A Mealy Bug injurious to the Lebbek trees of Cairo

Extract

In a sub-tropical city like Cairo it is most important that, so far as possible, the main streets be protected from the direct rays of a powerful sun by numerous and healthy shade-giving trees. For this purpose, the Lebbek (Albizzia lebbek) has been very extensively employed in Cairo, where it affords a welcome shade, as well as adding very considerably to the appearance of the streets. Until the summer of 1909, these trees have, on the whole, filled their parts quite satisfactorily. They had only one serious insect enemy to contend against, in the form of a longicorn beetle—Xystrocera globosa, Oliv. Hitherto this “borer” has been considered by far the most important pest of the lebbek, since its attacks, although comparatively slow in their effects on the life of the tree, are yet sure, and when extended over a period of years have caused no little mortality amongst the shade-trees of this city. During the past year the importance of this beetle has been, so far as Cairo is concerned, somewhat eclipsed by the depredations of a comparatively new pest—a mealy bug. This insect proves to be new to science, and is described for the first time in the appendix to this paper under the name of Dactylopius pertiiciosus, sp. n.