354 Forty-fourth Report on the State Museum 



A New Rose Pest, 



A destructive borer of the tips of rose bushes has made its appear- 

 ance at Ausable Forks, N. Y., during the past summer, which has 

 only been observed in its larval stage, and therefore can not be 

 named at present. It apparently belongs to the Tenthredinidae, or 

 saw-flies. Its form of injury is to commence at the extreme tip and 

 burrow downward several inches, consuming the entire interior of 

 the stem. Some of the infested tips were sent to me during the 

 month of June, and were inserted in damp sand for maturing the 

 larvpe which they might contain. On June twenty-seventh, two had 

 completed their growth and burrowed into the sand, where they have 

 formed cocoons of the general shape of those of the currant-worm, 

 and measuring four-tenths of an inch in length; but it is quite doubt- 

 ful if they can be carried through to their perfect stage, as hiberna- 

 ting larvse of the saw-flies are difficult to rear. 



The lady sending them has written: "About twenty years ago my 

 garden roses were infested by this same borer. I fought them with 

 knife and fire for four or five years, and rid myself of them entirely, 

 and had never seen one since until this year. I have not been able 

 to find a fly or a beetle on the bushes uncommon enough to think it 

 the cause. As yet, tea and green-house roses in open ground are 

 exempt." 



Mention is made of the above, and of the other attacks, the authors 

 of which are unknown, in the hope that whenever they may come 

 under observation the opportunity will be embraced to give them 

 such study as will lead to their identification and a knowledge of 

 their entire history, that we may know how to deal with them. 



Various Attacks of Fruit Insects. 



Several other attacks have come to my knowledge during the past 

 year, to which there is no time to refer at length, but which deserve 

 to be i)ut on record. 



The Apple-leaf Bucculatrix. — -This, at times, destructive insect, 

 known to science as Bucculatrix jjoniifoliella Clemens (see First Report 

 on the Insects of New York, 1882, pp. 157-167), which seems to display 

 a partiality for the orchards of western and central New York, has 

 attacked the trees of W. J. Strickland, of Albion, Orleans county, 

 N. Y. Twigs infested with the cocoons were sent to me October 

 twenty-fifth. 



The Apple-leaf Miner. — The larvae of the apple-leaf miner, Tischeria 

 mahfoliella Clemens, actively engaged in running their curious mines 

 within the leaves of apple-trees on the grounds of State Botanist 



