30 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



Ill orchards that have not been plowed for several years the 

 spring canker worm {Anisopteryx vernata, Peck) has been quite 

 destructive to the foliage of the apple, but the dampness of the 

 season is favorable to a rapid recovery. In a notable number of 

 instances I found the eggs deposited in the cases in which the leaf 

 Grumpier {Phycita nehulo, Walsh) hibernates. This seems to have 

 become an established habit of the canker worm moth and is an 

 intereating instance of adaptation. As the cases of the leaf 

 crumpler are easily seen on the twigs before the leaves and blossoms 

 appear, it is evident that by gathering and destroying them during 

 March and April the numbers of the canker worm may be greatly 

 reduced and at the same time trees will be saved from the blighting 

 work of the smaller insect which is sometimes almost equally 

 severe. 



I have had my attention called to the New York weevil {Ithy cerus 

 7iovebor(Be)isis, Forst) which has done extensive damage this spring 

 in certain young orchards and nurseries. This is the largest of our 

 snout beetles, measuring nearly three-fourths of an inch in length 

 including the stout, straight proboscis. The color is light gray 

 ornamented with black dots and markings. In its perfect state it 

 often kills the young twigs of apple and of some other fruits by 

 gnawing the bark in sj)ots, eating out the buds and the bases of the 

 shoots after the leaves have expanded. As it is nocturnal in its 

 habits it can, however, but rarely be caught in the act. The only 

 remedy is to jar it from the tree in the same way that the j)lum 

 curculio is taken. 



The only insects affecting the peach in this locality are the 

 borers — chiefly the flat headed borer {chrysohothris fe7norata Fabr) 

 which works higher up in the trunk than the common peach borer 

 {Aegeria exitiosa, Say). The sap is oozing from all parts of the 

 trunk from the effects of this insect. 



When but a small number of young trees are set out, many 

 planters adopt the plan of loosely wraj)ping the trunks with strips 

 of cloth to prevent the access of the parent beetle to the bark. The 

 severity of the past winter not only destroyed the fruit crop, but 

 seems to have imjDaired the vigor of the trees. 



Of plums and cherries there will be in this locality about half 

 a crop. A few are marked with the punctures of the curculio and 

 the Morello cherries are suffering from the attacks of a small 

 lepidapterous larva from which I have not yet reared the moth. 

 The larva is of a translucent smoky-brown color with corneous 

 head and collar. It works into the flesh and around the slone of 



