104 DECIDUOUS FRUIT INSECTS AND INSECTICIDES. 
Disease.’ An abstract of these remarks, published in Science,! is 
as follows: 
Mr. M. B. Waite presented a communication on a new peach and plum disease 
caused by a species of mite attacking and killing the terminal bud of the very young 
trees. The resulting loss in the value of the trees was considerable, as many thousand 
trees would be affected in one nursery. A similar disease prevailed in the Japanese 
quince. 
No further reference to this trouble appears to have been published 
by Prof. Waite. In Entomological News,? under the caption “ Pre- 
liminary notes upon an important peach-tree pest,’ Prof. W. G. 
Johnson states: 
In September, 1896, while inspecting the nurseries of Maryland, I found many 
peach trees dwarfed and stunted, and at first glance attributed it to the black peach 
aphis (Aphis prunicola Kalt.), Later inspection proved conclusively that the trouble 
wasnot caused by that insect, but bysomeothercreature. A lot of trees were examined 
in my laboratory and I discovered a minute mite (Phytoptidz) working behind and 
in the buds. In nearly every instance the terminal bud had been destroyed, thus 
forcing the laterals. These in turn would grow for a short time and were then killed. 
As a consequence the trees were crooked, stunted, and not salable, being less than 3 
feet in height. They were what I have termed dog-legged trees, on account of their 
very crooked condition. 
Prof. Johnson’s note led to some comment by other entomologists, 
and Prof. F. M. Webster, in the Entomological News,*? under the 
title ‘The new peach mite in Ohio,” reports the finding by Mr. C. W. 
Mally, in the course of nursery inspection work, of the characteristic- 
ally injured peach trees, though the depredator was not determined. 
It is stated that in one very extensive nursery the greater portion of 
a block of 500,000 young peach trees was more or less affected and 
the presence of the pest was noted also in another nursery in the 
same general region. 
Prof. P. H. Rolfs in a note, ‘‘The new peach mite,” in Entomo- 
logical News,‘ called attention to the distribution of a mite which he 
erroneously thought to be the one referred to by Messrs. Johnson and 
Webster, namely, a phytoptid, causing a silvering of peach leaves— 
a mite which was subsequently described by Banks under the name 
Phyllocoptes cornutus from material from the insectary grounds in 
Washington. A further confusion is evidenced in a note by Mr. 
Claude Fuller, in Entomological News,® in which attention is called 
to a silvering of the leaves of deciduous fruit trees as noted by him 
in South Africa and due to the attack of a very small Phytoptus. 
This is very probably similar if not identical with Phyllocoptes 
cornutus. f 
Messrs. Webster and Mally refer briefly to the subject in an article 
on “Insects of the Year in Ohio,’ read before the Association of 
) 
1 Science, new series, vol. 6, Oct. 23, 1897, p. 707. 41 Ent. News, vol. 9, Mar.,1899, p. 73. 
2 Ent. News, vol. 8, Dec., 1898, p. 255. 5 Ent. News, vol. 9, Sept., 1899, p. 207. 
3 Ent. News, vol. 9, Jan.. 1899, p. 14. 
