3 



be found in time wherever the pineapple is grown." Other 

 food plants are ivy, canna, hibiscus, acacia, olea (olive), bill- 

 bergia, and certain varieties of greenhouse palms. The writer 

 took the first specimens of this scale from a pineapple planta- 

 tion at Wahiawa, Oahu, on October 26, 1903, and since then 

 has observed the pest in every plantation visited on this Island 

 and the Island of Hawaii. Although occurring generally 

 throughout the Islands, Mrs. M. E. Fernald does not record it 

 from Hawaii in her catalogue of Coccids, 3 nor is it found in 

 Mr. Kirkaldy's recent work on Hemiptera in Fauna Hawaiiensis. 

 Mr. P. H. Rolfs 4 says regarding the appearance of this insect 

 in Florida: " It has been found repeatedly on plants imported 

 from Hawaii, and has been disseminated to many parts of Flo- 

 rida." Dr. L. Reh of Hamburg, Germany, also records 3 the 

 pest as common in these Islands, having collected specimens 

 himself at the Government Nursery on Feb. 28, 1902. 



Prof. F. V. Theobald, an English authority on economic 

 entomology, says: " Pineapples are frequently damaged by a 

 scale insect, which now and then causes the fruit to rot * * * 

 This scale is the Pineapple Scale (Diaspis bro?neliae, Kerner.) 

 The scale is thin, circular and pure white — the females yellow 

 or orange. Like most Diaspids, they burrow beneath the epi- 

 dermis of the plants and become almost entirely hidden. It 

 chiefly attacks the leaves, but now and then the fruit. It 

 should be destroyed as soon as the fruit is cut." 6 



Dr. Reh in describing the work of this scale states that it at- 

 taches itself to the plant on the base of the leaf, spreading from 

 there to the stem and eventually covering the entire plant, 

 which it kills. On the fruit it attacks principally the green, 



3 A Catalogue of the Coccidae of the World. Fernald, Bui. 88. Hatch 

 Experiment Station, 1903. 



4 Pineapple Growing. Rolfs. Farmers' Bulletin No. 140. U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture, 1901. 



5 Zeitschrift fuer Entomologie. Jan. 15, 1904, p. 30. 



6 First Report on Economic Zoology. Theobald. 1903. British Muse- 

 um, London. 



