42 REPORTS OF OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS. 



Early in April other infested twigs were sent to me from Jefferson 

 County, and, about the same time, a subscriber of the Rural World 

 sent still others over which were scattered the largest and most brightly 

 colored scales that had yet met my eye. They were not darkened by 

 the smut fungus which after a year or two follows the attacks of this 

 insect and completes the disfigurement and destruction of the tree. 

 The scale is a very handsome one, as scales go. The form is hemi- 

 spherical, teu ding to conical in the center, 2.5 to 4 mm in diameter; sur- 

 face highly polished, though not smooth, being indented with more 

 or less distinct, shallow, crenulated grooves, radiating from the cen- 

 ter to the margin; general color black, or very dark brown, with a longi- 

 tudinal dorsal band of bright, sealing-wax red and fine streaks of red 

 alternating with broader ones of paler brown to form a border. When 

 detached from the twig during winter or early in the spring, the under 

 side will be found slightly concave and, occupying the center, is the 

 still quite well-defined body of the female, surrounded by a brown 

 jelly like substance which fills the remainder of the shell across which 

 four, or sometimes six, diminishing white thread-like lines extending 

 to the edge of the scale, have the appearance of legs and would seem 

 to assist in keeping the scale in place. When lifted carefully from the 

 posterior end, the long hair-like beak can be distinguished with a strong 

 lens and is capable of being drawn out to a length of 2" ,,n . 



On May 2, my attention was called by a friend to a young Lombard 

 plum in his garden, which exhibited the worse case of attack yet seen — 

 probably the unchecked development of several seasons. The twigs 

 and smaller branches were absolutely incrusted on all sides with the 

 Ooccids, presenting to other than entomological eyes, a repulsive spec- 

 tacle. Even at this late date segregation had not taken place. By the 

 20th of the month, however, the eggs were fully formed and every scale 

 was crowded with them. The egg is broad oblong in form, 0.5 mm in 

 length, pale yellow in color, and in the mass quite free and granular. 

 Hatching began June 10 and continued for nearly a month. The 

 young larvae were the largest species yet observed, very flat, uniformly 

 pale yellow, the carapace being indicated by a very thin lateral rim. 

 The legs were rather loug and well developed. Antennae five or six 

 jointed, one-half the length of the body. By July 15 hatching was 

 completed, and in the meantime, those first hatched, of which a part 

 were separated and kept on fresh twigs in the rearing jar, had nearly 

 all become stationary on the leaves and transformed to male pupa?. 

 Twigs brought me from the tree at this date had the foliage covered 

 with the young in all stages, the majority being still in a state of great 

 activity, resembling in general appearance and in the peculiar wavy 

 motion when crawling, a myriad of small Tingitids. The sexes were 

 undistinguishable. The mature larval scale is about 2 mm in length, 

 slightly convex, of a translucent greenish- wh^te color. Two converg- 

 ing carinas inclose a narrow flat dorsal space, from which a border, 



