70 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



PEAR THRIPS 

 Euthrips pyri Daniel 



The pear thrips is a slender, dark brown insect only about one- 

 twentieth of an inch long and with very delicate, narrow, long- 

 fringed wings (Plate 3). It appears with the opening of the leaf 

 buds and when numerous may literally blast the developing blossoms 

 and destroy the crop. This new pest was discovered in California in 

 1904, has been under investigation in that region for the past eight 

 years, and was found in the Hudson valley by Professor Parrott in 

 191 1. Evidence at hand renders it very probable that this insect 

 has been in New York State for some time and that the mysterious 

 failures of the pear crop in recent years attributed to " blossom 

 blight " or some obscure cause may have been due to the work of 

 this minute enemy. 



Widely distributed in the Hudson valley. Early in ]\Iay we 

 found the pear thrips in an apple orchard near Ravena and very 

 abundant in a pear orchard at Coeymans Hollow. Specimens were 

 also received from Grapeville several miles distant. The insect is 

 generally distributed about Germantown and was very abundant in 

 the orchard of Spencer Brothers at Hudson. It has also been found 

 back of Poughkeepsie and at Milton, Marlborough and Newburgh. 



Injuries. Personal examinations at Geneva and Hudson in com- 

 pany with Professor Parrott, showed a nearly total destruction of 

 the fruit buds in a number of orchards. The young leaves had 

 assumed a characteristic spoon shape, the tips were browned or 

 black, while the blossom buds were partially wilted masses of brown- 

 ing 'tissue. Some 200 seckel pear trees in the orchard of Spencer 

 Brothers were full of just such fruit buds, the loss amounting to 

 about 400 barrels of fruit. 



A local pest. Though widely distributed in the Hudson valley, 

 this insect is a local pest which may be very injurious in one orchard 

 or even a portion of an orchard and hardly noticeable elsewhere. 

 The restricted character of the outbreak was very well shown in the 

 orchard of Spencer Brothers. Here a large block of vigorous seckel 

 pear trees, some 200 in number, had practically all the bloom 

 destroyed, while Kiefifers, lying west of the seckels and also down 

 on the hillside, were comparatively unaffected. Those east of the 

 seckel block and farther up the hill had most of the blossoms in the 

 upper part of the tree destroyed. It would seem from this as though 



