REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 



195 



Pig. IS.— The 

 Apple-tree 



Red-humped 

 caterpillar. 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



ficiently strong to destroy them ; but, for the black species, I have found that six gal- 

 lons of water to one pound of soap is the greatest dilution which can Le used. An 

 important point, too, in fighting this insect, is early work, because, as the egg is upon 

 twigs all through the winter, and the young hatch there in spring, they are easily 

 reached with a small amount of spraying material, and early treatments before the 

 leaves have expanded, have been found most effective. The kerosene emulsion may also 

 be used with great success at any time after the weather becomes warm in spring, and 

 before the leaves expand. For this puriiose, the stock emulsion should only be diluted 

 with six parts of water, instead of nine, as in the usual dilution for use upon foliage. 



The Red-hu]\iped Apple-tree Caterpillar (Schizura concinna, S. &. A.). — These 

 voracious caterpillars were eent in from l^ova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario, and were 



reported from British Columbia. Altogether, 

 the species seems to have been rather more abun- 

 dant than usual. The appearance of these cater- 

 pillars is well shown at fig. 16. The colours are 

 as follows: — Head bright red, as is also a con- 

 spicuous hum-p on the fourth segment. The sides 

 ;are striped with black, yellow and white lines. 

 The blunt spines on the back are black. When 

 at rest, the end of the body is raised and has, when viewed sideways, somewhat the 

 shape of a dog's head. When full grown in autumn, they are a little more than an 

 inch long. They then spin close parchment-like cocoons among the leaves on the 

 ground, or a short distance beneath the surface, in which they remain unchanged 

 until the following spring, when they assume the chrysalis condition, and the moths 

 emerge towards the end of June. These are plainly coloured but prettily marked in 

 varying shades of brown, which make them very inconspicuous when at rest, and, al- 

 though the caterpillar is common, the moths are very seldom seen. These, when the 

 vrings are opened, expand from an inch to an inch and a half, the males, as a rule, 

 being much smaller than the females. The eggs arc deposited in clusters on the leaves 

 cf ajjple trees and occasionally on a few other kinds of trees, as willow, birch and oak. 

 They are laid early in July, and by the end of that month the colonies of young cater- 

 pillars become conspicuous from the thorough way in which they stri-p whole branches 

 of their leaves. At this time much good m.ay be done by cutting off the branches and 

 destroying the whole colony at once, as they very seldom wander far from each other, 

 and when at rest, are massed togetlier so as to hide the twigs and stem of the branch. 

 The Eed-humped Apple-tree Caterpillar has never appeared in Canada in sufficient 

 numbers to be the cause of much loss to fi'uit growers, and, where trees are regularly 

 sprayed with insecticides, this will never be the case. The species is much rarer in 

 British Columbia than in the East, but I have on several occasions seen colonies upon 

 v\ild willows, as well as upon apple trees in orchards. Mr. E. P. Venables reports it as 

 more abundant than usual in 1903 at Vernon in the Okanagan valley. Prof. F. C. 

 Sears sent specimens from Wolfville, JST.S., lir. P. E. Choquette, from St. Jerome. 

 Que., and Mr. E. B. Yarwood, ivom. Picton, Ont. A few colonics were also found at 

 Ottawa. 



The Pear-tree Slug (Eriocampa cerasl, Peck). — Tlie slimy blackish slug-like larvaa 

 were last year, as Is too frequently the case with so easily controlled a pest, found 



very destructive in British Columbia to the 

 foliage of pear and cherry trees. Specimens 

 were also sent from Morrisburg, Ont., by 

 Mr. Gordon Dill. The pai'ent insect is a 

 short, thick four-winged fly, about a quarter 

 of an inch in length. It is glossy black, with 

 FigTl?.— The Pear-tree Slug. pale legs, and has tlie habit, when an infested 



16— 13J 



