REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 185 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



' New Hampsliire College of Agriculture and tlie Mechanic Arts, Durham, N.Ii.— 

 I have not heard of anj' serious trouble from the Apple Maggot this year, although it 

 is quite common in our summer apples. I think it is somewhat worse this year than 

 last year; but it has not caused any very serious injury, so far as I have heard. It 

 becomes seriously injurious periodically.' — E. D. Sanderson. 



The Buffalo Tuee-Hopper (Ceresa huhalus, Fab.). — A great many specimens of 

 rough and gnarled twigs of apple trees have been sent in from time to time, hut more 

 frequently during the last year or two, which were due to the injuries caused by small 

 grassy-green homopterous insects that bear on the thorax two horns which are sup- 

 posed to give it a resemblance to the buffalo. The only harm done by this little insect 

 to orchard trees is by the egg-laying females, which cut two semi-circular gashes 

 right through the bark deeply into tlie wood, and into each of which they insert from 

 five to ten eggs. Each female lays between one and two hundred eggs, and consequently 

 makes several of these gashes before she has deposited her whole supply. The eggs 

 remain in the wood and do not hatch until the following June ; each egg is about one- 

 sixteenth of an inch long, slightly curved and yellowish white in colour. When the 

 yaiing hatch, they crawl out of the egg-shell which remains in the wood and prevents 

 the wound from healing up for a long time. Young twigs of two or three years old 

 are frequently selected by the females for ovipositing, and, if there are only a few 

 of the scars, little injury is done; but it seems to be a habit of this insect to work 

 somewhat in company, and frequently a single tree may be found with a great many 

 egg-deposits in the wood, while others close by are untouched. The two slits almost 

 meet each other but do not quite touch at the top and bottom, but the small piece of 

 wood and bark between them dies and, together with the empty egg-shells, prevents the 

 healing of the wound, so that, where there are many deposits on the same tree, the 

 injury is serious and a check is sometimes given to young trees, which they do not 

 get over. 



The Buffalo Tre3-Hopper while young lives chiefly upon the sap of weeds and 

 other coarse vegetation, and very little of its food is derived from the apple trees 

 where the young larvae are first hatched. For a few days, at any rate, after they have 

 first hatched, they may be seen on the trees running quickly round the branches and 

 hiding whenever looked at. At this time, which, however, does not last for many days, 

 good work may be done by spraying the infested trees with kerosene emulsion or 

 whale-oil soap. It is very difficult to reach the eggs by any winter treatment, but 

 probably spraying with crude petroleum or an emulsion of that oil might be applied 

 without injury to the trees. The remedy recommended by Mr. C. L. Maria tt, the 

 First Assistant United States Entomologist, is the limiting of the amount of foreign 

 vegetation about and in orchards and nurseries. He thinks that little damage may be 

 anticipated where the ground between the trees is kept clean and constantly culti- 

 vated. Vigorous pruning in winter, by which as many as possible of the egg clusters 

 are removed, is also advised. The mature insects seem to be attracted by beans and 

 some other low-growing vegetables. These then might be planted in orchards between 

 the trees as trap plants to be afterwards sprayed with strong mixtures of km-osene 

 emulsion or whale-oil soap, when the larvje, nymphs or adults are seen to be numerous 

 enough upon them to make it worth while. The time recommended by Mr. Marlatt 

 is about July 1. 



The Western Harvest-Fly [^Cicada (Platypedia) puinami, Uhler]. — An ex- 

 tremely common insect in most parts of British Columbia, is a species of Cicada of 

 about the same size as the well known Cicada septendecim, L., of the United States. 

 This latter is known under the erroneous name of Seventeen-year Locust, but, so far 

 as I can learn, has been never or very seldom taken in Canada. The Western Cicada 

 is enormously abundant nearly every year in Vancouver Island in June; and I have 

 found it in like numbers in the Kootenays, particularly at Nelson, where in the begin- 



