GARDEN INSECTS 221 



sending. If no pernicious scales can be found in the 

 neighborhood, it might be well to send to your Agricul- 

 tural Station for prepared specimens to be permanently 

 kept in the school collection. From this source you can 

 obtain any needed information about methods of dealing 

 with the pest.^ 



Enemies of the pernicious scale are chiefly minute para- 

 sitic flies and several species of lady beetle. There is 

 some evidence that it is attacked by a fungus, but by 

 which one has not been discovered, if, in fact, it prove to 

 be a fungus. These are topics somewhat minute to be 

 studied by other than specialists. 



A matter of great importance concerns the manner in 

 which the insect is disseminated. The females have no 

 wings, and, therefore, during the free-moving stage dis- 

 tribution by crawling is slow and can generally take place 

 from tree to tree only when they stand close together or 

 have interlacing branches. It has been discovered, how- 

 ever, that the young often crawl upon other insects, ants, 

 and lady beetles, and probably also upon the feet of birds, 

 and may be carried long distances. Any infested tree 

 may thus be a menace to an entire neighborhood. The 

 first method of its wide dissemination, before the danger 

 was recognized, was on infested nursery stock, young trees, 

 scions, cuttings, fruit, etc., but this is now controlled by 



1 " There is perhaps no insect capable of causing greater damage to 

 fruit in the United States, or perhaps the world, than the San Jose, or 

 pernicious, scale.'' " The San Jose Scale : First Occurrences in the United 

 States, with a Full Account of its Life History and the Remedies to be 

 used against it," Bulletin Nc. 3, New Series, United States Department of 

 Agriculture, Washington, 1 896. See also " How to control the San Jose 

 Scale," Circular No. 42, Second Series, Oct. 22, 1900. Same address. 



