THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 245 



I wonder what that is?" and all the time waving her antennae, much the same 

 as a cockroach will do when on the scent for food. After the frost came, killing 

 most of the vegetation, I would gather a few dried oak leaves and soak them in 

 water for her. These she would eat sparingly of, often preferring only to drink 

 up what moisture there might be on the leaf surface. Finally I could get nothing 

 more green for her in the garden and tried a sprig of white pine needles. These 

 she refused. Her egg record dropped to one a day and this only at spasmodic 

 intervals. She was getting weak and helpless. One night I found she had 

 fallen to the bottom of the cage and seemed unable to move. Next morning 

 she was dead. 



Walking Sticks are remarkably strong and adhere tenaciously to clothing, 

 netting or roughened surfaces from which it is difficult to remove them without 

 injury, since the legs break easily. \^ery smooth surfaces are no hindrance to 

 their movements due to the circular white pulvillus, or suction pad on each 

 tarsus, and they will walk up or down the sides of a glass cage quite as easily 

 as on the flat table. Feeding usually takes place at night, and during the day 

 they rest quietly, for the most part at the top of the cage on the cloth covering, 

 head and back downwards. The males spend most of their time in coitu, eating 

 little or nothing in confinement. They are the first to die, the females living 

 on for weeks afterwards to deposit their eggs. 



Injury. At Aylmer any damage done by this insect so far as I have observed 

 has been negligible. There are, however, localities in the States where the walk- 

 ing stick has proved a serious pest. Mr. Fernald, Economic Zoologist at Harris- 

 burgh, Pa., 1898, reports the appearance of walking sticks near Duncanville 

 Pa., "in countless numbers." The trees attacked were mostly chestnut, oak, 

 and maple, the area of infestation being over one mile long and half a mile wide. 

 Mr. .Snow of Yates Co., N. Y., in a letter to Doctor Riley in 1878 relates how 

 w^alking sticks "had stripped 25 acres of young timber, mostly white oak and 

 hickory, on his reservation." 



That such severe infestations as these are likely to occur in Canada I am 

 inclined to doubt, but in the warmer sections, such as Niagara Glen, minor, 

 local outbreaks may take place, as for example that referred to in Ont. Ent. 

 Report, 1904. However, these creatures are very susceptible to cool weather 

 and it is quite possible that the early frosts of the more northern latitudes play 

 a considerable part in their control. 



Control. The following control methods have been recommended by Doctor 

 Riley: Poison the vegetation by spraying with Paris green to kill off the very 

 young nymphs and destroy eggs by digging, or burning the grass and vegetation. 

 These appear to be very effective measures but I have had no opportunity so 

 far to test any of them. One female stick in a sickly condition. I secured this 

 summer had eight or ten tachinid eggs on different parts of the body. She 

 refused all food and died two days after being brought into the laboratory, 

 the body becoming quite limp and withered. I kept the specimen in a vial for 

 closer examination, but no evidence of parasites was observed so concluded that 

 their life cycle had been interrupted by the death of the host^which perhaps was 

 brought about by some other agency than the fly itself. 



