Calico Scale

Eulecanium cerasorum

''Eulecanium cerasorum'', the calico scale, is a species of scale insect. It can be identified by its white and brown color on its outer circular shell which will continuously darken over age. It is approximately one quarter of an inch in diameter.
Calico Scale (Eulecanium cerasorum) "Past season" dead females on a Liriodendron tulipifera sapling at a mixed forest edge.
https://www.jungledragon.com/image/109485/calico_scale_eulecanium_cerasorum.html Eulecanium cerasorum,Geotagged,United States,Winter

Behavior

The Calico Scale is a pest to many trees in the United States, including dogwoods, honey locust, magnolias, maples, sweetgums and fruit trees. This pest typically attacks the branches which stresses the trees. Mature females produce honeydew, which promotes the growth of mold around the tree.

The nymph migrates along a tree branch, then settles down and creates 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.

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Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderHemiptera
FamilyCoccidae
GenusEulecanium
SpeciesE. cerasorum