6 
1ST. C. Agricultural Experiment Station 
The original description by Professor Comstock (1881) is exceed¬ 
ingly careful in detail as far as the structure of the insect goes, but at 
that time nothing was known of the life history or the habits of the 
insect. Professor Comstock’s description and notes were repeated by 
Packard in 1890. Craw, in 1891, reported the insect as occurring in 
California, and Lintner, in 1896, mentions the insect very briefly. In 
1911 the writer discussed the insect briefly and gave a detailed account 
of test sprayings that had been carried on against it. Herrick, in 1911, 
also gave the technical description of the insect, with the statement that 
it is “abundant nearly everywhere on the silver and red maples, which 
were often dying as a result of the severe infestation.” Further than 
this the insect has been little noted in entomological writings, although 
entomological workers in the southern states generally appreciate its 
destructiveness. 
DISTRIBUTION 
The gloomy scale is generally distributed throughout the southeastern 
United States, from Maryland to Texas. From records and observa¬ 
tions of entomologists from other states it is apparent that this insect 
does not occur normally north of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Ten¬ 
nessee, and Missouri. Its western distribution is not clear. It has 
been recorded by Craw from California, but has apparently not been 
found in that state in any recent collections. There are a few scattered 
records of this insect in states farther north than the boundaries indi¬ 
cated, but apparently these records are based on accidental or unusual 
occurrences. Scale insects have been collected extensively in Ohio, 
Indiana, Kentucky, and Kansas without revealing the presence of this 
