120 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTOKIA : 



This Mite, even when full grown (see Plate XI V., 

 Fig. 2), is so small that it is next to invisible without 

 the aid of a lens, is, as the magnified drawing shows, a 

 most curious looking creature, and I should say well 

 deserves its title to be considered an entomological puzzle ; 

 and Murray, in quoting from Kallenbach, tells us that 

 according to Kirchner, " The Mites live on the small 

 yellow shining leaves, where they cause red swollen 

 places, which later on become dark -red and black. On 

 the underside of the leaf a small hole can be seen with 

 a lens, in each of the swellings through which the old 

 Mites go in and out (see Plate XIV., Fig. 5). [Any of our 

 readers can, with a fairly powerful lens, observe these 

 interesting but destructive little insects for themselves. 

 C. F.] When one cuts through one of these swellings 

 horizontally (see Plate XI V., Fig. 4), the cellular tissue 

 seems to be loosened, yellow and blackish, and between 

 and under the loosened parts are found the eggs and 

 Mites." 



How long this enemy of the pear has been known to 

 Victorian orchardists I am not aware, and Mr. Crawford 

 tells us that public attention in South Australia was first 

 called to the pliytoptus pyri by Sir R. D. Ross, in April, 

 1881. I fancy, however, that in Victoria this little insect 

 must be classed amongst the more recently imported 

 pests, and so curious are they in their structure and 

 economy that, according to Murray, " Some botanists 

 jumped to the conclusion that they were cryptogamic 

 growths. This idea once received, botanists took them 

 under their charge and described the various kinds under 

 the name of erineum, &c. Subsequent discoveries, how- 

 ever, have shown that these species of erinium, in almost 

 every case, are growths or products caused by some 

 species of the small Mite which we have now under con- 

 sideration; a Mite so small and sometimes so crystalline 

 and transparent (as in the pliytoptus of the ash, for 

 example) that it cannot be seen in the gall at all, and it 

 is only by washing out the galls and searching for them 

 in the water in which they have been washed that it can 



