1914 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Division No. 7. Niagara District — W. A. Ross, Jordan Harbour. 



Insects of the Year. As I was absent from the Niagara District during 

 the greater part of 1913, I am not in a position to do justice to a report on "Insects 

 of the Year in Division 7/' and so in place of the customary report I shall present 

 brief notes on some insects which were of particular interest to me this past 

 season. 



Orchard Pests. 



Apple Maggot {Rhagohlis pomoveUa) . This insect was remarkably scarce 

 last summer in most sections of Ontario. In orchards which were badly infested 

 two and three years ago I had often to search quite diligently to secure a few 

 adults. It will undoubtedly interest the members of the Society to learn that the 

 Apple Maggot may remain in the soil in the pupal stage for two years. During the 

 month of July, five females and four males emerged from the soil in rearing-cages 

 in which 1911 pupae were placed during the spring of 1912. To corroborate this 

 important point, I examined four of this year's rearing-cages after the adults had 

 ceased emerging, and in the first I recovered twelve per cent, of the pupae placed 

 there in the spring; in the second, ten p«r cent.; in the third, eighteen per cent., 

 and in the fourth, ten per cent. These pupae seemed to be perfectly healthy. 



Apple Aphids. The question which I had to answer most frequently this 

 summer, while I was in Durham and Northumberland counties, was : " How are 

 aphids controlled? " Apple trees in these two counties were very badly infested with 

 plant lice. Even in well-cared-for orchards it was no uncommon sight to see the 

 work of these creatures in the form of clusters of dwarfed apples. 



Four species of Apple Aphids occur in Ontario: The Apple Aphis, A. pomi, 

 tlie Grain Aphis, IJydaphis (Siphocoryne) avence, the Rosy Apple Aphid, Aphis 

 sorhi and the Woolly Apple Aphid, Schizoneura lanigera. 



In regard to a remedy for aphids, there is a great need for an insecticide as 

 effective as " Black Leaf 40 " but not so costly, and which can be applied with 

 lime sulphur. 



Green Peach Aphis {Myzus persicce). During late September and early 

 October the return migrants of this species were remarkably abundant in the Vine- 

 land District. On bright days the air seemed to be full of them. However, for- 

 tunately for the fruit grower the vast majority of these plant lice were destroyed 

 by predaceous and parasitic insects, by spiders (I observed thousands of alate forms 

 caught in the nets of Orb-weavers) and by a fungus Entomophthora aphides (?). 



Greenhouse Pests. 



SowBUGS. Although sowbugs are not insects, they are closely enough related 

 to the hexapods to be of interest to entomologists, and therefore the following notes 

 will not be out of place in an entomological report. 



Sowbugs were exceedingly troublesome during the fall of 1912 and the spring 

 of 1913 in the greenhouses of J. Gammage and Sons, London, Ont. Owing to thedr 

 depredations the carnations were stunted and backward in growth, and the sweet 

 peas had to be sown again. The seedlings of Asparagus plumosus. Primula obconica, 

 Petunia, Lobelia, Solanura capsicum and of many other plants were badly attacked. 

 Tender cuttings, such as those of begonia and coleus, were also severely injured. 



