[flltcher] 



I^■JURIOUS INSECTS OF CAN'ADA 



209 



-The American Frit-fly — 

 enlarged. 



broke out in 1898, and to a few places where it occurs sparsely in the 



Maritime Provinces. 



Two important new enemies of cereals have appeared and require 



mention here, viz., the American Frit-fly and the Wheat-stem SaAvfly. 



The American Frit-fly {Oscinis carhonaria, Loew.), a native insect, is 



described and the life history given in 



the report of the Dominion Experi- 

 mental Farms for 1890 (under the 



name of Oscinis variabilis). Eeme- 



dies : These are the same as those for 



the Hessian fly, the life history of the 



two insects being similar, viz., (1) 



Late sowing of fall wheat ; (2) Har- 

 rowing of stubbles (or in the West the 



burning over or ploughing down 



deeply of stubbles) ; (3) Applications of special fertilizers in spring. 



The Wheat-stem Sawfly (Ceplms pygmœus, L.). — A remarkable' 



Canadian outbreak was that of the Whctit-stem Sawfly. In 1889, Prof. 

 Comstock published a bulletin from Cornell Univer- 

 sity describing an occurrence of this insect on the 

 College farm at Ithaca, N.Y., in which nearly 5 per 

 cent of the wheat in a field was infested. In 1887, 

 Mr. W. H. Harrington took a specimen of the fly 

 at Ottawa, Canada, and received specimens from 

 Buffalo, N.Y., in June, 1888 and 1889. In July, 

 1895, the writer collected specimens of the perfect 

 insect at Indian Head, N.W.T., but, with the excep- 

 tion of the injury at Ithaca, N.Y., no record was 

 made of injury to grain crops until 1896, when Mr. 

 Wenman, of Souris, Manitoba, found larvae injuring 

 wheat in his own fields and those of some of his 

 neighbours, from which the sawflies were bred the 

 following summer. (Eep. Exp. Farms, 1896, p. 229.) 

 Eemedies : As nearly all the larva? pass the winter 

 in the bases of the straw, the most practical remedy 

 is found in the treatment of infested stubble by burn- 

 ing it over before the flies emerge in the following 

 spring. 



The Amputating Brocade Moth (Radena arctica, 

 Boisd.) — The caterpillar of this moth is one of the 

 well-known cutworms, and, although normally, as 



indicated by its pallid colour, a subterranean feeder upon the roots and 



lower stems of various members of the Grass Family, has also the habit 



of occasionally becoming a Climbing Cutworm, sallying forth at night 



Fig. 2.— Base of straw 

 infested by Ce2)hus 

 23ygmœus : (a) co- 

 coon ; (6) plug of 

 borings ; (c) circular 

 cut ; (d) scattered 

 borings. 



^Figure kindly lent 

 by Prof. J. H. Com- 

 stock.) 



