REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



41 



pearauce. In the Departmental greenhouse a few of the grape-vines 

 were so much infested with the leaf-gall lice that they had to be cut 

 down; still the other vines in the same house w^ere never troubled with 

 the root-inhabiting insect; and when many dozens of vines, both under 

 glass and under common cultivation in the open air, were closely 

 searched by M. Planchon to prove the existence of the root-louse among 

 the vines, only half a dozen specimens could be procured. We ourselves 

 will not express an opinion on the subject of the identity of the two 

 insects, as we have no opportunity to watch the root-lice in our neigh- 

 borhood, but will merely state that, although the leaf-gall louse was 

 very plentiful in our gardens one year, not a single root-louse could be 

 found either the same season or the next, and, although much wanted 

 for experiment, not one could be procured excepting by sending to the 

 other States where they were said, to abound. The remedies for this 

 root-louse of the grape, recommended by various authorities, are too 

 numerous for a short report like this; but watering the roots with 

 hot soap-suds or tobacco-water has been highly spoken of. Carbolic 

 acid added to the water at the rate of one-half of 1 per cent., poured 

 into holes made with a crow-bar, will permeate the ground and destroy 

 the lice. Sulphuret of calcium dug in around the roots of the vine has 

 also been recommended. M. Gachez, in a recent number of Comities 

 Bendus, states that by planting rows of red maize between the rows of 

 grape-vines the vines are shielded from the ravages of the Phylloxera, 

 the insects abandoning the vine-roots for the roots of the maize. 

 Another experimenter reports that he found an effectual remedy in 

 digging a trench four inches deep around his infested vines and throw- 

 ing in 500 grammes (a little over a pound) of slaked lime, and then 

 whitewashing the vine after having removed the bark ; the remedies 

 proposed in the European journals to destroy this insect, however, are 

 too numerous to quote in this report, and as every writer thinks his own 

 remedy the best, and reports it as infallible, nothing can be relied upon 

 until it has been tested by competent persons in this country. Soot, 

 salt, sulpho-cyanide of potassium, lime, and wood-ashes are said to be 

 useful, if applied in proper quantities either above or under ground 

 around the roots of the vines. 



Asjpidiotits {Coccus) gloverii, or the mussel-shell orange-scale insect, 

 is found on the orange in Florida, 

 where it does much injury to the 

 orange-trees, sometimes killing whole 

 orange-groves ; it is found also on 

 citron and lemon trees, and was 

 found sparingly on a camelia grown 

 under an orange-tree. The female 

 scale (c) is from O.OG to 0.08 in length 

 by 0.02 in breadth, and resembles 

 the upper half of a miniature brown 

 mussel-shell with its flat side down- 

 ward en the leaf. These scales, 

 when placed singly and not crowded 

 together, are generally straight in 

 form, but when in clusters, they are 

 curved to suit the inequality of the 

 surface or contiguity of the neigh- 

 boring scales, {€.) The insect itself 

 is sheltered under the scale, and is of 

 a soft consistence, resembling a grub, 

 having the body gradually tapering from near the tail to the anteriorpart, 



