entomologist's report. Ill 



The first molt takes place in five or six days, after which the 

 minute worms scatter more or less over the neighboring leaves, which 

 reveal their presence by numerous irregular perforations. Until about 

 one-half grown they do not wander, but rely for safety upon their posi- 

 tion stretched along the veins of the leaf and their pale-green coloring, 

 which corresponds so exactly with that of the under surface of the 

 latter. After the third change of skin, however, they become somewhat 

 darker and more opaque, and after feeding all night, retire for the day 

 to the seclusion of the interior of the hedge, where, as has been said, 

 their brownish-gray and mottled coloring renders them practically in- 

 visible upon the principal stalks and branches where they rest. In 

 about three weeks from the date of hatching, they are full grown, and 

 enclose themselves in large, loose cocoons of fine-textured web of a 

 pinkish or dingy white color, formed against the larger stems or among 

 clusters of fallen leaves on the ground. Within these cocoons the 

 summer broods rapidly pass their transformations, giving forth the 

 moths in 14 or 15 days from the date of spinning. As the development 

 is somewhat irregular in the spring, the insect may be found in nearly 

 all of its stages from the last of May till the first of October. The 

 latest autumn brood passes the winter enclosed in its thin but tough 

 cocoons, on or near the ground. 



The injury to the hedges of the State during the past two seasons 

 has been such that some of the owners are having them grubbed out, 

 and unless more general attention is given to the matter during the 

 €oming year, both their beauty and their value as fences will be a thing 

 of the past- 



The remedy is found in thorough and repeated spraying with Paris 

 green, or some of the arsenites. This must be done so as to wet all 

 the foliage, if possible. 



The summer pruning should be done about the first of August, at 

 which time very few worms will be feeding, but many egg-masses will 

 be found on the under sides of the leaves, and when the latter are 

 burned, the second summer brood of defoliators will be greatly reduced 

 in numbers. 



As yet, this pest has not many enemies among the predacious or 

 parasitic insects. That redoubtable bug, the spined soldier-bug 

 fPodisus spinosusj, is often found with the larvae impaled on its beak, 

 and no doubt drains the life fluids from a very considerable number. 

 A few larvte, parasited by a small Ichneumon fly (Bracon juglandis, 

 Ashm.), have also come under my notice, and, in time, it will no doubt 

 have other enemies in its own class, as well as among birds and small 

 reptiles. 



