2)2 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 
by Mr. E. A. Carew-Gibson, in Victoria, B.C., and by myself at Ottawa. It proved to 
be a beautiful little Tineid moth belonging to the genus Argyresthia. One of the speci- 
mens was sent to Lord Walsingham, of Thetford, England, a high authority on Micro- 
_ lepidoptera, who reports as follows :— 
‘“‘Merton Hall, Thetford, England, Dec. 13, 1897.—The moth which you have sub- 
mitted for determination is Argyresthia conjugella, Z., which in Europe feeds in the 
fruit of Pirus Aucuparia, but has not been recorded, so far as we know, from /irus 
Malus. Lord Walsingham has a worn specimen from Esquimalt, Vancouver Island, 
and he is inclined to think that his identification of the allied species mendica, Hw. 
(Insect Life, ITI, 118), as occurring at Washington, may have been erroneous, as the 
specimen was evidently not in good condition, and he would suggest that search should 
be made for the larve there and elsewhere.”—[Jno. Hartley Durrant, Ent. Asst. to 
Lord Walsingham. | 
The moth is a slender insect measuring 3 inch across the expanded wings. Upper 
wings silvery gray, mottled with darker patches. Along the inner margin, from the Lase 
to the middle of the wing, is a broad silvery band of white ending abruptly on the inner 
margin but in a spur running backwards at the outer angle of the band. This is fol- 
lowed by a conspicuous black patch, which, widest at the inner margin, runs diagonally 
backwards across the wing ; next to this is an elongated triangular white patch mottled 
with brown, having the base on the inner margin of the wing and the apex elongated and 
directed backwards toward the tip ot the wing, which terminates with an eye-like spot 
somewhat like a peacock’s feather. The dark gray lower wings are heavily fringed all 
round with long silky gray hairs, as also is the lower apical margin of the upper wings. 
The frontal tuft and the thorax are of the same silvery white as the broad bands on the 
upper wings, which, come together when the wings are closed and, joining with the 
thorax, form a continuous white dorsal stripe from the front to half way down the 
wings, where it 1s cut off by the dark bands which cross the wings diagonally. The 
two white triangular patches also come together when the wings are closed, forming a 
crescent-shaped saddle toward the tip of the wings. When at rest the posterior end of 
the body is raised up at an angle of 45 degrees and the insect is supported on four legs 
very widely separated. At such times the moth bears very little resemblance to an 
insect and may certainly be easily overlooked. 
Mr. Carew-Gibson was the first to breed this moth ; one of his specimens which he 
kindly forwarded to me, emerged from the cocoon on May 20, and another a few days 
later. The single pair which I bred at Ottawa from apples collected at Agassiz, B.C., 
by Dr. William Saunders, emerged on June 2 and 3, the cocoon having been taken out 
of the cellar May 24. Although they were male and female, I failed to get them to 
pair; thus no studies could be made of the eggs and the mode of oviposition. There 
has been little complaint of injury by the Apple Fruit-miner during the past season. Mr. 
R. M. Palmer, in a valuable report on the insect injuries of the year in British Col- 
umbia, with which he has favoured me, says:—‘‘ The Apple Fruit miner, as I expected, 
has been very little noticed this season, although I occasionally see specimens of apples 
injured by it ; so, it has not quite disappeared. The apple crop of the province this year 
has been an exceptionally good one, and the fruit better coloured and freer from scab 
than for many years past. The practice of spraying is now pretty general, and the season 
has also been favourable.” 
PLANT-LICE (Aphidide) of all kinds and upon almost every crop cultivated have 
been particularly abundant during the past season in ali parts of Canada except British 
Columbia, where, strangely enough as this province in most years suffers severely from 
them, there were less than usual :— 
“ Victoria, October 4.—Aphides of all kinds have been less numerous this summer 
than any year since I have been in the province. Aphis brassice, however, was an 
exception and was very troublesome on the islands.”—[R. M. Palmer. ] 
“ Yarmouth, N.S., November 30.—The excessive rains of April, May and the first 
half of June during which there was a precipitation of 18-8 inches were not propitious 
to insect life, except that we were visited by unprecedented swarms of Aphides that 
