An Account of the Insects Noxious to Agriculture and Plants in New Zealand: The Scale Insects (Coccididae) — John Shaqi
An Account of the Insects Noxious to Agriculture and Plants in New Zealand: The Scale Insects (Coccididae)Maskell, William Miles
Science
An Account of the Insects Noxious to Agriculture and Plants in New Zealand: The Scale Insects (Coccididae)
Maskell, William Miles
Insects -- New Zealand; Scale insects
For the purposes of this work further details as to the production
of honeydew are not necessary. But as to its effect on plants it is
requisite to be more particular, and the attention of tree-growers
and gardeners is specially directed to the following points. It has
been said above that when the bubble of honeydew has been expanded to
its full size it breaks into spray. Now, as a general rule, Coccids
are found almost exclusively on the _under_ sides of leaves (when not
on the bark). Some, as _Lecanium hesperidum_ and a few others, may
be seen on the upper side; but the general rule is as here stated.
It follows that the spray of honeydew from the burst bubble falls,
not on the leaf where the insect is, but on the _upper_ sides of the
leaves below it. These upper surfaces, being more exposed to light and
air than the lower ones, are usually deserted not only by the Coccids
but by other insects also, and so there is not much chance that the
honeydew spray so falling will be disturbed. It consequently rapidly
accumulates and forms a coating on the leaf where it rests. From this
result two things, or, rather, the same injurious effect on the plant
is produced in two ways. First, the honeydew itself, being, as stated,
of a glutinous nature, tends to stop up and choke the stomata (or, in
plain English, the breathing-orifices of the leaves) and so retard
the growth of the tree. Secondly, the honeydew, being of a saccharine
nature, is especially attractive to fungoid growths, and these fungi,
rapidly increasing, tend still more to choke the leaves and hamper the
proper functions of the tree.
The second of these is the most important, for, apparently, the
honeydew is scarcely deposited before it becomes the receptacle for
fungus-spores, and these grow with great rapidity. As a general rule,
in New Zealand, these fungi appear to be mostly of the same family--the
Physomycetes, and they are of a black or very dark brown colour. From
the fact above stated, that the honeydew falls from the insects upon
leaves beneath them, the lower leaves of a plant are more covered
with it than the upper ones: these black fungi consequently discolour
chiefly the lower leaves and branches; often the uppermost branches
are nearly free from them. But the effect produced on the tree is not
only unsightly, from the sooty blackness, but also injurious, from the
choking-up of the stomata both by the honeydew and the fungus. As for
ornamental plants, whether under glass or in the open air, the black
coating is quite sufficient to spoil them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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