134 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



fruit-grower cannot be brought to duty by legis- 

 lative means, but might not this Society, by 

 resolution, make it obligatory on its members 

 to fight Curculio, if they grow stone-fruit, by 

 voting itself plenary power to fine such mem- 

 bers as prove recusant? At all events, as we 

 were advised last winter by Mr. L. C. Francis, 

 in his excellent essay on the Plum, let us fight 

 it out on the jarring line, if it takes all summer, 

 and it will take all summer, lor the trees should 

 be jarred regularly, from the time the IVnit is 

 set until it is ripe. 



I have little patience with those persons who 

 claim that fruit cannot be protected from the 

 Curculio by the jarring process; or that it will 

 not pay to carry on the business when this work 

 is necessary. As a general rule, such persons 

 were never guilty of jarring a tree, or, if they 

 were, they did not pursue the process system- 

 atically. All who properly pursue it for a 

 number of years are successful. Judge Brown, 

 Dr. Hull, and many other members of this 

 Society, can attest the truth of this assertion. 

 Dr. Trimble, of New Jersey, never once failed 

 to obtaira a good crop of plums, apricots, and 

 nectarines for ten successive years, though his 

 more neglectful neighbors could not succeed. 

 Ellwanger & Barry, of Rochester, N. Y., J. J. 

 Thomas, of Union Springs, N. -Y., and a host 

 of prominent Eastern fruit-growers whom 1 

 might mention, all testify to its efficacy and 

 success, when followed up year by year, and as 

 to the cost, Mr. Parker Earle, of South Pass, 

 in an able article in a recent number of the 

 Rural JSxic Yorker, demonstrated by the actual 

 figures of those who had kept an exact account 

 of the labor used, that it costs a trifle less than 

 eight cents 2>er tree to run one of Dr. Hull's 

 machines during the Curculio season! No one 

 will claim that the crop is not worth saving at 

 ten times such a cost! 



Natural Remedies. 

 Dr. Trimble has lately communicated to me 

 the fact that he has discovered a true parasite 

 upon the larva of the Curculio. The sooner it 

 makes its appearance in the West the better, 

 for no such parasite has ever been detected here 

 yet. It was well known that ants destroyed the 

 grubs as they left the fruit to enter the ground, 

 but up to 1868, no other cannibals were known 

 to attack it. In the summer of that year, my 

 late lamented associate, Mr. Walsh, discovered 

 several which habitually prey upon it, namely, 

 the larva of the Pennsylvania Soldier-beetle 

 (ChaiiUognathus peimsi/lvanicus, DeGeer), that 

 of an undetermined species of Lace-wing Fly 



(Chri/sopa) , tlmt of an unknown Ground-beetle 

 (probably ] larpalus pennsylvanicvs, I)e Geer), 

 and the Subangular Ground-beetle (Aspidi- 

 alossa suhanguluta, Chaud.) Those who wish 

 full descriptions, with figures, of these Curculio 

 enemies, will find them in the October (1808) 

 number of the Amkkican Entomologist. The 

 Pennsylvania Soldier-beetle is evidently the 

 most effectual of the four, for its larva is fre- 

 quently met with; while the beetle itself, with 

 its yellow jacket and two broad black spots near 

 the tail, is very abundant during the months of 

 September and October, on many of our com- 

 posite flowers, and especially on the golden- 

 rods, spireas, bigonias, privets, and on carrot 

 blossoms. It does no harm to the flowers, being 

 content with the pollen which they afford, and 

 it should never be ruthlessly destroyed. 



But I have this year discovered an insect 

 friend, which, though far more insignificant in 

 appearance, is yet more useful to us in clieckiug 

 the increase of the Curculio than are all the 

 others put together. It is in the shape of a yel- 

 low species of Thrips, of microscopic dimen- 

 sions, the business of whose life seems to be to 

 hunt up and devour the Curculio egg as soon as 

 deposited. I had often wondered why so many 

 Curculio eggs tailed to hatch, and was gratified 

 last May to find the cause. A description of 

 this Thrips would not edify you, and it suffices 

 to state that the word Thrips is used in the 

 Entomological sense, and not in the sense which 

 many horticulturists use it, as in speaking, for 

 instance, of the Leaf-hopper of the vine. The 

 illustration which I have prepared will give yon 

 an idea of the contour of these little animals. 

 The species in question is yellow, and scarcely 

 measures one-twentieth of an inch. Thus far I 

 have only noticed it in two orchards near Sulphur 

 Spilngs, Mo., and cannot yet tell to what extent 

 it occurs elsewhere; yet who knows but this 

 liliputian little friend may, in the course of a 

 few years, rout the ubiquitous " Turk,'' by 

 attacking' him in his most vulnerable point, just 

 in the same manner that the Ladybirds routed 

 the Colorado Potato Bug in many sections, by 

 devouring its eggs; or that the rciimte Acarus 

 or Mite, described by Dr. Shimer as Acarus 

 mali, and first noticed two years ago, has routed 

 the Oyster-shell Bark-louse in many orchards? 

 Verily, Nature's ways are so varied— so com- 

 plicated, and the phases of animal life are so 

 intricate— so protea;;, that this much desired 

 result may yet be consummated. Only this 

 year, a worm which I have called the Pickle- 

 worm, and which was never before known to 

 cut up such capers, has everywhere penetrated 



