86 



THE REPORT OF THE 



No 19 



brown polished scale about ^ inch in diameter, hemispherial in shape, and is frequently so 

 thickly clustered on the canes as to cover portions of them entirely. Like many other scale 

 insects, it increases most rapidly on old or worn out plantations, and is very much attacked by 

 both fungous and insect parasites. 



The Rose Scale is much smaller and flatter. The color is clear white, and the females are 

 circular in outline, while the males are elongated. When abundant, they give the infested 

 lilants the appearance of having been finely spattered with lime. The remedy for both of these 

 insects is to plant new plantations from healthy beds, or to prune severely and spray early in 

 s[)nng with kerosene emulsion or whale-oil soap solution. 



A possible enemy of the apple may be mentioned, although as yet little is known of its 

 injuries. Last autumn 1 found at Ottawa three small green larvse of a saw-fly, in cells eaten 

 about half an inch deep into the sides of apples. The walls of the cavities were white and 

 dry, and the orifice was closed with debris gnawed from the apple, but there was no appear- 

 ance of excrement in the cavity. The mouths of the orifices, however, were hardened and 

 of a greenish hue as though they had been made before growth had ceased. These larvje 

 produced last spring the common Saw-fly (Taxonus nifirisoma Nort). It seems probable to 

 me that the larvjt' may merely have gnawed holes into the apples as presenting a convenient 

 place for pupation ; but, as the three larvae were in diff"erent apples from distant parts of the 

 orchard, and all found by chance, it is just possible that they may have been abundant, and 

 that we may have in future to deal with a new enemy of the apple. In England there is a saw- 

 fly which causes considerable loss in the apple crop. These Canadian larvai resemble very 

 closely a species which is frequently abundant on docks, and some species of Polygonum 

 riddling the leaves in autumn. I regret to say I took merely a superficial description of the 

 larvie before they pupated. I shall be glad to hear if anyone else has noticed this attack. 



The Mediter- 

 ranean Flour 

 Moth (Fig 63). 

 An insect which 

 hasspread rapid- 

 ly through Can- 

 ada of late years, 

 b u t of which 

 little is said, is 

 theabove named 

 which isaserious 

 pest of many of 

 our Canadian 



and American flour mills. Far greater care than has been practised in the past will have to be 

 exercised by millers in keeping their premises clean and constantly swept out, before this pest is 

 controlled. Millers, however, noAv understand the habits of this insect and the best means of 

 checking its increase. In my own experience, thorough fumigation with sulphur has given the 

 best results, accompanied with constant cleaning up, and in winter throwing open the mills to 

 the full intensity of the winter weather. This, if, as some claim, it does not kill the larvae, at 

 any rate prevents them from developing so quickly, and probably from breeding for long 

 periods. Two different parasites have been bred by me in large numbers during the two past 

 years from infested mills. One of these, from Rockland, Ont., has been named Idechihis 

 ephestUe hy Mr. W. H. Ashmead, the other is probably an undescribed species, and was re- 

 ceived from Moulinette, Ont., where it occurred in such numbers as to attract the attention of 

 the men in the mill and obtain a popular name, " the red-tailed fly." 



-Tilt' Mediterranean Flotir Motli. 



