 supported by a later statement from J. James de Vyver, a former 

 resident of that city, who accompanied the Entomologist when mak- 

 ing the original observations in 1913. It is evident that the more 

 severely infested trees, though injured for a time, were able to 

 recover from the attack in a comparatively short period. 



Spruce bud scale (Physokermes piceae Schr.) . This 

 European species appears to have been first detected in America in 

 1906 and was brought to our attention 2 years later on account of 

 serious injury to Norway spruce trees throughout Prospect Park, 

 Brooklyn. The identity of the insect was not established at that 

 time, though its work was admirably illustrated (N. Y. State Mus. 

 Bui. 134, fig. 18). Five years later ^ it came to notice again on 

 account of injuries to Norway spruces at Mount Vernon and the 

 following year it was reported as occurring so abundantly on spruces 



N. Y. State Mns. Bui. 175, p. 59, 1915. 



