REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 243 



are a Thrips, the particular species of which cannot be determined. 

 When received (August 23rd) they were nearly all in their larval stage. 

 In assuming the perfect or winged stage, a few days thereafter, they 

 changed to a dark brown color or black. Examples were sent to the 

 Division of Entomology at Washington, where the Thrip'uhe have been 

 given some special study, but they could not be referred to any known 

 species. As there seems to be no record of thrips attack on cabbage, it 

 may be presumed that this is an unrecognized and undescribed species." 

 " There can be no reasonable doubt but that the Thrips abounding on 

 the cabbage and cauh flower leaves was directly responsible for their 

 strange appearance and condition — quite unlike injury caused by aphis 

 attack or anything that I had ever seen before. The leaves, although 

 recently plucked, were remarkably dry, their juices almost wholly ex- 

 tracted, leaving them of a grayish color. Their entire surface under a 

 lens showed thousands of minute scars, evidently where the epidermis 

 had been broken or pierced by the mouth-organs of the Thrips m feed- 

 ing. On one leaf examined with an achromatic triplet, there were counted 

 65 of these scars in an area of one-tenth of an inch, giving over 6,000 to 

 the square inch. Injury to this extent would seem to account adequately 

 for the i)eculiar condition of the leaves, and for the failure of late cabbages 



as reported." 



Previously Known as "Onion Thrips." 



A Study of the insect made during the present year by Mr. Th. Per- 

 gande of the Entomological Division of the U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture has brought to light some interesting facts in relation to the insect. 

 It appears that a record of an Onion Thrips had been made by Dr. Pack- 

 ard in 1872 which was erroneously referred to Limothrips tritici Fitch. 

 Similar attacks on onions were published by Prof. Shipley, of Cambridge, 

 England, in 1887, and by Dr. Thaxter in Connecticut, in 1889. In 1893, 

 Mr. Gillette reported a great abundance of the insect in Colorado, and, 

 in the event of its proving to be undescribed, proposed the name of Limo- 

 thrips alia for it. In this same year it was observed by Dr. Smith to be 

 extremely abundant upon onions in New Jersey. For other records of 

 its known injuries to onions in various parts of the United States, the care- 

 ful study of Mr. Pergande, published in Insect Life, vii, 1895, pp. 392-395, 

 may be consulted. 



Its Probable European Origin. 



From specimens received from Dr. K. Lindeman, of Moscow, Russia, 

 Mr. Pergande has been able to identify our onion Thrips with a species 



