no THE EEPOET OF THE No. 36 



trilobite-branchiopods, trilobite-copepods, etc., having many features in common 

 with all three of these primitive groups, though in many respects the Trilobita 

 have departed as little as any known forms from the ancestral type. It is thus 

 necessary to make composites combining the primitive characters occurring in all 

 of these primitive groups in order to come to the correct conclusion concerning 

 the character of the ancestral arthropods. The Merostomata have also retained 

 many features which must have been present in the ancestral arthropods ; but their 

 lines of descent (which apparently sprang from ancestors resembling the Trilobita) 

 lead off toward the arachnoids, which lie in a side line having no direct bearing 

 on the origin of the insectan and myriopodan type of arthropod. The ancestors 

 of the arthropods themselves were in all probability very much like annelid worms, 

 though other forms such as the Onychophora, etc., have retained many features 

 characteristic of the ancestors of the phylum Arthropoda; but a discussion of these 

 forms has no particular bearing upon the question of the nature of the more 

 immediate ancestors of the higher Crustacea, Insecta, and " Myriopoda," and they 

 need not be further considered here. It may be of some interest, however, to 

 indicate briefly the principle lines of descent of the more primitive representatives 

 of the class Insecta, and I have therefore included a diagram giving the lines of 

 descent of those forms which have departed the least from the types ancestral to 

 the higher groups of insects, although, as is also the case with the diagram of the 

 lines of descent of the arthropodan allies of insects, it has been iiecessary to omit 

 many important groups in order not to make the diagrams too cumbersome and 

 intricate for practical purposes. 



LATEE DEVELOPMENTS IN THE EUROPEAN COEN BOEEE 



SITUATION. 



E. P. Felt, State Entomologist of New York. 



The last two months have witnessed a considerable extension of infested terri- 

 tory, the most significant being the area in Erie and Chautauqua Counties, New 

 York, some twenty-five miles long, extending from Angola to Fredonia and with 

 a known maximum width of ten miles. There is in addition a small infestation 

 at North Girard, Erie County, Pennsylvania, and the probabilities are that the 

 New York and Pennsylvania areas may be connected by a sparse infestation. In 

 fact, the early corn planted on the light soil south of the lake is a suspicious area 

 and it is impossible at the present time to define closely the extent of the infested 

 territory in this section. 



Explorations in the vicinity of the Schenectady area tend to confirm in a 

 general way at least the limits established during the summer. The infestation 

 in Massachusetts and New Hampshire has already been described in detail and 

 requires no further comment at the present time. 



A most significant development has been the failure of the European corn 

 borer to produce two broods in the infested area in New York State. This means 

 a very material reduction in the possibilities of injury and it is gratifying to state 

 that in the earlier discovered Schenectady area, a section thoroughly cleaned up 

 last spring, the maximum injury has hardly' overrun one per cent, in a few ver}- 

 restricted areas, possibly amounting to five per cent. It is considered advisable 

 for tlie present to content ourselves with the statement that but one generation 



