1877.] 



AND SORTIGULTURIST. 



371 



low the right course as indicated by Engelmann, 

 hereafter. 



A New Ejtemy to the Pixe Tree. — The impor- 

 tance of the subject leads us to give entire the 

 following paper read by Professor Aug. T. Grote, 

 before the recent meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation : 



" In the months of June and July the Red Pine 

 (Pinus resinosa), and the White Pine (Pinus stro- 

 bus), show by the exuding pitch that they are 

 suffering from the attacks of an insect. _ The 

 wounds occur on the main stem below the inser- 

 tion of the main branch. On cutting into the 

 bark the injury is found to be caused by a small 

 larva which, when full grown, measures sixteen 

 to eighteen millimeters. The head is shining 

 chesttiut brown with black mandibles. The body 

 is livid or blackish green, naked, with series of 

 black dots, each dot giving rise to a single rather 

 stout bristle. The protharasic is blackish. The 

 larva has three pair of thorasic, or true jointed 

 feet, and four abdominal or false feet, besides 

 anal elaspcrs. This larva, eating on the inner 

 side of the bark, and making furrows in the 

 wood, causes the bleeding which, when the de- 

 pletion is excessive or continuous, and especially 

 m the case of young trees, has proved fatal. In 

 July the worm spins a whitish thin paper cocoon 

 in the mass of exuding pitch, which seems to 

 act as a protection to both larva and chrysalis. 

 The chrysalis contained in the cocoon is cylindri- 

 cal, smooth, narrow, blackish brown about 16 

 millimeters in length. The head is pointed, 

 there being a pronounced clypeal protuberance, 

 the segments are unarmed, and the anal plate is 

 provided with a row of four spines, and two 

 more slender, on either sidi^ of the mesial line, 

 below the first. It gives the moth in ten to four- 

 teen days. Tiie perfect insect expands on an 

 average 30 millimetres. An examination of the 

 veins of the wing shows that vein 7 of the prima- 

 ries is wanting, while vein 6 is simple. On the 

 hind wings the cell is closed or very nearly so. 

 It belongs thus to the Phycida?, a sub-family of 

 the Pyraledte. The male antenna? are bent a lit- 

 tle at the base, the joints inconspicuous; the 

 maxillary pulpi in the same sex are not brush- 

 like, and the hind wings are 8 and not 7 veined. 

 We may refer the moth then to the genus Ne- 

 phopterix. Veins 3, 4 and 5 spring nearly to- 

 getlier from the outer extremity of the cell of the 

 hind wings (though 5 seems to be nearly indepen- 

 dent while running close to 4) ; vein 2 is not far 

 removed from 3. On the primaries, veins 4 and 5 

 spring from a common stalk, so that we must 

 refer the moth to the sul) genus Diosyctria of 

 Zeller. In color the moth is blackish gray, 

 shaded with reddish on the basal and terminal 

 fields of the forewings. Tiiere arc patches or 

 lines of raised scales on the basal field and on the 

 anterior and darker portion of the median space. 

 The medium lines are prominent, consisting of 

 double black lines enclosing pale bands. The 

 inner line at basal third is perpendicular, W 

 shaped, or dentate. The outer line at apical 



fourth/ is once more strongly indented below 

 costa. The black component lines do not seem 

 to be more distinct on one side than on the 

 other of the pale included bands or spaces. The 

 median field is blackish, becoming pale towards 

 the outer line ; it shows a pale, sometimes whit- 

 ish, cellular spot, surmounted with raised scales. 

 It can be seen that these raised scales (easily lost 

 in setting the insect) accompany the median 

 lines as well as forming the discal mark and the 

 linear patch on the basal field. The terminal 

 edge of the wing is again pale or ruddy before 

 the terminal black line. The fringes are black- 

 ish. The hind wings are pale, yellowish white, 

 shaded with fuscous on cortal region and more 

 or less terminally before the blackish terminal 

 line ; the fringes are dusk}'. Beneath the fore- 

 wings are blackish marked with pale on corta; 

 hind wings as on upper surface. Body blackish 

 gray, with often a reddish cast on the thorax 

 above and on the vertex. The eyes are naked, 

 the labrial pulpi long ascending, with moderate 

 terminal joint. Tongue rather long. The gray 

 abdomen is annulated with dirty white, the legs 

 are pale dotted. The species differs from the 

 European alietella by raised scale tufts on the 

 wings, and Prof. P. C. Zeller, who has kindly 

 compared examples for me, declares it to be 

 quite distinct from any European species. The 

 pupa seems to differ from that of alietella by the 

 elypeal prominence which appears entirely ab- 

 sent in the European species judging from 

 Ratzburg's excellent figures. The larva is found 

 to attack also various imported conifers; for this 

 reason I suppose it might be an imported para- 

 site. It lias been noticed on the Scotch, Austrian 

 and Russian pine, and it will be found, I fear, a 

 grave enemy to the cultivation of this genus of 

 plants. 



Since the insect is not noticed yet in any scien- 

 tific publication, I propose to name it Nephopte- 

 rix (Diosyctria) Zimmermani, after Charles D. 

 Zimmerman, of Bufiixlo, who has made many ex- 

 cellent observations on our noxious insects, and 

 to whom I am greatly indebted for help in get- 

 ting all the facts with relation to the present spe- 

 cies. He has kindly spent much time in climb- 

 ing large trees and cutting out pupte and larvse, 

 and rearing the perfect insect. 



The larva of alietella is described byBatzburg 

 as living in the cones chieOy of various species 

 of Pinus. Nevertheless, he speaks of one instance 

 in which ii Avas found inulcr similar circum- 

 stances to those which are usual with Zimmer- 

 mani, which latter I have not yet noticed attack- 

 ing the fruit. The European species is said to 

 winter in the pupse state. In the vicinity of 

 Buffalo our species seems to be single brooded. 

 I have not yet ascertained the winter- state. 

 Batzburg recommends cutting off infected 

 branches, but, especially on small trees I find 

 the larva of Zimmermani usually infesting the 

 main stem at the insertion of the branches. 

 From the fact that the pitch of the trees offers a 

 protection, I do not think that any washes 

 would reach the insect. The knife, then, seems 

 the only remedy. 



