106 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



there is one family of this Sub-order, the Tentbredinidje or Saw-flies, •which are 

 great exceptions to the general rule. Few families ifi the whole order of iosects 

 offer so many or so grievous pests, as does this one. These shigs, as the larvse 

 are called, not only vex our good wives, by a total ruination of their rose plants, 

 but no less the horticulturist, by destroying his pear and cherry trees, currant; 

 and gooseberry bushes, and blackberry and strawberry vines. 



The saw-flies are so named because of the wonderful apparatus by aid of 

 which are formed grooves wherein the eggs may be deposited. 



Many of the larvas are covered with slime, hence the common appellation, — 

 slugs. These are easily told from all other larvje by the number of abdominal 

 legs, — there being often as many as sixteen, and never less than twelve. Cat- 

 erpillars generally possess ten, — never more; thus the total number of legs 'n 

 lepidopterous larva? is never more than sixteen, while in those of sow flies there 

 are from eighteen to twenty-two. 



The Emphytus maculatus or strawberry-slug {see If and 6, fig.) has twenty-two 

 feet, is of a yellowish color, shaded with brown. They perforate the leaves with 

 minute holes, and when not feeding, rest on the under side, rolled up in form 

 of a ring, and if slightly disturbed, fall to the ground. They feed in May and 

 June, and when full grown are three-fourths of an inch long. 



In June they descend into the ground, pupate in an earthen cocoon, and in 

 July come fourth as a black four-winged fly. — {See fig. 3 and 6.) On the back 

 of the abdomen are white spots. 



The imagines pair, and the female, with her wonderful saws, forms an incis- 

 ion in the stems of the plant, and in this lays her eggs. The larvae from these 

 pupate in the fall, and issue as imagines the next spring; thus as with the 

 leaf- roller, there are two broods a year. 



These slugs are at work in various parts of the State, and may be readily 

 detected by the innumerable small holes which they eat in the leaves. 



Prof. Riley recommends working the ground in fall, and turning in chickens. 

 Also shaking the larvse to the ground and immersing them with a solution of 

 cresylic soap. Should these become troublesome, I believe it will be well to use 

 on the fall brood solutions of whale oil soap, white hellebore, or even Paris 

 green. Some, if not all of these, would without doubt prove eflectaal. 



Letters from Spring Lake and southward complain that the cut-worms are 

 very destructive to strawberries, as well as everything else. I have nothing 

 new to offer as to these greatest destroyers. The only way to resist them ia 

 our strawberry grounds, so far as I know, is to dig them out by hand, and to 

 work the ground, calling to our aid the birds and fowls. 



I think that the strawberry crown-borer, so admirably described by Prof. 

 Riley, in our Report of 1871, is not yet among us, and very likely may not come. 

 Yet we can not be too well informed as to all these destroyers, for with knowl- 

 edge we shall be fortified to resist their first attacks, and it is then that resist- 

 ance is most effectual. Nipping insect evils in the bud is by far the best way. 



Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: — I cannot close this essay without 

 expressing my gratification, that this Society appreciates the magnitude of the 

 impending evil which so threatens to subvert the agriculturist's prosperity, 

 and is alive to the necessity of guarding against noxious insects, by a full dis- 

 covery and dissemination of all the truths connected with their wonderful 

 natural history and marvelous habits. 



