WEATHER INFLUENCES ON KED SPIDER. 67 



Information of complaints being general as to Bed Spider presence 

 on Gooseberries, and also of some of his own trees being badly infested, 

 was sent me on the 10th of April by Mr. Edw. Goodwin, from Canon 

 Court, Wateriugbnry, Kent, with the remark accompanying : — " We 

 are again having a phenomenally dry and warm spring, and its effect 

 on insect life is already apparent." 



From various other localities (though not, so far as I find in the 

 past season, further north than Yorkshire) ; from Beaford, N. Devon ; 

 Toddington Fruit-grounds ; and from Holt Castle, near Worcester, 

 observations or enquiries were also sent me about Eed Spider. In 

 writing from the latter place on the 29th of March, Mr. J. H. Wake- 

 man Best observed : — " Eed Spider is very bad in this district on the 

 Gooseberry-trees, particularly on the light soils. I am spraying with 

 Stott's 'Kill'mright.' " 



It is worth noting relatively to influence of heat and drought on 

 this attack that, whilst in the dry months of 1893 (see p. G2) the pre- 

 sence of the pest was reported from the 15th of March to the 21st of 

 June, in the past season, though the attack was observed in a few 

 localities much earlier, namely, about the 4th of February (presumably 

 from the unusual numbers which had survived from the great preva- 

 lence of the previous year), that it also ended much earlier; only a few 

 notices of its presence were sent me after March, and none after the 

 later part of April. 



In connection with the appearance of this mite to an unusual 

 extent on Gooseberry-bushes in this country, as above mentioned, it is 

 of interest to note that another species, the Bnjohia nobilis, C. L. Koch, 

 was observed by Dr. Fr. Thomas, of Ohrdruf, in Germany, as very 

 prevalent on Gooseberry-bushes (where it had not previously been 

 observed as an infestation) in 1893 and 1894. Of this he remarks, 

 after some preliminary observations on weather influences : — " I am of 

 opinion that the increased amount of appearance of the small red Mite 

 of the Gooseberry-bushes, which was observed in the course of the 

 year 1893, and especially in the spring, was a result of the abnormal 

 dryness of that year, a condition which was repeated in April and May 

 of the present year"''' (1894, Ed.). Dr. Fr. Thomas remarks that 

 these insects are not new in Germany, as he had himself seen them 

 for some years in his own garden, but that he was not aware of them 

 having been spoken of in German publications on garden or orchard 

 cultivation, or on plant diseases. 



This is such a very similar case of appearance to that of the Red 

 Spider in this country — inasmuch as both of the species of Bryohia 

 were known of as respectively present in the respective countries, but 



* 'Die rote Stachelbeer Milbe, Bryohia nohilis, C. L. Koch (?),' von Prof. Dr. 

 Fr. Thomas, in Ohrdruf (aus Wittmack's ' Gartenflora,' 43 Jahrgang, 1894). 



F 2 



