REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST 83 



In Hitchcock county in the vicinity of Ti'enton, several orchards 

 •were severly infested with a new apple pest in the form of a caterpiller 

 of a dagger moth belonging to the genus Apatela. This injury, which 

 was quite severe, occurred during the earlier part of August, 1909. In 

 company with the dagger moth caterpiller, which was responsible for 

 most of the defoliation, there also occured numerous individuals of the 

 unicorn prominent (Scliizura unicornis) which undoubtedly materially as- 

 sisted the injury. Of the eleven of the Apatela larvae sent in by Mr. J. W. 

 Frey of Trenton, Nebraska, August 20, 1909, two were preserved as 

 specimens and the other nine placed in breeding eggs and of these nine 

 six subsequently died from parasitic infestation. The three unparasitized 

 larvae continued development, two pupating August 26, and the third 

 August 30, and these giving forth two moths January 26, 1910, and a 

 third moth the latter part of February. From the parasitized larvae 

 two parasites emerged March 13, one March 14, two in middle April and 

 one April 20. Of six caterpillars received from Mr. A. Dillman of Trenton, 

 August 11, 1909, four died of parasitic infestation. This would seem to 

 indicate that this insect is being taken care of quite satisfactorily by its 

 parasite and is unlikely to again prove injurious during 1910. The 

 caterpillar, its cocoon, pupa and moth and its work on the apple foliage 

 are shown in the accompanying plate (Plate 2) ; also its parasite and a 

 parasitized larva (Plate 3, figure a). 



In some of the orchards near Lincoln during the middle of July 

 1909 the apple trees were rather severely attacked by the apple-leaf 

 skeletonizer (Canarsia liammondi), defoliations by this pest in some cases 

 involving most of the large branches of the trees, nearly every leaf being 

 attacked by a larva. By early August most of these had transformed 

 into pupae and the moths began emerging on the eleventh of that month. 

 No evidence of parasitism was encountered in our breeding cage work 

 with this insect, and it is not unlikely it may prove injurious again 

 curing the coming season as during 1909. Some idea of the character of 

 the work of this insect may be gained by examining the plate illustrating 

 an attacked branch and leaf and the pupa and moth of the insect itself 

 (Plate 4.) 



The year 1908 was attended by serious defoliation of cultivated 

 cherry and plum and also wild plum by the apple-tree tent-caterpillar 

 (Malacosoma americana) in several sections of the state, notably in. 

 Madison and Frontier counties. The injury began in latter April and 

 continued through May. As this insect was fully discussed in last 

 year's report it will not be discussed further here. A species of leaf- 

 beetle, Typoplioriis canellus, was found abundantly in an apple orchard at 

 West Point in early May 1908, where it injured the trees by eating holes 

 in the leaves, especially those of the lower branches. This insect, al- 

 though known to attack the raspberry and crab apple commonly, has not 

 to my knowledge been before recorded as being present in apple orchards 

 by the thousand and injuring the foliage of the trees as was true in this 

 -case. An injured twig is here illustrated (Plate 3, fig. b). 



