12 THE REPORT OF THE No. 19 



account for as the sparrows liiint for them most persistently and feed them 

 to their young when in the nest. It may be that they also feed upon Cos- 

 mopepla but I have seen no evidence of it. 



The Monarch butterfly did not make its appearance this year in this 

 district until late. On July 8th I saw the first, a single one^ very much 

 worn and dull colored. On the 11th I counted about a dozen between Toronto 

 and Highland Creek, a distance of sixteen miles; these were old and much 

 worn. On the 20th of August new, fresh specimens were common and soon 

 were mated. 



Usually the migration of this species is at its height during the first 

 week in September, after which but few stragglers are seen. This year I 

 saw no migration in large flocks at all and stragglers were fairly common 

 as late as the first of October, and the last was seen on the fifth. 



House-flies have been comparatively scarce this summer and so were 

 Mosquitoes until the evening of July 8th when they became fairly abundant, 

 but at no time during the season have they swarmed in their usual hosts. 

 Most of those examined were parasitized by mites, but this does not prevent 

 their doing business in their good old fashioned way. 



The Stalk borer {Gortyna cataphracta) was more abundant and destruc- 

 tive than ever before. This year I found the first young larva in the blossom 

 stem of an Iris on the 15th of June. The larva was rather less than a quarter 

 of an inch long and had evidently entered by boring a hole from the outside 

 at about nine inches from the ground. As in 1907 I gave the full life history 

 of this pest as far as I know it, I need not repeat it. No parasites have yet 

 been bred by me from the larvae of this moth, though I have carried a great 

 many of them through to the imago stage. 



While Gortyna cataphracta is a much dreaded pest in a flower garden, 

 yet the damage it does rarely extends to the entire destruction of a plant; 

 the affected stems are killed but the root is uninjured. All members of the i 

 genus are not, however, so considerate; for some of them work into the root- ^ 

 crown or the roots and thereby cause the death of the plant affected. 



This summer I noticed that all my plants of Aquilegia chrysantha looked 

 sickly and they scarcely threw out a healthy blossom. On August 20th the 

 plants appeared to be dead. Upon pulling away the stalks which came off 

 easily, the upper part of the fleshy roots was found to be hollowed out. A 

 search in the soil yielded two chrysalids; they were lying about four inches 

 from the roots and about two inches beneath the surface of the earth. These 

 I took in and from them, on the 5th and 8th of September, moths emerged 

 which are, I believe, Gortyna purpurifascia. One of them, shortly after 

 emerging, deposited a number of eggs singly upon the surface of the soil in 

 the jar where the moths were bred out. 



If this moth becomes common, Aquilegia growers will require to look 

 out for its larvae or they will lose their plants. Strange to say while all my 

 chrsanthas were destroyed, no other variety of Aquilegia was attacked. 



Although I have grown Aquilegias for many years in Ontario, I have 

 never before had one attacked by this insect nor have I ever seen any others 

 so affected in this district. 



I am sorry to say that at last I have positive proof that the San Jose 

 Fcale has become established on the north shore of Lake Ontario. As^ yet, 

 however, there are only two or three orchards infested, but past experience 

 has shown that unless proper precautions are taken the pest will rapidly 

 spread. 



This year the Tussock Moth larvae were about as abundant as usual. 

 On the 13th of July I saw many spinning cocoons, at the same time there 



