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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The Slow Spread of the Insect. 



Perhaps no better illustration of the slow distribution of this insect 

 when left to its natural spread and unaided by facilities for transportation 

 by railroad or boat, can be given, than the fact than in this the fourth 

 year of its presence in Albany, it has not yet extended itself over a large 

 portion of the city, or to any markedly injurious degree over one-half of 

 its extent of four miles as measured from its southern to its northern 

 boundary. As stated by Dr. Riley,* " the insects deposit mostly on the 

 trees nearest to where they develop, and are only partially migratory be- 

 fore ovipositing." 



On a short tour of inspection made on August 26th, there were found 

 on Myrtle avenue, near Philip street, a portion of which bounds the new 

 park (Beaver park) in the vicinity of which the insect was first noticed 

 and reported, eight English elms which had been killed by it the present 

 year. The feeble leafage put out in the early spring was soon consumed 

 by the larvae which had hatched from the comparatively few eggs, pre- 

 sumably, that the beetles had deposited under the enfeebled condition of 

 the trees. The next street, Bleecker place, gave two or three dead trees, 

 and others badly defoliated. Next in order, Elm street, between Eagle 

 and Philip, showed similar defoliation, and one large elm, between 70 

 and 80 feet in height, where, it was said, the larvse and pupae had been 

 abundant about two weeks previously, upon which not a single leaf could 

 be seen. Two blocks to the northward, where the attack had probably 

 reached a year or two later and the beetle had not yet become very 

 abundant, the badly eaten trees were putting out a new growth of leaves. 

 A few blocks further north are the Hawk street elms, previously men- 

 tioned, which, in the steadily increasing numbers of the insect, had been 

 so continuously fed upon, that not a vestige of new growth was discov- 

 erable. The preceding year there had not been the slightest apparent 

 injury to their foliage. 



The examination extended over only a half-mile, and although each 

 street crossed showed marked evidence of the injury wrought by the 

 insect, yet a steady decrease was easily to be seen in the successive 

 streets between Beaver park and the capitol grounds. To the north of 

 the capitol the infestation has not been of a character to arrest public 

 attention, and it is only upon looking for the insect or its work, that it is 

 to be found. 



* Bulletin No. 6 Division oj" Entomology, 1885, p. 13. 



