81 



Weic fruit pcsts. — Some new cneniies of fruits, perhaps of only 

 minor importance, ])ut worth}' of mention here, are the following-: 



The blackberry soft Hi^.n\ii {Eulecanhiiii fitchi Sign.) and the rose 

 scale {Aiilacaspts 'rosx Bouche) appeared in injurious num})ers in sev- 

 eral localities in western Ontario in blackl)erry plantations. 



A noctuid {Scopelosoma trhtigmata Grote) and a geometer {Mesoleuca 

 truiivaid Hufn.) were sent in from Vancouver Island as having done 

 harm in strawberry beds. 



A single specimen (the tirst recorded) of the brown-tailed moth 

 {E^qwoct'tH rliryi^orrJKxa L.) was caught at light in St. John, New Bruns- 

 wick. I do not think that this means that the insect has spread to New 

 Brunswick from Massachusetts, but rather that a moth or the pupa 

 was brought direct from Boston on one of the many passenger ships 

 plying reguiarly from that port to St. John. It indicates, however, 

 how easily this or any other insect might be spread to a new locality. 



Of rather more importance than the al)ove-mentioned is a new injury 

 reported this season fi'om several places in western Ontario and 

 observed in a few cases last year at Ottawa, by the larvae of the sawfly 

 ( Tau'on MX n igrlsoiua Nort). These larvfe are frequently found in autumn 

 on different kinds of Rumex and Polygonum, of which they reduce 

 the leaves to a skeleton. The injury to apples is done by the green 

 larvte boring into the fruit in autumn. From the appearanc^e of the 

 burrows, which run in for about half an inch into the flesh of the 

 apple and which contain no black excrement, I am led to hope that 

 this is merely an accidental injury, the larvae merely boring into 

 apples as they might into any soft, firm substance, in which to exca- 

 vate their winter quarters. The usual habit is for the larvae to bore 

 into the pithy stems of herbaceous plants. I have no record of the 

 larva? attacking the leaves of apple trees, but Professor Lochhead, of 

 Guelph, saw these larva3 climbing up the trunks of apple trees in 

 October. The injur}- to fruit was, however, of rather a serious nature, 

 tne apples lieing much disfigured, and in many instances they were 

 rendered unfit for market and had to be fed to pigs. Should this 

 sawfly larva become a regular enemy of the apple, a remedy which 

 suggests itself is the destruction of all weeds growing near the trees 

 which belong to the dock or smart-weed family. 



FOREST INSECTS. 



The hh'ch skeletonizer {Bucculatrix canadensisella Chainh.). — The 

 l)irches, particularly the white birches, throughout the greater part of 

 Canada east of the prairie provinces have been greatly disfigured 

 during the past two seasons by the small larva? of this tineid. Owing 

 to the cool, damp season of 1902, the attack was not apparent until a 

 fortnight later than in 1901, and it is hoped that the ultimate effect on 



22170—03 6 



