This book is dedicated to the scientists whose professional devotion and
accomplish- ments in research on scale insects of the area made the
compilation of this book possible. This book has two primary objectives:
(1) to enable interested workers, who are not specialists of scale
insects, to recognize and indentify these to families, genera and
species; and (2) to provide information on the life cycle, host-plant
range, natural enemies, geographical distribution, economic importance
for each known species from Central Europe, and to provide a
bibliography on each taxa covered. Scale insects are important pests of
fruit and nut trees, forest vegetation, woody ornamentals, greenhouse
and indoor plants. World-wide losses and increased production costs
attributed to scale insects are estimated to reach $5 billion annually.
It is difficult to recognize them because of their microscopic size and
hidden habits. Identification of pest species enables plant growers to
check appropriate reference sources for biological information and to
select control methods.