AMERICAN BLIGHT CARROT FLY CATERPILLARS 383 



A good paint for Apple trees may be made with Gishurst Compound, 

 at the rate of eight ounces to the gallon of water, with a little fine 

 clay added to render it adhesive. This should be applied before the 

 trees begin to grow in spring. Our illustration shows a piece of 

 Apple twig with the aphides and their woolly material natural size. 

 The enlarged figures represent the winged female and the wingless 

 larva of the Apple Blight Aphis (Schizoneura lanigera}. The insect 

 is deep purplish brown in colour, and the well-known bluish white 

 cottony material naturally exudes from the insects. Andrew Murray 

 recommends that in bad cases of American Blight it is sometimes 

 necessary to root up and burn all the trees, and let the ground remain 

 unplanted for a year or two. 



THE CARROT FLY (Psila rosce, Fab.), with its larva, pupa, and per- 

 fect insect, is here illustrated natural size and enlarged. The ochreous, 

 shining larvae live upon the tap-roots of the Carrot, and by eating into 

 them cause them to rot. The 

 body of the fly is intensely dark 

 greenish black, with a rusty 

 ochreous head. The presence of 

 the larvae in the tap-root is made 

 known by the change of the 

 colour in the Carrot leaves to 

 yellow. The plant should be 

 immediately taken up, and the CARROT FLY 



grubs destroyed by dipping the Psila rosa: (with maggot and chrysalis) 



Carrots into hot water. It is well 



to trench in the autumn, so that the pupce in the earth may be 



exposed to the frosts of winter and the attacks of birds. 



CATERPILLARS cannot often be treated in a wholesale way, because 

 to reach them effectually is apt to endanger the plant. Hence we 

 are usually compelled to rely on hand-picking, and we are bound to 

 observe that, tedious as this may be, a little patient perseverance will 

 accomplish wonders. We have seen a fruit garden, literally hideous 

 with clusters of Caterpillars in spring, completely cleared by a few 

 days' steady work, costing but a trifle, and only needing to be directed 

 so that in removing the vermin there should be no harm done to the 

 trees. In the same way the Gooseberry grub should be disposed of. 

 A remedy against Caterpillars does not exist, but the careful cultivator 

 will in good time look for patches of eggs and clusters of young 

 Caterpillars on the under sides of leaves, and will carefully nip off the 



