110 [Assembly 



Instead of the apple trunks requested, Mr. D. has recently sent 

 me sections of a peach-tree, which died last suuinier from borings 

 (ten to twenty to the square inch), which he supposed were those of 

 the X. pyrl. The beetles from these sections are now emerging, 

 in ray office, in large numbers, and prove to be those of the peach- 

 tree Scolytus, Phkeotribus liminaris (Harris) — an insect long 

 known to be very destructive to young peach-trees, and at one time 

 believed to be the cause of that fatal disease, "the yellows." 



Attack on Young Pears by a Plant-bug. 



Messrs. Ellwanger and Barry, of the Mount Hope Nurseries at 

 Rochester, N. Y., have sent rae under date of June 10, 1884, some 

 specimens of young pears, blotched and injured, together with 

 insects taken upon them. 



Some of the pears, of about one-half inch in diameter, show as many 

 as forty blotches from an eighth of an inch in diameter downward. 

 From the minute puncture originally made, the juice as it has escaped 

 has become hardened and granulated, and with its increase has split 

 the skin in different directions, often in a triangular form, or one 

 wound running into another. The more seriously injured pears 

 would be rendered unfit for sale from their knotted surface, even if 

 after such a drain upon them they should continue upon the tree, 

 which is not at all probable. 



The insects taken upon the injured fruit were the tarnished plant- 

 bug, Lygus lineolaris. Although they were not actually observed 

 feeding upon the juices, there can be no reasonable doubt of their 

 being the authors of the injury. This form of attack (upon the 

 fruit) has not been previously recorded, yet their fondness for the 

 blossoms of the pear is known, and they are also known to be 

 destructive to the fruit of the strawberry.- 



In the attack above recorded, the insect has ajDparently shown a 

 preference in the variety of pear it has selected. Messrs. EHwanger 

 and Barry write : " The whole of the fruit in one of our orchards 

 on the Duchessed'Angouleme trees is affected ; while on the Beurre 

 d'Anjou and other varieties, we find nothing of the kind." 



P(EciLocAPsus lineatus {Fobr.), 



Mr. E. S. Goff", of the N. Y. Experiment Station, sends me, June 

 1st, 1885, some Hemiptera in their larval and pupal stages, feeding 

 in the garden of the Station upon sage. Salvia officinalis. 



The larvfewere broadly ellipsoidal. Head testaceous; eyes black ; 

 first joint of the antennai testaceous, second joint pale basally, and 

 the others pale at the joints. Thorax testaceous anteriorly, with two 

 black spots on its hind margin, separated by a pale mesial line, wing- 

 pads black. Abdomen red, with eight transverse dorsal lines, broken 



