Dec. 1896.] 



INJURIOUS INSECTS AND FU.NGI. 



273 



INJURIOUS INSECTS AND FUNGI. 



Insects in the Spring and Summer of 1896. 



Owing possibly to the mild winter, and undoubtedly to the 

 warm and very dry spring, there have been serious attacks of 

 many kinds of insects during this season. Aphides of various 

 species were very abundant. In the hop districts through- 

 out England the hop aphis (Phorodon humuli), was more in 

 evidence than usual and much more persistent in its attack. 

 Many planters had to wash the hop plants three and even four 

 times before they got them quite free from the aphides, while fresh 

 flies came continuously as late as the end of June, and where 

 washing was not undertaken the plants became black. In some 

 cases the planters had not money to spend upon washing, which 

 is an expensive process ; while others held that with hops at from 

 11. to SI. 10s. per cwt. it would not pay to spend 51. or 61. per acre 

 in washing the plants. It was found that the old-fashioned 

 wash of quassia chips and soft soap was the most satisfactory 

 in operation. A little paraffin, churned up with the soap before 

 the quassia was added, was found by some planters to be useful. 



The bean aphis (Aphis rumicis), known in some districts as 

 the " collier," was most plentiful, and seriously damaged the bean 

 crop in fields and gardens. Cutting off the tops of infested beans 

 is the best preventive, and this was practised in some cases : but 

 too frequently it was not done early enough, before the aphides 

 had got below the tops of the plants. 



The apple aphis (Aphis mali) also appeared abundantly in 

 many orchards, and the currant bushes, both red and black, were 

 smothered with aphides of the species Rhopalosiphum rikis. 

 Winter moth caterpillars were also on the apple trees, so that 

 the injury caused by the aphides was not clearly distinguished. 

 There was a sharp attack of these caterpillars almost every- 

 where, but it was stayed, where most severe, by timely spray- 

 ings with Paris green solutions, and washes of soft soap, quassia, 

 and paraffin ; while in some orchards the caterpillars were 

 checked by natural causes, not apparent, before they had irre- 

 trievably ruined the crop. Taking the whole of the apple - 

 growing districts, however, considerable injury was occasioned 

 to the crop by these caterpillars. The woolly aphis (Schiso- 

 neura lanigera) has been very abundant this season upon apple 

 trees, and has also been seen upon plum trees, and the larvae of the 

 Codlin moth (Carpocapsa pomonella) were very destructive to 

 apples in many parts of the country. 



As in some previous years the oaks in many parts of England;, 

 and notably in Kent and in Berkshire, were entirely defoliated 

 by the action of the caterpillars of the pretty little moth, Tortrix 



