Biology of the Membra cidae of the Cayuga Lake Basin 423 



West Hill and in Gilkey's orchard near by. An examination of the trees 

 in these orchards shows plenty of the characteristic scars, but no cases 

 have been found in which the trees seem to be seriously affected beyond 

 the unsightly appearance of the twigs. Only one case of infection has 

 been found. The species is very abundant locally also on young elms, on 

 which the same unsightly wounds may be found. Here again, however, 

 the trees seem in no way weakened by the presence of the insect. 



Ceresa horealis Ukewise makes deep wounds which leave ugly scars on 

 the twigs. This species is found on a large number of hosts and the scars 

 are so characteristic that they are easily recognized. As in the case of 

 Ceresa bubalus, attempts to show serious injury to the plants by this 

 species have yielded httle result. 



It must be admitted that if such punctures are made in very young 

 twigs or in the soft stems of annuals, especially if made close enough 

 together to girdle the stems, the results will be very serious. This has been 

 shown to be the habit of Stictocephala festina in the South (Wildermuth, 

 1915:357), and is known to be true of certain other southern and western 

 forms (Jack, 1886 b, and Osborn, 1911). In this basin, however, there are 

 so few forms which have this habit that the amount of injury is of no 

 importance. 



A far more serious type of injury is done by those species that lay their 

 eggs in the buds, particularly if the buds happen to be small ones in which 

 the internal tissues can be reached. Ceresa taurina and Stictocephala 

 inermis both depovsit their eggs in the buds of fruit trees. In most cases 

 the buds chosen are large terminal buds and the eggs are so lightly inserted 

 that they may be seen projecting on the outside of the buds. In these 

 cases very little damage can result. In a few instances, however, the buds 

 chosen have been so small and the eggs so deeply inserted that the buds 

 have been deformed. In the case of a fruit bud this would of course 

 result in economic loss, but the chances are so largely in favor of the 

 choice of large buds, or of leaf buds which can be replaced without serious 

 results, that the relative injury done is small. 



The most serious damage to buds has been observed in the case of 

 Enchenopa hinotata on butternut (Funkhouser, 1915 c). Here the buds 

 are not large, and the eggs are mserted so deeply and in such large numbers 

 that the buds are occasionally entirely destroyed. The same insect has 

 been reported as doing serious damage to other plants in various parts of 



