1913 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 109 



The Pear Tree Blister Mite was found to occur in every orchard in the 

 Eraser Valley similarly so with the Pear Tree Slug. ~ The latter is two brooded. 

 The first brood this year did not appear in such numbers as to cause any material 

 loss. The second brood appeared to be more plentiful in point of numbers, but it 

 occurred late enough not to injure the trees, merely assisting nature to ripen the 

 wood. Myzus cerasi and the Green Apple i\.phis also occurred in the Eraser Valley 

 but I saw no instance on mature trees where their presence was causing material 

 harm. In this country where the seasons are long and the growth luxuriant, in- 

 sects of this nature tend to check the excessive growth, and unless present in too 

 great numbers act almost as a beneficent agency. 



An insect which for the time being is called the Lesser Apple Worm can 

 generally be found at apple picking time occurring lightly in most orchards in the 

 Eraser Valley. It appears to affect the Crab, Spy, Gravenstein, and King apples 

 in particular. I have not bred this insect to the adult yet, so cannot be sure it is 

 the same insect as occurs in a similar way in the Eastern orchards. I am hoping 

 to bring some of these insects through the winter and work on their life history 

 next summer. 



Small Eruit Insects. 



In the Lower Eraser Valley, which is pre-eminently a small fruit and truck 

 gardening district, the one serious pest in proportion to the injury is the Straw- 

 berry Root Weevil, Otiorhynchus ovatus. The larvae girdle the roots of the plants, 

 causing death either by malnutrition or by expo^iQg the plants to the drying action 

 of sun and wind, for the deeper roots are taken off\s a rule previous to the surface 

 roots, consequently the whole root surface is forced nearer the ground surface. As 

 a rule plantations do not suffer until the spring of the second year from planting, 

 although I was informed locally that occasions have arisen whereby the infestation 

 was so severe that plantations had to be plowed up previous to taking the first crop 

 and sometimes just after the first crop was picked. Such cases are, I would fancy, 

 the exception and not the rule, and some peculiar local dependent conditions must 

 have been present. I have paid particular attention to the biology of this weevil 

 this summer and am preparing a much longer and detailed report on its habits, 

 but the general points in its life history are somewhat as follows. My notes only 

 extend over this season, so due allowance must be made until duplicate notes are 

 obtained next year or succeeding years. 



The egg-laying period in the field began albout June 15th and extended till 

 August 22nd. The egg stage per individual laster 22-24 days. The larvae began 

 to hatch about July 15th and continued to hatch until September llth. The great 

 majority of the larvae pass the winter in the half-grown larval state and emerge 

 as the adult in the middle of June and continue emerging until the first part of 

 July. The pupal stage like the egg stage lasts about three weeks. There is only 

 two weeks in the year when the ground may be presumably free from the presence 

 of larvae and that is the early part of July. I have no records of date of a second 

 brood. The list of its food plants is a very long one, and while it has shown itself 

 particularly fond of strawberry roots, I believe its primary food is the roots of 

 grasses. I have taken the larvae of the weevil feeding indiscriminately upon roots 

 of weeds and strawberries intermingling in the strawberry row. 



The most satisfactory remedy that can be devised to date, when the acreage is 

 available, is fall plowing and rotation of crops. But the unfortunate part of it is 

 that the farms are so small, 5-10 acres, for the most part where this insect occurs 



