NOV., '06] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 3*9 



IDENTITY OF THE INSECT. 



Previous to May 3d. 1906, I expected that the adult of the 

 maple leaf stem borer would prove to be either a beetle or a 

 small moth, probably a beetle, and this expectation was 

 shared by Prof. J. B. Smith, who has evidently observed the 

 same insect in New Jersey, for he writes:* "A small lot of 

 leaves sent in at my request showed what was, apparently, a 

 small coleopterous or beetle larva, boring in the leaf stalk 

 ....From the observations made, it seems that the parent, 

 which is assumed to be a curculio or snout beetle, gnaws into 

 the stalks of the most vigorous leaves at a little beyond the 

 middle, and there lays an egg." 



That it might.be a small moth or lepidoperous larva I was 

 led to believe, not only from its structure, but on account of the 

 fact that many of the microlepidoptera are leaf miners, and 

 that two of them. Pro te of eras acscitlana Riley and Steganop- 

 tycha clavpoliana Riley, are borers in the stems of the com- 

 pound leaves of the horse chestnut, the latter having been 

 recorded as attacking the maple by Dr. J. A. Lintner.t 



The large number of sawflies obtained soon removed any 

 doubts as to the insect causing the injury, and observations 

 of egg-laying have confirmed the proof. 



Specimens were sent to Dr. Alexander D. MacGillivray, of 

 Cornell University, who reported it as a new species belonging 

 to the genus Priophorus. Dr. MacGillivray has recently de- 

 scribed this species under the name of P. acericaitlis.t 



LITERATURE. 



This insect seems to have attracted little attention, and very 

 little has been written about it. At a meeting of the New York- 

 Entomological Society, June 4th, 1895, Rev. J. L. Zabriskie 

 stated that the stems of maple leaves at Flatbush, Long Island, 

 were injured by some insect which caused them to fall.$ The 

 species was not identified, and may have been our Priophorus, 



*Report New Jersey Agr. Expt. Station for 1901, p. 481. 

 fTwelfth Report New York State Entomologist, 1896, p. 214. 

 ^Canadian Entomologist, Vol. 38. p. 305. 1906. 

 ^Journal N. Y. Entomological Society, Vol. TTI, p. 144. 



