No. 115.] 121 



deposit of eggs. Their black color will reveal their hiding places 

 in the crevices of the bark, in the fore part of the month of 

 November, when they may be destroyed by a thorough application 

 of the alkaline washes mentioned above. 



The earnest effort that is being made in various quarters for the 

 protection and encouragement of our insectivorous birds may find 

 a strong argument in its favor, in the great service rendered by 

 several of the species in their destruction of plant-lice. A number 

 of our smaller birds, among the warblers and finches, as the Ten- 

 nessee warbler (Helminthophaga peregrina), the purple finch 

 (Carpodacus purpureus), and others, feed quite largely upon these 

 minute insect pests. Their presence should therefore be encouraged 

 in apple orchards for the service they may render us. 



Potato Plants Attacked by Aphides. 



Potato leaves badly infested with plant-lice were received in the 

 early part of the month of July, from Springfield, Mass., with the 

 statement that some fields of potatoes in the vicinity had been 

 almost destroyed by the insect. It attacked the leaves upon their 

 under side, where it was difficult to reach them by spraying, 

 although tobacco water had been thrown upon them with some 

 effect. 



Later (under date of July nineteenth) the same inject was 

 received from Wyoming, Pa , where it was proving more destruc- 

 tive than in Massachusetts. It threatened to prove to the potato 

 growers of that portion of the State a greater pest than the Colo- 

 rado potato beetle. Entire fields had been ruined, and little hope 

 was entertained of securing a remunerative crop. 



No plant-louse attack on potato had previously come to my notice, 

 nor do I find, in any of the entomological literature at my com- 

 mand, mention of a potato-feeding aphis. Dr. Thomas, formerly 

 State Entomologist of Illinois, in the Eighth Illinois Report (1879), 

 in which he records all of the North American Aphididtu known 

 to him, names and describes a species found by him on tomato 

 vines, as Megoura solani. The potato aphis may be identical with 

 this tomato one, but all the examples of the former that I received 

 were in too poor a condition to admit of comparison with the 

 description (quite brief) of the latter. Before the reception of the 



