348 Forty-fourth Report of the State Mlseum 



of the scars occurred on each pear, and several of the same character 

 on the stems. [* J 



It is quite probable that this Coleophora attack will prove to be 

 widespread and the cause of injury frequently observed but not 

 hitherto traced to its source from the early period at which it is made. 

 The insect seems to belong to the genus Coleophora. The species has 

 not yet been determined. From the half-dozen cases sent me, two of 

 the insects were successfully carried to their perfect stage, and are 

 now in the State collection. The larvse ceased feeding and fastened 

 their cases on end to the bottom of the box containing them on June 

 13th. The first moth emerged twelve days thereafter, and the 

 second on July 7th. 



Should the insect appear in injurious numbers hereafter, it could be 

 destroyed by sj^raying with an arsenite soon after the setting of the 

 young fruit. 



The Pear-blight Beetle. 



The "pear-blight beetle," Xyleborus pyri (Peck) appeared in great 

 abundance in a pear orchard of Mr. Norman Pomroy, of Lockport, 

 N. Y., in the spring of 1888, where its operations were so severe that 

 the orchard consisting of young trees, was nearly ruined by it. The 

 attack had assumed a different character from that usually ascribed 

 to it, for instead of the burrows of the insect running upward or 

 downward, in this they were mainly horizontal, and carried around 

 the trunks or limbs of the young nursery stock so as to nearly girdle 

 them and permit of their being easily broken off by hand. All of the 

 trees attacked were killed, and wei-e either palled up when they were 

 seen to be dying, or sawn off below the lowest burrows, which in 

 many cases was near to the ground. These latter, subsequently made 

 a vigorous and healthy growth. The injuries of this beetle have long 

 been known, but thus far we have been without its life-history. 

 Nothing, so far as I know, has been published of its early stages. As 

 Mr. Pomroy who kindly sent me some of the infested material from 

 Lockport, claims to have seen the insect in its egg and young stages, I 

 extract portions of his letter, containing also, interesting notes of 

 habit, that they may be compared with observations of others that 

 will be made hereafter. 



Writing under date of June 5th, 1888, he states: " I find by close 

 inspection, the eggs as well as the young. By cutting carefully into 

 the burrow the bottom of the hole is found to be full of eggs and 

 young ones." Under date of June 13th, the following: "When the 



[*A portion of this injury, it was subsequently learned, was inflicted by one of the 

 plant-bugs, Lygus imniiis Say, as will be related in the Report of the Entomologist for 

 the year 1891.] 



