December, '15] PARROTT, GLOYER AND FULTON: TREE-CRICKETS 537 



Sacc. (Coniothyrium Fuckelii Sacc). According to Duggar^ this is a 

 iungus which, as a disease-producing organism, has been known only 

 a few years. O'Gara^ lists it as occurring on apple and rose at Wash- 

 ington, D. C, and on apples in a nursery near Clemson College, S. C. 

 It is stated by this writer that most of the infections took place where 

 the bark of the trees had been bruised or slightly broken by the tools 

 or harness in cultivating. He also records that in one nursery serious 

 infection was found on apple trees which adjoined a clump of wild roses 

 badly infected with the disease. The trees nearest the roses showed the 

 greatest number of infections. In New York this fungus had, up to 

 the time of this investigation, attracted no attention either as an 

 apple or as a rose pest, but since 1899 it has been regarded in this state 

 as a widespread and serious disease of raspberries, which is known as 

 Raspberry Cane Blight. It is essentially a wilt disease, and the prin- 

 cipal damage results to the fruiting canes. The whole cane may be 

 involved or only a portion of it. As to the manner of infection Clin- 

 ton^ thinks that the fungus gains entrance through the flowers and 

 fruit, the spores being apparently spread by bees and other insects. 

 Stewart,^ as a result of his extensive and careful studies of the dis- 

 ease, believes that infection occurs in wounds of various kinds and that 

 a break in the epidermis usually precedes the attack. He also states 

 that cane-blight often starts in wounds made by the '^heading back" 

 of new canes, by the removal of branches, by the rubbing of canes 

 against each other or against supporting wires, and particularly in 

 crotches where the branches are more or less split apart, and in wounds 

 made by the snowy tree-cricket GEcanthus niveus (nigricornis) during 

 oviposition. ''The wounds thus made furnish a lodging place for 

 Coniothyrium spores and also for water necessary to the germination of 

 the spores, making the conditions exceptionally favorable for infec- 

 tion. That infection does actually occur in tree-cricket wounds is 

 shown by the large number of instances in which the cane is covered 

 with Coniothyrium pycnidia in the vicinity of the wounds, usually just 

 below them. The well-known tendency of cricket-injured canes to 

 break at the point of attack is probably due, in part, to brittleness 

 induced by the Coniothyrium. It appears that the injury done by 

 the tree cricket is often much aggravated by the cane-blight fungus. 

 While Coniothyrium often takes advantage of wounds it is by no means 

 -certain that it should be classed as a wound parasite." As to the 

 methods by which it is distributed, Stewart suggests the dissemination 



^Duggar, B. M., Fungous Diseases of Plants, p. 354. 

 2 0'Gara, P. J., Phytopathology, Vol. 1, p. 100, 1911. 

 ^Clinton, G. P., Conn. Exp. Sta., Report (1906): 321-324. 

 ^Ste\\art, F. C, N. Y. Ag. Exp. Sta., Bui. 226, pp. 331-366. 



