426 rOBTY-EIGHTH REPORT ON TBE STATE MCSfcUM 



covered with the " honey-dew " drew numbers of wasps to feed upon 

 the sweet substance. None of the trees were killed but many pre- 

 sented an unhealthy appearance. The attack was not renewed in 

 1892. 



Mr. John H. Brown, of Mt. Morris, Livingston county, sends the 

 information that he has had the Psylla with him during the past ten 

 years. The blackened leaves and the honey-dew indicated the attack. 

 It had been more severe during the two years past, in which time it 

 had killed a hundred of his trees. 



In Eastern New York. 



In Eastern New York the Psylla was reported as unusually abun- 

 dant and injurious in orchards of Mr. M. Brooks, in Athens, Greene 

 county, in 1893, preferring the Bartlett and Anjou to the other varie- 

 ties. It does not appear to have been numerous in most of the 

 localities where reported in former years. 



Remarkable Abundance of Aphides or Plant-Lice in 1893. 

 (Ord. HEMiprERA: Subord. Homoptera: Fam. Aphidid^.) 



The early spring did not bring to notice, either through personal 

 observation or that of my correspondents, the usual number of injuri- 

 ous insects. The earliest to claim attention were the aphides, or plant- 

 lice — more or less abundant every year, but in some seasons becoming 

 very numerous and correspondingly destructive. 



The opening of the apple-tree budsia early May was attended with 

 such an unusual abundance of the apple-tree aphis. Aphis mali Fabr.? 

 as to excite apprehens-ion of their effect upon the coming fruit crop. 

 Many letters were sent to me in relation to them. The necessity of 

 preventing their increase by spraying was urged on my correspondents, 

 unless a heavy and continued rain should occur before they would be 

 sheltered by the leaves — say within ten days or a fortnight after their 

 hatching. Mr. C. C. Risley, Chairman of the Executive Committee of 

 the Hop Growers' Association, of New York, writing under date of 

 May 9th, stated that hop-growers were reporting large numbers of 

 plant-lice on the buds and blossoms of fruit-trees and on rose-bushes, 

 recalling the conditions existing in the spring of 1886, in which year 

 the hop crop of the State of New York was almost wholly destroyed 



