20 



Willow Plant-louse (Melaxanthus salicis) was brought or sent ine a num- 

 ber of times, showing that it attracted unusual attention, and the eggs 

 deposited by the oviparous females were to be found in numbers under 

 the buds of willow twigs in late autumn. Of all the species noticed, 

 however, the swarms of the Dogwood Aphid (Schizoneura corni Fab.) 

 were most remarkable. This species is referred to more particularly in 

 another place. 



OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AFFECTING GRASSES. 



The importance of the pastures and meadows in this State will be 

 conceded by every one familiar with its agriculture. Perhaps no other 

 single element is of greater importance, furnishing, as it does, the basis 

 for the stock industry of the State. 



The insects infesting meadows and pastures are -therefore of the 

 greatest importance, and while their depredations are perhaps less con- 

 spicuous than those from insects affecting some other crops, I think it 

 can be clearly shown that the average annual loss in pastures and 

 meadows from insect injuries is equal to if not greater than the crop har- 

 vested or the amount consumed by cattle, horses, or sheep in pasture, 

 and probably furnishing a total annual loss greater than in any other 

 crop. In ordinary pasturage it is common, I believe, to allow two acres 

 of land to each cow, or, for convenience, let us say that one acre will 

 half support a cow. At the same time that this cow is feeding there 

 are a million insects, more or less, of various kinds feeding upon the 

 same area by day and night from the time the suow melts in spring till 

 winter forces them to suspend their work. 



The only compensation they can offer is that when dead (and they 

 die young), their million little carcasses dropping on the surface of the 

 soil return to it some of the material which has been built into their 

 tissues, increasing its richness and helping to support succeeding gene- 

 rations. 



In rny report upon the Turf Web -worm two years ago, I gave the count 

 of burrows that had been opened by squirrels as twenty-five in one 

 instance and fifty in another, within a square yard, and it is not prob- 

 able that every burrow within those areas had been opened by squirrels. 

 The web-worms were, however, uncommonly abundant that season. If 

 we reduce the mean of these figures by one-half and allow two web 

 worms to each square foot it means 87,120 to the acre, and then consider 

 that these worms cut down quantities of grass that they do not devour, 

 it would seem hardly too much to suppose that these alone would prove 

 a pretty even match for one half a cow in disposing of the grass grow- 

 ing on an acre. 



All are familiar with the depredations of white grubs, and it is hardly 

 necessary to ask whether in seasons when these are plentiful they do 

 not destroy as much or more than would support at least half a cow. 

 Cutworms and Army worms are a constant source of loss in grass 



