1915 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 115 



It is useless to inject insecticides into the exit-holes, from which the adults have 

 escaped, although such holes should he disinfected and filled with putty or cement. 

 Banding the trunks of deciduous trees to prevent infestation from wandering 

 hordes of tent-caterpillars or the wingless females of the canker-worms is often a 

 necessary precaution. The most effective method is to make a complete girdle 

 about the trunk with a sticky substance over which the insects cannot crawl. The 

 adhesive should be applied in a band about four inches wide to stout paper tacked 

 or tied about the trunk five or six feet from the ground. If the bark is uneven 

 cotton should be placed lo^neath the paper to prevent the insects passing beneath. 

 One of the best adhesives for banding is made by boiling resin and castor oil in 

 equal parts and thoroughly mixing. The well-known preparation " Tree-tangle- 

 foot " is widely used for this purpose. 



Danger of Insect Importations. 



The shade trees of the Eastern States are infested by several very destructive 

 insect species which have not yet become established in Canada. The Brown-tail 

 Moth has unfortunately gained a foothold in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but 

 is being successfully held in check. Flights of the moths from infested districts 

 in Maine have been responsible for the infestations. The Gipsy Moth spreads 

 much more slowly, and is not yet known to be breeding in any part of Canada. 



The Elm Leaf Beetle, Galerucella Inteola Muller, is a most deadly enemy of 

 the elms throughout many parts of the Eastern States. It has not yet been re- 

 ported as injurious in Canada; it occurs, however, throughout the northern and 

 western part of New York State and the country adjacent to Lake Ontario, and 

 we may expect it in the Niagara Peninsula before many years. 



The adult beetle is about one-fourth of an inch long, reddish-yellow or greenish- 

 3'ellow in colour, with three black spots on the prothorax, and usually three black 

 stripes lengthwise on the wing-covers. The adult beetles eat irregular holes in 

 the leaves, and the grubs eat away the under surface of the leaves, which rapidly 

 dry and turn brown. This species has killed great numbers of elm trees through- 

 out its range. It can be controlled by poison sprays: but would, without doubt, 

 create havoc if it were to become established in Ontario or Quebec. 



In recent years the elms about Boston have been attacked by the Elm Bark- 

 beetle, Eccoptogaster muUistriafa Marsh. This small species is a most important 

 enemy of weakened or unthrifty trees. The adults are black and about 1-8 inch 

 in length, with a short snout. They are easily distinguished from the common, 

 and less injurious elm snout-beetles, which are very distinctly larger and have a 

 long, slender snout or proboscis. The adults of the Elm Bark-beetle bore round 

 holes through the bark and cut egg-tunnels along the surface of the wood. From 

 the eggs, laid along the sides of these egg-tunnels, the larvae or grubs hatch and 

 excavate individual galleries away from the egg-tunnels through the inner bark. 

 After pupating in the ends of these larva, mines, and transforming to adults, they 

 cut small round holes thorugh the bark to freedom. A discovery of these small black 

 beetles with their whitish grubs beneath the bark of dying elms should receive 

 immediate attention. 



The Hickory Bark-beetle. Eccoptogaster quadrispinosus, a much larger species 

 of the same genus and with similar habits, is a destructive enemy of hickory trees 

 as far north as Lake Erie. It has not been recorded, as injurious in Eastern 

 Canada: but I have specimens taken in Southern Ontario, and we may find any 

 summer that it has obtained a foot-hold in the Niasrara Peninsula. 



