52 ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS. 



doors ; and except for their smaller size, being not more than one-half 

 as large, they resembled very closely Coccophagus Iecanii, the parasite 

 of the hibernating scales. 



From this time on the number of these insects increased and con- 

 tinued to appear until about the middle of September, after which 

 very little was seen of them. Leaves collected August 11 showed 1 

 parasitized scale to 10 good ones, and leaves observed in September 

 showed a still greater proportion. Two of the leaves carefully 

 examined showed in one case 289 and in the other case 136 para- 

 sitized insects, and many of the leaves Avere in a similar condition. 

 At Montclair, where the coccinellid had almost exterminated the 

 Pulvinaria, the majority of the few remaining scale sets were para- 

 sitized. These insects bred and increased rapidly, and in all respects, 

 except size, resembled Coccophagus iecanii. 



Specimens were sent to Doctor Ashmeacl for examination, however, 

 and he determined them as Coccophagus flacoscutellum Ashm. 

 However this may be, I am strongly of the opinion that we have a sin- 

 gle species which is dimorphic, the larger form determined as Iecanii 

 Fitch, bred from the larger hibernating female scales, and the smaller 

 form, not more than half as large as the Iecanii form, which may be 

 the species described as facoscvteUum Ashm., bred from the smaller 

 scales, the size of the parasite depending on the size of the host. 



SUMMARY. 



The trees were badly infested with Pulvinaria innumerabilis 

 Rathv. in the winter of 1904-5. As the scales developed in the 

 spring it became evident that they were infested with the parasite 

 Coccophagus Iecanii Fitch, which in some instances destroyed over 

 two-thirds of the scales and continued in evidence until about the 

 middle of June. By this time the egg masses of Pulvinaria were 

 becoming large and conspicuous, and an examination revealed the 

 fact that they were infested by the larva of Hyperaspis signata Oliv., 

 which in some places, conspicuously at Montclair, destroyed nearly 

 all the offspring of the scale, the coccinellid larva? feeding on the 

 eggs and the adult beetles destroying the scale sets. The coccinellid 

 continued until the 1st of August, by which time the scale larva? had 

 all -set and were becoming well developed. These young scales were 

 jDarasitized like the hibernating females, and the parasites, which con- 

 tinued until the middle of September, were apparently a smaller 

 form of the spring parasite. The result of these combined attacks 

 has been that in some places the scale has been nearly exterminated 

 and in all the infested localities its numbers are considerably reduced. 





