40 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



Peach. Near St. Louis it has been, if anything, more injurious to quince 

 than to ajjple trees. Yet it does not seem to be able to live on the Pear. 



Eemedies. — The Pascal Leaf-crumpler is one of those insects which, 

 from their peculiar habits, are easily subdued. The orchardist has but to 

 bear in mind that it is single-brooded, and that it jjasses the winter in its 

 case, and he will understand that bj^ collecting and destrojdng these cases 

 in the dead of the year when the tree is bare, he eifectuall}^ puts a stop to 

 its increase. If this fact were more generally recognized, we should see 

 fewer of these insects in our orchards and nurseries. Whether collected in 

 the winter or pulled off the trees during the spring and summer, these cases 

 should alwaj^s be thrown into some small vessel, and deposited in the centre 

 of a meadow, or field, away from any fruit trees. Here the worms will 

 wander about a few yards and soon die from exhaustion and want of food; 

 while such parasites, hereafter mentioned, as are well developed or in the 

 pupa state, will mature and eventually Qy off. In this manner, as did Spar- 

 tacus of old, we swell the ranks of our fi"iends while defeating our foes. 



When so simple a remedy is at hand it is hardly necessary to seek for 

 others. Aj^plications of air-slacked lime to the tree when the foliage is 

 moist, have been urged as a remedy ; but it would seem that the worm is 

 . too snug in its retreat to be much affected by any such dustings, and there 

 is scarcely any occasion to resort to any other than the simple and effectual 

 remedy suggested. Because empty cases are found after such ajjplications, 

 men must not run away with the idea that the inmate has been scared awaj" ; 

 for there is always a certain proportion of old cases which are empty. 

 These stick to the tree long after the moths have escaped from them, and 

 furnish a snug retreat for some other insects. The female Canker-worm 

 particularly is fond of depositing her eggs within such old cases, as I have 

 frequently found them crowded with such ■eggs. 



Natural Enemies. — In Mr. Walsh's time but one real jDarasite was 

 known to infest the Leaf-crumpler, and that was a little two-winged fly, 

 which might easily be confounded with the common House-fly. It has not 

 yet been described, and as m}^ friend Dr. LeBaron bred it on several occasions 

 the past year and has undertaken to describe it, I present below his descrip- 

 tion, as kindly furnished me for use. This Tachina larva becomes a jiupa 

 within the case of its victim, and Mr. D. B. Wier tells me that it was so 

 abundant at Lacon, that the Leaf-crumpler was not one-tenth as numerous 

 in 1871 as it had been in 1870. 



Tachina [Exobista] phycit-s:, LeBaron — Imago. — Length, 0.20 inch. Antennse black, third 

 joint twice as long as the second; face silvery, without bristles at the sides; sides of the front silvery 

 at the lower part, pale golden above; the middle black vitta occupying a little more than half of the 

 width of the iuter-oecular space; frontal bristles continued down the face to opposite the end of the 

 second joint of antennaj; palpi blackish-brown; eyes hairy. Thorax black, with the ordinary ciner- 

 eous sti'ipes scarcely perceptible. Abdomen black, varied with cinereous at the base of the segments; 

 •a large fidvous spot on the side of the abdomen occupying nearly the whole of the side of the sec- ( 

 •ond segment, half or more of the third, and sometimes a small spot on the first; bristles on the mid- 

 'dle as well as at the hind-margiu of the second and third segments. Venation of the wings of the 

 tusual type; first posterior cell almost closed, before the end of wing; fourth long vein slightly curved 

 after the angle; fifth long vein prolonged to the margin; bind cross vein modei-ately sinuous. Tarsal 

 cLiws ami pulvilli unusually long. 



