32 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



became filled with them. This superabundance of aphides was widespread over large- 

 areas in Ontario, and extended to several of the neighboring States, much damage being 

 done by them in New York, Ohio and Michigan. 



In the month of May the larvae of the Eye-spotted Bud-moth (Tmetocera oceUana)< 

 Fig. 23, were very abundant on plum trees in this neighborhood, and did a considerable 

 amount of damage. This tiny insect bas often been noticed in our 

 ary^^^m annual reports and is no doubt familiar to most fruit growers in this 

 %■ hMT Province and Quebec. It attacks the opening buds of apple, pear and 

 cherry as well as plum trees, by eating through the leaves and forming 

 a habitation for itself in the tender foliage, which it draws together and 

 lines with silk. In this protecting case it continues to grow and con- 

 Fig. 23. Eye-spot- sume the surrounding leaves, and often destroys in this way a whole 

 6 and" larva cluster of blossoms or young fruit. When abundant, as it was this year, 

 it does a very considerable amount of damage. The caterpillar is of a 

 dull greenish-brown color, with a few short hairs on its body, proceeding from minute 

 warts ; the moth (Fig. 23) is a pretty little creature, ashen-gray in color, with a broad- 

 white band of irregular outline across the fore wings, and a black eye-like spot formed, 

 when the wings are closed, at the outer margin of the band. From this it evidently 

 derives its specific name. The insect can, no doubt, be kept under control by an early 

 spraying of the trees with Paris green in the usual manner, and by plucking off and' 

 crushing the clusters of leaves containing the caterpillars. 



Last year I mentioned the reappearance of the Apple-tree tent-caterpillar (Clisio- 

 campa Americana, Harris). In the latter part of May this year, I found several of the 

 tents, or webs, on apple trees and promptly destroyed their inmates. During the month 

 of June the moths were somewhat numerous, coming into the house at night and bouncing 

 about the lights in their usual blundering manner. We may expect that this troublesome 

 insect will again become abundant and cause great damage to fruit trees unless their 

 owners are on the alert in the spring and at once destroy all egg-bracelets (Fig. 19, cV 

 that they can find, and the nests of caterpillars in their early stages before they scatter 

 over the trees. Wild cherry and plum trees should especially be watched, as they form 

 a favorite breeding ground for the insect. 



While the web-forming caterpillars of the spring are thus on the increase, it is very 

 remarkable that tne Fall web worm (Hyphantria textor) should have been scarce last year 

 and entirely absent this year about Port Hope. Though no observations have been 

 made, it seems evident that the destruction of this insect is due to the work of parasites., 

 as it has been a gradual process, extending over more than one year. If the extermin- 

 ation had been caused by climatic influences — by the alternate freezing and thawing 

 during the winter — it would have been a sudden destruction, the work of a single sea- 

 son. A similar disappearance of a common species has taken place in the case of the 

 Tussock moth (Orgyia leucostigma) . I did not see a single caterpillar of this species in 

 my garden this year and observed only one moth. In Toronto, where it was so very 

 destructive last year, it was noticeable here and there throughout the city and some 

 trees were partially defoliated by it, but there was no widespread injury and consequently 

 no public alarm occasioned by it. During the preceding winter the Park Commissioner., 

 under instructions from the City Council, destroyed an enormous number of the cocoons 

 of this insect, the sum of $1,000 having been spent in paying boys for collecting them. 

 As all the cocoons collected were destroyed without discrimination, the wisdom of the 

 proceeding is somewhat doubtful ; myriads of useful parasites must have been put an end 

 to as well as the pup?e of the noxious moth. It would be well in future cases of the kind 

 to entrust the collected material to an entomologist with instructions that he should keep 

 all parasitized cocoons till the summer following and permit the inmates to escape, and 

 burn all the rest. Dr. Howard, United States Entomologist at Washington, has recently 

 published a most valuable and interesting pamphlet entitled, " A Study in Insect Para- 

 sitism," in which he gives an account of a severe attack by the tussock moth on the shade 

 trees of Washington in 1895. Very large numbers of the cocoons were collected and it 

 was found that over ninety- eight per cent, of them were parasitized, only two per cent.. 



