52 Mississijypi YaUeu Horticultural Society. 



inside being made smooth by a sort of gum. In tliis they soon change 

 to puptP, from which are produced a second brood of flies by the end of 

 June and beginning of July. Under the influence of July weather the 

 whole process of egg-depositing, etc., is rapidly repeated, and the second 

 brood of worms descend into the earth during the forepart of August, and 

 form their cocoons, in which they remain in the caterpillar state through 

 the fall, winter, and spring months, till the middle of April following, when 

 they become pupa^ and flies again, as related." 



As the second brood of the larvae appear upon the leaves in Jul}', 

 after the fruit is picked, and feed entirely uj^on the foliage of the plant, 

 they may doubtless be destroyed without difficulty by the use of the 

 ordinary poisons. Paris green, London purple, or powdered hellebore may 

 be safely recommended for this purpose. It is also not unlikely that fire as 

 applied for the leaf-roller, would be found efficient for the destruction of this 

 pest likewise, if used at the time when the eggs and larvte are exposed upon 

 the foliage. It should be noticed that plowing up the field in autumn will 

 not actually destroy this insect, unless the ground be jjlanted for a year to 

 another crop, and that even then it is possible that the adult saw-flies, escap- 

 ing from the field, will secure a lodgment in other strawberry vines 



Ma^on Bee. Osmia canadensis, Cres^on. 

 Order Hymenoptera, Family Apidte. 



I notice this insect here on the strength of a paragraph by Mr. Wm. A. 

 Saunders, .cont^iined in the report of the Entomological Society of Ontario, 

 for 1872. 



" This,'" he says, " is the name of a small liymenopterous insect, a sort of 

 wild bee, which has proved destructive to the' foliage of some strawberry 

 plants during the past season, in the township of Oxford. It was observed 

 by Mr. Johnson Pettit, of Grimsby, who kindly furnished me with specimens 

 of the insect. In both sexes, the head, thorax, and abdomen is green and 

 more or less densely covered with whitish down or short hairs, those on the 

 thorax being longest. The Avings are nearly transjiarent, with blackish veins. 

 The female is larger than the male." The length is .35 inch, and the spread 

 of the extended wings about half an inch. 



"Mr. Pettit says : ' The insects were taken in East Oxford, July 2d, on a few 

 strawberry plants in a garden. The plants, perhaps nearly one hundred in 

 number, had been nearly all denuded of their leaves, and a search in the 

 evening having failed to reveal the authors of the mischief, I examined them 

 again in the heat of the day, and found the little culprits actively engaged in 

 nibbling away the remaining shreds of the leaves. They appeared to chew the 

 fragments into a pulp and carry it away, but the little time I spent in observing 

 them was insufficient to determine anything further respecting their habits." 

 Doubtless in this instance the leaves so consumed were used in the construc- 

 tion of suitable nests, in which to deposit the eggs and rear the young of 

 those insects." 



