1914 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 21 



necessity of drawing them together with silk threads. A larger and darker form, 

 bred from leaves of Salix cordata, Muhl., that had been drawn together, has been 

 identified as probably the same species. If the examination of more material sub- 

 stantiates this concluson, it shows the inquilinous habit is not firmly estab- 

 lished. 



For the identification of the above Lepidopterous forms I am indebted to 

 August Busck, Washington, D.C. 



Division No. 5, Poet Hope. — F. J. A. Morris, Peteebokough. 



1. Economic Entomology. — This last season the Tent Caterpillar was pre- 

 valent and did great damage to foliage. The prolific "nursery" for this creature 

 seems to be the wild shrubs and trees of cherry and kindred species bordering 

 farm, fields and woodlands. Such trees and shrubbs are abundant, and are uni- 

 versally neglected by the farmers. From them comes the supply that eventually 

 makes its way into neglected orchards and causes such unsightly havoc to the 

 foliage. This season the newly-hatched larvre were observed at work early in 

 May destroying the buds before the leaves unfolded. They were specially abundant 

 north of here, from five to thirty miles north of Lake Ontario, e.g.. Bethel, 

 Garden Hill, and Peterborough. In June they had stripped the trees in some 

 abandoned orchards entirely bare, and larvse nearly full-grown had spread (in 

 search of food) to adjoining lanes and woodlands. Specimens of the American 

 Tent CateiiDillar were as common in a hardwood bush between Garden Hill and 

 Carmel as those of the Forest Tent Caterpillar, and were found — shortly before 

 pupation — thriving on the leaves of maple, oak, basswood, birch, and hazel. If 

 it became the practice among farmers to exterminate from their fence borders 

 all cherry, hawthorn, and other kindred seedlings and shrubs, or at least to burn 

 ott' the webs early in May, this would go a great way towards stopping the pest at 

 its source. 



In some of the gardens about town complaints were heard of a larva eating 

 dahlia buds. Some of the shade trees in residential quarters were badly disfigured 

 by "blight" — the work of the cotton-tail louse. Both species of asparagus beetles 

 were more abundant than ever in the district, and were found on wild plants 

 several miles distant from the town as well as in cultivated crops, but apparently 

 the damage caused by the insect is trivial. The "railroad" worm was almost 

 absent, a reaction after the extraordinary prevalence of three and two years ago; 

 the potato beetle, also, was conspicuous by its absence. 



Another pest very noticeable this year was the aphis. Nasturtiums were 

 infested by a black aphid which so weakened the plants that after the drought 

 began in the middle of July the foliage shrivelled and died. In apple orchards 

 much havoc was wrought by a gi'een aphid. It attacked the foliage and fruit and 

 so weakened vitality that trees hitherto good bearers produced nothing but bunches 

 of small clustered apples which failed to mature; moreover, of those that ripened 

 normally many were spoiled for market by their appearance, being stained and 

 streaked with a dark secretion from the insect. Unfortunately, well-kept orchards 

 suffered most from these tiny epicures. Mr. Duncan, of the Department of Agri- 

 culture, estimated the loss in a ten-acre orchard of his own at above $150. He 

 used with good results a kerosene emulsion ; another remedy is a tobacco prepara- 

 tion known as "Black Leaf 40." 



The "white grub," responsible for much local damage in recent years was less 

 prevalent in 1913, though some reported loss to potato and grass crops due to 

 this larva of the June beetle. 



