Mr. E. J. Preston has sent, under date of May 21, samples of the caterpillars of various sizes, with some of nearly full growth. He represents them as skeletonizing the foliage in several of the orchards in his immediate neighborhood. Efforts had been made to stay their ravages through Paris green spraying. When used in several orchards by a person employed who was familiar with spraying methods, a mixture of 1 pound of the green and 4 pounds of lime to 200 gallons of water did not seem to kill a worm. The same in 150 gallons of water was also ineffectual. A third spraying with 100 gallons of water was next tried, the result of which had not been ascertained.

It would seem from the above, provided that the Paris green was of the standard purity, that the cankerworm is almost as resistant to the effects of Paris green as is the larva of the gypsy moth.

Mr. Preston refers to the observed habit of the caterpillar, which has been frequently noticed elsewhere, of dropping from the leaves when they have been nearly all consumed, and hanging by a thread until carried by the wind to some neighboring tree, or else dropping to the ground.

To the orchardists of Amenia the cankerworm is popularly known as the "fire worm," from the appearance of the leaves after all their green has been eaten away, as if they had been swept over by fire.

The insect has also been reported from several localities in western New York, the seasonal conditions having been favorable for its multiplication.

Cacœcia rosaceana Harr., known as "the oblique-banded leaf-roller," which feeds on an unusually large number of food plants, has been quite abundant and destructive in apple orchards. It has been sent to me from several localities in eastern and central New York as having been very injurious, not only to the foliage, but later in the season to the young fruit, into which it ate rounded holes of considerable size, often extending to beyond their center. Their injury had been quite serious in the orchard of Mr. Morris Tompkins, of Germantown, Columbia County. The moths were known to him from having reared them from the caterpillars, and on June 13 such numbers were drawn to light at night that apprehension was felt of the work of a second brood. Walsh and Riley have recorded as a habit of the caterpillar its gnawing off the rind of green apples, but I do not recall mention of its destroying the fruit by eating large holes into the interior.

Another caterpillar of larger size, of about an inch in length, of a pale-green color, and marked with white lines and dots, is also chargeable with eating into the fruit after the manner of the Caccia. I failed to rear the examples that were sent me, which I thought might be Nolophana malana Fitch. It has, I believe, been brought to the notice of Mr. Slingerland, and he has probably succeeded in rearing the moth from it.

The galls of a cecidomyiid larva on choke-cherry (Prunus rirginiana) were brought by State Botanist Peck from Bethlehem, N. Y., May 28.

The larvæ emerged and entered the ground, but none of the flies have made their appearance.

In Keene Valley, in former years, I have found this cherry very abundantly galled by apparently the same insect in the month of July. Many larvæ were disclosed from them, but in the several attempts made to obtain the imago all have met with failure.

The present year not a single galled cherry could be found in the localities in Keene Valley where in other years they had abounded.

These galls have been studied by Prof. George F. Atkinson, of Cornell University, in connection with a fungus attack which he found to be usually associated with them, named and described by him as Ecoascus cecidomophilus (see Bulletin 73, Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, September, 1894). It was not ascertained by him if the larvæ attack the fruit before or after the attack of the fungus. It was thought that the larvæ attack and deform fruits which are not affected by the fungus. In this he was probably correct, as I have no recollection of the fungus presence on the galls collected by me in Keene Valley.

This cecidomyiid has not as yet been described, although it has been observed by several entomologists.

The larvae of Euphoria inda Linn., formerly known as the Indian Cetonian, were found in large numbers beneath chip manure at Menands, N. Y., in the latter part of June. From their general appearance and from their occurrence in manure they were believed to be the "muck-worm" (Ligyrus relictus Say). Examples were brought to me within the manure inclosed in a box. Not long thereafter they were found to have eaten all of the excremental portion, leaving only the bits and pieces of chips. and a large quantity of rounded pellets of their excrementa. These, together with additional ones obtained, were transferred on July 30 to a larger box, with an ample supply of food. The box was opened from time to time until the 8th of August, when two Euphoria inda were resting on the surface. Examination of the contents gave the following: Two perfect beetles within their cells, one of which was on the point of emerging. Another cell gave a beetle, uncolored, having just transformed from the pupa. The remaining cells (5) contained pupae.

Do the larvæ feed also on growing vegetation? State Botanist Peck, from whom the larvae were obtained, had applied some of the manure to a few hills of corn in his garden. The following day one of the hills was noticed as having been cut down as if by cutworms. Upon digging around the stalks two larvæ of the Euphoria were discovered, but no cutworms, from which it would seem probable that the grubs had committed the injury.

The oak pruner (Elaphidion villosum Fabr.) is not, I believe, of frequent occurrence on apple trees, but during the first week of June its operations were very noticeable in an orchard in Voorheesville, Albany County, where a large number of twigs and branches had been thrown

to the ground by it. Some of the branches brought to me were from three-tenths to seven-tenths of an inch in diameter. Each contained the mature and active larvæ within a closed cell in its burrow prepared for pupation. E. parallelum Newm. (regarded by many as identical with the preceding species) was very abundant in early June in the maples bordering the avenues in the grounds of Governor Morton, Ellerslie, in Dutchess County. Not a maple was seen which had not a score or two of the recently fallen pruned branches lying beneath it, although previous gatherings had been made and destroyed.

The asparagus beetle (Crioceris asparagi Linn.) is continuing its spread in the central and western counties of the State. In my ninth report reference is made of its appearance at Geneva, Ontario County, in the year 1884, and at Rochester, Monroe County, in 1892. June 2 of the present year (1896) Mr. A. P. Case, of Vernon, Oneida County, sent to me asparagus twigs bearing numerous eggs of the beetle and shoots eaten by the larvæ. He writes:

The insect has appeared since May 30 on all of the asparagus beds here, where they have never before been seen. Every sprout is covered with the worms, and the new seedling shoots are alive with the full-grown worms, and newly hatched ones are burrowing into the stalks. The tops of the eatable shoots are alive with the mature worms, which eat them off as they appear. The crop is worthless for this year.

To-day a further extension of the insect within our State has been brought to my notice in examples given me by Mr. Ottomar Reinecke, of Buffalo, N. Y., which were collected by him the present week from wild asparagus growing in the outskirts of the city.

The ash-gray blister beetle (Macrobasis unicolor Kirby) was received June 9 from New York City, where it was reported as feeding destructively on a locust hedge. The young and tender leaves at the end of the branches had been eaten over the entire extent of the hedge of about 600 feet in length. They were driven away or killed when the pyrethrum powder recommended for them was applied. Examples of the same insect came June 25 from Factoryville, N. Y., where they were rapidly destroying the leafage of potato vines.

Chinch bug.—A correspondent from Almond, Allegany County, writes that the insect is very thick on his new seeding and has ruined his pastures, and that it has destroyed his meadows for the past four or five years. They were working in the greater part of his 300 or 400 acres of land. Mr. E. P. Van Duzee in his collections in Erie and Niagara counties the present year has met with only a few scattered individuals of the species.

The San Jose scale (Aspidiotus perniciosus Comst.) has apparently found the climatic conditions unsuited to its establishment in all except the extreme southeastern part of our State. Its existence in a few localities has been reported to me, but in each instance another scale has been mistaken for it. At the Kinderhook locality, where it was first discovered in the Hudson River valley, it has been nearly exterminated.

Recently its presence was suspected by the owner of the orchard, Mr. Morrell, where it had been found abundantly two years ago, but on examination the scale proved to be a rather closely resembling one, Aspidiotus juglans-regia Comst. An examination of the orchard showed no living San Jose scales, but later a single living specimen on a twig was brought to my office by Mr. Morrell.

A neighboring orchard in Kinderhook was reported as badly infested with the scale. On examination in July by Mr. E. P. Felt, my assist. ant, the scale was found in abundance on plum trees of apparently ten or twelve years' growth, but upon perhaps twenty trees that were carefully examined not a single living scale was found. The trees had not been treated for the scale, and it is therefore probable that the insect had been winterkilled. How long they had been upon the trees or the source of the infestation was not learned, but the age of the trees would indicate that the pest had not been introduced on nursery stock. The orchard was within one-fourth of a mile of that of Mr. Morrell, and it is highly probable that it had been carried from there by birds or insects.

The scale was also reported in August from another locality in New York-in the valley of the Wallkill River, a tributary of the Hudson River. A few fruit trees in an orchard in Middletown, Orange County, were stated to be infested with the scale, the trees having been received from a New Jersey nursery. Inquiry was promptly made of the owner of the orchard of the extent of the infestation, with proffer of assistance if needed, but no reply having been received, it is probable that the infested trees were promptly destroyed and that the spread of the insect was not feared.

The peculiar oak kermes (Kermes galliformis Riley), which bears so marked a resemblance to a gall as to be mistaken for it by everyone not acquainted with it, may not be rare when one knows where to look for it, but it has always been a rarity in my own experience. One of my correspondents, Mr. W. R. Walton, of Middletown, N. Y., has been fortunate in his collection of it, and has kindly contributed a number of examples to the State collection. He also has been successful in breeding from it the beautiful lepidopterous parasite, Euclemensia bassettella Clem., with which it is so frequently infested and of which he has made excellent colored drawings in its several stages. From kermes taken from scrub oak in the latter part of December he obtained the moth toward the last of the following June. The larger number of the mature kermes were found to be infested by the parasite.

Gossyparia ulmi Geoff., a European coceid feeding on most of the varieties of the European and American elms, was first noticed in this country at Rye, Westchester County, N. Y., in June, 1884. (See Howard in Insect Life, Vol. II, pp. 34-41.) Examples of it were brought to me from Marlboro, Ulster County, in July, 1888. Since that time it appears to have become distributed in different portions of the State,

W. J. PHI!!PS,

and to have planted itself in several localities in the vicinity of Albany. In May and again in June it was brought to me from Loudenville, Albany County, and in June of the same year from two places in the city of Albany, and also from Catskill, Greene County, 40 miles to the southward.

In June of the present year Mr. J. B. Washburn brought a limb of elm from his grounds at Delmar, Albany County, bearing dense patches of the scale. It was blackened to a degree that indicated the abundant presence of the scale the preceding year. The tree, a young one of about 3 inches diameter of trunk, was infested both upon the trunk and the limbs. Other elms upon his grounds were not infested. The scales were apparently about full grown, but no young had yet been given out.

A large number of trees in the city of Albany are at the present time (August) showing severe and injurious attack from this insect. The leaves are blackened by their secretions and some of the branches whitened by their abundant presence. Their larvæ, about half grown, are to be seen in large numbers in the crotches of the smaller twigs, on the lower surface of the leaves, and in crevices of the bark. The infested trees are mainly the Scotch elm (Ulmus montana).

The insect is also quite generally distributed in Troy, 6 miles to the north of Albany, where, in combination with the attack of the elm leafbeetle, it is threatening destruction to many of the trees. It also occurs at Menands and Watervliet, between Albany and Troy.

Referring to the experience given by Mr. Lintner relating to the inef ficiency of arsenicals against the spring cankerworm, Mr. Fernald stated that he was much surprised at this, as he had always had good success with Paris green at the rate of 1 pound to 150 gallons. He questioned if the Paris green used by Mr. Lintner were not of an inferior quality.

Mr. Lintner said this last supposition might be correct.

Mr. Fernald also asked if the author of the paper had data on which he could make a prediction of the probable behavior of the army worm next year.

Mr. Lintner thought that the army worm would probably not be a notable insect next year.

In response to a query by Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Lintner stated that an instance of severe invasions in two consecutive years by this insect was not known, so far as he remembered.

Mr. Hopkins thought that he remembered an instance of a two years' invasion.

Mr. Webster stated from his experience with the cankerworm that Paris green will kill the young larvæ readily, but is ineffective with the half or two-thirds grown individuals.

Mr. Lintner stated that the specimens experimented with by him. were at least two-thirds grown.