ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 79 



The Pear-tree Flea-louse is an introduced insect which was first recorded as injurious 

 in America in 1833, according to Dr. Harris. It seems to be widely distributed in the 

 Eastern United States and occasionally has developed into a serious pest. It has been 

 treated of at various times by Dr. Lintner, Dr. J. B. Smith and the "Washington Entomo- 

 logists. The most important articles are those by Prof. Lintner in his Ninth Eei)ort and 

 Prof. Slingerland in Bulletin 44, Cornell Univ. Agr. Exp. St., October, 1892, where a 

 complete account is given of its life history and habits. 



The presence of this insect is easily detected by the copious secretion of honey dew 

 with which the leaves of the infested trees are covered and which soon becomes covered 

 with the dirty looking black fungus {Fmnago salicina),Si.n6. also, after a time, by the falling 

 of the foliage. The insect itself is about one-tenth of an inch in length, of reddish brown 

 colour, with broad black bands across the abdomen, with transparent wings, the fore wings 

 bearing one large vein which is divided into three forks, which again are bifurcated at the 

 extremities. The immature insect, when first hatched, is a curious flattened oval creature, 

 semi-translucent, yellow and very inconspicuous, only one-eightieth of an inch in length. 

 It grows rapidly and in about a month passes through the five nymph stages, the last two 

 of which are called the pupal stages and have black wing pads and blotches of the same 

 colour on the body. Dr. Lintner records at least four broods during the season. An 

 encouraging feature noticeable in all the accounts of this insect is the irregularity of its 

 appearance, its occurrence in large numbers one year very seldom indicating that it will 

 be as abundant the next. 



Another very troublesome enemy of the fruit-grower is the Cigar Case-bearer of the 

 apple (Coleophora Fletcherella, Fernald), which has been sent in from several places in 

 Ontario and the Maritime Provinces. The first specimens were from Mr. Edwin Worden, 

 of Oshawa, Ont., who in March sent twigs of apple trees thickly infested with the hiber- 

 nating larvae of the case- bearer, and the cocoons of the interesting little moth Micropteryx 

 pomivorella, Pack. Specimens of the former came also from the Grimsby district, where 

 it was stated that Greenings suffered most. Later in the year I had a visit from Mr. 

 Harold Jones, of Maitland, Ont., who has suffered much from this small but very trouble- 

 some insect. He estimates his loss at fully the q,verage fruit of one hundred trees. This 

 has proved an extremely diflScult insect to control. The life history is as follows : 



The eggs are laid by the tiny moths during July. The young larvte hatch in about 

 a fortnight, and burrowing into the leaves, feed upon the parenchyma for a short time. 

 They then cut out from both surfaces of the leaf oval pieces of the epidermis, with which 

 they form their curious cases. Mr. Jones observed the young larvae beneath the leaves 

 about the 10th of August, and by the 1st of September they were clustered on the twigs. 

 Here they remain all the winter with their curved cases, fastened securely to the twigs 

 with white silk. As soon as the buds open in spring, they crawl out on the twigs and 

 attack the unfolding leaves and flowers. As the leaves get larger, they confine themselves 

 to the leaves, feeding chiefly on the undersides, where they bore a circular hole through 

 the epidermis and extending their bodies into the cavity between the upper and lower 

 surfaces, make large blotch-mines. They also do much harm by attacking the stems 

 of the flowers and forming fruit. About the third week in June the larva* crawl to the 

 upper surface of the leaves, and, having fastened their cases down, change to pupa? inside 

 them ; the very small dark brown moths, a quarter of an inch in length, appearing from 

 the second week to the end of July. 



The remedy, which has been tried for this insect with the greatest success, is spraying 

 with kerosene emulsion early in spring. Dr. Young, of Adolphustown, who suffered 

 much from this insect, writes me on July 3rd last : " On the large block of Duchess apple 

 trees, where we sprayed with Paris green in 1891 and '92, when the case-bearers were 

 so numerous, there is now^ only an odd worm to be seen ; but in other parts of the 

 orchard, where they had scarcely reached at first, they were numerous this spring. The 

 kerosene emulsion, either warm or co!d, used in the winter had no eftect ; but when used 

 cold in the spring, after the worms began to move about, was very effectual. It more com- 

 pletely cleaned the trees of the case-bearers than did the Parif green. Still the Paris 

 green did well, and took most of them off. We sprayed with both the same day." It is 



