The Pear Psylla. 



113 



fully grown (Fig. 41, h) and rolls itself np into a tiny ball and 

 weaves around it a glistening, white cocoon {e in figure 14), which 

 looks like a seed-pearl. Possibly while secluded in this pearly cell 

 the aphis-lion repents its greedy, murderous ways, and changes in 

 spirit. In from ten to fourteen days, a neat lid is cut from the 

 upper end of the cocoon (see e \\\ figure 14) and an active ])upa^ 

 wriggles out, from which in an hour or so the dainty lace-wing 

 emerges. There are several broods of this predaceous enemy of the 

 psylla during the year. 



It is to be hoped that this lace-wing may see fit to include the 

 pear psylla in its menu in ]S'ew York State, where there is abundant 

 opportunity for it to do our pear growers as efficient service as it 

 has rendered in Maryland. 



The other insect enemy of the pear psylla is the very common 

 red lady-bug {Adalia hipiinctata) with a black spot on each wing- 

 cover (Fig. 45 

 e). It is so com- 

 mon that if it 

 can be induced 

 to feed freely 

 upon the pear 

 pyslla it will 

 prove a very ef- 

 ficient aid in the 

 warfare against 



tlie pest. it 18 ^5 _^(j3^jj3^ bipunctata. a, larvae; d, pupa; e, adult — all enlarged. 

 , . (Reduced from figure by U. S. Dept. of Agr.) 



predaceous i n 



both its larval 



(Fig. 45, a) and adult stages. Mr. Marlatt saw a beetle with an 



adult psylla in its mandibles in the Maryland orchard ; and he says 



one of the beetles cleaned the eggs from the leaves of a young pear 



tree in his breeding cage about as fast as upwards of 50 to 75 psyllas 



laid them. He reared from the ^^g state a brood of the lady-bug 



* Most writers state that the adult emerges from the cocoon, but, as was 

 pointed out by Dr. Shimer in 1865 and by Dr. Riley in 1869, what they 

 have called the pseudo-imago or siih-imaf/o comes from the cocoon. The 

 names given this stage of the insect are misleading, as they properly apply 

 to a icinged stage preceding the imago stage of may flies. In the case of 

 the lace-winged flies, their pupae are sufficiently active to force their way 

 out of the cocoon. i 



8 



