Economic Entomology in the United States

Abstract

MAPLE trees grown in the United States are liable to severe injury from defoliation by caterpillars. In addition to the fall web-worm (Hyphantria cunea, Dru.) and tussock moth caterpillar (Hemerocampa leucostigma, Dru.) there is a common and troublesome species known as the green-striped maple-worm (Anisota rubicunda, Fab.), which attacks maples of all kinds, and feeds occasionally on box-elder and oak. In a bulletin recently issued by the United States Department of Agriculture Bureau of Entomology, the latter pest is described in some detail by Messrs. Howard and Chittenden. In another publication they describe the leopard moth (Zeuzera pyrina, Fab.), the larvæ of which cause severe injury to many deciduous trees in northern New Jersey and eastern New York. It has been successfully combated in the public parks of New York City by injecting carbon di-sulphide into the larval burrows in the bark. Mr. Chittenden describes the rose-chafer (Macrodactylus subspinosus, Fab.), a long-legged beetle of a light yellowish-brown colour, which appears suddenly and in vast swarms in certain years, usually towards the middle of June in the northern States and about two weeks earlier in the southern, overrunning vineyards and orchards, nurseries and gardens. In about a month or six weeks from the time of their first arrival, generally after they have done a vast amount of damage, the beetles disappear as suddenly as they came. No successful means of combating them is yet known, the difficulty being that any process, to be successful, must be applied almost continuously.