Report of the State Entomologist 347 



several of the insect attacks of the year, to which I had given atten- 

 tion, were not mentioned. May T briefly refer to a few of them here. 

 They will be mainly of fruit insects. 



COLEOPHORA SP. A NeW Pe.VR InSECT. 



On June 8, 1888, Mr. P. Barry reported to me that the newly-set 

 pears of the Mount Hope Nurseries had been vigorously attacked by 

 a new enemy, a queer-looking form, which was found with one end 

 inserted into the fruit. Examples were subsequently sent, when the 

 depredator was found to be the larvtc of a small Tineid moth, of the 

 group known as " case-bearers," from the small case which they con- 

 struct for their covering while in the caterpillar and pupal stages — 

 sometimes cylindrical, sometimes ellipsoidal with a smooth or ridged 

 surface, in others horn-shaped, and indeed, assuming various forms. 

 The case is never deserted by the larva, but is carried about upon its 

 body, thrusting out its head to feed, and in this instance burying its 

 head and front segments into the fruit, with the case projecting there- 

 from and appearing as if a small twig had been stuck into the pear. 



Specimens of the fruit submitted showed that the operations of the 

 caterpillar consisted in boring numerous round holes of about the 

 diameter of its body (that of an ordinary pin) to the depth that it 

 could protrude from its case. Withdrawing itself, it would remove a 

 space and again burrow into the fruit. Many of these holes had been 

 made in each pear. One of the pears received, of only one-half inch 

 in diameter, showed, by count, forty-four of the borings. The neces- 

 sary result of such an attack was the destruction of the fruit, it 

 becoming with its growth gnarled and wholly unfit for use. 



The detection of this attack is undoubtedly the explanation of 

 many of the scars and unsightly deformations of apples and pears, 

 which, from the entirely different character presented at a later stage 

 of growth, had long been a j^erplexing mystery to me, not being able 

 to refer it to any known insect. A month later, Julj^ 9, some Duchesse 

 pears, of about an inch and one-fourth in diameter, were received from 

 J. F. Rose, of South Byron, N. Y., which were sent as a sample of hie 

 crop, which had been rendered worthless from its scarred and gnarled 

 condition. I recognized the injury as having been caused by the Coleo- 

 phora. Some of the spots retained their original round form, while 

 others had become elongated, triangular, lozenge-shaped, or of irregu- 

 lar forms, as the result of the growth of the fruit. The margins of the 

 scars were blackened, elevated, and the somewhat enlarged interior 

 contained pale, yellowish, granulated matter. From twenty to thirty 



