ItEPORT OF THE EXTOMOLOaiHT AXD BOTAyiST 229 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



corner, and it has since spread over the whole piece. Very few aphides are left alive. 

 Since I last wrote, I noticed larvjc of lady-bird beetles and of Syrphus flies; but 

 neither of these nor anything else had much effect in reducing the numbers of the 

 plant-lice until this disease appeared. A month ago my potatoes could not have looked 

 more promising. To-day I tried them, and out of six average hills I got 17 tubers 

 of Avhich two only were large enough to be marketed.' — C. A. Hamilton. 



Remedy. — Should this plant-louse again appear in large numbers, infested plants 

 may be freed of them by spraying either with whale-oil soap solution, one pound tj 

 six gallons of water, or kerosene emulsion, one to ni)ie. These remedies would 

 also be effective against the Colorado Potato Beetle, the Four-lined Plant Bug, Leaf- 

 hoppers, and probably all other insect pests likely to be found on potatoes. They would 

 not, however, probably be of any use against the Potato Rot fungus for which tho 

 Bordeaux mixture is such a useful remedy. 



Aphis on celery, carrots and parsnips (Siphocoryne, sp.). — Dr. Hamilton sent also 

 some aphides which he had found on celery, carrots and parsnips. It is probable that 

 there were only two species concerned, and that both of these occurred on celery. 

 Plant-lice are very difficult insects to send alive by mail, and, when put in alcohol or 

 other preservative fluids, they lose their colour so much that they are not very suitabL 

 for study unless the species is well known. I am sorry to say that, notwithstanding 

 much trouble taken by Dr. Hamilton in sending them, the specimens did not arrive 

 in very good condition. They were, however, referred to Dr. Howard, Chief of the 

 tJnited States Bureau of Entomology, who reports under date July 17 : ' Mr. Pergande 

 has examined your aphides and says that 1 and 2 are si)ecies of Siphocoryne, apparently 

 undcscribed. The specimens on potato and salsify were rotten, but they appear to he. 

 Nectaropliora solanifoliij" The two species of Siphocoryne referred to above were very 

 different in api)earance, and there seems to be little doubt that they are different 

 species. The specific description of these, however, will have to be postponed until 

 further material is available. I shall be obliged to any of my correspondents who may 

 at any time find plant-lice on carrots, parsnips or celery, if they will forward them to 

 me for study. 



Injury to celery and parsnips by plant-lice I have never seen before; but the 

 attack on carrots has come to my notice on two or three occasions previously, and has 

 been one of considerable importance. 



' Mahone Bay, June 28. — I send aphides from my celery, some have wings and some 

 are without; but, as I always find them together, I take them to be the same species. 

 The small wingless ones are extremely active, disappearing at a touch to the plant. 

 This is the first time I have seen plant-lice on celery in the throe years I have been 

 raising that crop. Eight or ten days after I set out the yoiing plants I found them 

 swarming with these insects, and my neighbour's plants are the same. What I think 

 are the same kind of plant-louse, I find also on near-by weeds, Clienopodiuni album 

 and Galeopsis tetrahit. I had some carbolic acid and soap w^ash made up for root 

 maggots. I gave them two sprayings with this and it cleared them out.' 



' July 8. — I send a number of aphides -with a few celery leaves, which I hope will 

 reach you alive or at least in good condition for examination. It is very difficult to 

 capture these, but by touching the plants with a piece of cotton batting they jump 

 into it and become entangled. The specimens you ask for are in bottle No. 1. Bottle 

 No. 2 contains another kind, I suppose, which are found rather sparsely on the under- 

 side of the leaf. In one of my letters I said that I thought that these insects had been 

 brought here from Halifax on plants obtained by a neighbour. I do not think this 

 now, as I find them infesting the celery of another neighbour who raised his plants 

 from seed and who lives over half a mile from either of us. When first noticed, the 

 insects were very plentiful, the celery was only an inch or an inch and a half high, 



*Dr. Ashmead's description of this aphis is to be found in ' Canadian Entomologist ', vol. 

 XIV., 1SS2, p. 92 



