Part I.] Stebbing ; Insect Pests of the Himalayan Oaks. :i7 
Young female scale. — Small flat elongate elliptical with blunt ends, 
the posterior extremity broadly rounded ; segmented with ridged tuber- 
culate reddish grey smoke-coloured segments and from 1 — « to 1—12 
inches in length. They have no scale covering and are almost indistin- 
guishable from bark colouring {vide Plate VII, fig. 6). 
Fig. 5 shows a more developed ?cale with the covering partially formed 
round it on outer edges. 
Old female insect. — Black, shining with white streaks and specks on 
it giving the scale a mottled grey appearance. 
Spherical or spherical-elliptical in shape, very convex above and flat 
beneath with a long diameter of j inch and a transverse one slightly less ; 
the shape often disguised by crowding. Skin smooth, shining, milky 
white or reddish, marbled and spotted, the markings black, punctate (see 
Plate VII, fig. 3 ; Plate VIII, figs. 1, 2). Antennse short two jointed 
with 4; short hairs (fig. 4). 
The scale when full grown greatly resembles at a little distance the 
pupse of the predaceous coccinellid (lady bird) beetle Fedalia guerini 
which is predaceous upon the sal monophlebus scale insect. 
Life History. 
On the 12th June 1908 this scale was discovered infesting the branches 
and crowns of the Ban oak forest which clothes the hills to the north of 
Bhim Tab Mr. Milward, I.P.S., in charge of the Naini Tal Division, 
has since reported it to be in considerable abundance in the oak forest on 
the Naini Tal-Bhawali Road. 
I am given to understand that the recent long drought has unfavour- 
ably affected the oaks here and there throughout Kumaun, trees having 
become stag headed and in some cases dying under its effects. It is 
doubtless due to the long drought that this scale has increased in such 
numbers as to infest the trees to a very considerable extent [cf. Plate VIII). 
At the time of its discovery the scales were mature and the female 
insects inside them were engaged in egg laying, or the scales consisted 
simply of masses of eggs surrounded by a dried shrivelled female skin. 
The minute larvffi swarmed from these eggs about the fourth week 
in June in Dehra Dun, to which place they were taken on the 15th of the 
month. It is probable that in their natural habitat they leave the scales 
at the commencement of July, i.e., at the break of monsoon. Tlie larv® 
on swarming are minute little active creatures and appear to at first 
