MAINE AGRICULTURAI. EXPERIMENT STATION. 191O. 375 



mark ; the wings are dusky brown, with a pale cuneus and black 

 point at the apex; the legs are dull yellow. The immature in- 

 sects are greenish ; if a little older they possess a pair of round 

 black dots on the back of the thorax, another pair on the scu- 

 tellum, and a single dot on the abdomen. 



COMBATIVE MEASURES. 



Since these insects hibernate among rubbish of all kinds, 

 clean culture is very important. By clean culture is understood 

 the removal of all litter from fence corners, so as to take away 

 the shelters in which the insect winters. When they appear 

 in spring the plants upon which they are should be shaken early 

 in the morning, while the bugs are still in a torpid condition, 

 making them fall upon a sheet underneath and then destroying 

 them. As soon as it becomes warm the insects are exceedingly 

 active, and so swift in all their motions that they cannot be cap- 

 tured readily. 



BENEFICIAL INSECTS. 



(Adapted from Packard.) 



In a great variety of ways certain insects are helpful to man, 

 and are especially efificacious either in insuring his crops or in 

 destroying those insects which would otherwise devour them. 



Pollenisers of Fruit-trees. — A very important part in the pro- 

 duction of abundant crops of fruit is played by bees and other 

 honey or nectar gatherers, and pollen-feeding insects. It is 

 now generally acknowledged that bees, especially the honey- 

 bee, act as "marriage-priests" in the fertilization of flowers, 

 conveying pollen from flower to flower, and thus insuring the 

 "setting" of the fruit. Many wasps, as well as butterflies and 

 moths, species of pollen-eating beetles, thrips, and other in- 

 sects, by unconsciously bearing pollen from distant flowers, 

 prevent too close in-and-in breeding. Indeed, as Goethe said, 

 flowers and insects were made for each other. Many plants 

 would not bear seeds did not insects fertilize them. Insects are 

 in the first place attracted to flowers by their sweet scent and 

 bright colors, and it is claimed that the lines and circles on the 



