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INJURIOUS INSECTS AND FUNGI. 



[March 1895. 



IX.— INJURIOUS INSECTS AND FUNGI. 

 The Woolly Aphis (Schizoneura lanigera, Hausmann), 



Twig of apple tree with blight. Wingless viviparous female, wo oily, with young. 

 Oviparous female, woolly, and without beak or rostrum. Wingless male with long 

 rostrum. Pupa, without wool. 



This aphis, which is injurious to apple trees, is commonly 

 known as American Blight, and was thus named because it was 

 ascertained by Sir Joseph Banks that it was first seen in Great 

 Britain upon apple trees consigned to an English nurseryman 

 from America, towards the end of the last century. 



Mr. Buckton observes in his " Monograph of British Aphides," 

 that the ravages of this insect were at first confined to the 

 vicinity of London ; but the pest speedily spread into the 

 Devonshire orchards, and with such effect that at one time 

 the making of cider threatened to be abandoned. In Gloucester- 

 shire, the apple orchards were so infested by the Woolly Aphis 

 in 1810 that no cider was made, and it was feared the trees 

 were hopelessly injured. In the last few years, it has greatly 

 increased in some of the British apple-producing localities, and 

 it was particularly troublesome in many places in 1893. ^ 



The Woolly Aphis is found throughout Europe where apples 

 are grown, in the United States, Canada, and Australasia. In 

 Tasmania, New South Wales, and New Zealand it is very 

 troublesome ; and in Victoria, where it has been known for 

 40 years, it is a great scourge. As the eggs of the insect are 

 placed in the interstices of the bark, the importation of apple 

 trees from an infested country or district almost certainly 

 entails the introduction of the pest. 



