I 
The Cottony Maple Scale 
Pulvinaria innumerabilis Rathvon. 
BY S. ARTHUR JOHNSON. 
The past few years have witnessed a recurrence of the cottony 
maple scale in injurious numbers in several parts of the United States. 
The present outbreak has brought about a greater activity in the use 
of remedial measures than ever before, and though the control of the 
insect has not yet been .accomplished, sufficient has been learned to 
point the way. It is the purpose of this bulletin to gather the im¬ 
portant points of economic literature and the series of experiments and 
observations made at this station so that what is now widely scattered 
may be immediately available to those who need the information. 
The most bitter complaints of injury at all times appear to have 
come from places where the maple tree is cultivated for shade. The 
reasons for this are not positively known, but we are tempted to 
speculate that it f is due to the artificial conditions under which the 
trees are placed. Under forest conditions the insect appears to be kept 
in check by its natural enemies, which doubtless', find shelter and pro¬ 
tection in their native haunts which are denied them among trees 
planted on private grounds and in parks. 
Thus far the remedies and their application are rather expensive, 
but are amply justified when we consider that a beautiful tree is the 
work of years and cannot readily be replaced except by a repetition of 
the long years of waiting. 
SYNONOMY 
Riley in the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1884, 
has summarized the synonomy of the species to that date and to that 
article I am chiefly indebted for this paragraph. The insect was first 
described as Coccus innumerabilis by Dr. S. S. Rathvon of Lancaster, 
Pa., in the “Pennsylvania Farm Journal” (Vol. IV, pp.256-258, Aug., 
1854.) Five years later, Dr. Asa Fitch redescribed it in the “Trans¬ 
actions of the New York State Agricultural Society” (Vol. XIX, pp. 
7/5-776) under the name of Lecanium cicericorticis . A third descrip¬ 
tion was made by Walsh aed Riley in the American Entomologist 
(Vol. I, p. 14, 1869) as Lecanium acericola , the previous descriptions, 
having been overlooked. A closely allied form on the osage orange, 
received from these last writers the name L . maclurce . After the pub¬ 
lication of the names given by Riley and Walsh, Dr. Rathvon called 
the attention of these entomologists to his description and subsequent 
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