53 



spots on them. The eyes are red, the feet being brown. The eggs 

 are white or pale yellow and rather spindle-shaped, with a thread- 

 like arrangement at^he pointed end, by which the eggs are placed on 

 the tree. They become red before the larvae emerge. 



Pairing takes place in September, and egg-laying is continued until 

 November. The eggs are generally laid singly, being embedded in 

 the fine hairs upon the epidermis of the shoots, and placed usually 

 on the lower shoots. When the weather becomes warm in April, 

 the tiny flat larvse emerge from the eggs and move to the nearest 

 buds, and the leaf and flower buds are attacked, the latter being 

 the most attacked, and they do not expand and the fruit fails. The 

 larvae soon make their first moult, and there is seen protruding from 

 them a small white globule, which remains attached by a white 

 thread to its body, and if it is removed another one speedily forms. 



The larvae, in a few days, emerge from a second moult as 

 light green with nimierous white threads with which the larvae 

 cover themselves. After a lapse of a week another moult is per- 

 formed, when the rudimentary wings are formed, and their eyes 

 and antennae's tips become dark, and this is known as the nymph 

 stage. This stage usually lasts about one month, in which time they 

 undergo several changes. 



After this the nymph moults and the imago appears in May and 

 June, and is said not to pair until the following September. 



Insecticides. — Spray in April and when the larvae are about 

 with I J oz. of nicotine to lo gallons of water. 



The poison does not injure the blossoms, and is not injurious to bees. 

 Also a great many eggs can be destroyed by cutting out pieces of 

 wood, when pruning, that have a good many eggs on. 



This, however, can only be, performed on young stock, as it would 

 be almost impossible in the case of large orchard trees. 



4. Mussel Scale, Mytilaspis pomorum. Order Rhynchota. 



This insect also attacks the pear, currant, and plum. 



It is found in all our Colonies, where it has been taken by nursery 

 stock. It is found abundantly in old and neglected orchards, and is 

 very injurious to young stock. 



The insect damages the tree by sucking out the sap by means of 

 a long flexible proboscis, which it inserts into the tissues of the plant. 



It occurs on all parts, trunk, limbs, leaves and fruit. 



The " scale " is often mistaken for growths on the bark, but it 

 is a product, as in all Coccidae, formed by the insect that lives beneath 

 it, partly by excretions from the body and partly by the cast skins 

 of the insect. 



The female scale insect is about one eighth of an inch long, conical 

 shaped, being either straight or curved. It is of a dark-brown colour, 

 fleshy, legless, and provided with a long flexible proboscis. The 

 male scale insect is much smaller, and is provided with two large 



