10 THE REPORT OF THE No. 36 



REPORTS ON INSECTS OF THE YEAR 

 Division No. 3 Toronto District — A. Cosens 



The relatively low temperature of the past summer must have acted as 

 a check on the insect pests, as some of them were less troublesome than usual. 

 The Aphids were not so plentiful on the roses and spiraeas, a very little spraying 

 serving to keep the bushes immune from attack. The Cutworms were much 

 less in evidence, even in the sandy gardens of the northern part of the City, 

 and there also seemed to be a smaller percentage of the fruit on unsprayed 

 trees infected by the codling-moth. 



After three years in which the Monarch Butterflies were only rarely seen, 

 they have again been very numerous this summer. They congregated in High 

 Park during the latter part of August, but left that locality early in September. 



The introduced Ground Beetle, Carabus nemoralis, is becoming so common 

 that anxious inquiries have been made as to whether it is harmful or not. These 

 large, dark-coloured beetles, so often found under leaves and other garden debris 

 are among the most beneficial of our insects. That they are not recognized as 

 such is owing to their habit shared by their larvae, of hunting at night and re- 

 maining in hiding during the day. They are closely related to other of our beetle 

 friends, the blue-winged Caterpillar Hunters, Calosoma. 



In July my attention was drawn to Lepidopterous larvae feeding in the 

 flower buds of a cultivated Evening Primrose, Oenothera biennis. The buds 

 were swollen, especially in the stalks, and were also much shortened. The 

 adult moths were sent to Mr. A. Busck, Washington, and were kindly identified 

 by him as Mompha stellella Busck. 



Although the Strawberry Petiole Gall, Diastrophus fragariae Beutm. is 

 fairly common here, I have not* found it on cultivated plants until this season. 

 The gall consists of an elongated, cylindrical swelling of the petiole. The en- 

 largement, when dry, has a regularly beaded appearance, owing to a constriction 

 occurring between every two larval cells. The gall-bearing leaves die early in 

 the season. 



Two other species of the gall-producing genus Diastrophus infect both the 

 wild and cultivated species of their hosts. Diastrophus turgidus Bass, forms 

 irregular, pithy swellings around the stems of the raspberry, and Diastrophus 

 cuscutcejormis O.S. deformities on the stems of bramble. The latter gall is 

 made up of a large number of small galls clustered together. Each of these 

 consists of a small, hard spherical mass of tissue surrounded by a rosette of 

 minute filaments. 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE EUROPEAN CORN BORER IN ONTARIO 

 DURING THE SUMMER OF 1922 



L. S. McLaine, Division of Foreign Pests Suppression, Department of 



Agriculture, Ottawa 



The results of the scouting work for the European Corn Borer carried on 

 in southern Ontario during the summer of 1922, show that although this insect 

 has spread over quite a large area during this past season, the amount of spread 

 is not quite as large as was the case in 1921. It is to be hoped that the latter 

 year was an unusually favourable one for the European Corn Borer owing to 

 the long dry summer and excessive heat. 



