[FLETCHER] INJURIOUS INSECTS OF CANADA 221 



troublesomcinsects the practical entomologist has to deal with ; all efibrts 

 to control them Avith poisonous substances and most agricultural methods 

 adopted with the same purpose have failed. Late ploughing of infested 

 land and sowing fields with rj^e or barley are the only experiments which 

 have given any degree of success. 



The Bronze Apple Weevil (MagdaUs œnescens, Lee). — Considerable 

 damage in Vancouver Island orchards is every year attributable to the 

 attacks of this beetle. The fully developed beetle is deep bronze-black, 

 narrow in shape and about a quarter of an inch in length. The female 

 lays her eggs in minute holes which she bore's with her slender elon- 

 gated snout into the bark of apple trees. There are as a rule several 

 of these holes in a group. As soon as the grubs hatch, they eat burrows 

 through the tender bark and in the surface of the wood. Sometimes 

 they occur in large numbers and the attacked trees soon die. Appar- 

 ently healthy young trees are frequently attacked. Although the grubs 

 have not yet been detected as enemies of the cherry, the perfect beetles 

 swarm on the foliage of that tree and devour it to a serious extent. 

 The regular treatment of orchards with alkaline washes to prevent the 

 attacks of borers, and regular spraying of foliage for leaf-feeding in- 

 sects, will control this enemy. 



The Peach Bark-borer {Phïœotrihus Uminaris, Harris). — One of the 

 most serious enemies of the peach grower in the Niagara Peninsula, 

 although frequently overlooked, is this minute scolytid, which, although 

 only one-twelfth of an inch in length, by reason of its attacks and those 

 of its larvae, causes such an enormously disproportionate outflow of gum 

 from the trees that they are soon weakened and killed. As soon as 

 this pest is noticed in an orchard, the trees should be washed as early 

 as possible in the spring and again subsequently with a combined alka- 

 line and carbolic acid wash. (Eep. Exp. Farms, 1893, p. 176, and 1894,. 

 p. 212.) Of somewhat similar habits to the Peach Bark-borer is the 

 Fruit Bark-beetle (Scolytus rugulosus, Eatz.), which although for some 

 years a destructive enemy of the fruit grower in the United States close 

 to our borders, only appeared in our Canadian orchards in 1898. 

 {Farmer's Advocate, 1898, p. 262.) As a general thing this insect con- 

 fines its depredations to unhealthy trees ; its injuries, therefore, are 

 not of so much importance as those of the Peach Bark-borer. In the 

 case of both, however, all moribund trees should be cut down and 

 promptly burned. 



The Gray Peach Weevil (Anametis grisea, Lee). — An unusual but 

 sometimes serious attack upon peach and apple trees is by the Gray 

 Peach Weevil, a beetle belonging to the Otiorhynchidœ, which crawls up 



Sec. IV., 1899. 14. 



