13 



She is then more than a quarter of an inch in length and appears as 

 a white fluffy mass, with an oval brown head, which is really the 

 scale itself, although forming less than half the length of the apparent 

 creature. This female feeds ravenouslj', pumping sap in such quan- 

 tity that there is a constant dripping to the leaves and ground be- 

 low. An enormous number of eggs is produced— between 1,000 and 

 3,000 — and these are all lodged in the cottony mass. They are 

 brown in color, exceedingly minute, and, when all are laid, actually 

 force the mother scale from the surface of the twig until it is 



Fig. 7. 



The cottony maple scales : a, females of acericola on a leaf; b, females of innumerabilis on a twi^ 



From Dlv. Ent, V. S. Dept Agl. 



attached only by its mouth filaments and by the adhesive character 

 of the white mass. The eggs begin to hatch about the middle of 

 June and continue until well along in July, producing a larva of the 

 usual form and brown in color. The great bulk of the hatching comes 

 about the beginning of July, and at that time infested twigs literally 

 swarm with thousands upon thousands of moving atoms. In a day 

 or two they fix themselves along the veins of a leaf or on young twigs 

 and begin to feed. The formation of the scale begins immediately, 

 and about three weeks thereafter we have the first molt or change of 

 skin. The waxv secretion or scale then increases in thickness and 



