American Pomology. Apples

Pelidnota punctata, or the Spotted Pelidnota, is a large yellowish insect, with a black dot on each side of the thorax, and three others on the outer side of each wing-cover. It is found in the day time, upon the leaves of the grape vine. Like the rest of the tribe, these insects are voracious, and the grubs may also feed upon the roots of the grape; therefore they had better be destroyed, though as their numbers are seldom large they are not found to be very injurious.

Haltica chalybea, or the Grape Vine Flea-beetle, appears early in the season, and eats holes in the buds and leaves. It is small, 0.16 inch long, oval; shining, deep greenish-blue, or deep green, or purple. This insect spends the winter in the earth about the roots of the vine, and feeds upon them.

Anomala lucicola, or the light-loving Anomala, is found on the grape vine in July. It resembles the May Beetle, but is smaller, being 0.35 inch long.

These are not all the beetles that feed upon the grape vine.

Macrodactylus subspinosa, or the Rose-chafer, is another melolonthian beetle, which is exceedingly destructive to grapes and various other plants in many parts of the country, in May and June. This insect is smaller than the others of its group, but is equally destructive as a leaf-eater, on account of its numbers. On the grape, it cuts off the young bunch of buds and blossoms, and thus seriously diminishes the crop, as well as by destroying the foliage. It is of a buff-yellow, with black feet, about 0.33 inch long. They continue to ravage vegetation about a month, and then retire into the ground, an inch deep, and deposit their eggs, which hatch in about twenty days, and the young grubs feed upon tender roots, attaining their full size, three-quarters of an inch, before winter, when they descend deeper to hybernate.

The Rose-beetle has many natural enemies, among which are the Dragon-flies; but we must depend upon human efforts for their destruction, an almost hopeless task, for their name is legion, but so much the greater necessity for the effort, and as they are sluggish, they may easily be caught and thrown into hot water, or otherwise destroyed.

Tree Pruners are the larvæ of beetles that excavate a burrow in small limbs of trees, so as to make a section almost across their substance; most of them then bore upward into the limb, and await the action of the winds to break off the part and waft them to the ground, where they pass through their change to the perfect insect. They exercise a wonderful instinct in leaving just fibres enough to support the branch until they are ready for their descent, but it often happens that the twig breaks off partially and hangs by a thread, dying, of course; we see the brown leaves on the trees, and this is the first indication of the presence of the insects. If we examine the fallen spray, we shall be surprised to observe the cause of its falling. In the case of the oak tree, the damage is done by the Elaphidion villosum, (Fabricius), a long-horned beetle. The larva remains in these twigs until the next season, hence the importance of gathering and burning all that fall to the ground.

An insect of somewhat similar habits often cuts off stout shoots of the Hickory, making a very neat section of a small limb, leaving only the bark, so that it readily breaks off with the wind; and a similar effect has been observed in strong annual shoots of the pear, toward the end of summer. The fallen piece and the stump are cut as neatly as by the shears, but no perforation is discovered along the axis, in which the larva could be concealed; hence we have but to suffer the trimming thus performed without our will, and look upon it as a sort of natural shortening-in of our trees.

Blister-flies, or Beetles.—There are several species of these insects, each of which appears to have its favorite pasturage. They are exceedingly voracious, but confine themselves chiefly to the destruction of herbaceous vegetation, and are therefore obnoxious to the farmer and gardener, who know them as the potato insects, than to the fruit-grower. Their appetites are not very discriminating, however, and when they are abundant they may consume the foliage of our trees. These Blister-flies belong to the genus Lytta, and are used as a substitute for the Spanish-fly of Europe, as they are possessed of blistering qualities in no mean degree. They are wholly different from the new potato destroyer of the West, the Doryphora 10-lineata, which is hemispherical, and is a leaf-eater, in the larval as well as in the perfect state.

Remedy.—Catch and kill all that can be found in the garden, or potato field; scald, dry, and sell to the apothecary.

Before closing this section, it is but due to our many insect friends in this order, to introduce a few of them to the reader. There are several large families that are really serviceable to man; some of these are called Scavengers, because they consume large quantities of decaying matter that might prove noxious to us, were it allowed to decay upon the surface of the ground. Among these are the Dung-beetles, and the Carrion-beetles: others are carnivorous, and some of these are called Cicindelidæ, or Tiger-beetles, from their voracious consumption of other insects, which they devour in great numbers, both in their larval and in their perfect form. These day beetles are large, brightly colored, and very active in their movements, as they run about in the sunny paths and roads, and cannot fail to attract attention. Few persons are aware, however, of the valuable aid they are rendering to man, nor of the credit that is due to them for the preservation of our crops from the invasion of other insect foes. Too often they are either unobserved and overlooked, or even treated with the aversion and cruelty of men who ignorantly attempt to stamp out all insect life, as though these creatures were intruders upon their preemption. The intelligent observer of nature will soon learn to respect each aid, which has been so wisely furnished to assist him in his labors as a cultivator of the soil, and all may admire the Wisdom that has provided at the same time such beautiful and such useful creatures for the work.

Calosoma scrutator, is well named the handsome, for it is one of our most beautiful insects of this class. This, and the red-spotted C. calidum, may be seen upon trees, seeking caterpillars, upon which they feed. One of our most intelligent horticulturists has so high an appreciation of these insects, that he will not allow them to be disturbed, and whenever he sees any caterpillars in his orchard, he takes these beetles to the tree, and gives himself no further concern, knowing that the Calosoma will soon destroy every worm.

Coccinelidæ, or Lady-birds, are most valuable aids to the cultivator, who is constantly liable to have his crops destroyed by the various species of Aphides. These little hemispherical beetles are familiar to every one, and known to the children as Lady-birds; but all may not know their value, nor be so well acquainted with the larvæ of these insects, which are the chief agents in the destruction of our troublesome plant-lice. Most persons would be very apt to crush these curious, diminutive, lizard-looking creatures, even at the time they were attacking the Aphides, instead of leaving them to carry on the warfare more effectually without our aid.

These little friends have had a superstitious regard shown to them in many countries, which indicates that a glimmering idea prevailed respecting their usefulness. The Germans call them the Marienkaefer, or Lady-beetles, of the Virgin Mary. The French call them Vaches de Dieu, the Lord's cows, and our own children are all familiar with the nursery rhyme about the Lady-birds. These insects find their way to trees or plants that are infested with their proper food, the Aphides.

These beetles hide under the leaves that cluster in sheltered nooks about or between the large roots of forest trees, where they can be found on any mild winter day, and may be carried to the green-house or to the window plants that are infested with plant-lice. They will not only devour these pests, but will soon lay eggs that hatch and produce the larvæ which are so voracious as to clear the plants in a short-time. A little attention to the habits of these insects may spare us great losses from the plant-lice.

ORTHOPTERA.—Grasshoppers

The insects of this order have an imperfect transformation. The eggs hatch at once into young insects, that resemble their parents in form and habits, excepting that they do not get their wings till they approach the adult state. The young consume food voraciously, and the perfect insects are not only still more hungry, but, having increased powers of locomotion, they are more widely destructive. These are the true Locusts, and though chiefly injurious to the farm and garden, infesting the meadows and corn-fields, the grasshoppers, when winged, often attack the foliage of our young orchard trees toward the end of summer. But when we contemplate the invasion of the great western plague, belonging to this order, which rivals that terrible scourge, the Locust of the eastern continent, in numbers and voracity, we may well dread their increase and appearance in other parts of the country. The grasshoppers that have invaded Kansas and other Western States are, like all the rest of this group of Orthoptera, true Locusts.

This order is called Orthoptera, from their straight wings; it embraces several groups, cockroaches, crickets, grasshoppers, or locusts, etc., which are all injurious, except the Mantis, which is predacious, and therefore useful.

HEMIPTERA.—Bugs and Harvest-flies

This order contains many insects that are injurious to the nurseryman, to the orchardist, and to the gardener. They are characterized by having a proboscis instead of a mouth with jaws; they can suck, but they cannot bite. The proboscis is often horny, and armed with two pair of bristles, when it becomes a more formidable weapon for attack. Bugs have four wings; they do not pass through the usual metamorphoses of insect life; but are born with legs and feeding apparatus like the perfect insects, except that some have no wings. Bugs are all injurious to man, excepting such as are predacious, which are serviceable by destroying other insects. Many are very small; and yet their countless numbers and wonderful fecundity enable them to do immense damage, as is true of the Aphides and Coccidæ, the Tingis, the Tettigonia vitis, called the Thrips by our vine-dressers; and still more so of the Chinch-bug of the Western prairies, which destroys whole crops of our most important cereals.

The colored juice of some bugs is used in the arts. The coccus of the prickly pear, in Central America, is gathered and dried to form the cochineal of the shops.

Hemipterous insects are divided into two groups. True bugs, called Hemiptera heteroptera, having the wing-covers opaque at the base, and laid horizontally, and crossing each other obliquely at the end, overlapping; and the Harvest-flies, such as Plant-lice and Bark-lice. These, the Hemiptera homoptera, have the wing-covers of one texture throughout, not horizontal, but more or less sloping, and not crossing one another behind. Among these, which all feed upon plants, some very troublesome pests will here be noticed.

COCCIDIANS.—Bark-lice

Aspidiotus conchiformis, or the Apple Bark-louse, is very numerous in many parts of our country, particularly north of latitude 40 degrees. It commits sad devastations in some sections. Individually, it is but a little scale; but these animals are wonderfully prolific and soon cover every twig of the tree, obstructing its transpirations, and abstracting its vital juices; the leaves, and even the fruit are overrun with these miserable scales, but the twigs are their favorite resort. These scales are oblong, shaped like an oyster shell; flat and brown, often crowding upon one another. In the winter and spring, they contain or cover a number of small, round, white eggs, which hatch out in the spring, in May, attach themselves to the bark, and absorb the juices: various remedies have been suggested, and more or less thoroughly tested. The restoration of the thrifty growth of the tree is considered essential to success; and without this, all remedies are looked upon as unavailing. Some orchardists think that thorough drainage and cultivation of the land would alone banish the lice, but this can hardly be hoped. Strong lye, or solutions of potash, or soda, white-wash, and sulphur, have been used, and tobacco boiled in lye, soft-soap and tar mixed with linseed oil, which makes a kind of varnish. Mr. Walsh tells us that applications, to destroy this insect, are better made in May or June, as the eggs are protected by the scale in winter, and it is impermeable to watery solutions. This pest has been imported from Europe. Walsh recommends the use of Lady-birds to check the Bark-lice.24

Lecanium pyri, (Fitch), or the Pear Bark-louse, is a hemispherical brown scale, as large as a split pea. They may be found in summer on the under side of the limbs, and are the remains of dead females, which cover the eggs and young brood. This insect would be very injurious, were it to increase in numbers considerably. Let young trees be examined in June, when the scales may easily be found, removed, and destroyed.

Lecanium persici, or the Peach Bark-louse, is described, by Fitch, as similar in size to the above, found on smooth bark near a bud; it is blackish, uneven, shining, with a pale margin.

Another pear tree bark-louse was described by the lamented A.O. Moore, of New York, as a white, papery scale, giving a claret-colored juice when scraped. This, in the winter, consists of a defunct mother and her brood of eggs, the breaking of which gives the color. Alkaline washes are recommended to be applied in the spring. Mr. Walsh thinks this insect cannot be the same as that mentioned by Dr. Harris, on p. 222 of his report, under the name of Coccus cryptogamus, (Dalman), who found it upon the Aspen, and therefore he has named it Coccus? Harrisii.25

Lecanium vitis, (Linn.), or the Vine Bark-louse, is mentioned by Fitch as having been found on grape vines in June. It is hemispherical and brown. A cottony substance was extruded from one end of the scale, and this increased until July, when minute insects crept out and scattered over the bark, upon which they fixed themselves. This insect is not very common, but its first appearance should be closely watched, and its destruction promptly effected.

APHIDES.—Plant-lice

These are the most extraordinary insects, being found upon almost all parts of plants, and there is scarcely a species which does not support one or more kinds peculiar to itself. Then they are so exceedingly prolific! Reaumur proved that one individual, in five generations, may become the progenitor of nearly six thousand millions of descendants. Most of these insects, which we find so abundant upon our trees, are wingless females. Winged insects, both male and female, appear later in the season, and after laying their eggs, they soon perish. Some lay in the fall, others wait till spring. When these eggs hatch, the brood consists wholly of females, which are wingless, and do not lay eggs, but are viviparous and produce from fifteen to twenty young lice in the course of a day. This second generation are also wingless, and at maturity produce their young, and so on to the seventh generation, without the approach of a single male, until the autumn, when a brood of males and females appears, which are both winged at maturity, and then the eggs are laid for the next year's brood, and the parents die.26

The injuries occasioned by plant-lice, are much greater than would at first be expected, from an observation of the small size and extreme weakness of the insects; but these make up by their numbers what they lack in strength individually, and thus become formidable enemies to vegetation. By their punctures and the quantity of sap they draw from the leaves, the functions of these important organs are deranged, or interrupted, the sap is withdrawn or contaminated, and unfitted to supply the wants of vegetation. Plants are differently affected; some wither and cease to grow, their leaves and stems become sickly, and die from exhaustion. Others, not killed, are greatly impeded in their growth; the tender parts, which are attacked, become stunted and curled. The punctures of the lice appear to poison some plants, producing warts or swellings, which are sometimes solid, sometimes hollow, containing within them a swarm of lice, descendants of a single individual.27 These last are often seen upon the leaves of the Elm, and upon some Poplars, and other trees; but I have not found any upon the foliage of our cultivated fruits, unless it be those on the grape.

Aphis mali, or the Apple Leaf-louse, is a small, green insect without wings, accompanied by a few black and green ones having wings. These are all crowded together upon the green tips of twigs, and under the leaves, sucking the sap. The eggs remain in deep cracks of the bark during the winter, and hatch as soon as the buds expand in the spring. The most successful treatment is to scrape off the loose bark, and to apply to the stems of the trees alkaline or lime washes. Many of our familiar little winter birds consume these eggs. In the spring and summer, alkaline solutions may be used with advantage, syringed or sprinkled upon the affected shoots and foliage.

The smell of these insects is peculiar, which, indeed, is generally characteristic with bugs. Each sort seems to derive a special flavor from the tree or plant upon which it feeds. Most insects of this family secrete copiously a sweetish fluid, called the honey dew, which is ejected from two little horns or nectaries, that project, one on each side of their bodies. This sweet material attracts a great many flies, and other insects, particularly ants, which are the constant attendants of these creatures, and are said to protect them from their enemies in order to obtain their sweet secretion. Some entomologists have called Aphides the Ants' cows.

No one, who is acquainted with the Aphides, and the various insects which prey upon them, will ever permit a valuable plant to suffer injury from these pests. He will collect some of the Aphis' enemies alive, carry them to the affected plant, and set them free to do their work; there they will remain while the food lasts. The Aphides have more numerous, more active, and more inveterate enemies than insects of any other group—these are the means by which their wonderful fecundity is kept in check. Among them are the Aphis-lions, which are the larvæ of the Golden-eyed and Lace-wing flies, belonging to the order Neuroptera. They are reddish-brown, with a dark stripe down the middle, and a cream-colored one on each side; bodies long, narrow, and wrinkled transversely. Their jaws are long, curved like sickles, projecting forward from their heads horizontally.28

The Coccinellidæ, mentioned as useful members of the order Coleoptera, on a previous page, are among the most active enemies of the Aphides. The eggs are laid in clusters of twenty to forty on the under side of a leaf, to which they are closely glued; they are oval, and light yellow. They hatch into small blackish larvæ, which are active, and which boldly attack an Aphis much larger than themselves, leaving only the empty skin. They consume hundreds while in the larval state, about two weeks, when they attach themselves by the tail, and go into the pupa state. One of the largest of these Lady-birds is the Mysia 15-punctata; the larva is a clear white, the middle of the back tinged with red, and two or three black spots on each segment—nearly a hundred species of Lady-birds are found in this country. The perfect insect, as well as the larvæ, feed upon Aphides, and instead of being destroyed, they should be cherished and encouraged.

Besides these, there are other inveterate enemies of the plant-lice in the Syrphidæ, which are two-winged flies, resembling the common house-fly, but handsomer. They deposit their eggs where Aphides exist; the maggot, which hatches from these, seizes upon the first Aphis that comes within his reach, and sucks its fluids. A medium-sized worm will consume a hundred lice in an hour. They are always found in a colony of Aphides.29

Aphis prunifoliæ, or the Plum Leaf-louse, is black, with pale green abdomen. It is found on the under side of the leaves, which become wrinkled and distorted. It is not so abundant as some other species, but its habits are similar.30

Aphis cerasi, (Fabric.), or the Cherry Plant-louse, is very common, very numerous, and very black. They appear with the first expansion of the leaves, and continue or are renewed when destroyed, and remain until mid-summer, when they generally disappear. Their numbers are almost incredible, and they give a young cherry tree a wretched appearance. On the under surface of a small leaf, three-fourths of an inch long, Mr. Fitch counted one hundred and ninety lice, on one side only of the midrib. Their natural enemies come to the rescue to check their wonderful increase, and sometimes will utterly rout the Aphides in a single week.31

The remedies advised for the apple tree Aphides, are equally applicable to those of the cherry, and their natural enemies are the same and equally efficacious; but Aphides have internal foes likewise, that may be named here. The Ichneumon-flies are parasitic, their larvæ feed upon the substance of the Aphides. The genus Aphidius is particularly provided to furnish parasites to these insects, in which they deposit a single egg selecting a louse of the proper size to sustain their progeny: the egg hatches to a larva, which exhausts the Aphis by the time it has attained its growth, when the poor creature fastens itself securely to the leaf, and dies, leaving its carcase a secure resting place for the pupa of the Ichneumon. These parasitic-insects, which feed internally upon the Aphides, are as effective in their destruction as the Aphis-lions, or any other class of their enemies.32

Aphis persicæ, or the Peach Tree-louse, punctures the leaves of this plant, and Dr. Fitch33 thinks, is the common though not the only cause of the curl in the peach tree leaves. Our intelligent orchardists have found these insects occasionally in the curled leaves of the peach, but do not agree with this distinguished entomologist, in considering them a cause of that malady.

Aphis vitis?, or the Vine Aphis, is often quite troublesome on vigorous young shoots of the grape vine, both wild and cultivated, particularly the former. These insects soon cripple the growth of the shoot. The species is not known to be different from that of Europe. This insect is briefly mentioned by T. Glover, in Patent Office Rept. for 1854, p. 79. Dr. Fitch describes as a grape leaf-louse, the Pemphigus vitifolia, which inhabits the gall-like excrescences upon the foliage of some varieties, particularly those with thin leaves.

Aphis ribis, (Linn.), is the Aphis of the currant. It causes the leaves to present a blistered appearance above; the lice are found on the under side; the wingless are pale yellow, the others have glossy wings, mostly black, with abdomen light green.34

Aphis lanigera, now called Eriosoma, or the Woolly Aphis, was first described in 1801 as infesting the apple trees in Germany. It has been noticed in England in 1787, and has since acquired the name of American Blight, from the erroneous supposition that it had been imported from this country; but it was known to French gardeners for a long time previous.

The eggs of this insect are microscopic, and are enveloped in a cottony substance. They are deposited in chinks of bark, and crotches of limbs, at or near the surface of the ground. When first hatched, the insects are covered with short down; as they grow, the down increases in length. When fully grown, they are one-tenth of an inch long; the head, antennæ, sucker, and skins, are blackish, the abdomen of a honey-yellow color. Their punctures produce warty excrescences, the limbs become sickly, the leaves turn yellow and drop off, and the whole tree perishes as the insects spread over it. The remedies appear futile on badly affected trees. Young trees were treated by painting over the affected parts with a mixture of melted resin and fish oil, in equal parts, applied warm. Sir Joseph Banks removed them with a stiff brush. Spirits of tar, turpentine, oil, and soft soap, have been recommended. After scraping off the rough bark, wash the tree with alkaline solution, apply the same to the main roots after laying them bare of earth.35