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Eeplv. — * * * The caterpillar which is damaging your Catalpa tree is the 

 larva of the common Catalpa Hawk-moth, SpJiinx catalpa. This insect, until within 

 a year or so, has been considered rather rare by entomologists, but for some reason 

 has become very numerous in this section of the country. * * * The best remedy 

 will be to spray the tree with London purple or Paris green in the proportion of one- 

 fourth of a pound of the poison to 50 gallons of water. This, however, will be a 

 difficult thing to do unless you have on your place a strong double-acting force 

 pump fitted with a long hose which can be elevated into the tree, yet it is the only 

 remedy which can be suggested beyond destroying the caterpillars as they descend 

 the tree to transform to chrysalides in the soil. — [October 3, 1891.] 



Peach Trees injured by Gortyna nitela. 



I have some peach twigs, or rather tops, showing work of an insect entirely new 

 to me and to this locality. They have already destroyed twenty of my peach buds, 

 and are at work as vigorously as ever. We cut off and destroy by fire the tops as 

 soon as we find them withering. By splitting you will find a worm in the stock 

 with a black belt around it. In the box is a moth and caterpillar that I found on 

 the little trees.— [W. N. Irviu, Ohio, June 30, 1891. 



Reply. — The insect which is injuring the tops of your Peach trees by boring into 

 them is the so-called Stalk-borer, Goriyna nitela. This insect seldom damages per- 

 ennial plants, but is found commonly boring into potato and tomato plants, corn, 

 rag-weed, and various other annuals. It is therefore not a specific pest of your 

 crop, and its occurrence may be held to be more or less accidental. They will 

 doubtless soon leave your peaches; indeed, there is no remedy possible beyond 

 pruning and burning the infested twigs before the bud-worms leave them. — [July 

 3, 1891.] 



Hair Worm Parasite of the Codling Moth. 



Inclosed herewith you will find a "what is it," found in the core of an apple by 

 Mrs. A. M. Chapin of this place. When found it was nicely coiled. It assumed its 

 present distorted position when exposed to the light and air. — [I. J. Jamison, Penn- 

 sylvania, September 5, 1891. 



Reply. — >^ * * rpj^^ specimen sent is one of the so-called hair-worms of a 

 species which has several times before been found in apples in this country. It is 

 parasitic on the larva of the apple worm or Codling Moth, and sometimes leaves its 

 host before the latter has escaped from the fruit, and remains coiled in the hollow at 

 the core of the apple. The scientific name of this worm is Mermis acuminata, and it 

 has been taken directly from the larva of the Codling Moth found under bands 

 placed about the tree, so that there is no doubt whatever about its being parasitic on 

 the larva of this insect. A closely related species is parasitic on grasshoppers, 

 crickets, and allied insects. — [September 8, 1891.] 



False Chinch Bug in Wyoming. 



By request of the farmers of this vicinity I have sent you a bottle containing what 

 is supposed to be Chinch Bugs. They were found by a farmer living about twenty 

 miles from this town, who states that he shook this number from a grease-wood bush, 

 and that the ground and shrubbery in that vicinity were covered with the insect. 

 He found by marking the place where they were first discovered that they traveled at 

 the rate of one mile in three days, and were at that time working toward his wheat and 

 alfalfa field. It is supposed that the insect was brought into this country from Colo- 

 rado or Nebraska, as grain from these two States has of late been shipped in here, 

 and the insect was first discovered on the roads leading into the town. * * * — [R. 

 M. Crawford, Wyoming, August 31, 1891. 



Reply. — * # * The specimens prove to be chiefly pupae of an insect having the 

 common name of the False Chinch Bug, on account of its close resemblance to the 



