“It will give me great pleasure to attend to any inquiry the Hon. Sec. of the Museum may care to send me as to starting a collection of pests to agriculture, and I think I might be able to help with suggestions where specimens are procurable.
“Many thanks for your suggestion as to membership, but I do not care to belong to more Societies than I can possibly help, so I hope you will forgive my not accepting your kind offer.”]
After sketch from original specimen by E. A. O. Dimensions, 8 in. across by 7½ in. deep.
FIG. 63.—NEST OF TREE WASP, VESPA SYLVESTRIS.
March 10, 1898.
Dear Dr. Schöyen,—In reply to your inquiry whether any measures are being taken in this country to prevent the introduction of the San José Scale, Aspidiotus perniciosus, I am not aware of any such measures being in contemplation. I have not heard of anything of the kind being proposed, nor have I seen any mention in our newspapers of preventive measures being contemplated in regard to imports. My own impression is that we are not likely to suffer from it. With our island climate (as a general thing, and as especially observed by Dr. C. V. Riley) the injurious insects of the Continent of America rarely establish themselves here, although ours adapt themselves to the American Continental circumstances, and this Scale appears to be remarkably susceptible to damp and cold. The Bulletin by Dr. John B. Smith, Entomologist of the New Jersey Experimental Station, published November 27, 1897, says, p. 6, “The Scale does best with us in dry, warm weather. It does not like dampness, nor shade, and will die out in a cold, moist locality. Large trees with dense foliage are therefore least troubled, and a dense mass of vegetation shading the ground completely will be infested only towards the tips of the twigs or branches nearer the surface, where sunlight and air are most abundant.” I greatly hope, therefore, that even if this injurious attack should come, that it will not establish itself to a serious extent, as shade is a characteristic of many of our orchards.
Our chief trouble at present is an attack of eel-worms, Tylenchus devastatrix, on red clover, Trifolium pratense, causing what we call “Clover-stem sickness.” I never knew the attack so widely prevalent before. But I hope that with the measures which I draw attention to in my recent Annual Report we may do some good.
March 11, 1898.
Relatively to the San José Scale, I find, from some information received this morning, that Mr. R. Newstead, Curator of the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, has lately attended by request at the Board of Agriculture, and stated that this infestation had not established itself in any way in this country. Also that he had not heard of, nor had he seen any instances of its presence, although he had made diligent search for it at Liverpool, &c. He thinks the matter is a “scare,” and that the insect is not likely to establish itself here. In this opinion (the document before me states) he is supported by our Entomological Society. Mr. Newstead is, I believe, excellently qualified to form an opinion on the subject, as he is a practical Economic Entomologist, and he has also made the Coccidæ a subject of minute investigation. This I should say was more important than the views of a meeting of our Entomological Society, of whom few, if any (excepting Mr. Douglas), have, so far as I am aware, studied Coccidæ to an extent approaching Mr. Newstead’s observations, and have no special bias towards applied Entomology.
The above will perhaps be of some interest to you as the nearest approach I am able to make to a reply to your inquiry, and I beg you to believe me.