18 
N. C. Agricultural Experiment Station 
HABITS OF THE MALE 
After the male scale lias reached the adult condition it remains under 
the scale covering for several days in the perfect state before it emerges. 
After the insect emerges from the scale it stretches its legs and expands 
its wings and generally deports itself like a person aroused from a sound 
sleep. Afterwards it walks about over the twigs, searching for suitable 
females. It taps the female scale covering with its antennae and seems 
to be able to locate desirable mates in this manner. The males do not fly 
away from the place where they emerged and mate with distant females, 
as described by Quayle for the Red Scale, but they seem to mate with the 
first suitable female. In our cages the males have always died after 
mating only once. This can hardly be the rule in nature, however, for 
the proportions of females to males seem to be about two to one. 
NATURE OF THE DAMAGE 
The gloomy scale injures the tree by sucking the sap from the trunk, 
limbs, and branches. This sap carries the mineral foods and water 
from the soil through the roots, trunk, limbs and branches to the leaves, 
where it is manufactured into complex substances which are used by the 
tree in forming new growth, new leaves, seeds, etc. Xow we can kill a 
tree by girdling it, that is, by cutting out a ring of bark all the way 
round the trunk. Thus we cut the flow of sap from roots to leaves. 
The gloomy scale has the same effect as girdling, by sucking the sap. 
A few insects will not hurt the tree appreciably, but if they become 
numerous enough they will kill small twigs or branches. If still more 
numerous, they may kill the tree outright. 
The first signs of the injury of a tree by the gloomy scale is that small 
twigs die. These are perhaps most noticeable early in the spring when 
the leaves are putting out. As the attack progresses, larger limbs die, 
and the tree has the appearance shown in Fig. 13. That is, instead of 
the head being thick and dense, it is very thin. About this same time 
the tree commences to throw out suckers around the base. Trees ap¬ 
parently linger m this condition for years if other conditions are fa^ or- 
able, but in this stage they readily succumb to slight mechanical injuries 
to roots, trunk, or larger branches. In other words, the tree may have 
vitality enough to exist, but not enough to stand any additional shock. 
