DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY ' 86& 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



during 1913, however, indicated that Eelworms might not be the sole cause of thi» 

 serious and extensive trouble, and with a view to ascertaining what relation the- 

 Eelworms bear to the destruction of the winter wheat, Mr. Strickland is conducting- 

 as exhaustive an inquiry as possible into the whole matter. The comparative absence 

 of information concerning the soil-infestin.g Nematodes of North America increases- 

 the difficulties surrounding this study. Dr. Eitzema Bos, Director of the Phyto- 

 pathological Institute, Wageningen, Holland, and the leading European authority 

 on Nematodes affecting plants, has very kindly examined living and preserved 

 material which I sent to him. In dead portions of young winter wheat plants he found 

 Eelworms of the genera Cephalohus, Rhabditis and living Anguillidse, but he could 

 not find any Nematode worm known as a plant parasite. Dr. J. G. de Man of lerseke 

 (Zeeland), a well-known specialist in Nematode worms, also kindly examined some 

 of our material. He found neither in the fresh plants nor in the alcoholic material 

 any forms known to be parasitic on plants; a species of Tylenchns allied to T. duhins 

 Butschli, one Dorylaimus allied to the European D. Iriiopkilus de Man, and a num- 

 ber of worms belonging to the genera Cephalohus and liUahdiiis were found by liira. 

 Dr. Ritzema Bos believes that Cephalohus feeds saprophytically on plants destroyed 

 by other Nematode worms or disease. The occurrence of three kinds of Nemotode 

 worms in the soil, namely, non-parasitic which normally live in the soil and on the 

 humus it contains, saprophytic which feed on dying decaying vegetation, and truly 

 ]>arasitic, which enter and feed upon the tissiie of the living plant, makes the deter- 

 mination of the relationships of the various forms found a matter of unusual diffi- 

 culty. 



In addition, a fungus (Fitsarium sp.) has been found which may have some relation 

 to the trouble. It is not unlikely that climatic conditions are also concerned in the 

 production of the injuries. These factors may also affect the .young wheat plants con- 

 jointly. Whether the injury is caused by one factor or several factors working together 

 can only be discovered by further study, and we shall continue our investigations 

 during the coming season on the relations of the various species of Nematode worms 

 to the injured plants. 



III.— INSECTS AFFECTING FEUIT CROPS. 



Considerable progress was made in the investigation? which are being carried on 

 at the Entomological Field Stations. I have indicated earlier in this report (pp. 2-3) at 

 what stations the different insects are being studied, and a brief statement of the pro- 

 press of our studies will now be given. 



BUDMOTHS OF ApPLE IN NoVA SCOTJA. 



In the spring of 1913 a large amount of the damage t-o young fruit attributed to 

 frost was due to Budmoth. In the Annapolis valley, Mr. Sanders has found two species 

 of true Budmoths, the common Eye-spotted Budmoth {Spilonola ocellana), and a laiige 

 species, Olethreutes consangxdnana, was recorded for the first time feeding in apple. The 

 life-histories of botli these species have been studied, and the spraying experiments in 

 the orchard of Mr. R. S. Eaton at Kentville, N.S., have been continued. The results 

 of last years (1913) spraying exi>eriments cannot be obtained until May (1914), but 

 the 1912 experiments indicated that the spray applied before the blossoms opened gave 

 the greatest benefit of any single spray, killing from 50 to 60 per cent of the Bud- 

 motlis. This spray, together with the spray applied after the falling of the blossoms,, 

 gave the best results ; an increased set of 20 per cent more fruit was secured over that 

 in the check plots. 



Ottawa. 



