June, '09] journal of economic entomology 219 



were followed by very low temperatures and sleet and snow storms 

 over a large part of the ^Middle West. In consequence of this, almost 

 the entire tree fruit crop was destroyed. Here and there in peculiar 

 situations a few peaches and apples matured, but in the vicinity of 

 St. Louis there was such a dearth of the larger fruits that very few 

 codling moth or curculio larvre were able to find sustenance, and or- 

 chardists were to some extent comforted for the loss of their crops 

 by the assurance that not enough of the principal pests of the more 

 important fruits could possibly survive to do appreciable injury the 

 following year. 



But nature has many resources for man's discomfiture. True, cod- 

 ling moth larvae and eurculios, as predicted, were scarcely to be seen, 

 and the winter had been favorable for the preservation of the fruit 

 buds, but scarcely had the blossoms begun to unfold when an over- 

 whelming outbreak of ApliididcB occurred. Aphis mali on apple and 

 quince, A. prunifolii on the plum, Myzus persicce on the peach, in 

 such numbers that the blossoms were dwarfed and tarnished and the 

 young leaves so distorted and crumpled that the trees had the appear- 

 ance of being blighted. Comparatively little fruit set, even on trees 

 that were sprayed, and very few or no perfect fruits developed on ap- 

 ple, pear or quince trees. The scanty crop of peaches — reduced 

 chiefly through the extensive injury to the foliage — was of better 

 quality than that of the pip fruits, and this was also the case with 

 such of the cherries and plums as escaped the brown-rot. 



In the vegetable garden also, the same class of insects rendered 

 young plants of cabbage, mustard, lettuce, and later melons and cu- 

 cumbers, objects of abhorrence with the piled-up myriads of sap 

 suckers clustered on leaf and stem and blossom. In the flower gar- 

 den scarce a shrub, herbaceous, perennial or annual, afforded any sat- 

 isfactory blossoming or luxuriant groA^lh throughout the season on 

 account of the extraction of its vital juices by aphids, green and yel- 

 low, brown and red. 



This would not have been the case had not almost constant and tor- 

 rential rains prevailed throughout ]\Iay and June, undoubtedly drown- 

 ing out the natural enemies and checks of these pests. It was not 

 until the middle of July or later that I began to note on the clusters 

 of aphids some Coccinellid, Syrphus and Chrysopa larvae and during 

 the succeeding late summer and autumn drought these multiplied and 

 proportionately aphids diminished. Aphidins and Aphelinus species 

 did not become at all numerous, to judge bj' the comparatively few 

 parasited specimens observed. 



At present (December 20) very few aphid or winter eggs are to 



