158 Kansas Academy of Science, 



CONCERNING SOME INSECTS COLLECTED ANDgBRED 

 FROM DEAD AND DYING ELM. 



By E. S. Tucker, Dallas, Tex. 



IN response to a request written by a citizen of Lawrence, 

 Kan., under date of September 23, 1904, and desiring in- 

 formation in regard to means of checking the attacks of in- 

 sects boring in elm trees, I was led to make a personal inspec- 

 tion of the affected trees in order to ascertain the species and 

 prevalence of the pests and extent of injuries committed by 

 them. During the course of my observations a number of 

 associated insects, including useful parasites, were found, and 

 a report of them is herewith presented in connection with my 

 remarks upon the destructive borers. The place which I vis- 

 ited comprised several acres of lawn and grounds in a resi- 

 dential section of the city. A dozen or perhaps fifteen fine 

 shade elms were found stricken, some of them being already 

 dead and others showing the yellow leaf a month or more too 

 early. The case was not isolated, as other elm trees in the 

 neighborhood were suffering in the same manner. The trees 

 ranged in age from growths of ten years up to probably 

 twenty years, and, on account of the long time required for 

 elm trees to grow into prime condition, the owner was par- 

 ticularly desirous of saving them, if possible, or at least to 

 prevent further loss among his healthy trees. 



The larvae of two kinds of borers, Saperda tridentata and 

 Magdalis armicollis, were the principal enemies found attack- 

 ing such trees as were almost dead. After an elm tree is 

 once attacked by these borers, all efforts to save it appear 

 useless on account of the difficulty in detecting and removing 

 the grubs at work in the trunk and branches, and if the tree 

 is not cut and burned clear to the roots in proper time it be- 

 comes a favorite breeding-place for the pests, which mature 

 as beetles and emerge in the spring months, then endangering 

 other trees in the vicinity, where the insects are liable to 

 spread. The most practical method of combating elm-borers, 

 then, is to follow Prof. S. A. Forbes's advice, as given in his 

 third report on the injurious insects of Illinois, in which pub- 

 lication he says, with reference to Saperda tHdentata: "The 

 only remedy available is unquestionably the destruction of 



