I am greatly obliged to you for the very acceptable parcel of specimens, which arrived in excellent order this morning. Indeed I feel very much indebted to you, for I know the trouble it takes to collect and pack in this careful way. The Hessian fly wheat was particularly acceptable as I had just two or three old straws, but this to freshen them up (with the insect and figures) makes a beautiful exhibit. The mangold leaves are also a great help; and nothing could be more characteristic than the American blight. I have not fully examined the contents of the bottles, but I see some nice Julus guttatus (Snake millepedes) and also a few of the long, thin, yellow, electrical centipedes, which I shall hope will keep their colour nicely in spirits. Indeed it is a very welcome contribution.
I have been ill with rather a bad quinsy, followed by something going wrong with my mouth and tongue, but I have nearly recovered now, and as I was directed to keep indoors, I have been getting on with the cases.
Besides the more customary crop and other attacks, I thought such things as liver-flukes (in spirit) and a good number of the little “water snails,” Limnæa truncatula, (such tiny shells!), which is their host in the early stage, with figures of the intermediate conditions, would be of useful interest; also a couple of bottles with contents of sparrows’ crops, showing the great amount of corn they eat, as well as a number of locusts in the condition in which they are imported in lucerne from Buenos Aires.
1, Julus londinensis; 3, Julus guttatus (pulchellus, Leach); 4, Julus
terrestris; 5, horn; 7, Polydesmus complanatus—all magnified; and
2 and 6, natural size.
FIG. 27—CENTIPEDES AND A MILLEPEDE.
Infested apple spray, natural size; wingless viviparous female and young clothed with cottony fibres above; and small egg-bearing female beneath the spray; pupa with little cottony growth—all magnified.
FIG. 28.—AMERICAN BLIGHT, WOOLLY APHIS, SCHIZONEURA LANIGERA, HAUSM.
November 26, 1895.
This sort of brickdust-like deposit is, I think, eggs. I had a quantity of it sent me about six weeks ago by a fruit salesman and auctioneer who had got 10,000 apple trees infested. It agrees in measurement and colour, &c., with the general description given by Mr. Frazer Crawford (of Adelaide) of the eggs of the Red spider, Bryobia ? speciosa, (fig. [52]) found on apple in South Australia, but I do not think we can be quite certain of its nature until the contents hatch. About ten days ago I thought that I found fungi developing in the patches, so I sent a good supply to Professor M. C. Potter (Botanical Professor of Durham College of Science), for I was sure whatever he would say would be trustworthy. He wrote me that there was fungus amongst the red spheres. He did not believe that they were fungoid; but thought, like me, that they were eggs. Certainly you are right in considering them not American blight, although on one of the twigs you have sent me there is a swelled cankered piece that looks very much, to general observation, like that attack. I wish I could give you a plain straightforward answer, but the above is the best I can tell you at present. Mr. Nixon, whose name you will remember in my yearly reports connected with Red spider, says that he knows this “red deposit” well and does not think it does harm, but I should think it would be but prudent to have some soft soap mixture or antipest at hand, against hot sunshine in late winter days.
Many thanks for your good wishes, which I heartily reciprocate, to you and to your young people. I cannot say I have been well. However, I am much better, but we are anxious, for my only remaining brother (who is nearly eighty) had a stroke of palsy last year, and on Sunday he had a second, but he is not suffering, which is a great comfort.