168 PINE. TRUNK — PINE BLIGHT. 



evil. When parted under a magnifier, the white matter appears 

 like very fine Saxony wool, the crinkled fibers drawing apart as 

 do those of wool. And under them, in each tuff, is discovered 

 by means of the lens, a cluster of the insects alluded to, huddled 

 closely together and fixed to the bark. They are so very minute, 

 and so like the bark in their color, that it was not till after re- 

 peated examinations that I was able to detect them. The insect 

 is a louse, so exceedingly small as to be wholly imperceptible to 

 the naked eye, and is discovered with difficulty even when the 

 eye is aided by a magnifying glass. Of these lice the larger indi- 

 viduals are little over the hundredth part of an inch in length, 

 and smaller ones are associated with them not half this size. 

 They are broad oval and nearly hemispherical in form, soft, of a 

 black or blackish brown color, with their backs coated over more 

 or less with a whitish meal like powder. Three paiis of legs are 

 perceptible, which are equidistant from each other. They are 

 short, filiform and black. Little more than what has now been 

 stated can be discerned with a common magnifying glacs. When 

 placed upon white paper, the dark color of the insect renders it 

 very perceptible, and a very slight motion may be seen, but for 

 which, one would deem it a speck of shapeless inorganic matter. 

 Its powers of locomotion are so small that it does not attempt to 

 eta wl away from the point where it is placed, a slight gliding 

 motion, to the distance of little more than a hair's breadth, being 

 all that it commonly accomplishes. 



"When highly magniiied, the white meal-like snhstance upon the hack of this insect 

 is found to be a mass of short curling uneveti filaments, coating the back and giving it 

 a rough, shaggy appearance. The legs are short and robust, the shanks being near- 

 ly equal to the thighs in diameter, and the feet but li.tle narrower at base than the 

 shanks ; they are conical, and seem to be of one single piece, ending af tip in two 

 minute short bristle-lilie setae. The shanks are but little longer than broad and 

 slightly enlarged towards their tips. The thighs are slightly longer than the shanks 

 and thickest in their middle. There are no thread-like or other projections at the 

 hind end. The head appears to be separated from the body by a very faint trans- 

 verse line. In the meal-like powder with which it is coated, no antennje or organs 

 to the mouth can be discerned, but on carefully rubbing off this powder two littla 

 projecting conical points, one upon each side of the head, standing cmtwards like 

 little ears, appear to represent the antennae. Often the wliite powder upon tlie back 

 appears like transverse bjtnds, separated fitim each other Vy the slightly constricted 

 black sutures of the body. The flat under side of the body is-of a pale cqlor, and in 

 some individuals the upper side is also tinged with pallid. 



