70 



jectured to be a well-known fact, but it is not this point which we are in any way 

 working on, in any of the prevention details which I am myself acquainted with. 

 Our difficulty, as you will see mentioned in my 13th report, if you will kindly turn to 

 page 67, is the transportation of the females in the act of pairing by the winged males 

 to the trees. This is a point much observed in this country, and I have to-day once 

 again had my attention drawn to this difficulty in the matter of prevention by a 

 Somersetshire correspondent who, in confirmation of his observation, has preserved 

 the i)air in his collection. It is solely to meet this difficulty that we use tarred boards 

 and lightsin any preventive operation with which I am connected. 



I do not see the Gardeners' Chronicle, and I am not in communication with Mr. Mc- 

 Lachlan, or I should have replied in my own country and given the necessary expla- 

 nation, but (if you approve) I should much like to be allowed to insert the above ob- 

 servations, otherwise the various superintendents and myself might appear to your 

 readers (whose good opinion I should like to merit) as wonderfully ignorant of what 

 1 believe is a well known fact.— [E. A. Ormerod, Torrington House, St. Albans, Eng- 

 land, April 10, 1890. 



The Clover Phytonomus. 



I will send you by to-morrow's mail specimens of some kinds of worms, which on 

 the 24th of this month I found in great numbers in our clover fields. They ate small, 

 round holes in the leaves, which you will notice in those I send you. These hole are 

 what first attracted my attention to them ; fully one-half or more of the leaves are 

 thus bitten, and I am sure I could have found fifty or more of these creatures on a 

 space not more than 1 yard square. It was between 6 and 7 o'clock a. m. when 

 I saw them on the 24th, and they were feeding. To-day I went out about noon to 

 get some specimens, but could not find them more than one-tenth as abundant as the 

 other day. This is a nice warm day, and perhaps the warm sun drove them to the 

 roots for shelter. As they are something new in our neighborhood I send them for a 

 name. — [W. Stewart, Landisburg, Perry County, Pa., April 28, 1890. 



Reply. — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 28th ult., together 

 with specimens of the insect which is injuring your clover. A glance at these larvae 

 show that they belong to the species known as the Clover Leaf-beetle (Phytonomus 

 punctatus). This insect was probably imported to this country from Europe some 

 thirty years or more ago, and in 1881 became noted as a pest in Yates County, N. Y., 

 and it has since spread considerably. The insect hibernates in the young larva state 

 and any mode of winter warfare that will crush or burn them during the winter will 

 considerably reduce the number of the species the ensuing season. If the field is 

 badly infested it will pay to make an effort to burn the stubble, even if straw has to 

 be strewn over the field. Fortunately a fungus disease has taken hold of this species 

 with great avidity, and every specimen which you sent had been killed by it. It 

 may be that the disease will practically destroy the insect with you, so that no 

 remedy will be necessary. If you will kindly inform us as to the future develop- 

 ments, you will p}ace us under obligations. You will find an account of this insect 

 in the Annual Report of the Department for 1881-'82, pages 171 to 179, and it is fig- 

 ured upon Plate X of the same report. — [May 1, 1890.] 



Another Letter. — Yesterday two students of Franklin and Marshall College 

 brought me the inclosed specimens, wanting to know what they were and what to 

 do about them. They are on the grass in the campus of the college. They disap- 

 pear at night (or during rain) and appear during the day, twisting their bodies 

 around the blades and devouring them. They appear to be the larva of a species of 

 " saw-fly," so far as I can make them out, as they appear in the bottle. Some of the 

 farmers state that this insect was present in destructive numbers about twenty years 

 ago. So far as I am able to recall the case, that worm was the larva of Leucania albi- 

 linea, and in additi(m to timothy and other grasses it also attacked the wheat, even 

 "the corn in the ear" after it was standing in shocks. 



