December, '14] ROHWER: NEW STRAWBERRY SAWFLY 479 



fruit growers is, will it prove to be as destructive in the East as it has 

 been on the Pacific Coast? The results of its work in the Maryland 

 orchard indicate that it is capable of completely destroying a crop of 

 Kieffer pears. On May 5, 1914, the writer examined this orchard 

 again and found that, although the trees had bloomed profusely, no 

 fruit had set, the blossom clusters having dried up. There was no 

 crop in 1913, but this might have been due to a spring frost which the 

 o^ATier at the time thought killed the blossoms. In 1914, however, 

 there was no frost during the blooming period and no pear blight could 

 be found in the orchard, so that the thrips was apparently the sole 

 cause of the loss this year. 



For manj^ years this insect, so far as known, was confined to a few 

 counties of California, but in 1912 Parrott^ reported it as occurring at 

 several points in the Hudson River Valley of New York and the Mary- 

 land occurrence establishes it in a third state. Its discovery in other 

 localities will probably follow in rather rapid succession until it be- 

 comes one of our common orchard pests. 



So far as the writer knows, the Maryland outbreak is at present con- 

 fined to the orchard of Mr. Roland Phelps at Brooklj^n, about four 

 miles from Baltimore. This orchard consists of about two hundred 

 Kieffer pears wdth perhaps half a dozen Le Conte and Seckel pears 

 mixed in. These latter varieties were affected almost, if not quite, 

 as much as the Kieffer. The thrips also occurred on some nearby 

 peach and apple trees, but caused very little damage to these. Other 

 pear orchards in the same neighborhood were examined, but no thrips 

 found. 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SAWFLY INJURIOUS TO 



STRAWBERRIES - 



By S. A. RoHWER 



The following species is described at the request of Professor R. L. 

 Webster who has been working on the life-history of this species for a 

 number of years and who has prepared a paper dealing with the biology 

 and economics of the species of Empria injurious to strawberries in 

 Iowa. 



The species of Empria are closely related and the group is in bad 

 need of revision. As far as the author's experience with the genus 



IN. Y. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bui. No. 343, p. 13. 



- Contribution from the Branch of Forest Insects, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



