112 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



unusually large. The pressure of this class of our statistical work has 

 iu fact prevented the completion of important lines of investigation, 

 the results of which might otherwise have appeared in this report. 



J. E. DODGE, Statistician. 



Hon. Frederick Watts, Commissioner. 



REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND CURATOR 

 OF THE jMUSEUM. 



Sir : During the past year a large number of letters were received 

 from correspondents in various parts of the country containing insects 

 destructive to vegetation, many of which have already been figured and 

 described in the reports of the Department of Agriculture -, a monthly 

 record, however, has been kept of all that were new or interesting, and 

 these have been figured and i^ublished with as much of their natural 

 history, habits, &g., as is known. In. addition, a chapter on the reme- 

 dies, the present part embracing the Diptera, or two-winged flies, has 

 been appended, which may prove very useful to the agriculturist for 

 reference, as some of our most destructive insect pests are found in this 

 order, as for example the wheat-midge, the Hessian fly, the onion-fly, &c. 

 In examining x)eacli-orchards in the neighborhood of the Maryland 

 Agricultural College, about the first week of May, almost all the young 

 twigs of the trees were observed to be killed at the extreme point or end 

 for a distance of 1 to 2^- inches, and the terminal buds entirely destroyed. 

 On cutting open these dying twigs, the injury was found to be caused 

 by a very minute cateri)illar, which, entering the twig near a bud, had 

 entirely eaten out the pith and interior, leaving only its " frass " and the 

 exuding gum to mark the spot where it had entered. When confined 

 in a glass case, after about a couple of weeks, several of the larvf© left 

 the injured twigs and formed very loose cocoons on the sides of the box 

 or among the rubbish and old leaves lying scattered on the earth, and 

 in about six to ten days the perfect moth appeared. Specimens were 

 forwarded to Mr. Y. P. Chambers, of Covington, Kentucky, who is mak- 

 iuo- a special study of our micro-lepidoptera, and he decided it to be 

 Anarsia (Zeller) iiru'meUa, (Clemens,) probably A. Uneatella (Zeller) of 

 Europe, (Fig. 1,) the larva of which was described by Mr. Clemens as 

 taken June 16, full grown, and about to transform on the limbs of a 

 plum, but no food-plant is mentioned. The tail of the 

 pupa is attached to a little button of silk, in an exceed- 

 ingly slight cocoon. There was scarcely a single young 

 tree in the peach-orchard examined that was not more 

 or less injured by this little pest, and at least as many 

 as twenty to fifty injured twigs were found on some 

 very young trees. After the insect leaves the twig 

 the injured part dries up and breaks off. This insect 

 was also seen, though in much smaller numbers, last 

 ^season, in Maryland and Virginia, and apple-trees are 

 also frequently observed injured in a similar manner 

 in Maryland, and it is probable that the damage is done by the same 

 worm, but, as we have not yet succeeded in breeding them from the 

 apple, we cannot say with certainty. 



The larvcie are about 0.25 of an inch iu length, head black, body dark 

 reddish browu, with lighter riugs, the third ring being more conspicu- 



