104 [Assembly 



the stalks, four or five of the puparia or " flaxseeds," as tliey are 

 popularly called, would be found in company, showing the attack to 

 he a severe one. 



The perfect insects failed to emerge from these puparia. Under 

 natural and favorable conditions they would probably have emerged 

 in the month of July. 



The fly had been more injurious in Western New York the pre- 

 ceding year (1884) than usual. The following statement in relation 

 to its operations, and containing some good suggestions for control- 

 ling the insect, is from a gentleman in Monroe county, which joins 

 Wayne county on the west : 



A considerable part of the wheat of 1884 waa iuj ared by the Hessian-fly, which 

 crinkled the straw so that the heads of wheat were cutoff too short to be gathered 

 in harvest. On some fields this scattering wheat would make, if evenly distrib- 

 uted, a sufficient seeding. I am afraid this self-sown wheat will prove a detri- 

 ment to the crop, as the Hessian-fly will lay her eggs on these early plants. 



The fly works until frosts check it. Rolling the ground, or dragging with the 

 smoothing harrow, and then rolling, is probably as good a preventive of injury 

 from the Hessian-fly as can now [late in September] be applied. These operations 

 both cause the wheat to stack more, making a mass of small leaves rather than 

 cue or two tall ones from each plant. As the fly lays her eggs in the fold of the 

 leaf [at the crown of the root], she finds less place than where the leaves are un- 

 checked in growth. Besides, many of the eggs and newly-hatched worms are 

 destroyed by crushing and contact with soil brushed against them. — W. J. F. , 

 Monroe county, N. Y. Country Gentleman for October 9, 1884. 



A Lady-bug Attack on Scale-insects. 



A number of Austrian pines, Pinus Austriaca, were observed, 

 on October 9th, as having been very nearly killed by an attack of 

 the pine-leaf scale insect, Chionaspis pinifolice. Millions of the 

 peculiar white scales of this destructive species had attached 

 themselves to the leaves almost as thickly as they could find place, 

 to the extent of whitening the tree and almost hiding its natural 

 green. Hundreds of scales could be counted upon a single one of 

 its slender leaves. 



The species of lady-bug, Chilocoriis himdnerus Muls., which 

 seems to be specially commissioned to feed upon the eggs of this 

 and other scale-insects, was present upon the trees in great abund- 

 ance. Its larval stage had already passed, and it was now occurring 

 in its pupal and perfect stages. The larval cases, split longitudi- 

 nelly upon their back and disclosing the pupal-case within, were 

 quite numerous; as many as ten of these could be seen upon a 

 single leaf. The larger number of ])up£e had given out the pretty 

 beetle, with its shining black wing-covers, bearing centrally upon 

 each a blood-red spot — the two spots suggesting the common name 

 that it bears of " the twice-stabbed lady-bird." A few of the beetles 

 were still emerging, with pale ochraceous-colored elytra, and with- 

 out the least indication of the two red spots which are gradually de- 



