

Vol. L. LONDON, JULY, 1918 No. 7 



POPULAR AND PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGY.. 



POPILIA JAPONICA NeWM., A RECENTLY INTRODUCED JAPANESE 



Pest, 

 by edgar l. dickerson and harry b. weiss, new brunswick, n.j. 



While inspecting a nursery in Southern New Jersey during 

 the middle of August, 1916, the attention of the writers was at- 

 tracted by a scarabseid feeding on the tips of Crataegus. Specimens 

 were collected, and inasmuch as it was assumed to be a southern 

 species, no particular attention was paid to it at that time. Recog- 

 nizing, however, that it was new to New Jersey, specimens were 

 recently sent to Mr. H. S. Barber and identified by him as Popilia 

 japonica Newm. Mr. Barber stated that our specimens seemed 

 to agree satisfactorily, even in the female genitalia, with the series 

 of Japanese specimens in the collection of the United States Na- 

 tional Museum. He also stated that this was the first record of 

 the genus from America, and further that species in allied genera 

 have caused considerable trouble in the Old World and when 

 introduced into various of the Pacific Islands. 



On July 31, soon after receiving this information, the nursery 

 was visited and the beetles found to be present. They were 

 especially abundant on weeds in one corner of the nursery, and 

 to a lesser extent on adjoining nursery stock. On August 8, 1917, 

 the nursery was again visited for the purpose of determining the 

 exact status of the insect. At this time a considerable area was 

 scouted and the following conditions observed. The beetles were 

 found to be extremely abundant on weeds growing along one side 

 of the nursery and extending at one point for a few feet into an 

 adjoining orchard and along one side of the orchard away from the 

 nursery and for a couple of hundred yards beyond. The infested 

 area was small but the beetles numerous, and the line of spread ap- 

 peared to have followed the weeds. At several places the insects 

 were found on nurserv stock, in most cases not far from the heavily 

 infested weeds. 



