224 i;OYAL fc^OCIKTY OK CANADA 



serious every year as to have deterred many from growing black cur- 

 rants. Although specifically named after Canada, this fly must be 

 regarded as rare and extremely local in the Dominion. With the ex- 

 ception of i)arts of British Columbia, it is certainly nowhere common 

 in Canada, although like the Apple Maggot it is abundant in some 

 seasons in the State of Elaine, close to our Ijorders. (Rep. Exp. Farms, 

 1897, p. 20-i.) 



The Plum Wt'l>-\vorm {Ijijda rufipes, Marlatt). — When travelling 

 through the Mennonite country in Southern Manitoba in the summer 

 of 18'JG, I obsen'ed much damage was being done to plum trees by the 

 gregarious false caterpillars of a sawfly, which webbed together the 

 leaves of whole branches, and soon stripped them of all green cellular 

 portions, in a very similar manner to the larvae of the Cherry-tree Tor- 

 trix (Caccecia cerasivorana, Fitch). This sawdly has also been found in 

 South Dakota and has been treated of by Prof. Williams. (Bull. 38, S. 

 Dak. Exp. Stn.) Xo specimens of the perfect insect have come into 

 my hands, and it is just possible that it may be the European Lijda 

 piri, of Schrank, which could easily have been imported in the cocoons 

 among the roots of the plum trees brought out by the Mennonites from 

 Southern Russia. 



The Pear-tree Flea-louse {Psylla piricola, Forster). — This insect 

 has only in one or two instances caused much loss in Canada, the first 

 record being in 189-i. (Rep. Exp. Farms, p. 210.) It may, however, be 

 found in small numbers in almost all pear orchards in Western Ontario, 

 and its injuries are often probably unnoticed even when they are of 

 considerable extent. The presence of this flea-louse may generally be 

 detected Ijy the copious secretion of honey dew with which the leaves, 

 limbs and trunks of the trees soon become covered and upon which a 

 dirty looking black fungus, Fumago salicina, developes. The mature 

 insects are like minute Cicadce and belong to the same section of the 

 Komoptera as the aphides or plant-lice. The Pear-tree Flea-louse passes 

 the winter in the perfect state, chiefly beneath the flakes of bark on tlie 

 trunks of the trees, beginning to move about and mate early in the 

 spring. At that time they are not very active, and, when it is known 

 that trees are infested, much good may be done by placing sheets on 

 the ground beneath these trees and scraping off with hoes all the rough 

 scales of bark. This debris should then be burnt at once, and the trees 

 sprayed with kerosene emulsion. 



The Black Peach Aphis (Aphis persicœ-niger, E. F. Smith). — The 

 first record of this very fatal enemy of the peach tree was at Leaming- 

 ton, Essex Co., Ontario. (Rep. Exp. Farms, 1895, p. 196.) But it is 

 hardly to be doubted that it might have been found in Canadian peach 



