JOURNAL 



OF 



ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS 



Vol. I OCTOBER, 1908 No. 5 



THE IMPORTATION OF TETRASTICHUS XANTHOME- 

 LAE^fAE (ROND.) 



By L. O. Howard 



The imported elm leaf-beetle (Galerucella luteola), first appeared 

 in this country about 1837 at Baltimore, and has spread to the north- 

 east above Boston and south into North Carolina. It has within com- 

 paratively recent years crossed the Appalachian chain of mountains 

 and has begun to spread throughout the Middle West. It has practi- 

 cally no etfective American natural enemies, and has increased and 

 spread unchecked, except for such work as has been done by cities 

 and towns and except for unfavorable climatic conditions. In Europe 

 there exist one or more egg-parasites of this and congeneric hosts. In 

 1832 Boyer de Fonscolombe described one of these egg-parasites as 

 Pteromalus gallerucae. In 1898 Kawall described Fteromalus oocto- 

 nus from the eggs of Galerucella vihiirm. In 1877 Rondani described 

 Oomyzus xanthomelaenae. With the possible synonymy of these 

 forms we have nothing to do. 



In 1905 Dr. Paul Marchal published in the Bulletin de la Societe 

 Entomologique de France for February 22 a paper entitled "Ob- 

 servations Biologiques sur un Parasite de la Galeruque de rOrme, " to 

 which he gave the name TetraMiclius xantJiomelaenae (Rond.). In 

 this very interesting article Doctor Marchal called attention to the 

 fact that the elm leaf-beetle had multiplied for several years in a 

 disastrous way about Paris, skeletonizing the leaves in the ])arks and 

 along the avenues in much the same way as is so familiar to the resi- 

 dents of cities in the eastern United States. But with 1904 the rav- 

 ages apparently stopped, and ^larchal's observations indicated that 

 this was laruelv if not entirely due to the work of this egg-parasite. 



