REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 205 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



while ill others hardly any bunches of fruit had been injured. Mr. Stokes attributes 

 this freedom from injury to the time at which the blossoms opened. If the fruit is 

 set before the beetles api>ear they do not seem to be specially attracted. It is while 

 the flowers are open and the perfume is given forth that they are attracted and do so 

 much harm. Clover when in bloom is also a favourite food plant for the Rose Chafer. 

 Mr. Geo. Green, of Niagara Falls South, showed mc a field of clover close to his vine- 

 yard which was simply a seething mass of beetles, which were swarming over the 

 blossoms in hundreds of thousands. Mr. Green attributed a fairly good crop of fruil 

 in his vineyard to the greater attraction which the clover had been for the beetles at 

 the time the grapes were in bloom. 



The Rose Chafer is a dull, yellov/ish grey beetle about one-third of an inch long, 

 tapering a little towards each end. Its long sprawling legs arc reddish with the feet 

 black and tipped with strong claws with which it hangs tightly to the flowers it is 

 destroying. The eggs are laid beneath the surface of the ground by the females, which 

 burrow down about two inches at the time they lay their eggs. Each female lays 

 about thirty eggs which hatch in three weeks, and the young grubs feed on the roots 

 of grasses and other plants within their reach. They become full grown in autumn 

 and pass the winter in a cell deep beneath the surface. At the opening of spring tho 

 larvae come up near the surface in the month of May and change to pupae in small 

 oval cells. In shape the larvae and pupae resemble those of the well known Whitu 

 Grub. 



Dr. Chittenden points out the advantage of prompt action in the collecting of thi' 

 beetles or destroying them with contact sprays, immediately on their first appearance, 

 and advises that all land which might serve as a breeding place should be ploughed 

 and harrowed in May for the destruction of the pui)ae. The least amount possible of 

 light sandy land should be left in sod. 



There are many brands of wliale oil soap in the market. Those which are made 

 with potash are considered the best and most conv^enient to use for the destruction of 

 insects. That used by Prof. Webster was made by W. H. Owen, of Port Clinton, 

 Ohio, and costs about 4^ cents a pound by the 100-poui;d keg. 



The 5rown-tail IfoTii, Euproctis chrysorrhcea, L. — There has been considerable 

 correspondence again during the past season with regard to the infestation of the 

 Nova Scotian orchards by the Brown-tail Moth. The matter has been taken up ener- 

 getically by Prof. Gumming, Secretary of Agriculture for Nova Scotia, who made use 

 of the school children in the public schools in an effort to destroy all of the winter 

 colonies of the caterpillars. A bounty of ten cents per nest was paid and these were 

 sent in and identified by stated qualified officials and about 3,500 nests were passed 

 as being those of the caterpillars of the Brovsm-tail Moth. Most of these were collected 

 in a small isolated area near Bear River, N.S., where little work had been done 

 the previous year. In those districts where operations were carried on last year, 

 although a very much larger area was covered, not more than 200 nest^ were found. 

 Prof. Gumming and Profs, Smith and Shaw, of the Agricultural College staff at 

 Truro, N.S., have also been studying the matter carefully during the summer and 

 arrangements were made for qualified men to go through the infested areas right up 

 to the end of the season. Prof. Shaw thinks that the orchards of King's county, one 

 of the infested districts, are absolutely clear of the pest and he does not know of any 

 having been found in the forests adjacent. In Digby county also only four Brown- 

 tail Moth nests had been found up till December 6 last, by five inspectors who the 

 previous spring had found the nests exceedingly numerous in the same county. At 



the end of the winter season Prof. Shaw writes: — 

 « 

 ' There have been about 15.000 specimens of insects sent in to Principal Gumming 

 by the school children who have been collecting the Brown-tail Moth winter nests. 

 Of these, 3,500 were of the Brown-tail Moth and these were found chiefly at Bear 

 River and Smi»th's Cove, Digby county.' 



