THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



677 



THE GUNWORM OF THE GRAPE. 



{Sciopteron regale But.) 



Ordei — Lepidoptera. Family — Sesiidae. 



By Frederick Maskew^ Chief Deputy Quarantine Officer. 



The phase of quarantine work that deals with the personal belong- 

 ings of the globe-trotting passengers v»'ho arrive at the port of San 

 Francisco is a never ending drama, replete with side-lights on the 

 various whims, fancies and idiosyncrasies of these peregrinators, as 

 expressed by the articles that have attracted both their interest and coin 

 in some of the ports they have visited, and to which, as yet uncloyed by 

 possession they attach the greatest of value. Strictly within his own 

 domain, the quarantine officer's sense of uniqueness or oddity is dulled 

 by familiarity and his acquaintance with the tricks of Oriental gar- 

 deners. His chief interest is in the insects that have usually escaped the 

 attention of the owner of the material. With the quarantine officer 

 all insects are — at least potential — rascals. The beauty and grace of 

 their structure or covering makes no impression; even as Dickens, in 

 his own inimitable way, depicted the dominating influence an occupation 

 has upon the point of view, when he described the public hangman as 

 unable to see any feature in a gathering of celebrities other than the 

 caliper of their necks. So with the quarantine officer : even a strange 

 coccinellid found on an importation, brings a frown of suspicion. The 

 many virtues possessed by the numerous species of this family are 

 overshadowed by the vices of one black sheep. Epilachna obliterates 

 Novius for the time being, and on general principles the specimen, 

 together with its host, is taken in and kept in, until its general behavior 

 can be vouched for. 



In this particular instance, a passenger, a man of much wealth and 

 abundant leisure, was bringing from Yokahama a number of song birds 

 to enrich the collection in his large aviary at Cleveland, Ohio. Even 

 the most hardened of quarantine inspectors had no objections to this, 

 but, herein lies the tale. He had brought also a sack full of small 

 cuttings of some species of vine — "just a little bird food" — was the 

 casual way he indicated what the sack contained, and it was patent to 

 all who heard, that he was innocent or ignorant of any potential danger 

 in the material. However, seeing that the contents of the sack were 

 something that had grown out of the soil, it must of a necessity be 

 carefully examined. Look at Fig. 369, an actual photograph of a por- 

 tion of the material. It did not require a trained inspector to see that 

 these twigs were abnormal ; the swellings would indicate the presence of 

 some thrifty tenant ; a touch of the knife revealed the true condition ; 

 a yellow, plump, greasy larvee of a sesiid borer that had grown fat on 

 the living tissues and vital forces of these vines, and which in turn was 

 destined to fatten this lot of songsters in transit to Cleveland. The 

 future of California's vineyards immediately took precedence of orni- 

 thological menus or melodies ; the possibility of an infested twig or two 

 being dropped while the material was in transit through the State, was 

 considered of greater importance than a hungry songster, so the entire 

 lot was confiscated, much to the chagrin of the owner, who did not need 



