240 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 6 



burned over and mullen and other partiallj-^ green plants which harbor 

 the insects should be carefully destroyed. In the spring trap crops 

 can probably be used to advantage in protecting nursery stock though 

 this will require futher investigation. When the adult tarnished plant 

 bugs are at work in the nursery a machine, provided with sticky shields, 

 something similar to the one used for the apple leaf-hopper, is very 

 effective in catching them. They are much more active than the leaf- 

 hopper but where such a machine has been used in a nursery it catches 

 thousands of the tarnished plant bugs. The writer is inclined to doubt 

 the feasibility of protecting peach stock by spraying, at least with any 

 of our present-day insecticides. 



THE APPLE LEAF-HOPPER 



{Empoasca mali LeB.) 

 By Leonard Haseman, Department of Entomology, University of Missouri 



To nurserymen growing apple trees on an extensive scale this pest 

 is often one of the most troublesome, especially in the more northern 

 section of the Middle West. It has for years caused great trouble to 

 nurserymen throughout the northern half of Missouri and in the last 

 season or two has shown signs of becoming troublesome in the nurseries, 

 even of the southern part of the state. In those nurseries where it 

 has become established it is exceedingly injurious to the young stock 

 and difficult to control. Aside from reports by Mr. Webster, issued 

 recently by the Agricultural Experiment Stations of Iowa and Minne- 

 sota, we have little in the way of definite records concerning this pest, 

 its life cycle and means of controlling it. 



For the past two years it has been under observation by the writer 

 in one of the larger nurseries of this state. We have not succeeded in 

 making much progress relative to the life cycle and habits of the pest 

 throughout the summer months, but we have determined some facts 

 and have arrived at a definite scheme which seems to prove entirely 

 effective in keeping the insect under control. We are told that the 

 pest passes the winter in the egg condition under the bark of apple 

 trees in the more northern states. From observations and experi- 

 ments in Missouri it would seem that the pest is never carried over 

 the winter in this condition, but, similar to the grape leaf-hopper, 

 it passes the winter in the mature stage hiding about rubbish, along 

 fence rows and under the foliage of such plants as docks, turnips and 

 others, the foliage of which is not always completely destroyed 

 by the first frosts of winter. Trees taken from the worst infested 



