52 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



COTTONY MAPLE TREE SCALE INSECT 



Pulvinaria innumerabilis Rathv. 



Maples and occasionally elms suffer severely at times from the attacks 

 of this scale insect. A few full grown individuals are represented in the 

 accompanying figure. The insect may be recog- 

 nized by its brownish scale at one end of a large 

 white cottony mass. In bad attacks, the insects 

 may form festoons along the under side of the 

 smaller limbs. 



Remedies. Like the elm bark louse this species 

 obtains its food by suction from the underlying 

 tissues and therefore can not be poisoned. The 

 cottony mass covering the body of the female 

 protects her from contact insecticides, conse- 

 quently little can be done till the unprotected 

 young appear in July, when spraying with kero- 

 sene emulsion or whale oil soap solution will be 

 found most effective. 



VALUE OF OUR NATIVE BIRDS 



The valuable services rendered by our native 

 birds should be more generally recognized. It is 

 a matter of record that after the introduction of 

 the English sparrow, most of our native birds 

 were driven from the cities and that the tus- 

 sock moth caterpillars, previously hardly noticed 

 as pests, became destructive. It is very true that prior to the intro- 

 duction of the English sparrow, a measuring worm had been a pest 

 in various cities, but this is an additional proof of the effect birds may 

 have upon insect life. In the same way there are a number of birds 

 known to prey on the tent caterpillars and were these friends of man 

 accorded the protection and encouragement they deserve, instead of 

 being hunted and driven away, it is very probable that the ravages of 

 these pests would be much less severe than at present. Robins, orioles, 

 chipping sparrows, cat birds, cuckoos, the red eyed, white eyed and 

 warbling vireos, cedar birds and nuthatches have been observed feeding 

 on forest tent caterpillars by Miss Soule. " The nuthatches would stand 

 by a patch of larvae lying close together below a tar band on a tree 

 and eat so voraciously and with such an entire abandonment of self- 

 consciousness that I could go close and put my hand on them before 

 they would fly. This experience was repeated several times."" The 



Fig. 8 Cottony maple tree 

 scale insect. 



«Weed, C. M. New Hampshire agricultural experiment station, 

 (cites and quotes Miss Soule). 



Bulletin 64. April 1899 



