. The book of the garden. Gardening. 442 HARDY FEUIT GARDEN. The natural enemy to this insect is stated by Mr Westwood, in "The Gardeners' Chronicle, 1849," p. 60, to be a very minute hymenopteroua parasite, belonging to the genus Encyrtus, which breed in such vast numbers in the body of a single caterpillar, that its skin, instead of shrivel- ling up, is distended and dried so as to retain its proper form. He also suggests, as a mode of destroying the pwfect insect, to attack them as soon as they have made their appearance, and before they have deposited their eggs. " The gener
. The book of the garden. Gardening. 442 HARDY FEUIT GARDEN. The natural enemy to this insect is stated by Mr Westwood, in "The Gardeners' Chronicle, 1849," p. 60, to be a very minute hymenopteroua parasite, belonging to the genus Encyrtus, which breed in such vast numbers in the body of a single caterpillar, that its skin, instead of shrivel- ling up, is distended and dried so as to retain its proper form. He also suggests, as a mode of destroying the pwfect insect, to attack them as soon as they have made their appearance, and before they have deposited their eggs. " The general simultaneous appearance of the whole brood iu the winged state, together with the very conspicuous appearance of the moths, wiU render this easy. A sheet may be laid beneath the branches iu the daytime, which should then be sharply struck with a stick, when the moths, which are at that time sluggish, will fall into the sheet, and may be easily destroyed. The de- struction of one moth thus prevents the injuries which would otherwise arise from one, if not several, colonies of caterpillars in the following ; The apple-bark beetle {Bostrichus disparXvAoT, Apate dispar Fabricius, Xyloterus dinpar Erich- son). This is one of a tribe often called borers, on account of their boring into the trunks and branches of fruit trees. Our present subject seems to prefer the apple to all other trees, but, fortunately, it is not very abundant in Britain ; neither is it of yearly appearance, some years appearing, and for several others scarcely seen. The female beetles have the head and thorax black; the male is chestnut brown, with reddish thighs; the points of the antennae and palpi reddish in both; the cases of the wings long, blackish, and slightly hairy ; thighs black ; feet reddish yellow. The female is about as large again as the male, and also of different form (from thence the name dispar, or unlike). They seldom lay their eggs near the ground, or on trees of less than 4 i
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectgardening, bookyear18
