44 



There can be no doubt that the beetles could readily be reached by 

 spraying the leaves, since observation has shown that they feed on the 

 foliage of their host plants. 



Should it be proven that the fungus is the primary cause of injury, 

 as is now apparently the case, all efforts should be directed toward the 

 suppression of this fungus; but, as the subject of fungous diseases and 

 their remedies does not come within the scope of this Division, it need 

 not be discussed here. It may be said, in any case, that when a tree 

 becomes badly infested by the insect it should be cut down and 

 destroyed by burning, and this should be done before the month of 

 April to prevent the development of the insect and its issuance from 

 the wood for the infestation of other trees. 



TWO NEW CECIDOMYIANS DESTRUCTIVE TO BUDS OF ROSES. 



By D. W. Coquillett. 



At intervals during the past twelve years complaints have reached 

 this office in regard to certain kinds of insects which infest the buds of 

 roses grown under glass, causing them finally to wither and turn black. 

 The blossom buds as well as those for the production of wood and foli- 

 age are thus attacked, and in several instances during an entire season 

 not a single flower of certain varieties was produced in some of the 

 rose houses owing to the depredations of these pests. For some curi- 

 ous reason the only varieties of roses known to be subject to these 

 attacks are the Meteor, Wooton, La France, and a sport of the latter 

 known as the Duchess of Albany. !No other variety of rose has been 

 known to be attacked, although frequently grown in the same house 

 side by side with plants of the kinds mentioned which had in some 

 cases lost all of their buds. 



The pests in question are small legless larvae which are to be found 

 within the buds at the bases of the outer scales, or sepals, if a blossom 

 bud is examined. These larvae are of a white color when young, but 

 become orange red in the latter part of their larval periods. Their 

 manner of transformation is at present not known to the writer, but it 

 is probable that they enter the earth and pass through their various 

 changes in a cell or cavity formed just beneath the surface. So far as 

 I am aware, they have never been known to attack roses grown in the 

 open air, and this would seem to indicate that they were originally 

 natives of some tropical region, from which they have been imported 

 into this country either upon plants, cuttings, or in the soil in which 

 the plants were imported. 



The earliest record of the occurrence of these pests in this country 

 that has come to my notice is a letter dated September 29, 188G, accom- 

 panied by specimens, addressed to this Department by Mr. Ernst 

 Asmus, of West Hoboken, ET. J. This letter has already been pub- 

 lished on page 284 of Insect Life for March, 1889, and is followed by a 



