Report of the State Entomologist. 13 



the following summary of tlie life-liistoiy of the insect, as it has 

 been worked out within the last few months : 



" The eggs are deposited on the twigs of plum trees in the 

 autumn (October). They hatch at the putting out of the leaves the 

 following spring. Three generations follow on the plum, of which 

 the last only is winged, which at once migrates to the hop-yards. 

 The fourth and the succeeding generations on the hop, to the 

 eleventh inclusive, are wingless females. The twelfth generation 

 consists of winged males and females — the latter, agamic, and 

 these return to plum trees in September. Here the thirteenth 

 generation is composed of sexual wingless females, w^hich, after 

 mating, deposit the eggs which are to hatch the following spring, 

 in continuation of the species. For a detailed statement of the 

 above, see a communication made by Mr. L. O. Howard, of the 

 Division of Entomology, under instructions from Professor Eiley, 

 in the Country Gentleman, for November 17, 1887, page 875, giving 

 also the latest studies of Professor Eiley upon the insect, made in 

 England during the present autumn." 



Now that the winter abode of the hop-aphis has been ascertained 

 to be on plum trees, in the egg state, thereby, to a certain extent, 

 bringing it within our reach (some entomologists are not yet willing 

 to concede that it does not, in part, hibernate in the soil of hop- 

 yards), it may with propriety be claimed that ' " the practical 

 outcome of the investigation is very great." But it is to be feared 

 that our worthy Commissioner of Agriculture, who has lent the 

 aid of his department to this investigation, has been over sanguine 

 in his announcement in his report of the present year, that "there 

 is now no reason wh}^ this pest, which last year damaged the crops 

 to the extent of hundreds of thousands of dollars, should be longer 

 feared by hop-growers." 



The onion crop has suffered severely from insect attack in 

 various portions of the State. Serious complaints have been made 

 of injuries from the onion maggot (the larva of the onion Hy, Pltor- 

 hia ceparum Meigen), in Suflblk, Queens, Rensselaer, Essex and 

 Genesee counties. In Otsego county, wire-worms are reported as 

 having done much harm, while in Queens county, cut-worm attack 

 was combined with that of the onion-fly. These injuries were not 

 general, for in Saratoga and Livingston counties the crop is repre- 

 sented as having been remarkably free from the ordinary depreda 

 tions of its insect enemies. 



