REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I90S 45 



ratus, with a favorable wind, can cover a strip 400 feet wide. 

 Contractors with apparatus such as that described above have been 

 able to spray woodland where there was little or no underbrush 

 and the trees ranging from 40 to 50 feet high at $17.50 per acre. 

 This improved apparatus can also be employed in spraying street 

 trees, a contractor being able to make money therewith at the rate 

 of $1 to $1.25 per tree for spraying large elms. A responsible 

 contractor stated that he could ship apparatus and men to a city 

 at a considerable distance and treat a number of trees thoroughly 

 at less than $2 per tree. The above is given since there are numer- 

 ous inquiries as to the best method of spraying shade trees and the 

 cost of doing such work. 



Brown tail moth (Euproctis chrysorrhoea Linn.) . 

 The brown tail moth, though widely distributed in Massachusetts, 

 seems to have become in the last year or so a pest of much less 

 importance than the gipsy moth. Its nests are to be noted here and 

 there but as a rule it is not very destructive. Part of the immunity 

 from damage may be due to a fungous disease which has destroyed 

 millions of the caterpillars, and also to the fact that many of the 

 hibernating caterpillars were killed by the exceptionally cold weather 

 of last winter. There is no record known to us of this insect having 

 made its way nearer the New York State line than the Connecticut 

 river valley. 



Cankerworms. Keports of injuries by these looping caterpillars 

 were received from several localities on the north shore of eastern 

 Long Island and also from the vicinity of New York city. Speci- 

 mens submitted upon examination showed that both the spring 

 cankerworm, A n i s o p t e r y x v e r n a t a Peck, and the fall 

 cankerworm, A 1 s o p h i 1 a p o m e t a r i a Ilarr., were responsi- 

 ble for the injury, the last named species, however, being by far the 

 more abundant <>n eastern Long Island and also in certain Con- 

 necticut localities. The caterpillars vary greatly in color, ranging 

 from light green to almost black, and are usually ornamented with 

 several narrow, white lines, some specimens frecjuently being 

 adorned with a broad, dorsal, black stripe margined by white lines 

 and with the sides light green, thus presenting an intermediate con- 

 dition between the two extremes in color. The spring cankerworm 

 may be recognized by the ])resence of but two pairs of legs at its 

 posterior extremity, wliilc the fall cankerworm has three pairs. 

 The females of lK)th species are wingless, grayish, grublike moths 

 which are obliged to crawl up the tree if they deposit their eggs 



