PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE RELATING TO POULTRY RAISING AND EGG PRODUCTION. AVAILABLE FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION BY THE DEPARTMENT. Poultry Management. (Farmers' Bulletin 287.) Hints to Poultry Raisers. (Farmers' Bulletin 528.) Poultry House Construction. (Farmers' Bulletin 574.) Natural and Artificial Incubation of Hens' Eggs. (Farmers' Bulletin 585.) A Simple Trap Nest for Poultry. (Farmers' Bulletin 682.) Squab Raising. (Farmers' Bulletin 684.) Goose Raising. (Farmers' Bulletin 767.) (Farmers' Bulletin 801.) Standard Varieties of Chickens. I. The American Class. 806.) Marketing Eggs by Parcel Post. (Farmers' Bulletin 830.) The Guinea Fowl. (Farmers' Bulletin 858.) Back-Yard Poultry Keeping. (Farmers' Bulletin 889.) (Farmers' Bulletin Standard Varieties of Chickens. II. The Mediterranean and Continental Classes. (Farmers' Bulletin 898.) Important Poultry Diseases. (Farmers' Bulletin 957.) Illustrated Poultry Primer. (Farmers' Bulletin 1040.) Standard Varieties of Chickens. III. The Asiatic, English, and French Classes. (Farmers' Bulletin 1052.) Feeding Hens for Egg Production. (Farmers Bulletin 1067.) Tuberculosis of Fowls. (Farmers' Bulletin 1200.) Standard Varieties of Chickens. IV. Ornamental Breeds and Varieties. (Farmers' Bulletin 1221.) FOR SALE BY THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C. Lessons on Poultry for Rural Schools. cents. (Department Bulletin 464.) Price, 10 The Food Value and Uses of Poultry. (Department Bulletin 467.) Price, 5 cents. Eggs and Their Value as Food. (Department Bulletin 471.) Price, 5 cents. Feed Cost of Egg Production. (Department Bulletin 561.) Price, 10 cents. Fattening Poultry. (Bureau of Animal Industry Bulletin 140.) Price, 10 cents. The Care of the Farm Egg. (Bureau of Animal Industry Bulletin 160.) Price, 15 cents. THE foliage of roses is very frequently attacked by sawfly larvæ, which feed upon the leaves and cause the bushes to become unsightly, or at least much less beautiful and ornamental. Three common species eat the leaves of roses, and are well distributed and quite injurious over the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. These insects are easy to control. Knocking them some distance from the bush with a stream of water is a simple remedy. Since they eat the leaf tissue, thoroughly spraying the leaves with a stomach poison, such as 3 rounded teaspoonfuls of powdered arsenate of lead to 1 gallon of water, whenever the larvæ begin to appear, will kill them and thus prevent the injury. SAWFLIES INJURIOUS TO ROSE FOLIAGE. WILLIAM MIDDLETON, Scientific Assistant, Forest Insect Investigations. MOST varieties of roses, especially climbers, hybrid perpetuals, and hybrid teas, are subject to the attack of insects which feed. upon the leaves, giving the bush an unsightly appearance and lessening its vitality. The commonest of these pests belong to the group of insects which in the adult form are termed "sawflies," or in the immature stages are often spoken of as "false caterpillars." The adults have received the name "sawflies" because the egg-laying apparatus of the female more or less resembles a saw and is used to cut slits or pockets in the plant tissue in which the eggs are placed. The larvæ are spoken of as "false caterpillars" because, although they resemble caterpillars, they produce adults radically different from moths. The rose sawflies, in common with all insects of the group, have four phases which differ in appearance and it is during only one of these that the species is injurious. The first phase is the egg; the second is the feeding, growing stage, the larva, which is wormlike or caterpillarlike; the third phase is the resting, nonfeeding stage during which the wormlike creature in a case or chamber changes gradually to a form resembling the adult but lacking free-moving wings and legs; from this helpless pupa the adult emerges and freeing itself from the confining cell is ready to perform its part in the life cycle by laying eggs and perpetuating the species. The adult stage of the rose sawflies offers no opportunity for control and because it is seldom associated with the damage done by the larva is not discussed in this bulletin. The other stages, however, offer satisfactory means of identifying these insects, and since it is during these immature stages that the damage is done or that control 75576°-22 3 measures may be applied successfully the following descriptions and illustrations point out the differences in the pests. There are three common or injurious species of rose sawflies in the United States. They are the bristly rose slug,1 a native species closely resembling a European species with which it has been long confused; the European rose slug,2 a species present in both Europe and North America; and the coiled roseworm,3 a species chiefly remarkable for its habit of boring into the ends of pruned shoots to pass its resting stage, and named for the curled or coiled position it assumes when feeding upon the leaves. THE BRISTLY ROSE SLUG. The bristly rose slug is by far the most frequently encountered rose defoliator, and a rosebush is seldom seen which does not show some traces of its work. It occurs in the States east of the Mississippi River and north of a line drawn from St. Louis, Mo., to Richmond, Va. Often all but the newest leaves are covered with work of the various stages of this species, the bush presenting a much-abused and sickly appearance. The eggs are laid in slits cut in the midrib of the leaf from the upper side. These slits are about one-sixteenth of an inch long and usually appear as small yellowish spots against the green midrib. The yellow color is due to the presence of sawdust, or drying plant tissue, torn out by the saw. The larva, as its common name suggests, is sluglike, greenish white, and clothed with long, rather stout hairs. Upon hatching from the egg the young larva begins its attack upon the leaves, usually from the underside and, eating all but the thin upper skin of the leaflet, furnishes as evidence of its presence skeletonized spots readily recognized by their white translucency. As the slug increases in size, its work changes from skeletonizing to hole-eating and finally to eating the entire leaflet, without regard for any but the largest veins. When full grown, the larva constructs an irregularly shaped cocoon of varying thickness from a brownish to whitish transparent membrane. During the spring and summer this cocoon is placed without regard to other than temporary shelter on leaves, at the angles of twigs, and in such places, but the overwintering insects choose a place that is rather more protected, as in the ground. 1 Cladius isomerus Norton; order Hymenoptera, suborder Chalastogastra, superfamily Tenthredinoidea, family Tenthredinidae, subfamily Cladiinae. 2 Caliroa aethiops Fab.; order Hymenoptera, suborder Chalastogastra, superfamily Tenthredinoidea, family Tenthredinidae, subfamily Messinae. *Emphytus cinctipes Norton; order Hymenoptera, suborder Chalastogastra, superfamily Tenthredinoidea, family Tenthredinidae, subfamily Allantinae. |