Page:The Olive Its Culture in Theory and Practice.djvu/134

110 color marbled with black, the ridge down the center being of a lighter shade.

From a ventral view the rings of the body can be plainly seen, and also the feet, antennæ and borer; all of which are of a pale yellowish green color; the eyes are black. The length is from a fifth to a sixth of an inch.

As soon as the female is perfectly developed, it becomes sedentary, attaching itself to a leaf or the wood of a branch and deposits its eggs, first covering itself completely with a cottony substance, which exudes from its body. In this hiding place it empties itself of from four hundred and fifty to five hundred eggs. The larvæ, as soon as hatched, break through this covering and scatter broadcast, the mother remaining for some time longer, the substance surrounding her hardens and forms a shell which she breaks through and abandons. The time of the metamorphosis is not constant; from May to September, insects, larvæ and eggs can be found at the same time.

This insect draws its nourishment from the sap of the tree, and the branches attacked will wither away. It frequently occurs, that on branches selected by this parasite, the black smut or Rust is generated. Its destruction is not difficult, it only being necessary to spray the tree, at different seasons of the year, with kerosene mixed with water, or some preparation of whale oil soap. Should these remedies be ineffectual, the diseased limbs should be cut away and burned.

The presence of ants on a tree are an indication that these insects are about. The ants are very fond of them and are a valuable auxiliary in their destruction.

The larvæ resemble greatly those of the Coccus oleae just described, with this difference in the female; in the adult stage it