Talk:Eulecanium cerasorum

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Eulecanium cerasorum, also known as the Calico Scale, is a member of the Order Hemiptera. It belongs to the family Geometropidea and it is Genus Eulecanium. The specific name is Cerasorum, leading to the scientific name Eulecanium Cerasorum. It can be identified by its white and brown color on its outer circular shell which will continuously darken over age. It is approximately ¼ inches in diameter. From the woody pest website, The Calico Scale is a pest to many trees in the United States, including the “Dogwood, Honeylocust, Magnolia, Maple, Sweetgum, Tuliptree, and other ornamental fruit trees” This pest typically attacks the branches which will hinder the plants and stress the plants to a verge of death. A lot of the mature females will produce honeydew like residue that will promote the production of mold around the tree. Obviously the Calico Scale acts more as of a parasite to the host plant which means it does not intentionally try to kill its host because it lives off of it.

	For most of this insect’s life it will remain in one spot but as a nymph it will crawl along the branches to find an appropriate spot. Upon settling down it will create a circular hardened shell or cap to be its protective coat against predators and pesticides. The typical female is known to lay around 4500 eggs inside its cap, the eggs will hatch and will move into the nymph stage and will move along the branch until it finds the appropriate spot.

Author citation

Shouldn't the author citation be in parentheses? T.D.A. Cockerell placed this species in Lecanium, and it was transferred to Eulecanium by Fernald. Nadiatalent (talk) 18:56, 18 November 2011 (UTC)