28 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



captured accidentally, I believe that the methods indicated have no prac- 

 tical value. They are blind ways of shirking the more sure and efficient 

 remedies. 



I have been thus explicit as to these would-be remedies because my 

 statement "that the Codling moth was not attracted (to any extent) by 

 light," has been recently quoted by Mr. J. W. Eobson as an evidence " that 

 scientific men don't know everything." It would be strange indeed if they 

 did, and I have always labored under the impression, somehow or other, 

 that they were the last to claim any such universal knowledge, and that 

 it was the charlatan alone who was blessed with the knowledge of ev- 

 erything. In the latest work on apple culture that has been given to 

 the public, namely, " The Apple Culturist, with illustrations, by S. E. 

 Todd," we naturally look for all that is new and important about this in- 

 sect, which cuts such a figure in aj)ple culture. Alas ! what do we find ? 

 The descriptive part is a perfect j)lagiarism, almost word for word, from^ 

 an article in the " American Entomologist," (Yol. I, pp. 112-114,) all 

 palmed otf as original; while under the head of remedies, he concludes 

 his advice as follows: "By keeping the bottles containing sweetened 

 water and the pan half filled with thin molasses, with a lighted lamp 

 near it in the orchard every night, in good order, almost every insect 

 will be trapped in a few days," and this excellent (!) advice is accompa- 

 nied by an illustration of a shallow pan with a kerosene lamp on one 

 edge of it, and " flies " as thick as a swarm of bees around it. 



Natural Enemies. — The natural enemies of the Codling moth among 

 birds are principally the Creej)ers (Cerf/u"rt(icB), especially the Black-capped 

 Tit-mouse. The Downy woodpecker guts great numbers of the cocoons, 

 while the Blue bird and Crow Black-bird also feed upon it, according to Mr. 

 Eobson. Among insects two Ichneumons — Thygadeuon brevis and Pachy- 

 merus vulnerator — have been bred from it in Europe, * but no enemies have 

 heretofore been kno wn to attack it in this eoimtry. I have, however, dis- 

 covered two which destroy the worms while they are leaving the fruit, and 

 which in all probability seek them out while in the fruit. The first of these 

 is the larva of the 



Pennsylvania Soldier Beetle {Ghau- 

 liognathus Pennsylv aniens, DeGeer) and 

 I reproduce its likeness (Eig.l4, a, larva ; 

 h, e, d, e, f, g, h, head parts; i, beetle) 

 from my first Report, where it was shown 

 to prey on the larva of the common Plum 

 Curculio. This larva passes the win- 

 ter in a neai'ly full grown state, feeds ravenously during the spring and early 

 summer months; goes into the ground to transform and makes its appear- 

 ance as a beetle during August, September and October, when it is met quite 

 abundantly on the flowers of such rich pollen-bearing plants as the Golden- 

 rod. While the larva is such a voracious cannibal, the beetle feeds solely on 

 the honey and pollen of these flowers, and it is eminently fitted for this pur- 



* Tuschenberg'.s "Entom')lf)gic fiiv Gartnei- and Gartenfrouude. ' ' 



