73 



dry seeds. On pages 95-100 he discusses the codling moth, and on 

 plate 6 of his work some fairly good figures of all stages of the 

 insect, including the egg and its position on an apple, are given. He 

 describes the egg as " spheroidal, with walls delicately membranous, 

 somewhat netted, transparent, of a whitish-yellow color," and states 

 that the eggs are most often laid in the neighborhood of the stem or 

 calyx. Thus there is little doubt that Costa saw the eggs nearly fifty 

 years ago. 



NOTES AND NEW FACTS ABOUT SOME NEW YORK GRAPE PESTS. 



By M. V. Slingerland, Ithaca, N. Y. 



During the past three or four years many vineyards in the great 

 Chautauqua County grape region have been very seriously infested 

 by three insect pests — leaf-hoppers, rootworms, and the fruit moth. 

 Never before had any of these pests menaced this grape section, and 

 the vineyardists were wholly unprepared to cope with such new diffi- 

 culties. The entomological and horticultural divisions of the Cornell 

 Experiment Station and State Entomologist Felt devoted a large part 

 of their energies to field work in the infested region in 1902 and 1903, 

 and some work will probably be carried on next year. Apparently 

 one of the factors which brought about this unusual outbreak of these 

 grape pests was neglect in cultivating and feeding the vineyards a 

 few years ago when grapes brought very low prices. It has been 

 demonstrated that proper and timely cultivation is one of the most 

 effective methods for controlling the rootworms (Fidia vlticida), and 

 nothing suits the "hoppers," as the growers call them (Typldocyba 

 comes), better for hibernation quarters than a grass-grown and weedy 

 vineyard. The fruit in some of these neglected vineyards was not 

 worth harvesting, and oftentimes grapes are sorted in the field, the 

 wormy and diseased berries being thrown on the ground near the 

 vines. These conditions favor the unhampered breeding of the fruit 

 moth (Eudemis botrana). 



It has been a strenuous warfare to devise, test, and evolve effective 

 and practical methods for controlling these grape pests, but the re- 

 sults have demonstrated that such methods are available. 



The rootworm is vulnerable in its egg, pupa, and beetle stages. 

 Some vineyardists have found it practical to go over their vines and 

 by rubbing the canes crush the masses of eggs laid under the loose 

 bark. The pupa rests in a little earthen cell, and but few of them 

 survive if this cell is broken by cultivation. More than half of the 

 pupse can often be killed in this way by thorough stirring of the soil 

 in June. 



The beetles feed quite extensively on the leaves, eating character- 

 istic chain-like holes. Thus theoretically the} 7 should succumb read- 

 ily to a poison spray. Although many acres of infested vineyards 



