JO NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



there would seem to be no reason why it might not appear here and 

 there in other places in the country, especially in localities to which 

 there have been recent shipments of box plants. It has been received 

 recently from California. The insect winters in the leaves and 

 hence would be readily conveyed from place to place. 



The most promising method of checking this insect appears to 

 be repeated treatments with a contact insecticide at about the time 

 the midges are beginning to issue, and distributed through the period 

 of flight. Kerosene emulsion or a whale oil soap solution, as reported, 

 ha\^e been used with excellent results though it is quite probable 

 that the nicotine-soap combination so generally employed for the 

 control of plant lice and some other soft-bodied insects would be 

 equally effective and perhaps safer. In case of limited infestations 

 where the plants are highly prized it might be advisable to make 

 daily applications so long as any of the yellowish flies are noted 

 issuing from the leaves or flying about the plants. 



Columbine borer (Papaipema purpurifascia Gr. & 

 Rb.). This insect belongs to a group commonly known as stalk 

 borers and, like its associates, occasionally attracts attention by 

 its work in plants. 



The female, according to Mr Henry Bird, our American authority 

 upon stalk borers, lives but a few days and deposits her eggs on the 

 lower stems of the food plant in late August or early September, 

 where they remain securely attached until the period of hatching, 

 which, in the latitude of Rye, is between May 15th and 20th. The 

 young borer usually ascends the flower stems and enters well up 

 where the tissues are tender, working down by slow degrees and in 

 about ten days enters the root. Some two months are required to 

 complete its growth. The infestation of the stem is indicated by a 

 general wilting and also the fine frass or borings which are thrown 

 out through the small entrance hole near the top of the stem. After 

 the borer enters the root another hole is made near the surface of 

 the ground for the discharge of borings and the infested plants are 

 usually marked by a circular mound of such reject a, reminding one 

 somewhat of grains of earth surrounding an ant burrow. The 

 full-grown caterpillar inhabits the root. It measures from one and 

 one-third to one and one-half inches in length, is naked, flesh- 

 colored, with no stripes or mottlings. The head and thoracic shield 

 are testaceous, shining, the latter margined with black on the side. 

 The anal shield, spiracles and minute setigerous tubercles are black. 



The above life history details, based on notes kindly placed at 

 our disposal by Mr Bird, show that it is comparatively easy to check 



