Leaflet No. 140. 2 



flattish beneath and highly convex above ; and to the naked 

 eye or under low magnifying power it appears like a small 

 yellow egg. The mouth organs are placed on the 

 underside of the body, and are composed chiefly of 

 three hair-like appendages which in life are united 

 to form a long sucking tube ; with this slender ap- 

 paratus the insect pierces the bark and sucks up 

 the juices of the tree. She has no power of locomotion, 

 remaining stationary throughout life, anchored to the tree 

 by her mouth organs, motionless and apparently senseless. 

 Almost immediately after leaving the egg she covers her body 

 with the white felted secretion, composed of fine filaments 

 of wax, which gradually thickens and forms an excellent 

 protection to her body, being practically impervious to rain. 

 Within this covering the insect lives, lays her eggs, and dies. 



The larva} or " lice " as they are sometimes called, are very 

 tiny active creatures, and are scarcely visible to the naked 

 eye. They possess three pairs of legs and a pair of horns 

 (antennae), and like their parents are of a yellow colour. 

 Although they can and do travel over the bark of the tree, 

 they usually settle down in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the parent, the majority working their way under the bodies 

 of their dying or dead parents, taking up their positions, by 

 preference, in the deepest parts of the fissures in the bark, 

 where they remain for the rest of their lives pumping up 

 the juices of the tree. Each individual protects its body 

 with secretion, which a 'Ids to that already secreted above 

 them by the insects of the previous generations ; thus the 

 secretion gradually thickens and spreads over the tree-trunk, 

 forming a more or less continuous mass, often attaining a 

 considerable thickness. Larvae which wander over the bark 

 are liable to be borne away by the wind or, inadvertently, 

 by birds and insects, and this is undoubtedly the means by 

 which fresh colonies are started. 



The male is unknown in any stage, the females being 

 parthenogenitic, reproducing their species without the inter- 

 vention of the opposite sex. 



Many of our indigenous Scale insects are subject to the 

 attacks of minute parasitic insects related to the wasp 

 family; but, so far, the beech coccus has proved immune 

 from their attacks. Birds do not appear to feed upon them. 



Treatment. 



Owing to the comparatively smooth nature of the bark of 

 the beech, and also to the fact that the insects are often 

 confined to the trunk and mnin branches, this pest is 

 more easily accessible for treatment with insecticides 

 than are many other pests. But they are so well pro- 

 tected by their waxy coverings that the application of an 

 insecticide must be carried out in a thorough manner or the 

 result will be anything but satisfactory. The three formulas 



