352 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



PEAR. TRUNK. 



weevil of Europe (Rhyjichites cupreus) when there is no fruit for 

 it, resorts to the new shoots in which to place its eggs. All the 

 circumstances, therefore, lead us strongly to the opinion that the 

 conjecture advanced by Dr. Harris in the first edition of his 

 Treatise, but since abandoned by him, is correct, namely, that 

 those beetles which are hatched the latter part of the season, 

 finding no young fruit in which they can deposit their eggs, are 

 obliged to resort to the smooth tender bark of the branches of our 

 different fruit trees, and the worms from these eggs repose in, not 

 under the bark, through the winter, and produce the beetles 

 which appear the following June and oviposite in the young fruit. 

 If this opinion as to the winter quarters of the curculio proves 

 to be correct, it may lead us to most important results. After 

 allowing for all casualties, it is probable that a hundred beetles 

 might have been matured from the short piece of limb which came 

 under my observation. The worms, however, are only covered 

 by the epidermis and the thin outermost layer of the bark. Soft- 

 soap or some other alkaline substance applied externally, there is 

 little doubt would penetrate through this covering sufficiently to 

 destroy these worms when they are so small and tender. And it 

 appears probable that by a careful inspection of the limbs of those 

 trees whose fruit has been destroyed and other trees standing 

 adjacent to these, the winter retreat of this enemy may be dis- 

 covered by the marks he places upon the bark, and a remedy may 

 then be applied with greater ease and which will be more effec- 

 tual for his destruction than anything hitherto suggested. 



53. Pear bark-louse, Lecanium Pyri, Schrank. (Homoptera. Coccidae.) 



A hemispherical shell, the size of a half pea, of a chestnut 

 brown color, adhering to the under side of the limbs. See Trans- 

 actions, 1854, p. 809. 



54. Scurfy bark-louse, j^spidiotus farfurus, new species. (Homoptera. 

 Coccidae.) 



Little round or oval white wax-like blisters on the smooth bark 

 of the pear tree. 



I know this only from specimens found upon the same limb of 

 the pear tree from the garden of L. B. Langworthy of Rochester, 

 on which the incisions of the plum weevil above spoken of occurred. 



