384 



ARBORICULTURE 



ember. In the extreme southern port- 

 ion of its range there may be, and evi- 

 dently are, four broods of larvae a year. 

 DISTRIBUTION. 



The catalpa sphinx is distributed 

 over the entire area occupied original- 

 ly by both Catalpa bignonoides and Ca- 

 talpa speciosa, as well as much of the 

 additional territory now occupied by 

 these trees under cultivation. In other 

 words, it occurs from the Gulf States to 

 Pennsylvania, and from Arkansas and 

 Oklahoma to Illinois. It seems still to 

 be absent from Nebraska and lov/a. It 

 w^orks on trees grow^ing in the forest, in 

 parks and along our village and city 

 streets, as w^ell as those scattered on 

 farms and along roadsides. Even seed- 

 lings in the nursery are not exempt 

 from its attacks. 



NATURAL ENEMIES. 



It is known that at least one species 

 of Tymenopteraus parasite (Apanteles 

 glomeratus or catalpae) attacks its cat- 

 erpillars in large numbers over a wide 

 territory. A Tachinid fly also is a very 

 frequent enemy of the insect, as may be 

 inferred from the frequency that cater- 

 pillars are found w^ith eggs of these 

 flies attached to the skin in the vicinity 

 of the head. Were it not a fact that 

 the Apanteles parisite is in turn, at- 

 tacked almost as frequently by tw^o 

 other parisites, this proneness to paris- 

 itism on the part of the Catalpa sphinx, 

 would, in itself take care of the prob- 

 lem. 



The Yellow-billed and Black-billed 

 cuckoos, the Catbird and the Baltimore 

 oriole have frequently been detected in 

 the act of devouring the larvae of this 

 insect. No doubt there are still other 

 parisitic and predaceous insects as 

 w^ell as additional species of insectivo- 

 rous birds that do much towards re- 

 ducing the otherw^ise large number of 

 this insect that would be produced 

 from year to year. 



REMEDIES. 



While the larvae of this insect, like 

 those of most other species of the fam- 

 ily, seem to be subject to the attacks of 

 several kinds of parisites and is de- 

 voured with avidity by some of our_ 

 birds as mentioned above, it certainly 

 appears to be on the increase, and is 

 enlargiug its range. This being true, it 

 becomes necessary for us to do some 

 personal work tow^ard keeping it w^ith- 

 in reasonable bounds. 



Spraying with Paris green, in the 

 proportion of 5 ounces to 40 gallons of 

 w^ater, will kill the caterpillars and w^ill 

 be especially effectual w^hile they are 

 still small. Hand picking or the use of 

 a torch w^ill do good w^hen the insect is 

 w^orking much or small and medium 

 sized trees and w^hile the caterpillars 

 are still bunched. When attacking 

 very tall street and park trees, the 

 problem is more critical, w^hile in the 

 forest, reliance must, for the most part, 

 be placed on natural checks, such as 

 are mentioned above, and others. 



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