The apple, the peach, the cherry and the vine have each its peculiar aphis or 

 plant-louse, which, spreadina; with parthenogenitic increase, become exceedingly- 

 injurious. The " honey-dew," which the aphides eject, covers the leaves and chokes 

 the stomata, or breathing-pores of those organs, and seriously affects the health of 

 the plant ; whilst the aphides themselves drive their snouts through the epidermis, 

 into the parenchyma, and draw away its life-giving juices. 



The Phylloxera vastatrix (Planchon) of the vine seems in many parts of Europe 

 to have triumphed over all efforts made against it. Happily, in America its natural 

 foes keep it within bounds. One of these foes Diplosis grassator (Fyles), I had the 

 satisfaction some years ago of making known. 



d. Fruit-spoilers. — The last of our classes of injurious insects are the Fruit- 

 spoilers. Of these the " Codling Moth," Carpocapsa pomonella (Linn.) is one of the 

 worst. The perfect insect is a small and pretty moth with wavy-linod, satiny fore- 

 wings, having a conspicuous bronzy spot at the ianor angle. It lays its eggs in the 

 eyes of the young fruit, preferring the early kinds. The caterpillars eat their way 

 in, and attain their growth in about three weeks. They then leave the fruit and 

 seek sheltered spots — usually crevices in the bark of the tree — in which to spin their 

 cocoons, and to undergo their pupal change. This habit has suggested a means of 

 entrapping them. Cloths tied around the stems and main limbs of the trees will 

 attract the larvte, which will spin their cocoons within the folds of the cloths. 



Anthonomus quadrigibbus (Say,) the curculio of the apple, and Conotrachelus nenuphar- 

 (Herbst), the curculio of the plum, are furnished with long snouts, with which they 

 bore into the fruit to make receptacles for their eggs. The grubs mine the growing 

 fruit. The apple curculio undergoes all its changes within the fruit and leaves it as 

 a perfect insect. The ravages of the plum curculio cause the fruit to fall untimely. 

 The grub when full-fed bites its way out of the fallen fruit, and buries itself in the 

 soil, there to undergo its pupal change. 



To capture the perfect insects the fruit-grower should, at the proper season,, 

 spread a sheet under the tree, and then with a fork-handle, or other stout stick, 

 administer a sudden sharp blow to each of the overhanging limbs. This will dislodge 

 the curculios, and they will fall upon the sheet, where they can easily be seen and 

 secured. Leaf-eating and twig-girdling beetles, caterpillars, and other troublesome 

 insects, may be taken in the same way. 



III. There are many kinds of caterpillars that eat the leaves of fruit trees, and 

 yet, under ordinary circumstances, can hardly be said to be injurious — that is to say 

 when feeding upon other than very young trees. Many of them feed late in the 

 summer, and, having done their worst, merely let in, here and there, a little more 

 light and heat to the growing fruit. Many are among the rarest of our insects. 

 Eujpretia stimulia (Clemens), Phobetron pithecium (Ab. & Sm.), Gastropacha 

 Americana (Harris), Tolype velleda (Stoll), feeding on the apple tree are all rare. 

 They are all Bombyces, and the Bombyces do not feed at all in the perfect state. 

 Whatever good or harm they do to the trees is done while they are in the larval 

 stage. Liminitis Ursula, (Fabr), Thecla titus, (Fabr), Smerinthus cerysii (Kirby), 

 Gallosomia promethea (Drury), feeding on the cherry, are also rare ; and so are 

 Philampelus pandorics (Hubner), Thyreus Abbotii (Swainson), and Deilephila lineata 

 (Fabr.), feeding on the vine. Even the more common Papilio turnus (Linn.), 

 Paonias exccecatus (Ab. & Sm.), Platysamia cecropia (Linn.), of the a-pp]e ; Liminitis 

 disippus (Godt.), Sphinx drupiferarum (Ab. & Sm.), Telea polyphemus (Cramer), and 

 Catocala ultronia (Hubn.), of the plum; and Philampelus achemon (Drury), of the 

 vine, are not, as a rule, injurious, for it is seldom that more than two qt three of the 

 larvffl are found on one plant. 



A phenomenal increase of any leaf-feeding insect would, no doubt, be hurtful 

 and even one or two of the larger species would defoliate a young tree to a very 

 serious extent. The presence of these intruders may be readily known by their 

 excrementa scattered under the tree. I would recommend the fruit-grower to 

 remove carefully the rarer kinds of eater-pillars, and to send them to some entomo- 

 logical friend. 



