194 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



5-6 EDWARD VII., A. 1906 



by the famished larvae, which are as yet only half grown. What is to be done, I do not 

 know, unless the parasites increase. Treatment of the trees with poisons over miles 

 of country is of course out of the question.' 



There is some doubt among entomologists as to the exact status of T. somniaria 

 as a species. It has usually been considered that it is a form of Therina ferx>idaria, 

 Hbn., but the diffei*ence in the food plant, ferixidaria having been found in nature, 

 here at Ottawa and in other i3laces, feeding on conifers, seemed to indicate, more per- 

 haps than the slight differences in markings on the mature insects, that the western 

 form would probably prove to be a different species. Having received eggs from Mr. 

 Anderson early in the spring, as soon as the young larvae hatched, they were placed 

 upon fresh twigs of the hemlock spruce (Tsuga Canadensis), and, although it cannot 

 be said that at any time they fed upon the hemlock with avidity, nevertheless some 

 specimens were carried through upon this food plant alone and gave moths at the usual 

 time. Moreover, on Vancouver Island, when travelling with the Rev. G. W. Taylor, 

 in September last, a few miles out of Victoria, we observed one instance where the 

 larvae, after having stripped the oak trees, had spread for a short distance into a grovo 

 of Western Hemlock Spruce and Douglas Fir, the leaves of which to some extent had 

 been eaten by them. Mr. Taylor, who is a specialist upon the Geometridae considers 

 it more probable that Therina (Ellopia) somniaria of Hulst is a variety of Therina 

 fiscellaria of Guenee, which is a segregate from the old composite species Therina fer- 

 vidaria of Hubner, than that it is ideintical with the type species T. fervidaria, Hbn. 

 He says : — ' It may be said that T. -fiscellaria and T. somniaria feed as larva3 on de- 

 ciduous trees, while true T. fervidaria feeds on conifers.' It would appear from 

 experiments which I have carried on at Ottawa, that this generalization is accurate, 

 and, although eggs of somniaria from Vancouver Island gave lai^/ae which under com- 

 pulsion fed on hemlock spruce, a conifer, others from the same batch of eggs ate oak, 

 their natural food plant, much more readily. T. fervidaria at Ottawa feeds naturally 

 on hemlock spruce. 



From pupa3 received from Mr. J. R. Anderson, which had been collected at Vic- 

 toria, several specimens of Pimpla scriptifrons, Cress., were reared, thus adding one 

 more species to the many parasites which are already known to prey upon this insect. 

 1 saw the mature moths and the parasites emerging in enormous numbers in Victoria 

 on September 18 last. Trees, fences, and sides of houses were swarming Avith the 

 pretty soft brown, large-winged moths. 



THE APIAEY. 



The Apiary, as in the past, has been under the management of Mr. John Fixter, 

 the farm foreman, whose report I append herewith. The same experiments which have 

 been carried on for some years have mo^t of them been repeated on account of the 

 large amount of interest which has been evinced in the subject by correspondents and 

 visitors to the Central Experimental Farm. The services of Mr. Fixter have been 

 asked for at a great many meetings of bee-keepers, and, whenever his duties at the 

 Central Experimental Farm would permit of it, he has attended these metings and 

 ^ given addresses. 



REPORT OF MR. JOHN FIXTER. 



Season of 1905. 



The season of 1905 has been a fairly good one; especially in western Ontario the 

 honey crop has been excellent, both as to quality and quantity; parts of Quebec report 

 medium crops, while other sections report heavy crops. Correspondents from New 

 Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, the. North-west Territories, 



