38 



Provincial Board or Hortioultuee. 1891 



It is a four-winged fly, with a rather deep, yellow body, and may often be 

 Imported ^^^ j^ spring sitting upon the foliage or flying about, when the leaves of the 

 Currant Worm, ^^^gjjgg g^j.^ developing. It deposits its eggs on the principal veins of the 

 undersides of the lower leaves. The larvaa soon hatch and commence to feed ravenously; bushes 

 sometimes are completely stripped of their leaves in a few days. There are two or more broods 

 in the course of the season, so that special care should be taken not to neglect the first. The 

 larvffi is green, dotted with black spots, when full grown, nearly an inch in length; when 

 mature they spin their cocoons beneath the leaves and rubbish at the surface of the ground, 

 within which they pupate. The cocoons are brown in colour, and not easily distinguished from 

 the soil and leaves. 



Hellebore has been found the best remedy for this pest. It may be used in the form of a 



dry powder, or in water as a spray, at the rate of 1 oz. to 2 gallons water. On a large scale 



Leggett's Powder Gun is a very quick and economical means for applying dry 



The Best hellebore; by its use there is a great saving of time in the application as well 



Remedy. ^^ material, one large grower stating that- three-fourths of the labour and 



expense can be saved by its use over the method of distributing the powder by other means, 



and this statement is fully borne out by experiments made by the writer the past season. 



If desired, Paris green mixed with dry flour, at the rate of 1 oz. to 4 lbs. flour, can be used 

 to dust the bushes for the early brood, or as a spray (see Spray No. 9), but would not be advis- 

 able for later use, when fruit is on the bushes. 



In fighting this pest care should also be taken to commence when the pests are quite small, 

 and found on the lower portions of the bushes, and so reduce the labour and expense to a 

 minimum. 



This pest is found to a greater or less extent all through the fruit-growing districts of 

 the lower Province, but is not reported from the interior. Pear and cherry trees 



in New Westminster District 

 Pear and Cherry ggpecially have been very much 

 "^' injured by the pest. 



This insect passes the winter in the pupa state 

 under ground; the flies, the progenitors of the 

 mischevious brood of slugs, appearing on the wing 

 about the third week in May until the middle of 

 June. The fly is of a glossy black colour, with 

 four transparent wings, the front pair being crossed 

 by a dusky cloud ; the veins are brownish, and the 

 legs dull yellow, with black thighs, except the hind 

 pair, which are black at both extremities, and dull 

 yellow in the middle. The female fly is more than 

 one-fifth of an inch long; the male is somewhat ^^^^ (^!l?,dr8^^^^T)^^^^' 



smaller. When the trees on which these flies are * * ^" ''^ '^^'■<***- ) 



at work are jarred or shaken, or if the flies are otherwise disturbed, they fall to the ground 

 where, folding their antennse under their' bodies and bending the head forward and under, 

 they remain for a time motionless. 



The saw-flies have been so called from the fact that in most of the species the females are 

 provided with a saw-like appendage at the end of the body, by which slits are cut in the 

 leaves of the trees, shrubs, or plants on which the larvje feed, in which slits the eggs are 

 deposited. The female of this species begins to deposit her eggs early in June; they are 

 placed singly within little semicircular incisions through the skin of the leaf, sometimes on the 

 under side and sometimes on the upper. In about a fortnight these eggs hatch. 



The newly-hatched slug is at first white, but soon a slimy matter oozes out of the skin 



and covers the upper part of the body with an olive-coloured sticky coating. After changing 



its skin four times, it attains the length of half an inch or more, and is 



The Pest De- jj,gjj nearly full grown. It is a disgusting-looking creature, a slimy, 



blackish, or olive-brown slug, with the anterior part of its body so swollen 



as to resemble somewhat a tadpole in form, and having a disagreeable and sickening odour. 



The head is small, of a reddish colour, and is almost entirely concealed under the front 



segments. It is of a dull yellowish colour beneath, with twenty very short legs, one pair 



