REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST IC)II 57 



leaves (plate 18) may therefore show one or more oval holes 

 with circular skeletonizing here and there, the centers of some 

 of the areas at least being occupied by an oval case, with a 

 diameter of about five-eighths of an inch. The work is usually 

 on the upper surface though the caterpillars occur also upon the 

 lower side of the foliage. Viewed from below, an infested leaf is 

 generally indicated by one or more dark spots surrounded by 

 irregular, lighter, skeletonized, brownish areas. The injury was 

 especially marked on the lower limbs of large trees and on 

 small trees in the woods the feeding was confined mostly to the 

 hard maple, adjacent soft maple practically escaping injury. A 

 few of the larval cases accompanied by feeding were collected 

 on oak and witch-hazel undergrowth. This latter appeared to 

 be largely accidental. The ground was in many places thickly 

 dotted with the circular larval cases. The late James Fletcher 

 has also recorded rather severe injury to beech trees after the 

 foliage on adjacent maples had been destroyed. At the time of 

 our examination September 226., some larvae were still feeding, 

 though most of them had evidently forsaken the trees or were 

 nearly ready to drop to the ground. 



Previous history. Early records show this insect to be rather 

 local in habit. The first notice of this species by Doctor Fitch 

 states that injury was rather common during 1850 in the eastern 

 section of New York State. The withered leaves began to be 

 noticed in early August and continued to increase in numbers 

 for three or four weeks. He observed that forest trees were 

 mostly affected, those standing alone as shade trees in fields 

 being practically exempt. This latter hardly obtained at Lake 

 George last summer, since several badly affected trees were well 

 separated from the adjacent woodland. The late Doctor Lintner 

 recorded in 1888 serious injury by this insect to maples at 

 Pittsford, Vt., nearly all the trees having the foliage brown and 

 looking as though they had been scorched by fire. The work of 

 this species has also been recorded from the state of Illinois, 

 while the late Dr James Fletcher reported severe injuries to 

 hard maples in the vicinity of Ottawa, Canada. This species 

 appears to have a wide distribution in the northern part of the 

 United States and southern Canada, it having been reported from 

 New York, New Jersey, Illinois, the vicinity of Ottawa and also 

 Kaslo, British Columbia. 



