88 



A NEW ENEMY OF THE PEAR. 



Dr. N. Cholodkovsky, of St. Petersburg, Russia, reports in the 

 Zoologischer Anzeiger (Vol. XXVII, pp. 118-119, 1903) the discovery 

 of a new species of Phylloxera, infesting the fruit of several valuable 

 varieties of pears, and to which he gives the name of Phylloxera piri. 

 He states that about the middle of September colonies of small and 

 apterous, yellowish-green lice were discovered in small depressions 

 around the stem of numbers of pears, covered with paper bags as a 

 protection against Carpocapsa pomonella, at Aluschta, Crimea, Russia; 

 that the infested parts eventually rotted, producing irregular blackish- 

 brown spots on the surface surrounding the stem, and that the lice 

 had apparently lived on the pears for about a month, during which 

 time the young or larvae spread from one fruit to others. 



Thus far this species appears to be indigenous and confined to the 

 south of Russia, and as far as recorded is the only one of this group 

 of plant lice discovered as infesting fruit trees. 



The discovery of this new pest on the pear indicates anew the great 

 danger of indiscriminate importations of fruit, cuttings, or growing 

 plants from foreign countries without an adequate supervision and 

 fumigation before shipment and thorough inspection of such a cargo 

 prior to distribution in this country. — Th. P. 



INJURY BY A CRICKET IN THE SOUTH. 



During the November 11 (1903) meeting of the Entomological 

 Society of Washington the following notes were presented b}^ Mr. 

 A. N. Caudell, the first portion being a letter received several years 

 ago and the latter a report on the specimens by Mr. Caudell. 



Mr. Dempsey's letter is as follows: 



Jena, Catahoula Parish, La., May 7, 1887. 



As you requested February 21 last, I send you samples of the destructive locusts 

 which are so numerous in this parish. They infest portions of the hills and swamp 

 lands alike, doing irreparable damage to cotton, sweet and common potatoes, peas, 

 and tobacco. They will not reach you alive, as they die in about twenty-four hours 

 in confinement. 



Our farmers are seriously alarmed at their fearful increase and their destructive 

 habits. Their holes in the ground are promiscuously scattered from a few inches to 

 several feet apart, and seldom over a foot deep in the uplands, but they go much 

 deeper in the swamp, as the soil is deeper and the subsoil softer. They are seldom 

 visible in the heat of the day, and do their cutting at night, taking all they want 

 down in the ground, w T here they eat as they please or feed their young ones. They 

 never infest trees or injure orchards, but if they become much more numerous they 

 may eat everything green. 



In 1852 I first noticed them eating young cotton only, and a few years back they 

 began to eat sweet potatoes; now they eat peas and tobacco, and have attacked our 

 gardens. Our parish is composed of small farmers, who lack the means and the 

 knowledge of how to exterminate them, and I fear that for want of discipline, unity 

 of action, or any system of organization that the most profound scientist would fail 



