166 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



This parasite is prol>ab]y the one referred to by Professor Kiley, as "a 

 minute Chalcid fly, which has increased to such an extent since the 

 ravages of the Coleophora became apparent on Mr. Fairweather's place, 

 that it bids fair to render additional remedies unnecessary. Tiie 

 specimens sent in 1877 were not parasitized ; those sent in 1878 were 

 about half of them affected, and of twenty-four specimens received in 

 March, 187'.), seventeen [over seventy per cent] had been destroyed by 

 this little fly." The species has not, so far as 1 know, been determined. 

 It is somewhat strange that this insect does not appear to have ex- 

 tended its depredations to any of the orchards in the immediate 

 neighborhood of the Deusmore Apple Farm.* 



Other Case-bearers. 



In vol. xxviii of the Proceedings of the American Association for the 

 Advanceineni of Scieiice (ISSO), Professor W. S. Barnard has figured 

 what is, without much doubt, the case of this insect, which had been 

 found by him upon chestnut, near Ithaca, to which it may have strayed 

 from the apple, after the habit of Bucculatrix poniifoliella. In the same 

 paper, the singular cases of several other Coleophora are described, one 

 of which, occurring on a species of rush growing on woody knolls, is 

 illustrated and its interesting peculiarities described at length. An- 

 other case, which had appeared late in autumn very plentifully on 

 some of the apple-trees about Ithaca, of which the insect hibernates on 

 the lower side of the branches m a small, flat, obovate purse which is 

 pendant to the bark by a small mass of silk, is the Aspidisca spleji- 

 doriferella Clem., or the Resplendent shield bearer. An extended 

 account and full illustration of this species, by Professor Comstock, 

 may be found in the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 

 the year 1879 (pp. 210-213, pi. 2, f. 2). 



Remedies. 

 Whenever, from absence of parasitism, or other cause, this little pest 

 (called by one of my correspondents, in consideration of its minute 

 size and its serious ravages, the " multnm in parvo'') becomes in- 

 juriously numerous, it may doubtless be controlled by the use of Paris 

 green or London purple. The former, Mr. Fairweather, thinks too 

 expensive in cost of material and labor of application for employment 

 in an orchard of the extent of his, numbering six thousand trees; but 

 although the protection of large orchards necessarily involves large ex- 

 penditures for material and labor, yet it should be borne in mind, that 

 the percentage of cost to each troe protected is no greater when ap- 



*As I learn from examples sent to me by Mr. C. E. Cook, of South Byron, Genesee 

 county, N. Y., the insect, at the present time (June 20, 1882), is infesting the apple-trees 

 of his orchards, to quite an injuhous extent. He had not detected its presence previous 

 to the present season. 



