THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. Ill 



ENTOMOLOGICAL GLEANINGS. 



BY W. SAUNDERS, London, Ont. 



With a fruit farm in the country frequently visited, and a fruit garden in 

 town, my opportunities for observing the times and doings of insect foes and 

 friends are sufficiently ample to satisfy the desires of the most active and 

 enthusiastic " bug-hunter" that ever carried a net. Now a swarm of cater- 

 pillars disfigures the form and mars the beauty of a handsome tree, by con- 

 suming a considerable part of its foliage ; again a host of aphides, by their 

 constant sucking of the juices of the leaves, will cause them to shrivel, curl 

 up, and often change color, and the enormous rate at which these creatures 

 increase adds much to the difficulty of their extermination ; or some unwel- 

 come " little Turk " sits down uninvited to feast on our finest fruits, and, not 

 satisfied with appeasing its own appetite, leaves its progeny behind to com- 

 plete the work of destruction ; or it may be some rascally borer insidiously 

 undermines one's fondest hopes by girdling and thus destroying trees or 

 shrubs whose growth has cost years of toil and watching. With the desire 

 of helping fellow fruit-growers and others to a better acquaintance with these 

 expensive insect guests, I purpose in this, and probably some subsequent 

 papers, to record observations made from time to time as the season advances. 



On the 6th of May the first foe was met. A lot of dwarf pear trees 

 arrested attention from the backwardness of some as compared with others, 

 the unequal way in which the leaves were expanding, and the dark color, 

 almost black, of some of the buds and younger leaves. No caterpillars were 

 to be seen, but on jarring the trees down came the enemy to the ground in 

 considerable numbers, partly falling, partly flying. It proved to be a 

 small bug, belonging to the true bug family, Hemiptera , and a species named 

 Phytocoris ( Capsus) linearis. I never remember having seen this creature 

 doing damage before, so a careful examination of its work was made. Our 

 foe "linearis" is not a "big bug;" it does not measure more than one-fifth 

 of an inch. It is rather variable in color, from dull dark brown to greenish 

 brown, or sometimes dirty yellowish brown. The males are usually darker 

 than the females. The head is yellowish, and has three narrow reddish 

 stripes. The beak or sucker is about one-third the length of the body, and 

 when not in use is folded under the breast. The thorax has a yellow margin 

 and several yellowish lines running lengthwise. Behind the thorax is a 

 yellow V-like mark, sometimes more or less imperfect, but usually sufficiently 

 clear to help one to a ready recognition of the species. The wings are a 

 dusky brown, and the legs of a dull, dirty yellow. 



This enemy ensconces himself within the young leaves of the just opening 

 buds, puncturing them about their base and along the edges, and extracting 



