On the Occurrence of certain Insects, by James Hardy. 371 



Oaterpillae, op the Apricot Stem and Branches. — Being at 

 Tyninghame Gardens on Sept. Gtli, 1880, Mr. Brotherston 

 directed my attention to the state of tlie Apricots. He stated that 

 they were dying out on walls in a great number of gardens, and 

 that this is the case at Tyninghame. A Caterpillar mines between 

 the bark and the wood, and throws out a brown dust or " frass," 

 along the channel which it excavates ; the bark cracks and peels 

 off above the injured portion ; and blobs of gum issue from the 

 wounds, depriving the tree of its due nutriment and strength. 

 The caterpillar was said finally to perforate the wood. The 

 attack (so far as I witnessed it) is made on the base of the stem, 

 where the branches divaricate. Many old trees are cut off by 

 it, dying away at the bottom, and then the rest of the tree decays, 

 and the fruit falls off in the spring. A caterpillar was dislodged 

 with a knife. It was smooth, naked, of a white colour, with a 

 light brown scaly head, and about the size of the caterpillar of a 

 Tortrix. Unfortunately the specimen got crushed before I could 

 make a description of it. Mr. Brotherston makes the following 

 statement of date March 9th, 1881. ''About the caterpillar 

 which affects apricot trees, I cannot state the amount of damage 

 which it does. Mr, Richard Orossling at St. Fagans, South 

 Wales, was the first to notice it, and published an article in 

 *the Journal of Horticulture' for 1879, naming it the caterpillar 

 of the 'Apple Clear Wing,' and stating at the same time his 

 belief, that the caterpillar was the cause of apricots dying off. 

 He was here in the beginning of last winter, and when I ex- 

 pressed my doubts as to its being responsible for the amount of 

 damage that he wants to prove it guilty of ; he said he never 

 found a branch die off, which had not previously been subjected 

 to the ravages of this caterpillar. It was, of course too late in 

 the season to find out whether the apricot trees here bore proof 

 of his theory being correct or not. There is no doubt as to a 

 caterpillar boring round the inside bark (^Cambium), but that is 

 no proof of its being the sole cause of a disease that has puzzled 

 everybody who has given the matter a thought for generations 

 back." 



According to Mr. Stainton's Manual, i., p. 106, the " Clear- 

 wing of the Apple" is TrocMlium Myopceforme. Its length is 8 to 

 10^- lines. " Eore- wings, margins blackish ; hind margin tinged 

 with purplish; central spot blackish; fringes purplish; head 

 ftnd throat black, abdomen black, with one broad red ring — June 



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