250 Larch Louse. 



tulip trees here at the college. It has seriously injured this 

 tree in the states bordering the Ohio river. The tulip is often 

 called poplar, which is quite incorrect. The poplar belongs to 

 the willow family, the tulip to the magnolia. This louse is of 

 double interest to bee-keepers. It ruins one of our best honey 

 trees, and supplies a poor substitute for plant nectar to the 

 bees. All bark lice, which include the orange tree scale lice 

 of the south, are best destroyed by use of whale-oil soap — 

 strong solution — or kerosene oil. This latter is best applied in 

 the form of an emulsion, with soap solution or milk. Whit- 

 man's Fountain Pump is admirable for making such applica- 

 tions. 



I have also seen the bees thick about several species of plant 

 lice. One, the Erisoma imbricator, Fitch, works on the beech 

 tree. Its abdomen is thickly covered with long wool, and it 

 makes a comical show as it wags this up and down upon the 

 least disturbance. The leaves of trees attacked by this louse, 

 as also those beneath the trees, are fairly gummed with a 

 sweetish substance. I have found that the "bees avoid this 

 substance, except at times of extreme drouth and long pro- 

 tracted absence of honeyed bloom. 



Another species, Thalaxes vlmieola, gives rise to certain soli- 

 tary galls, which appear on the upper surface of the leaves of 

 the red elm. These galls are hollow, with a thin skin, and 

 within the hollows are the lice, which secrete an abundant 

 sweet that often attracts the bees to a feast of fat things, as the 

 gall is torn apart, or cracks open, so that the sweet exudes. 

 This sweet is anything but disagreeable, and may not be un- 

 wholesome to the bees. The larch louse, Lachnus laricis, se- 

 cretes a liquid that is greedily taken by the bees. 



Another of the aphides, of a black hue, works on the 

 branches of our willows, which they often entirely cover, and 

 thus greatly damage another tree valuable for both honey and 

 pollen. Were it not that they seldom are so numerous two 

 years in succession, they would certainly banish from among 

 us one of our most ornamental and valuable honey-producing 

 trees. These are fairly thronged in September and October, 

 and not unfrequently in spring and summer if the lice are 

 abundant, by bees, wasps, ants, and various two-winged flies, 

 all eager to lap up the oozing sweets. This louse is the Lach- 

 nus dentatus, of Le Baron, and the Aphis salicti of Harris. 



