53 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Note. Mr. Francis’ experience in trying to find 
information on this insect is like that of many 
others. Our commonest insects are many of 
them yet undescribed. Success and speedy 
hands to those who, like Dr. Harris, and Dr. Fitch, 
are engaged in enlightening us on the subject ol 
destructive insects. I could wish that Mr. John¬ 
son had sought and communicated the 
reason why two of his orchards are affected and 
one not. 
Letter No. 5. Jacob Stauffer, Mount Joy, Penn. 
Dec. 8. 1857. “_I find a species on my apple 
tree shoots of obovate form, of a pearly white 
color, and of a papery consistency, covering ten or 
more oval eggs. Aug. 15th. while examining the 
larvae of the Procris americana on my Isabella 
grape, I noticed a beautiful species of the scale 
insect (another species of the coccus) and made 
a drawing of it which I will copy. It is of a re¬ 
gular oval form of a pearly white color, having an 
oblong, white, oval space centrally on the back, 
with radiating black square spots. I did not no¬ 
tice any anal bristles ; it was of a smooth and 
polished exterior: fig. 1 and fig. 2 show upper and 
lower sides of the same insect... 
Fig. 1—A species of Scale Louse found upon the gritpe 
vine. jpper side—magnified. 
Pig. 2_Underside of same—the line between these fig¬ 
ures shows the natural length of the insect. This 
species is not covered by a white scale. It is much 
larger than the bark-louse, shown in fig. 6. 
Note. Mr. Stauffer has previously communi¬ 
cated to me very acceptable information upon 
other insects. His refreshing enthusiasm and 
skill in portraying with his pencil what his pen 
describes add much to the interest of his letters. 
I hope he will excuse the liberty I have taken 
with his diawings as I did not think of publishing 
„hein until too late to obtain his permission. 
Letter No. 6 Wm. Hale, Peoria, Illinois, Dec. 
12th, 1857. “_The enclosed apple twig is 
from a graft one year old—also strips ol bark from 
two apple trees six or eight inches through, which 
have grown very thriftily until the last two years, 
i first discovered the bark-louse on a tree in front 
of my house, and it appeared to spread to most of 
the trees in my garden—about forty. If I had tak¬ 
en that tree in hand when first discovered I pre¬ 
sume I might have stopped its ravages. I washed 
a part of the trees as far as I could reach with 
common whitewash. They have decidedly a 
more healthy appearance than those not washed. 
_The longest strip of bark I send you, I take 
from an Elm on the side walk....” 
Note. Mr. Hale could not, I am sure, have been 
aware of how much pleasure he was destined to 
give me when enclosing that bit of Elm. 
After a hasty examination when first receiv¬ 
ed I consigned his letter and specimens to 
the breast pocket of my coat; so that it has 
accompanied me in my daily avocations for 
some three weeks. It was to-day taken out 
and added to my pile of twigs, branches, &c., for 
a final examination. (I believe the Editor still 
charges me with using the columns of the Agri¬ 
culturist to obtain my winter’s supply of fire-wood ) 
With a pocket lens I soon discovered among the 
mass of eggs a slight motion. I held my breath 
and steadied my hand for a better focus. True 
enough the warmth of my pocket had hatched 
some of the eggs. On its back, struggling among 
wilted eggs and fragments of various kinds lay 
something possessed of legs, at least. In a mo¬ 
ment of ecstacy I uttered an exclamation. Alas ! 
who would have thought the breath could have 
blown away that huge creature that, through 
the magnifying glass, looked as big as your eye. 
I had forgotten that a dozen might, in reality, have 
been put on the dot of your i. A long search fol¬ 
lowed. Scale after scale was carefully scraped off 
and examined with the lens. Heaps upon heaps 
of skins, scales, eggs ; perfect Golgothas, were 
ransacked in vain, until the slip of Elm was near¬ 
ly as clean as if it had received the washing of 
soapsuds advised. 1 acknowledge I was quite dis¬ 
consolate. Perhaps my paternal feelings were 
somewhat touched, for did I not hateh them my¬ 
self? 
Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. 
Fig. 3—An unknown parasite found alive among the eggs 
of the bark-louse. Jan. 3, 1858. Supposed to be the 
natural enemy of the bark-louse. 
Fig. 4—An egg of the parasite. 
Fig. 5—Underside of the same parasite. 
These are very much magnified ; they are barely dis- 
cernable by the naked eye. 
At last, however, I was again gladdened by 
the discovery of a slight movement as before. 
I kept my feelings virtuously under control until I 
had secured my prize and brought it under the 
more powerful lens of a “ Nachet" microscope. My 
pencil soon made still more secure the possession 
of the main points of the investigation ; and in 
Fig. 3 and Fig. 5 you have the portrait. I soon 
observed, however, the dissimilarity between the 
insect before me and the one described in the books 
as the Coccus cryptogamus (meaning the conceal¬ 
ed Coccus.) The Cocci are of the true insects 
which have only six legs and here were plainly 
eight legs. Perhaps all your readers are not 
aware that Entomologists have denied us the right 
to call spiders and other eight- legged creatures, 
insects. But what am I to do with my discovery ? 
Perhaps some of the learned ones will tell us. I 
found among the dark red eggs of the bark-louse a 
number of translucent white eggs, some of them 
seemed to be just acquiring rudiments of legs; 
(See Fig. 4.) others still larger with plainly dis- 
cernable legs and reddish veins or spots upon the 
body, and the largest having assumed the red as the 
predominating color, while white spots were still to 
be seen 1 would therefore suggest that the crea¬ 
ture here figured is not the enemy we are combat¬ 
ing, but a useful friend —a species of the Acarusor 
Mite which lays its eggs among the Coccus’ eggs 
that its young may feed upon them, and being more 
hardy, and hatching earlier these were brought to 
life by the warmth of my person, while the Coc¬ 
cus’ eggs were dried up or remained unhatched. 
I shall be glad if Mr. Hale will forward to me at 
different times, between this and July next, por¬ 
tions of the affected Elm that I may continue the 
investigations. I could find no such eggs or Mites 
among the Cocci on other twigs sent. If the 
small twigs were removed now from the tree, they 
would wilt so as to prevent the proper develope- 
ment of the insects. 
Mr. H. also mentions in his letter a worm which 
girdles his fruit trees, in a peculiar manner. I 
should like suecimens of this insect and further 
descriptions of its manner of working under the 
bark. 
Letter No. 9. Mr. L. J. Titus of Lambertville, 
N. J., sends a piece of a currant bush, attacked 
without and within by foes. Besides having this 
identical bark-louse upon its exterior, it has suf¬ 
fered from the Currant borer. The latter insect 
deserves a more extended notice than can be giv¬ 
en. If Mr. Titus has branches with the insect 
still in them, will he not forward them to me 
for examination ? 
Hon. D. Russell, Portland, Ct., Jan. 14th, 1858. 
(after the above was partially in type) communi¬ 
cates interesting experience in regard to the 
same insect on his Apple trees. When the tree, 
through neglect, is past recovering but has a 
healthy stump Mr. Russell recommends cutting 
back to the healthy part and re-grafting. 
A young Mountain Ash, among the last 
specimens received, presented a highly interest 
ing instance of the complete covering of an ap 
pat ently healthy tree, by the scales of this insect 
One can scarcely place the end of the finger up 
on any part of this tree which is unaffected. 
To the numerous other contnbutors we return 
thanks and would exhort one and all to watch care¬ 
fully the developement of this troublesome insect. 
First —Lest its increase be such as to place the re¬ 
medy beyond their reach, for though it may be 
easily exterminated upon young and recently at¬ 
tacked trees, it is sometimes almost impossible to 
remove them from neglected ones. Secondly— 
That more information may be obtained concern 
ing the history and habits of this insect as well as 
the success of the various means of destroying 
them. To show that the subject is by no means 
exhausted I would suggest the following additional 
points for inquiry . 
Of what is the paper-like covering composed 
and how produced 1 Is it spun, like the Cocoon ol 
the Caterpillar by spinarets at the oral or anal ex¬ 
tremity, or, does it exude from other parts or pores 
of the body, like the down of the wooly aphis 1 
At what time in the insect’s growth is its she!’ 
formed 1 
When are the young first hatched and what 
is their form, &c. 1 
How does the insect imbibe its nourishment ? 
What are its means of locomotion 1 In the 
stage in which I have observed it, it possesses 
neither legs nor wings. 
What difference of form or habits between the 
male and female 1 
Does either possess wings at any period oi 
growth ? 
Since making the draw¬ 
ing of the parent insect 
published in the Decem¬ 
ber Agriculturist , I find 
that after the insect has 
deposited all its eggs, 
it contracts in length and 
is of the shape repre¬ 
sented — very greatly 
magnified—in Fig. 6, 
which shows the under 
side of a “scale” with 
p jtr 6 the body of the insect at 
Underside o^one of the the "I'P" extremity, and 
white scales usually the eggs heaped tosreth- 
found upon Fruit 
Trees. er at the lower. 
I would further add that when this insect has 
been suffered to become very numerous, they 
may be scraped off with the least injury to young 
branches by aflat pine stick, cut thin and sharp 
at. the edges. This scraping should be followed 
by the application of soapsuds. 
