No 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 325 



REPORT OF TROF. R. C. SCHEIDT, ENTOMOLOGIST TO TUE 

 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



HaiTisburg, Pa., January 23, 1901. 



The chief injurious insects which came to my notice during the 

 year 1900 were, the Cecropia Emperor Moth (Platysamia cecropia), the 

 Peach Leeanium (Lecanium nigrofaciatum) the Forest Tent Cater- 

 pillar (Clisicanipa disstria), the Oyster-Sliell Bark-louse (Mytilaspis 

 pomorum), the Peach Twig Borer (Buarsealineatella) and the 

 San Jos6 Scale (Aspidiotus ijerniciosus). 



The Emporer Moth was reported to be ^jrevalent in the neighbor- 

 hood of Milton, Northumberland county. I received a number of 

 the characteristically large grayish-brown cocoons attached to twigs 

 of the apple tree, with the request to give their name aod suggest a 

 remedy. I at once complied with the request and had a full descrip- 

 tion of the life history of the insect, together with that of the ap- 

 proved remedies inserted in the Milton daily paper. The Emperor 

 Moth is one of the largest and most beautiful of American insects, 

 measuring often six or seven inches across the front wings. The 

 wings are of a mottled dark brown color with clay colored hind mar- 

 gins; they are characterized by an opaque kidney-shaped dull red 

 spot, white in the center and black along the edges, parallel to the 

 outer margins of the wiog a wavy reddish band with internal white 

 border is situated. The fore-wings are marked near the shoulders 

 by a curved white baud upon a dull red background, while an eye 

 shaped black spot within a bluish white crescent ornaments the tips. 

 Body and legs are reddish and white on upper aod under surface. 

 The eggs are deposited in the month of June on a great variety of 

 fruit and shade trees, hatching about a week later into small, spiny 

 caterpillars, which devestate the foliage with great rapidity, growing 

 constantly until they reach at maturity, late in summer, a length of 

 three inches and more and a thickness of almost three-fourths of ao 

 inch; along the back they bear rows of large, coralled tubercles. In 

 autumn the large silken cocoons of great density and toughness are 

 spun and the caterpillais change within into dark brown pupae, 

 which remain domant all wioter. It is however only after mild win- 

 ters that the caterpillars become dangerously injurious; their para- 

 sites are so numerous tliat the number is greatly reduced. A care- 

 ful watching of the trees and prompt removal by hand-picking or, if 

 necessary, by spraying v/ith arsenites easily prevent the spread of 

 this insect. 



