476 Report of the Department of Entomology of the 



of twenty-four of these insects were counted, and probably the remains 

 of others were present in an unrecognizable condition. 



The presence of San Jose scales in the crops led us to perform 

 experiments on feeding the coccid to crickets. A small branch about 

 one-half inch in diameter, thoroughly covered with scales, was 

 placed in a cage with five specimens of niveus in the fourth instar. 

 After two nights the exposed part of the stick, or about three inches 

 in all, was entirely cleaned of the scales. In other experiments only 

 one cricket was confined, this individual being allowed to feed on 

 infested wood on which the number of the scales had first been 

 approximated. In one instance a cricket over night disposed of about 

 five hundred and forty scales, and during the next two nights approxi- 

 mately six hundred and twenty scales. On the fifth night it 

 devoured nine hundred and eighty scales, while on the following 

 night it ate seven hundred and sixty scales. The counts included 

 both mature and immature specimens, and it should also be noted 

 that the crickets ate both the protective covering or scale and the 

 real insect beneath. These results indicate that when the crickets 

 occur on infested trees this coccid, as well as others, probably forms 

 a large part of their diet. Nevertheless, the San Jose scale is con- 

 stantly spreading in orchards that are well stocked with tree crickets. 



Another habit of this cricket which has attracted the attention 

 of some entomologists is that of eating holes in fruits. We have 

 found no examples of such injury in orchards in western New York, 

 but in experiments where fruits were placed in cricket cages or the 

 crickets were confined in cages built about fruits the insects ate 

 round holes in them. The character of the injury is quite easily 

 distinguished from the work of the more common orchard pests, 

 for after making a small opening in the skin of the fruit the cricket 

 works its way into the flesh and feeds with its head concealed within 

 the hole. As a result the cavity increases in diameter below the 

 external opening in the skin of the fruit. Peaches and plums were 

 preferred to other fruits. 



EFFECTS OF OVIPOSITION ON APPLE TREES. 



The effect on the tree of oviposition by the female is to produce 

 in the bark a small opening as if the tissues had been punctured by 

 a coarse cambric needle. With the majority of egg punctures little 

 damage results, since the wounds heal quickly, the only visible 



