STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
805 
OAK. LIUBS. 
30“. White oak scabs issuer, Lecanitim Quercifex, newspecies. (Homoptera. Coocidas.) 
Adhering to the smooth bark on the under side of the limbs of the white 
oak, in June, an oval, convex, brownish black scale about 0.30 long and 
0.18 wide, its margin paler and dull yellowish, from which come myriads 
of lice so minute as to be scarcely perceptible to the eye, and which distri¬ 
bute themselves over the surrounding bark, sucking its juices. 
I am unable to refer to any description of the European scale insect of 
the oak, L . Quercus , Lino., but as Geoffrey terms that species the Kidney- 
shaped oak scale (Queraes reniformis) I am led to conclude it is different 
from the regularly rounded-oval scale of the oaks in this country. 
308. Quercitron oak scale insect, Lccanhim Quercilronis, new species. 
On the small limbs of the black oak, a similar scale to the preceding, 
but smaller and of a nearly hemispherical form, its color varying from 
biownish black to dull reddish and pale dull y r cllow, with a more or less 
distinct stripe of paler yellow along the middle of its back, and the paler 
individuals usually mottled with black spots or stripes. Length of the 
larger scales about 0.20, width 0.16. 
These scales, the reader will be aware, are the relics of the female, cover¬ 
ing and protecting her eggs. Interspersed with them are usually seen 
other scales and smaller, only 0.10 in length, and of an elliptic form and a 
glossy black color with a wide margin of pale yellow, which margin has a 
Plaited appearance from fine raised radiating lines. These smaller scales 
are the pup® of the males, a small winged fly coming from each of them, 
whereas the females never acquire wings. 
Often a round hole will be noticed in these smaller scales, perforating 
them near one end. This hole is gnawed by a minute parasite, which has 
fed internally on the insect and completed its transformations beueath the 
scale. Of five of these pupm scales which were gathered on the first day 
of June, one was found to be already perforated. From another the para¬ 
site came out five days afterwards, and a second specimen made its exit 
from another of the scales five days later. This same parasite also de¬ 
stroys the male pupae of some of the other species of this genus. It per¬ 
tains to the family 1 ’roctotrupiDvE, and appears to belong to the genus 
Platygaster . It may be named P. Lecanii , or the Scale insect parasite. 
It is quite small, measuring 0:035, and to the tip of its wings 0.05. It is 
shining black, with its scutel pale yellow and appearing like a large 
crescent-shaped spot of this color placed crosswise upon the hind part of 
its thorax, its legs are white with the thighs black except at their oppo¬ 
site ends. Its abdomen is slightly smaller than the thorax and shaped 
bko the bowl of a spoon, being deeply hollowed on the back and convex 
beneath. Its antenn® are thread-like with the joints cylindrical and three 
times as long as thick, the last one not enlarged. Its wings are clear and 
glassy, strongly reflecting the colors of the rainbow. They are wholly desti¬ 
tute of veins, except a rib-vein running parallel with the outer margin the 
