New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 457 



likewise noted the destructive capacities of these insects in a similar 

 role. Mally 7 of Cape Town, South Africa, states that an apparently 

 indigenous species, capensis Sauss., has become quite troublesome in 

 peach orchards because of the small, round, surface wounds in peaches 

 especially grown for exportation. Tree crickets also feed on foliage 

 of various plants, and in the case of tobacco they have been reported 

 as causing damage of a more or less serious nature. McCarthy 8 

 states that in North Carolina niveus (nigricornis?) often damages 

 tobacco in fields much infested by blackberry bushes. Metcalf 9 

 reports that in North Carolina a light greenish tree cricket eats 

 round holes through the tobacco leaves, and states, also, that he 

 has seen tobacco plants set in new ground, surrounded on 

 all sides by heavy growth of blackberries, which were seriously 

 damaged by both nymphs and adults. He says also that tree 

 crickets do not ordinarily frequent tobacco fields that are removed 

 from weeds and brush. In his memoir on " The Principal Insects 

 of the Tobacco Plant," Dr. Howard 10 makes the statement that 

 young tree crickets are occasionally found upon tobacco, eating the 

 leaves to some slight extent. Both niveus and angustipennis have 

 also been observed to feed on foliage of apple trees, but the con- 

 sumption of leaf tissues appeared to be small and unimportant. 



In considering the economy of tree crickets reference should also 

 be made to their suspected role as vectors of plant diseases. Appar- 

 ently the first writer to call attention to the activities of these insects 

 in this capacity was Hopkins 11 of West Virginia who noted that the 

 puncturing of bark by an unknown species of tree cricket often 

 resulted in a blighted condition of apple wood. In New York there 

 is seemingly a similar association between niveus and some infectious 

 organism which results in diseased areas in the bark of apple trees, 

 especially noticeable in orchards that are neglected or given little 

 care. Detailed information dealing with the intimate relation of 

 niveus to bark diseases is wanting and, although there is strong 

 presumptive evidence, no conclusive experimental proof has so far 

 been presented that this species actually serves as an agent in the 

 transmission of such disorders of fruit trees. 



7 C. W. Mally. Letter of Oct. 15, 1913. 



'Gerald McCarthy, N. C. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 78, p. 17. 1891. 



9 P. Metcalf. N. C. Dept. Agr. Special Bulletin, " Insect Enemies of Tobacco." 

 pp. 64-65. 1909. 



10 L. O. Howard, U. S. Dept. Agr. Yearbook 1898, p. 143. 

 » A. D. Hopkins. W- Va. Exp. Sta. Bui. 50, p. 39, 1898. 



