THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 569 



INSECT NOTES. 



Conducted by the editor. 



The squash bug, Anasa tristis De Geer, is appearing in considerable numbers in 

 the pumpliin fields near Sacramento this month. 



The European grain or barley aphis, Aphis avenw Fab., has been especially injurious 

 to the spring crop of barley in Imperial County. 



Horticultural Commissioner D. F. Norton of Nevada County, has sent in specimens 

 -of a beetle which is cutting off the tender slioots of young pear trees. This insect 

 proves to be Dascyllus plumbeus Horn, a lead-colored beetle slightly over one half 

 incli long. This is'the first record we have of its being injurious. 



A small scarabseid beetle, Serica anthracina Lee, has been doing damage to fruit 

 trees in the Sierra foothills this spring. Prune, plum, and apple trees have been 

 entirely defoliated in a few instances and the trees even Ivilled. The beetle also works 

 upon many of the native plants, chief of vfhich is the manzanita. It has been col- 

 lected in Nevada and El Dorado Counties by a member of the commission. A. R. 

 Baird, Horticultural Commissioner of Inyo County, has also sent it to the office. It 

 was reported as attaclving the plum in Riverdale, Fresno County, in "Insect Life," 

 Vol. V, No. 5, p. 350, July, 1893. 



The fruit tree pulvinaria, Pulvinaria amygdali Ckll., has been found generally 

 •distributed in a prune orchard near Woodland, Cal., but not in sufficient numbers to 

 be of economic concern. The leaves, petioles and occasionally the fruit afford lodging 

 places for the egg-laying females. In the same orchard, the prune aphis, Aphis 

 prunifoliw Fitch, was very thick on a few of the tender shoots. 



Small tenebrionid beetles are causing much worry among the farmers this year. 

 Commissioner S. A. Pease of San Bernardino County has sent in two speices, Uhis 

 crassus Lee, a small brown beetle one fourth of an inch long which was feeding on 

 deciduous fruit trees at Ontario, Cal., and Eurymetopon bicolor Horn, a small black 

 species about the same size which he found attacking deciduous fruit trees at Ontario, 

 Cal., and apple trees at Yucaipe, Cal. A. S. Hoyt, deputy state quarantine officer, 

 collected Blapstinus discolor Horn, a small black beetle about three sixteentlis of an 

 inch long, at Van Nuys, Cal., where it was feeding upon melon and tomato vines. 

 Commissioner K. S. Knowlton has found it necessary to adopt control measures 

 against three beetles, Eleodes omissa var. horealift Blaisd., Eleodes armata Lee, and 

 Asida lecontei Horn, all of which are black and about three fourths of an inch long. 

 They are attacking orange trees in Kern County. 



The cypress twig-borer, Phlwosiniis punctattis Lee, is a small brown scolytid 



beetle scarcely more than one eightli of an inch long, which bores into the cypress 

 twigs usually' in the axils of the branches. The twigs often break at these tunnels, 

 thus resulting in severe pruning of hedges. Particular damage has been reported 

 at Napa, Cal., this spring. It was reported from Oceanside, San Diego County, last 

 year. 



O. E. Bremner, deputy horticultural commissioner of Sonoma County, has sent in 

 specimens of the yellow currant or gooseberry fruit fly, Epochra canadensis Loew. 

 This insect is also quite common in other sections of middle California. 



Specimens of the cherry fruit sawfly, Hoplocampa cookei Clarke, have. been sent 

 In by Mr. J. E. Hassler, county commissioner of El Dorado County, from Placerville, 

 and by D. F. Norton, county commissioner of Nevada County, from Nevada City. 



