23 
[ 283 1 
well to have gone through his nursery early in the season and 
Dicked off the folded leaves. . . . . 
' The importance of combatting evils in ' their incipient stages 
-an find no more apt illustrations than in the department of eco¬ 
nomic entomology. Many noxious insects can be substantially 
eradicated in their infancy, which, if permitted to attain a larger 
growth and a wider spread, are wholly beyond our control. 1 ns 
is emphatically the case with the present species. It is evident 
that whatever applications we may make use ot here must be 
made before the young insects have time to close the leaf above 
them, in the case of the first brood, and before they have covered 
themselves with web, in the second. These periods will probably 
be found to be about the first week of May and the third week ot 
July. But the time will vary some with the character ot the 
season, and must be determined by actual inspection. T ese i - 
tie worms are so tender and so unprotected by any hairy covering, 
that I should expect them to be easily destroyed by any ot the 
ordinary applications, such as lime, ashes or soap provided we 
can find a time when the substance applied will really reach them- 
Mr. Wier informed me that he discovered a bug with many 
bright stripes, preying upon these caterpillars, which 10 m is e 
scription, I suppose to be the Harpmtor emcius; but this tribe ot 
predacious insects is not usually sufficiently numerous to make 
much headway against such a multitudinous species as the 1 
trix malivoTana. 
Note -Auq. 15, 1870.—The delay in the re-publication of this 
Report enables me to add that I visited Mr. Wier’s nursery at 
about the same time this year (1871) that I did the previous year 
and though I am informed by Mr. Wier that these little leal- 
worms were more numerous than ever, early m the season, yet at 
the time of my visit there were comparatively few to be seen, anc 
the young apple-trees had made a good growth for the season. 
It is evident therefore that these insects are very susceptible to 
climatic or other and unknown influences, and there is reason to 
hope that they will not prove to be very permanent and serum.-, 
pests. 
