VOL. XIV. LONDON, ONT., JULY, 1882. No. 7 



THE GRAPE PHYLLOXERA— /'/^y/^^^m vasiatnx. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



This tiny but formidable foe to the grape vine, which has during the 

 past few years attracted so much attention in Europe and America, has 

 appeared in its worst form, viz., the root-inhabiting type, in Ontario, and 

 is doing a considerable amount of damage in our vineyards. Early this 

 spring the writer received from Mr. A. H. Pettit, of Grimsby, samples of 

 fibrous roots from diseased vines, which had every appearance of being 

 affected by the Phylloxera, but the specimens received were so dried up 

 that if there had been any lice on them they could not be discovered. 

 Request was made for fresh specimens in moist earth, but none were 

 obtained. 



On the 19th of July, in company with Mr. J. M. Denton, of London, 

 I visited the vinery of Mr. Richard Stephens, in Westminster, about a 

 mile from London, where we found a number of Concord vines growing in 

 heavy clay soil, which were suffering much from some cause ; the foliage 

 had become" very yellow and some of the vines appeared to be dying. On 

 examining the roots we could find but few Hving, and the fibrous roots 

 were covered with the little knotted swellings so characteristic of Phyl- 

 loxera. On digging around some vines that were less diseased, a number 

 of the lice were discovered on the young, fresh roots, puncturing them, 

 imbibing their juices, and causing disease and death. 



On the day following we visited our own vinery, on sandy soil, near 

 London, and detected the same form of disease, but much less pronounced, 

 on Rogers' 15 and some seedlings. 



On examining the roots Phylloxera were found in their different stages of 

 egg and larva of various sizes, in comparative abundance. In the case of 

 Mr. Stephens the insects must have been at work for several years to have 

 caused the extent of injury which we saw, but in our own case the invasion 

 is probably a more recent one. We are glad to state that on Mr. 

 Stephens' grounds we found the small mite, Tyroglyphus phylloxera, which 



