7O NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
PEAR THRIPS 
Euthrips pyri Daniel 
The pear thrips is a slender, dark brown insect only about one- 
twentieth of an inch long and with very delicate, narrow, long- 
fringed wings (Plate 3). It appears with the opening of the leaf 
buds and when numerous may literally blast the developing blossoms 
and destroy the crop. This new pest was discovered in California in 
1904, has been under investigation in that region for the past eight 
years, and was found in the Hudson valley by Professor Parrott in 
1g1t. Evidence at hand renders it very probable that this insect 
has been in New York State for some time and that the mysterious 
failures of the pear crop in recent years attributed to * blossom 
blight ’’ or some obscure cause may have been due to the work of 
this minute enemy. 
Widely distributed in the Hudson valley. Early in May we 
found the pear thrips in an apple orchard near Ravena and very 
abundant in a pear orchard at Coeymans Hollow. Specimens were 
also received from Grapeville several miles distant. The insect is 
generally distributed about Germantown and was very abundant in 
the orchard of Spencer Brothers at Hudson. It has also been found 
back of Poughkeepsie and at Milton, Marlborough and Newburgh. 
Injuries. Personal examinations at Geneva and Hudson in com- 
pany with Professor Parrott, showed a nearly total destruction of 
the fruit buds in a number of orchards. The young leaves had 
assumed a characteristic spoon shape, the tips were browned or 
black, while the blossom buds were partially wilted masses of brown- 
ing tissue. Some 200 seckel pear trees in the orchard of Spencer 
Brothers were full of just such fruit buds, the loss amounting to 
about 400 barrels of fruit. 
A local pest. Though widely distributed in the Hudson valley, 
this insect is a local pest which may be very injurious in one orchard 
or even a portion of an orchard and hardly noticeable elsewhere. 
The restricted character of the outbreak was very well shown in the 
orchard of Spencer Brothers. Here a large block of vigorous seckel 
pear trees, some 200 in number, had practically all the bloom ~ 
destroyed, while Kieffers, lying west of the seckels and also down 
on the hillside, were comparatively unaffected. Those east of the 
seckel block and farther up the hill had most of the blossoms in the 
upper part of the tree destroyed. It would seem from this as though 
