490 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. VII, No. ii 
Europe it has been mentioned a number of times in connection with the 
apple, but frequently without any statement as to the nature of the fruit. 
Porchinsky (3) records the rearing of a species of Torymus from the 
seeds of wild pear ( Pyrus communis ), but gives no specific determi¬ 
nation of the insect. It may have been Syntomaspis druparum , but not 
certainly so. Crosby (7, p. 369) lists the Lady apple, natural fruit, the 
wild crab ( Pyrus \Malus] coronaria ), and the following cultivated crab 
apples: Pyrus [Mains'] sibricia var. striata , Pyrus [Malus] fioribunda , 
Pyrus [Malus] prunifoliae , and Pyrus [Malus] ioensis. He also states 
that larvae, apparently the same, were found in the seeds of Sorbus lati- 
folia , but that the adults were not reared. In correspondence with the 
Bureau of Entomology Mr. M. E. Benn, of Coudersport, Pa., states that 
he has found infestation by the seed chalcid in Northern Spy, Baldwin, 
Fameuse, Wagener, Russet, Tolman Sweet, and two seedlings. Mr. G. 
McE. Stevens, of Orwell, Vt., reported it as attacking Lady apples at 
Orwell, Vt., and natural fruit at Peru, N. Y., while Mr. A. E. Stene re¬ 
ports it from Kingston, R. I., in the seeds of crab apple. 
The writer’s observations on the species began a number of years ago 
at Vienna, Va., where what was undoubtedly the larva of the seed chalcid 
was found in a seed of a crab apple. 
Since the beginning of the work on the species, many varieties of apples 
have been examined under many conditions and in widely separated 
localities. At practically every point visited nearly every variety of 
natural fruit, except the largest; has been found to be more or less gen¬ 
erally infested. 
Among cultivated varieties the Lady apple only is apparently subject 
to very serious attack, this variety being frequently very heavily in¬ 
fested. The ordinary commercial varieties are never infested except in 
neglected and run-down orchards or when fruit is stunted by the over¬ 
loading of trees or by the attack of some other insect or disease. The 
reason for the immunity of the ordinary apples of commerce from attack 
is purely mechanical, in that, at the time the chalcids are ovipositing, such 
fruit is so large that the ovipositor will not reach to the seeds. How¬ 
ever, under the circumstances enumerated above, such varieties are occa$ 
siorially more or less infested, though never very heavily so. Larvae have 
been found by the writer in neglected orchards at North East, Pa., in 
the following varieties: French Russet, Northern Spy, and Baldwin. 
In a large orchard near Clearfield, Pa., which in 1914 was very badly in¬ 
fested by red bugs (Lygidea mendax Reut. and Heterocordylus malinus 
Reut.), and the fruit much distorted and stunted thereby, only Grimes 
Golden, Ben Davis, and Missouri of the many varieties examined were 
infested. Of these Grimes Golden showed about 25 per cent of the fruit 
infested, from one to four seeds in the infested apples containing larvae 
of the chalcid. Of the two other varieties only one apple each was found 
to be infested. 
