INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 113 



them to fall ; as does also the larva of one of the saw-flies (Tenthredo 

 testudinea), as observed by Mr. Westwood, and the first instance known of 

 one of this tribe feeding in the interior of fruits. 1 



Our more dainty and delicate fruits, at least such as are usually so 

 accounted, the apricot, the peach, and the nectarine, originally of Asiatic 

 origin, are not less subject to the empire of insects than the homelier 

 natives of Europe. Certain Aphides form a convenient and sheltered 

 habitation for themselves, by causing portions of the leaves to rise into 

 hollow red convexities; in these they reside, and with their rostrum 

 pumping out the sap, in time occasion them to curl up, and thus deform 

 the tree and injure the produce. The fruit is attacked by various other 

 enemies of this class, against which we find it not easy to secure it: wasps, 

 earwigs, flies, wood-lice, and ants, which last communicate to it a disagreeable 

 flavour, all share with us these ambrosial treasures ; the first of them as it 

 were opening the door, by making an incision in the rind, and letting in all 

 the rest. The nucleus of the apricot is also sometimes inhabited by the 

 caterpillar of a moth, which, feeding on the kernel, causes the fruit to fall 

 prematurely. 2 And much injury is done to this tree by the larva of a little 

 moth (Ditula angustiorana), by devouring the young blossom-buds and 

 tying the young shoots together with its silken thread, so as to stop their 

 growth. 3 In this country, however, these fruits may be regarded as mere 

 luxuries, and therefore are of slight consequence ; but in North America 

 they constitute an important part of the general produce, at least the peach, 

 serving both as food for swine, and furnishing by distillation a spirit. The 

 ravages committed upon them there by insects are so serious, that pre- 

 miums have been offered for extirpating them. A species of weevil, 

 perhaps a Rhynchites, enters the fruit when unripe, probably laying its eggs 

 within the stone, and so destroys them. And two kinds of " Zygcena, by 

 attacking the roots, do a still greater injury to the trees. 4 A Coccus, as 

 it should seem from the description, imported about thirty years ago from 

 the Mauritius, or else with the Constantia vine from the Cape of Good 

 Hope, has destroyed nearly nine tenths of the peach trees in the Island of 

 St. Helena, where formerly they were so abundant, that, as in North 

 America, the swine were fed with their fruit. Various means have been 

 employed to destroy this plague, but hitherto without success. 5 The 

 imperial pine apple, the glory of our stoves, and the most esteemed of the 

 gifts of Pomona, cannot, however precious, be defended from the injuries 

 of a singular species of mite, before mentioned, the red Spider of gardeners, 

 (Erythrceus telarius), which covers it, and other stove plants, with a most 

 delicate, but at the same time very pernicious, web; and the Coccus 

 bromelics is often as great a pest, preying upon the leaves and young fruit 

 beneath a white downy secretion. 6 The olive-tree, so valuable to the 



1 Trans, Ent. Soc. Lond. iii. proc. xxxii. 



2 M. de la Hire in Reaum. ii. 478. 



3 Westwood in London's Gardener's Mag. No. 94. Jan, 1838. 



4 Dr. Smith Barton's Letter in Philos. Magaz. xxii. 210. William Davy, Esq., 

 American Consul of the port of Hull, long resident in the United States, informed 

 me, that though he had abundance of peaches at his country-house, German Town, 

 near Philadelphia, he could never succeed with the nectarine, the fruit constantly 

 falling off, perforated by the grub of some insect. 



* Descr. of the I. of St. Helena, 147. 



6 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. proc. Ixiv. ; and see also Westvood's 05s. i. 206. 



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