REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AXD BOTANIST. 



211 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



The great need in Ontario to-day in this matter is concerted action among all 

 concerned. If a few only treat their pease carefully, little good can be done in eon- 

 trolling this serious enemy, but on the other hand, it cannot be too often stated that, 

 as is often averred by farmers, it certainly is not true that there is no use in one 

 man doing what is right when others close at hand, do nothing. This is a big under- 

 taking ; the Pea Weevil has now for many years been practically increasing year by 

 year, and has now obtained such a foothold that it can only be controlled by stirring 

 up public opinion to the extent of inducing everybody concerned to do something. 

 As a means to this end. Prof. Lochhead, of the Ontario Agricultural College, makes 

 the practical suggestion of bringing the subject prominently forward at the winter 

 meetings of every farmers' institute in the province. This could be very easily done, 

 the life history of the Pea Weevil is perfectly well known and has been published over 

 and over again in official reports, both federal and provincial, as well as in agricul- 

 tural journals. There is a competent staff of speakers for the farmers' institutes, 

 and it would be almost impossible to hold a meeting in any of the pea-growing 

 counties where there would not be several who could speak on this insect and its 

 work, to the great advantage of many present. 



There is, however, every necessity that those who discuss the matter, should 

 prepare themselves beforehand and make it very plain which insect is being discussed. 

 On frequent occasions when reports have been received from correspondents, I have 

 to write to them before I can be sure which insect they mean. The Pea Weevil is the 

 short, roundish, hard beetle which occurs, at the time when it is most often noticed, 

 among seed pease from which it has emerged, leaving a perfectly round hole in the 

 hollowed-out pea, in which it passed its preparatory stages. This insect is shown 

 enlarged, and of the natural size at figure 6. The Pea Moth, as it is generally 

 seen by farmers, is in the form of the caterpillar, usually called the ' worm,' in the 

 pea pods, where the white caterpillars devour the green pease from the outside, leaving 

 a ragged cavity and a mass of excrement. The perfect insect, the moth. Fig. 8, is very 

 rarely seen. It resembles very much the Codling Moth, of the apple, but is of a 

 general slaty gray colour instead of bronzy brown. The Destructive Pea Aphis is a 

 soft-bodied green plant-louse, shown below, very much enlarged. These plant-lice 

 cluster in enormous numbers at the ends of the shoots of peas, of all kinds, clovers 

 and vetches. 



THE DESTRUCTIVE PEA APHIS 

 (Nectarophora destructor, Jnsn.). 



Fig. 7. — The Destructive Pea Aphis; winged viviparous female — enlarged. 

 fAfter Johnson, Md. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 63.) 

 16— Ui 



