INSECTS ATTACKING LARGE FRUITS. 73 



at the extremity of the probe, it is safe to conclude that a fatal stab 

 has been given the worm, and you can pass to the next. They will be 

 found the most numerous along the margins of wounds and new 

 formations, healing places, where branches have been cut off, and upon 

 the side of those branches having an exposure to the sun. Branches 

 which have become bent by a heavy load of fruit are liable to their at- 

 tacks upon the upper side, as the sap becomes sluggish in such places, 



Kansas Notes — This borer is a native American insect, and is 

 found all over the country. It is mentioned in the Transactions 

 of the Kansas Horticultural Society for 1873. (See pp. 123 and 

 133.) In the Transactions of the Society for 1874, Mr. G. C- 

 Brack ett says (p. 194) : 



This of all others has been the most troublesome to the orchardist 

 during the past season, and the most difficult to combat. . . . Row 

 after row of fine and promising young orchards throughout the State 

 have been literally cut to pieces by their silent and incessant gnawing. 



In the report of the committee of entomology, Kansas State 

 Horticultural Society for 1884, (see Report of Kansas State Hor- 

 ticultural Society for 1885, p. 102,) it is said : 



This insect is of very general distribution throughout the State, and 

 seems to be present wherever apple trees are planted. It breeds in 

 many of our native fruit-trees, and it will probably be always with us. 

 . . . In some localities the loss occasioned by it is very great. H. 

 E. VanDeman estimates its injuries as equal to 25 per cent, of the 

 trees in .our orchards. L. A. Simmons writes that " it has destroyed 

 many thousands of trees, the year they were planted." G. W. Ashby 

 calls it " the terror of the orchardist."' Many others mention it as 

 being destructive to young or neglected orchards. 



APPLE-ROOT LOUSE. 



(Schizoneura Imiigera Hausm.; Order, Hemiptera.) 



Diagnosis. — Infesting- apple; starving and weakening, some- 

 times dying trees, with no indication of borers, nor any visible 

 insect pests at work ; on examination of the roots, small, wart-like 

 swellings of all shapes and sizes, and in these swellings minute 

 plant-lice covered with bluish-white " wool." 



Description and Life-historij. — This insect is one of the plant- 

 lice, minute, soft-bodied, mostly wingless insects which live by 



