342 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



from danger, we may work on encouraged to better effort, or, if threatened 

 with dire calamity, we may early prepare to battle with the foe, and if possible 

 vanquish it. 



HISTORY. 



The first account we have of this insect, which of late has caused so much 

 excitement, was that given by Dr. Fitch in 1866, — a very brief and incomplete 

 description, which appeared in his first report, p. 168. In his third report 

 appeared quite a full description of one form of this insect, but very far from 

 its full life history. This louse is found in two very diflFerent conditions, — one 

 on the leaf, in galls, the other on the roots, causing the roots to become swol- 

 len and diseased, and finally to die. Dr. Fitch only described the insect as 

 seen in the leaf galls, not knowing that the same insect existed in a different 

 form and dress on the roots, there to work untold mischief. Several American 

 authors afterward added to Dr. Fitch's description to the leaf form. In fact, 

 no one even thought that the insect existed in any other form, till the Phyl- 

 loxera — a name applying to the disease which the insefidfeauses, as well as the 

 insect — broke out in France some eight or ten years ^^. After many erron- 

 eous theories had been offered as to the cause of this new blight affecting the 

 vineyards so disastrously. Professor J. E. Planchon of Montpellier, France, 

 stated the true cause : the sapping of the vitality of the vines by a minute 

 plant-louse, which attacked the roots. A few months later. Professor J. 0. 

 Westwood, a very distinguished entomologist of England, announced that he 

 had examined several root and gall or leaf lice, and that they seemed indentical. 

 Very soon after, M. J. Lichtenstein, a fellow-townsman of Professor Planchon, 

 suggested that the root louse causing such havoc in France was the same in- 

 sect as that described by Dr. Fitch a half score years before, only of different 

 habits and in a different dress. In 1870, Professor C. V. Riley, State entomol- 

 ogists of Missouri, fully proved this identity, and in the following year visited 

 France to the better prosecute his inquiries. For his skill and energy in these 

 investigations, Professor Eiley has received very flattering testimonials from 

 France, and has truly merited the gratitude of his own countrymen. The 

 present article is only in small part the result of my own researches, as I have 

 had very little opportunity to make investigations on this all important sub- 

 ject, but is chiefly gleaned from the work-shops of other entomologists, chiefly 

 Professor Riley, whose admirable reports, so full and complete, leave little to 

 be desired. 



Professor Planchon visited our country during the past summer (1874), and 

 after very full investigations, he fully sustains Professor Riley in that the 

 Phylloxera is an American insect ; that the leaf louse and root louse are but 

 different forms of the same insect, and other facts which will appear in the 

 sequel. 



The insect has spread so rapidly in Europe, and the evil has become so por- 

 tentous, that it is attracting the attention of the ablest scientists, and scarcely 

 a meeting is held, or a scientific paper published, that there is not more or less 

 time and space occupied by this all-important subject. 



Of course this exciting interest of our brothers over the water in a gift which 

 we have bequeathed to them, has excited a lively interest among ourselves, and 

 we shall see further on with what show of practical importance. 



