REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 19I 



A Second Brood. 



I was again absent from Albany from July 15th to August 12th. On 

 my return a great surprise awaited me. It had been predicted that only 

 a single brood of the insect would occur in the northern extension of the 

 insect in New York, Professor Smith having shown that there was but one 

 annual brood in northern New Jersey, and the statements made of two 

 broods in the vicinity of New York city, were believed to rest on inac- 

 curate observations. But here was unquestionable evidence of a second 

 brood, in much larger numbers, as might be expected, than the first. 

 Many elms had their foliage entirely destroyed. A notable illustration 

 of the severity of the attack was afforded in the condition of a row of 

 nine English elms, Ul/tnis ca/npestris, in Hawk street, opposite my resi- 

 dence — centrally in the eastern portion of the city. The elms were 

 slender, and by sawing away the lower branches, had attained a height 

 of nearly one hundred feet. Every leaf had been destroyed, except a few 

 which still retained their form although skeletonized, on the extreme 

 lower branches.* At their base, against the trunks the larvae, in the cir- 

 cular form that they assume when in readiness for pupation, and the 

 pupae, were lying to the depth of an inch or more in places where they 

 had not been swept away. On any of the trunks, hundreds of the larvae, 

 were within range ot the eye at any one time, descending to the ground, 

 and many had transformed to pupae in the crevices of the bark. Oppo- 

 site to this row, and on my own premises, was a wide branching Scotch 

 elm, Ulmus ?nontana. The leaves of this had been much less eaten — 

 had not been destroyed, although all showed the peculiar eating away of 

 the epidermis of the under siirface and the parenchyma, characteristic of 

 the work of the larvae. In such numbers were the larvae descending the 

 trunk, that for several succeeding days they were repeatedly swept down 

 with a broom, before spraying them with kerosene, pouring hot water 

 over them, or sweeping them into piles of leaves for burning. The largest 

 proportion of the larvas, instead of transforming at the base of the tree, 

 crossed the sidewalk and collected against the side of the house and a brick 

 wall adjacent, or in the crevices at the ends and sides of the adjoining first 

 course of bricks in the walk. Many were observed in the attempt to 

 climb up the side of the house and wall, but almost invariably fell before 

 attaining a height of two feet. At one point where a small shrub of a 

 few inches in height had sprung up against the house, there were swept 



*An of the infested European elms observed in the city, have been much more badly eatea 

 toward their tops, as if attack had commenced at the highest point. 



