APPLE INSECTS 



181 



cherry, prune and quince trees and various forest trees often 

 show many of the egg-scars. Hundreds of the incisions are 

 often made in a square inch or two of the bark, growth is checked 

 and such extensive scarification often ruins the trees. In some 

 locaUties the insect 

 is considered the 

 most destructive 

 insect enemy of 

 young fruit trees. 



The strongly 

 spined young bugs 

 or nymphs which 

 hatch from the 

 eggs five mostly on 

 grasses or weeds 

 near the scarred 

 trees. Thus only 

 uncultivated or- 

 chards or those 

 bordered by low 

 vegetation are seri- 

 ously injured by 

 this buffalo tree- 

 hopper. Two mi- 

 nute parasites de- 

 stroy many of the 

 eggs. Thorough cultivation and the burning over of weedy 

 borders in June will starve out and largely prevent injury from 

 this sucking bug. It cannot be reached satisfactorily with any 

 spray, but many of the eggs can be destroyed by judicious 

 pruning out of the freshly scarred branches in autumn or 

 winter. 



Stidocephala inermis Fabricius, a species of tree-hopper 

 similar to the last, also scars the branches with its characteristic 



Fig. 167. — The buffalo tree-hopper (x Sf). 



