INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 113 
them to fall; as does also the larva of one of the saw-flies (Tenthredo 
testudinea), as observed by Mr. Westwood, and the first instance known of 
one of this tribe feeding in the interior of fruits. 
Our more dainty and delicate fruits, at least such as are usually so 
accounted, the apricot, the peach, and the nectarine, originally of Asiatic 
origin, are not less subject to the empire of insects than the homelier 
natives of Europe. Certain Aphides form a convenient and sheltered 
habitation for themselves, by causing portions of the leaves to rise into 
hollow red convexities; in these they reside, and with their rostrum 
pumping out the sap, in time occasion them to curl up, and thus deform 
the tree and injure the produce. ‘The fruit is attacked by various other 
enemies of this class, against which we find it not easy to secure it: wasps, 
earwigs, flies, wood-lice, and ants, which last communicate to it a disagreeable 
flavour, all share with us these ambrosial treasures ; the first of them as it 
were opening the door, by making an incision in the rind, and letting in all 
the rest. The nucleus of the apricot is also sometimes inhabited by the 
caterpillar of a:-moth, which, feeding on the kernel, causes the fruit to fall 
prematurely.? And much injury is done to this tree by the larva of a little’ 
moth (Ditula angustiorana), by devouring the young blossom-buds and 
tying the young shoots together with its silken thread, so as to stop their 
growth In this country, however, these fruits may be regarded as mere 
luxuries, and therefore are of slight consequence ; but in North America 
they constitute an important part of the general produce, at least the peach, 
serving both as food for swine, and furnishing by distillation a spirit. The 
ravages committed upon them there by insects are so serious, that pre- 
miums have been offered for extirpating them. A species of weevil, 
perhaps a Rhynchites, enters the fruit when unripe, probably laying its eggs 
within the stone, and so destroys them. And two kinds of Zygena, by~ 
attacking the roots, do a still greater injury to the trees.*— A Coccus, as 
it should seem from the description, imported about thirty years ago from 
the Mauritius, or else with the Constantia vine from the Cape of Good 
Hope, has destroyed nearly nine tenths of the peach trees in the Island of* 
St. Helena, where formerly they were so abundant, that, as in North 
America, the swine were fed with their fruit. Various means have been 
employed to destroy this plague, but hitherto without success. — The 
imperial pine apple, the glory of our stoyes, and the most esteemed of the 
gilts of Pomona, cannot, however precious, be defended from the injuries 
of a singular species of mite, before mentioned, the red Spider of gardeners, 
(Lrythreus telarius), which covers it, and other stove plants, with a most 
delicate, but at the same time very pernicious, web; and the Coccus 
bromelie is often as great a pest, preying upon the leaves and young fruit 
beneath a white downy secretion. — The olive-tree, so valuable to the 
' Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond, iii. proc, xxxii. 
2 M. de Ja Hire in Reaum. ii. 478. 
® Westivood in Loudon’s Gardener's Mag. No. 94. Jan. 1888. 
4 Dr. Smith Barton’s Letter in Philos. Magaz. xxii. 210. — William Davy, Esq., 
American Consul of the port of Hull, long resident in the United States, informed 
me, that though he had abundance of peaches at his country-house, German Town, 
near Philadelphia, he could neyer succeed with the nectarine, the fruit constantly 
falling off, perforated by the grub of some insect. 
5 Deser. of the I. of St. Helena, 147. 
6 Trans, Ent. Soc. Lond. i. proc, Ixiv.; and see also Westwood’s Obs, i. 206. 
I 
