202 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



by Mr. E. A. Carew-Gibson, in "Victoria, B.C., and by myself at Ottawa. It proved to 

 be a beautiful little Tineid moth belonging to the genus Argyresthia. One of the speci- 

 mens was sent to Lord Walsingham, of Thetford, England, a high authority on Micro- 

 lepidoptera, who reports as follows : — 



"Merton Hall, Thetford, England, Dec. 13, 1897.— The moth which you have sub- 

 mitted for determination is Argyresthia conjugella, Z., which in Europe feeds in the 

 fruit of Pirus Aucuparia, but has not been recorded, so far as we know, from Pirus 

 Malus. Lord Walsingham has a worn specimen from Esquimalt, Vancouver Island, 

 and he is inclined to think that his identification of the allied species mendica, Hw. 

 (^Insect Life, III, 118), as occurring at Washington, may have been erroneous, as the 

 specimen was evidently not in good condition, and he would suggest that search should 

 be made for the larvae there and elsewhere," — [Jno. Hartley Durrant, Ent. Asst. to 

 Lord Walsingham.] 



The moth is a slender insect measuring | inch across the expanded wings. Upper 

 wings silvery gray, mottled with darker patches. Along the inner margin, from the base 

 to the middle of the wing, is a broad silvery band of white ending abruptly on the inner 

 margin but in a spur running backwards at the outer angle of the band. This is fol- 

 lowed by a conspicuous black patch, which, widest at the inner margin, runs diagonally 

 backwards across the wing ; next to this is an elongated triangular white patch mottled 

 with brown, having the base on the inner margin of the wing and the apex elongated and 

 directed backwards toward the tip of the wing, which terminates with an eye-like spot 

 somewhat like a peacock's feather. The dark gray lower wings are heavily fringed all 

 round with long silky gray hairs, as also is the lower apical margin of the upper wings. 

 The frontal tuft and the thorax are of the same silvery white as the broad bands on the 

 upper wings, which come together when the wings are closed and, joining with the 

 thorax, form a continuous white dorsal stripe from the front to half way down the 

 wings, where it is cut off by the dark bands which cross the wings diagonally. The 

 two white triangular patches also come together when the wings are closed, forming a 

 crescent-shaped saddle toward the tip of the wings. When at rest the posterior end of 

 the body is raised up at an angle of 45 degrees and the insect is supported on four legs 

 very widely separated. At such times the moth bears very little resemblance to an 

 insect and may certainly be easily overlooked. 



Mr. Carew-Gibson was the first to breed this moth ; one of his specimens which he 

 kindly forwarded to me, emerged from the cocoon on May 20, and another a few days 

 later. The single pair which I bred at Ottawa from apples collected at Agassiz, B.C., 

 by Dr. William Saunders, emerged on June 2 and 3, the cocoon having been taken out 

 of the cellar May 24. Although they were male and female, I failed to get them to 

 pair ; thus no studies could be made of the eggs and the mode of oviposition. There 

 has been little complaint of injur}' by the Apple Fruit-miner during the past season. Mr. 

 R. M. Palmer, in a valuable report on the insect injuries of the year in British Col- 

 umbia, with which he has favoured me, says: — "The Apple Fruit miner, as I expected, 

 has been very little noticed this season, although I occasionally see specimens of apples 

 injured by it ; so, it has not quite disappeared. The apple crop of the province this year 

 has been an exceptionally good one, and the fruit better coloured and freer from scab 

 than for many years past. The practice of spraying is now pretty general, and the season 

 has also been favourable." 



Plant-lice (Aphididce) of all kinds and upon almost every crop cultivated have 

 been particularly abundant during the past season in ail parts of Canada except British 

 Columbia, where, strangely enough as this province in most years suffers severely from 

 them, there were less than usual : — 



" Victoria, October 4. — Aphides of all kinds have been less numerous this summer 

 than any year since I have been in the province. Aphis brassiere, however, was an 

 exception and was very troublesome on the islands." — [R. M. Palmer.] 



" Yarmouth, N.S., November 30. — The excessive rains of April, May and the first 

 half of June during which there was a precipitation of 18 "8 inches were not propitious 

 to insect life, except that we were visited by unprecedented swarms of Aphides that 



