1906 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 85 



ground, but they are less useful for this purpose than pigs. Chickens and 

 other poultry are likewise of service. The ground under apple trees in dis- 

 tricts where the Apple Maggot is known to occur should be cultivated regu- 

 larly. If no stock is available to which fallen fruit can be fed, it should be 

 buried in a deep hole, and then covered up with two or three feet of earth. 

 As the egg of the apple maggot is inserted into the flesh of the apple by 

 the females with their sharp ovipositors, there is no spraying mixture 

 which can be used against this insect. 



Flowers. In flower gardens, one of the striking outbreaks of the year 

 has been the abundance in many parts of Canada of the minute Moth-flies, 

 or White Flies. Such specimens of these as have been examined seem to be 

 the Greenhouse White Fly, Aleyrodes vaporariorum, and it is possible that 

 they may have been introduced into gardens with fuchsias and other plant* 

 propagated in greenhouses, and owing to some climatic condition have this 

 year increased out of doors to a much larger extent than is usual. Although 

 extremely small, these minute fly-like sucking insects are very destructive. 

 The larval and nymph forms bear a somewhat close resemblance to their 

 near relatives the scale insects. Plants which were badly infested at Ottawa 

 were cucumbers, tropaeolums, fuchsias and lilac bushes, but many other 

 kinds were also more or less attacked. White Flies are difficult to control", but 

 may be kept in check by the constant spraying of infested plants with whale 

 oil soap solution, or a diluted kerosene emulsion. In greenhouses probably 

 fumigating with hydrocyanic acid gas is the best remedy. , 



Shade Teees. Ornamental shrubs and shade trees were severely at- 

 tacked early in the season over a large part of the province by enormous 

 numbers of plant lice, of many species. Trees particularly infested were 

 soft maples by a species of Woolly Aphis, which was found in large clusters 

 beneath the leaves of the Silver Maple. Acer dasycavpuTn, and its numerous 

 varieties. Another new attack of the Silver Maple of more than usual interest 

 was the wholesale destruction of the seeds by the larvae of the Nitidulid beetle 

 Epurcea rufa. The seed was produced in large quantities this year, and 

 was ripe by the middle of June. Towards the end of the month some sacks 

 of the seed were collected for sowing. They had lain on the ground for a 

 few days; but were apparently in good condition. During July, however, 

 it was found that nearly every seed was infested by slender, dirty-white 

 grubs about | inch long, with a testaceous roughened dorsal patch across 

 the middle of each segment. Every seed contained from 12 to 18 of these 

 grubs, which had reduced the contents of the seed to a green meal-like pow- 

 der. When fully-fed, the grubs left the seeds and pupated near the surface 

 of the ground. In August, large numbers of the beetles emerged. In the 

 soil were also found many of the small cocoons of a parasite which has not 

 yet emerged. The beetles of the family to which Ep^lr(ra rufa belongs are 

 for the most part scavengers in habit, living upon dead and decaying ani- 

 mal and vegetable substances, but in this instance sound seeds were at- 

 tacked, and the species can evidently be a destructive enemy to one of our 

 favourite shade trees. 



Birches of all kinds were covered from top to bottom with my- 

 riads of plant lice, so that by the middle of July the leaves began to 

 fall noticeably. Early in July the abundance of Lady-bird beetles was noticed, 

 particularly of the common Two-spotted Lady-bird Adalia bipmictata, and by 

 the end of the month these had increased so much that the infested birch trees 

 were almost cleared and the leaves took on a strange dirty appearance from 

 the enormous numbers of the pupae of the Adalia, as many as 18 to 20' 

 being found in many instances \)n a single leaf. The good work done by 



