REPORTS OF OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS. 43 



divided into six or seven panes, by similar, though finer, opaque, white 

 ridges, slopes slightly on all sides, ruder the scales, which 

 stationary, and which in no respect differed from those that were still 



moving about over leaves and twigs, were found male pupae entirely 

 detached dnd displaying wing pads and other members as seen in nymphae 



of the higher Hemiptera. 

 On the 22d of July winged males appeared in the rearing jar, the 



pupal period being about one week. In this Iso, the inse< 



beautiful, with filmy, iridescent wings expanding ± ; body rose red, 



with some dark brown shadings about the head and tip of the abdomen, 

 and an especially distinct, dark- brown, transverse thoracic band. 

 August 10 hundreds of winged males, fresh pupa-, and active larvae 

 were still found on the leaves. The act of copulation did not come 

 under my eye. although the winged forms continually fluttered over 

 those that were crawling. The life of the male seems to be of about a 

 week's duration. My observations on this insect were interrupted, by 

 absence from home from the middle of the mouth until the 5th of Sep- 

 tember, when I found that the males had disappeared and that the 

 females had attached themselves to the bark of such twigs as still 

 retained a measure of vigor. The scales were about one-half grown, 

 had darkened, thickened, and become centrally elevated. As in all 

 scales, growth by the exudation of waxy material around the margin 

 was slowly progressing. At the present date (November 10) the 

 Scales are not more than two-thirds the size that they were last year 

 and not nearly so numerous and drop easily from the twigs upon which 

 the black fungus has appeared. This is very likely due to the debility 

 of the tree, which will scarcely survive the winter. 



Among the natural checks of Lecanium persiccBj one true parasite 

 [Chiloneunis alMcornU) was bred in small numbers from the mature 

 scales and the active young were extensively preyed upon by Chrysopa 

 larva-, by Camptobrochis nebulosus — a small, speckled, -ray bug that I 

 have always found in numbers upon leaves infested with PJtylln 

 rlln/i. the oak Chermes, and similar minute forms — and m< ally 



by the floccnlent larva* of a small Coecinellid about 3' long and 

 nearly as broad, black, with a red spot on each wing cover, which has 

 been kindly determined for me as Hyperaspis signata. The larva* oi 

 the latter were very numerous and active among the swarming young 

 of the Lecanium. but. strange to say. were not found on any other Ooecid 

 or Aphis during the season. As I was desirous of preserving this 

 Lecanium through the summer tor study, no insecticides were used 

 upon the tree, but from experiments made upon several twigs ami 

 branches there is no doubt that kerosene emulsion, thymo-cresol, and 

 an insecticide called Gannon's fruit protector, would all prove efficient 

 remedies if systematically used, especially upon the young larvae. 



The observations of the past season upon tin* insect under considers 

 tion have brought out the following peculiarities : The very late hatching 



