516 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



Z. pyrina Fab. An introduced species which has spread northward from 

 Hoboken to Paterson, southward across Staten Island and along the 

 coast to Eatontown and westward to New Brunswick, causing more 

 or less serious local damage to shade and orchard trees. It is strictly 

 confined to cities and their immediate vicinity, where the sparrows 

 dominate and exclude the native birds. The moths fly to electric 

 lights VI and VII, often in large numbers, and the larvse attack 

 shade trees of almost any kind, but seem to prefer elm and 

 maple. 



COSSUS Fab. 



C. reticulatus Lint. Taken rarely by the Newark collectors. 

 C. centerensis Lint. Guttenberg VI, 30 (Wrms); rare near New York 

 (Bt); the larva in the trunks of poplar. 



PRIONOXYSTUS Grt. 



P. rob i mas Peck. The most common native species of the family, and 

 occurs throughout the State, VI & VII. The larva bores in the trunks 

 of locust, willow, poplar, chestnut and oak, but in my experience 

 prefers the latter. In the pine barrens thousands of oak trees are 

 "doated" as the results of attacks by this species and useless except 

 for firewood. 



P. macmurtrei Guer. (querciperda Fitch.) Taken rarely by the Newark 

 collectors in June. The larva in oak and chestnut. 



Family 



Species of moderate or rather small size, with narrow forewings, one 

 or both pairs more or less transparent, and color and habits of flight very 

 generally resembling wasps. Black species with yellow or orange band- 

 ings are common, and sometimes the legs are also long and yellow like 

 those of wasps or hornets. The antennae are usually spindle-shaped and 

 in the male often pectinated or lamellate, with a little tuft of hair on the 

 tip. 



The larvse are borers without exception, and live in the stems, trunks, 

 roots or branches of living trees and plants, often causing serious injury. 



Mr. Beutenmuller's general arrangement is still followed, and Mr. 

 George Engelhardt, who has of late studied the early stages, has been 

 good enough to give me further information as to the food habits of a 

 number of species. 



MELITTIA Hbn. 



M. satyriniformis Hbn. Common VII-IX throughout the State wherever 

 squashes or other cucurbits are grown; the larva being the well- 

 known squash borer. Where it occurs in destructive numbers the 



