396 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



I found an occasional specimen on some unflowed bogs near the shore, 

 and on Sandy Neck, a long, narrow isthmus, with a line of bogs between 

 sand hills, I found that this was the only form. The Anchylopera does 

 not occur there at all, but the Teras effectively replaces it. The habits 

 of the species are sufficiently described in my previous report, and noth- 

 ing needs be added. The practice has been at Sandy Neck to carry a 

 large wad of rags soaked in kerosene and tied to an iron rod, blazing, 

 over the bo^ in early evening. A vast number of specimens flew into 

 this blaze and were destroyed. Needless to say, these bogs had not 

 been flowed, else this insect could not exist. In New Jersey it has 

 done no noteworthy damage. 



An experiment was tried looking to an explanation of the dimorphism 

 of the species. Eggs from gray $ 9 were obtained in early spring, and 

 the larva when hatched fed exclusively on old leaves and kept in a low 

 temperature, the pupa often in a refrigerator; nevertheless, they all 

 produced yellow imagines. These were mated and eggs obtained, and 

 these, fed on fresh leaves, were separated into two groups. One lot was 

 left continually in the same temperature, the other was changed — cold 

 at night, hot during the day, the variation irregular — still from both 

 lots I obtained yellow specimens only. The third brood is still in the 

 larval state ; these I shall keep at a uniformly high temperature, the 

 object being, if possible, to make this last brood also yellow. 



These, in brief, represent the results of my held work so far as the 

 special crops investigated were concerned. The season has not been 

 one favorable to the development of insect life; a late frost (June 14- 

 16) killed many acres of cranberry vines, and probably much of the in- 

 sect life; but even where the frost did no especial damage no unusual 

 increase of injurious species was noted. The Berry worm is now known 

 in all its states and the apparent remedies suggested; experience now 

 and intelligent effort in dealing with the various stages will undoubtedly 

 soon enable growers to subdue this enemy, as they can by sufficient ex- 

 ertion control the other pests. 



A CECIDOMYID LARVA INFESTING- TIIE PEAR AT MERIDEN, CONN. 



[Plate IX, Fig. 6.] 



In pursuance of your instructions of June 3, 1884, I went to Meriden, 

 Conn., and called on the Messrs. Coe Bros., who are the proprietors of 

 a fruit farm, containing, among others, some six hundred pear trees. 

 The insect especially mentioned in your letter of instruction was a Ceci- 

 domyid larva, and to this insect my investigations were directed. 



The injurious larva is a small apodous grub, of a bright yellow color, 

 thickest in the middle, and tapering to each extremity, most evidently 

 toward the head. When full grown it is about 3 rom , or nearly one-eighth 

 of an inch in length, and the segments are subequal, and rather strongly 

 marked. It is found in the infested pears, often in large numbers (from 

 ten to twenty — in one specimen twenty-uine), giving them an irregular, 

 somewhat knobby appearance, by which the infested is readily distin- 

 guished from the sound fruit. These protuberances are inconstant in size 

 andappearauce, sometimes merely causing the pear to appear unnaturally 

 round, at others forming distinct and regularly convex protuberances. 

 On June 6 and 7, when I was at Meriden, the insects were about full 

 grown and had largely left the pears so that, especially on the Coe 

 farm, few infested specimens were found ; besides, to get rid of the pest 

 on this farm, the heroic remedy of stripping the trees of all but a few 



