THE PEAR. 



473 



thoroughly destroy them. The gall and pear 

 midges usually attain their full size during the 

 second and third week in May, much depend- 

 ing on the weather whether it be cold or hot. 



The common elm-destroying soolytus {Saoly- 

 tus destructor Oliv., Hylednus scolytus Fabr.), 

 fig. 204, although called elm scolytus from its 



attacks on that 

 Fig. 204. tree, is never- 



theless as inju- 

 rious to other 

 trees also — the 

 pear and apple 

 in a particular 

 degree ; and al- 

 though nearly 

 related to the 

 Scolytus hcem- 

 orrhousotMey, 

 fig.l78,itisevi- 

 dentlydistinct. 

 Dr Hammer- 

 schmidt has, 

 however, en- 

 deavoured to 

 establish an- 

 other species, 

 viz. Scolytus 

 pruni, or plum 

 scolytus ; this 

 other entomo- 

 logists regard 

 as identical 

 with S. destruc- 

 tor, found also 

 on the plum 

 as well as on 

 the apple and 

 pear. The perfect insect, or beetle, has 

 the head and thorax black and glossy, 

 very thickly dotted with very minute dots. 

 The antennas are of a light blackish brown, 

 terminating in a sort of knob. In size the 

 beetle varies from two lines in length, and 

 half a line in breadth, to nearly a third less. In 

 form it is nearly cylindrical. The wing-cases 

 are cut off somewhat obliquely behind, and are 

 somewhat hollowed near their base, are of a 

 brownish-black colour, marked with dots in very 

 fine lines. The legs are of a reddish brown, the 

 second joint being pretty broad. The larva is 

 yellowish white, with a yellowish shining head 

 and brown mouth, from one to two lines in 

 length. They confine their operations entirely 

 to the inner bark of the tree, which they often 

 so completely destroy as to cause the death of 

 the whole branch, and often of the tree itself, 

 when they attack the main trunk. Their de- 

 struction is difficult, for their presence is seldom 

 discovered until their effects give unmistakable 

 evidence of it, when the branch had better be 

 removed entirely, or that portion of the bark 

 removed under which they burrow, and the 

 inner bark with the insect scraped off and de- 

 stroyed. Painting the external bark over where 

 they reside with spirits of tar will probably be 

 found the most effectual remedy with the least 

 injury to the tree. 



The pale brindled beauty-moth — Phigalia 



(Geometra amphidasis) pilosaria Autor — fig. 206, 

 appears about the middle of March. • Fore wings 



Fig. 205. 



ELM-DBSTROVINO SCOLYTUS, AND 



SECTION OF WOOD SHOWING 



ITS KAVAGES. 



PALE BKINDI.ED pSAUTY-.'VIOTH. 



Male and Female, 

 of the male are brownish grey, thickly covered 

 with dots of the same colour, with a few white 

 ones interspersed, and traversed by greyish 

 cross stripes. Hind wings whitish, with a brown- 

 ish undulating stripe running through their 

 middle. The margin of the wings are fringed, 

 having behind the fringe a dark grey line. The 

 female is without wings, much smaller than the 

 male, brownish, with many angular tufts of very 

 soft hair. The body of the male is greyish 

 green, with many long soft hairs. The sexes 

 pair in March, and immediately after the female 

 begins to lay her eggs, which she disposes in 

 rows upon the small twigs of the pear tree, to 

 the number of upwards of one hundred and 

 fifty, which occupies her several days. The 

 caterpillars are of a green colour, and appear 

 just as their food, the young leaves, begin to 

 expand. Their natural enemies are the ants, 

 and to escape from them the female deposits 

 her eggs generally on lofty pear-trees. The 

 eggs being deposited on young small twigs 

 only, and covered with a web of long grey hairs, 

 may be readily detected, and should be gathered 

 and destroyed. 



The pear-leaf miner — Argyromyges Scitella 

 (Mentz in Isis), Argyromyges Clerkella Ste- 

 phens, Curtis, Knight, &c., but not of Linnaeus, 

 (perhaps not pear-tree blister-moth. Tinea Clerh- 

 ella often confounded with this insect, but 

 twice as large)— " measures about J of an inch in 

 the expansion of the fore wings, which are of a 

 glossy silvery-white colour, the terminal por- 

 tion being orange with white fringe, but varied 

 on the fore margin near the tip with two white 

 triangular spots edged with black lines, and with 

 a trident-like black mark at the tip, and with 

 the margin terminated by a black spot glossed 

 with purple. The perfect insect generally ap- 

 pears at the end of May, when the female 

 deposits her eggs on the under surface of the 

 leaves, the young larva; penetrating the under 

 cuticle, and feeding on the parenchyma, leaving 

 the two surfaces of the leaf untouched, and 



