
A red maple branch heavily infested with gloomy scale, Melanaspis tenebricosa. Photo: Adam Dale
In previous papers, we have shown that the urban heat island effect can increase pest abundance on trees. Oak lecanium scales become more abundant due to greater survival on hot trees. Gloomy scales become more abundant because on warm trees more of them survive and they produce three times as many eggs.

Gloomy scale embryos. Photo: Adam Dale
This article is published in the journal PLoS One. Find the entire article here: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173844
Also, a UF press release can be found here: http://news.ifas.ufl.edu/2017/03/gloom-and-doom-when-these-insects-are-on-hot-dry-red-maple-trees/[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]