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ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



Europe, although I only observed one this year. The worms of this brood finished feed- 

 ing about the end of June, and the flies (of which I obtained five females and one male) 

 emerged at different dates during July. The flies are about the same size as the preced- 

 ing species, but may be readily distinguished from them by the banded legs, while the 

 females have also a white band across the abdomen. Although the larvie were noticed 

 this year for the first time, it may be stated that Mr. Fletcher gave me last winter a 

 male, which had been previously captured by him. 



While these three species of saw-flies are troublesome and rapidly defoliate neglected 

 plants, they can be quite easily destroyed and kept in check, by a careful spraying at 

 necessary intervals during the season, with a solution of hellebore made by using an 

 /Ounce of the drug to a gallon of water. 



The Pear tree Slug, Eriocampa {Selandria) cerasi, Peck. 



Slug like larvfe apparently identical with those which have been mentioned in previous 

 Reports, (Nos. V, VI, IX, etc.) as attacking pear and cherry trees, were this year very abun- 

 dant at Ottawa upon Mountain Ash and Crataegus. This worm, Fig. 9, is, when young 

 almost black, or appears so on account of a slimy secretion with which it is covered ; the 



front portion of the body is much enlarged, and 

 the head thereby almost concealed. When fully 

 grown it is almost half an inch long, and after the 

 final moult the color is yellow and the skin is 

 free from slime. There are altogether five 

 moults ; the cast oQ slimy skins adhering to the 

 leaves. The insect feeds upon the upper surface 

 of the leaf, causing at first a small whitish patch, 

 but as the epidermis of the leaf is devoured more 

 and more rapidly with the enlargement of the worm, the foliage of a badly infested tree soon 

 has a dark withered appearance and commences to drop off. Pupation takes place in the 

 ground, in cells lined with a sticky substance, which forms a species of earth-encased 

 cocoon. The species is double brooded ; the flies of the first brood emerging about a fort- 

 night or three weeks after the larvre bury ; those of the second not appearing until the 

 following spring. The larvse were noticed in the summer of 1892, but were much more 

 abundant this year, and greatly disfigured some of the ornamental trees in the city. The 

 attack was most severe upjn the variety known as Oak -leaved Mountain Ash {P/jrus 

 acuparia var. quercifolia) the American form suff"ering comparatively 

 little. The ravages of this saw-fly. Fig. 10, may be easily checked by 

 spraying either with hellebore or paris green. Although the larvrc were 

 so abundant I have not been able to recognize a single specimen of 

 the fly among my captures, and specimens which I was breeding this 

 summer of the first brood emerged during my absence from home and 

 were so badly moulded as to be unrecognizable. 



The Cornel Saw-Fly, Ilarpiphorus tarsatus, Say. 



In Insect Life (Vol. II, page 239-243) is an article on " The Dogwood Saw-fly," 

 ■which supplements a paper which had been contributed to Garden and Forest by 

 Mr. J. G. Jack under the title "A Destructive Cornel Saw-fly {Harpiphorus varianus, 

 Norton)." As this insect is also found to attack Cornel in Canada a brief mention 

 of it may not be out of place. But before noting its operations I would like to point 

 •out that my observations go to show, as I have already indicated {Can. Ent. vol. 

 XXV, page 59) that H. varianus, Norton, is only a paler form of the species described 

 by Say in 1835 (Le Conte Ed., vol. TI, page 679) from Indiana, under the name 

 Emphytus tarsatus. H. versicolor, Norton, and H. testaceus of same author are also 

 apparently forms of the same insect, which is variable in colour. The proper name 

 for the species would, therefore, appear to be Harpiphorus tarsatus, Say, with varianus^ 

 versicolor and testaceus of Norton as variations, and it may perhaps be better to call 

 it the Cornel Saw-fly, as in some portions of Canada the name Dogwood is not always 

 .confined to these shrubs. The flies appear at Ottawa in June and the early part 



Fig. 10. 



