Year: 1873

e -ATnln sDiHOsG, or soldier bug, viii,
ct is now 50 generally known as one
Il the most efficient destroyers of 4
N Colorado Potato-beetle, presents I'll
y useful insect in 50 new and interestir
re a character that we insert it in full
G In the spring OF 1870, | plaDte
il among my currants the Early Goo'
'. rich potatoes. Currants were six b
d six feet apart. When the potato
e were fairly up the Colorado potat
e beetle commenced upon them. / trie
Z hand picking, and for the first tim
v became acquainted with the soldie
< bug, seeing him spear the young pc
q tato beetles. The next spring, 1871
J. the currant bushes were alive with th
4. currant worm. It seemed almost use
G less to try and pick them of. l com


menced, however, and the second da
i, was rewarded by seeing the soldie
: bug spearing them, and In few day
, not currant worm was to be seer
This season the codling moth, o
apple worm, as it is called, YVES yer,


bad in my orchard nearly every appl


had a worm in it. / noticed yer.


many soldier bugs on the trees. The!


would pass up and down the branches


and when they came to an apple would


90 down to the blossom end and stick


their bill into the caliE of the apple,


and remain as long as five minutes, as


1 then thought, sucking the juice out


Of the apple. In June, 1872, l saw a


soldier bug smoking an Early Harvest


apple, and watched him for some min


utes. When he was through he folded


his bill under his body and moved to


another apple, and what was my sur


prise to see the skin dtan apple worm


on the blossom end OF the apple ne


had Just left. 1t seemed very strange


to me that 1 had spent ten or twelve
years in the orchards and had never


known before what the soldier bug


was after. Frequently after that 1


saw the beetle take the worms out.


At other times after cutting the apple


open, the worm would be found dead.


The part of the orchard near the cur


rant plantation was much less affected
by the cod ling moth than that farther


off.


The migration of the soldier bug
from the potato vines to the currant
bushes. and their feeding upon the
currant worm, is no more than what
might have been expected, as preda-
ceous insects probably never confne
themselves to one kind of prey; but
their ascending apple trees, and their
destruction OF codling worms by in
serting their beaks into the holes made |
by these Larvae in the blossom of the
apple, is an operation which we be-
lieve has never been noticed by any
other person, and we can only hope |
that it will be confirmed by future
observation.


This is the more interesting from
he circumstance that those injurious
which inhabit the substance of
fruits, like the codling worm and the
larva of the plum curculio, must es-
APE, in great measure, the attacks
Of natural enemies, whether birds or
predaceous or parasitic insects. A
few specimens of parasitic Ichneumon
flies have been bred from codling !
worms, but so few as to give no en-
to hope for any effective
aid from them, in lessening the num-
1ers of this most important of our fruit
The Larvae OF a small black
beetle of the genus T'ogOsitG are &C.
casionally found devouring both the
Larvae and the pupe OF the codling
moth, but are too few to make any ap-
oreciable impression upon them. The |
woodpeckers dig many of them out of
he bark In winter; but while they
re in the heart OF the apple they are
,ut of the reach of the birds as well
Is of insects and as it is pretty well
determined that most of them, when
they have arrived at maturity, leave
he apple in the night, while the birds
Ire asleep, these worms must escap pe
he birds at this short period of ex-
posure. So that the notorious codling
worms seem, upon the whole, to lead
very secure and protected lives, with
nothing tomolest or make them afraid.
We hail with satisfaction, therefore,
every new enemy to them, which can
assist, though it be but to moderate
extent, in holding the codling worm
IN check.-WeStern Rural.