54 



THE GKAPE VINE PHYLLOXERA. 



(Phylloxera vastatrix, Pianchon.) 



Compiled by the Key. C. J. S. Bethune, M.A. 



With the exception of the Colorado Potato Beetle, and the Locust of theWestern States, of 

 which we have given an account in another article, there is probably no insect that attracts more 

 general attention at the present time than the destructive Grape-Vine Phjlloxora (7'. vastatrix, 

 Planchon). To us in Canada it is but little known, but as its ravages may spread over our own 

 vineyards at any time, and as it must be an object of interest to all vinegrowers, we think it 

 proper to present to the readers of this Report an account of the insect and such other parti- 

 culars as we are enabled to gather together. The fact of the rare occurrence of the insect in 

 this country, and the consequent difficulties in the way of its study, is a sufficient reason, we 

 trust, why we should offer a compilation from the writings of others, rather than attempt any 

 original remarks of our own. Our quotations, unless otherwise specified, will be taken from 

 the admirable paper on the Phylloxera, by our valued friend, Professor C. V. KUey, State 

 Entomologist of Missouri, contained in his last Report {Sixth Annual Report on the Insects of 

 Missouri, 1874, pages 30-87.) The estimation in which Mr. Riley's work in this respect is 

 held in the great vine-growing countries of Europe, may be judged from the fact that, in the 

 month of February last, he was presented with a very handsome gold medal by the Minister 

 of Agriculture and Commerce of France, " in appreciation of his discoveries in Economic 

 Entomology, and especially of his services rendered to French grape culture." 



Though one form of the insect, the gall-inhabiting type, was noticed by Dr. Fitch, State 

 Entomologist of New York, as long ago as 1856, very little attention was paid to it for some 

 years. At length the serious disease of the grape-vine began to attract attention in France, 

 and to cause so much alarm, that the authorities offered a prize of 20,000 francs for an effec- 

 tual and practicable remedy. The disease was at first termed pourridic, or rotting — the roots 

 becoming swollen and bloated, and finally wasting away. There were no end of surmi.ses and 

 theories as to cause, until Professor J. E. Planchon, of Montpellier, in July, 1868, announced 

 that it was due to the puncture of a minute insect belonging to the plant-louse family {Aphi- 

 dida'), and bearing a close resemblance to our gall-louse.'' The following January, Professor 

 Westwood, of O.xford, England, announced that he considered both the gall and root-inhabit- 

 ing types to b3 different forms of the same insect. Shortly after a French writer gave it as 

 his opinion that the European insect was identical with the American species long before de- 

 scribed by Dr. Fitch. "This opinion," says Mr. Riley, "gave an additional interest to this 

 insect, and I succeeded, in 1870, in establishing the identity of the French gall-insect with 

 ours. During the same year I also established the identity of the gall and root-inhabiting 

 types, by showing that in the fall of the year the hist brood of gall-lice betake themselves to 

 the roots and hibernate thereon. In 1871, 1 visittd France and studied their insect in the 

 field ; and in the fall of that year, after making more extended observations here, I was able 

 to give absolute proof of the identity of the twoiu.«ects, and to make other discoveries, which 

 not only interested our friends abroad, but were of vital importance to our own grape- 

 growers, especially in the Mississippi Valley. 1 have i^iven every reason to believethat the failure 

 in the European vine, (Vitis vinifrra), when planted here, the partial failure of many hybrids 

 with the European vinijfera, and the deterioration and death of many of the more tender-rooted 

 native varieties, are mainly owing to the injurious work of this insidious little root-louse. It 



