172 ANNUAL REPORT 



a hole or passage way nearly through the cane, leaving simply a 

 thin film to hide it; this is very necessary as the delicate moth, 

 lacking biting mouth-parts, would not be able to reach the light of 

 clay. The larva burrows in the centre of the cane, feeding all 

 through the summer upon the pith. The tunnel thus made meas- 

 ures several inches in length. 



The Native Currant-borer (Psenocerus super notatus,) is the larva 

 of a rather fine-looking beetle, which has dark brown wing-cases 

 ornamented with white spots, as seen in the illustration and speci- 

 ^-^ ^— <, "iiens. (Fig. 7) It is not a very active insect, is 

 ^yW*f * ;eldom seen, and can only be obtained by beating 

 fMd the plant over an inverted umbrella. Its small, 



'"M^ f/mV white, cylindrical and footless larva, with a brown 

 w ^W head and black jaws, is also shown in the illustra- 



* ' tion, as well as the pupa. Many such borers are 



usually found in the same cane, where they feed 

 fig. 7. upon the pith. The larva belongs to the round- 



headed borers, whose injuries are frequently very great in apple 

 orchards. 



All these boring insects must be removed with the pruning knife, 

 and be burned at once. This is a rather heroic treatment, and 

 might well be modified, if the fruit-grower has the necessary time. 

 He ought to consider that most, if not all of his insect enemies 

 harbor parasites, which he cannot see. By burning cane and in- 

 habitants he not alone kills his foes, but his friends as well. To 

 protect the latter he should not burn the canes at once, but put 

 them in fairly tight boxes, covered on top with a coarse screen. 

 This would enable most of his friends, the parasites, to escape and 

 to carry on the. good work in garden and field, far better than any 

 human being could do. Later the canes could be destroyed, and 

 with them the enemies still in them or collected in the box, which 

 they could not leave on account of their greater size. Of course in 

 the case of the tree-cricket and buffalo-hopper this precaution 

 would be of little avail, as the insects hatching from the eggs in- 

 side of the cane are too small to be made prisoners by a coarse 

 screen. But if the boxes with infested canes were kept in the 

 barn, away from any fresh food, these young insects would perish 

 before reaching their food-plants; the parasites, on the contrary, 

 being mostly furnished with wings, and needing little or no food, 

 would soon find their way back to infested fields. 



Looking at the box filled with insects injurious to his fruit the 

 grower of these important plants will no doubt notice one thing: 

 without labor no fruit can be grown successfully for a series of 

 years. 



O.L. 



