REPORT. 



Office of the State Entomologist, ) 

 Albany. Decemher 15, 1886. S 



To the HonoraMe Board of Regents of the University of the State 

 of New York : 



Gentlemkn. — I beg leave to present herewith a report of some 

 of the operations of my department and results of some of ray 

 studies during the current year, 1886. 



The report is necessarily brief, owing to the discovery during 

 the present month of a provision in a statute of the last legislature 

 which is construed as a requirement that the reports of the State 

 officers shall be placed in the hands of the State printer by the 

 filteenth of December of each year. I may, therefore, desire 

 later to present a special report, and to ask its publication at yonr 

 hands, or your consent for its transmissal directly to the Legislature 

 to be issued as tlie third of the series of legislative reports. 



Th6 present year has been signalized by a remarkable abundance 

 of aphides, or, as more commonly termed, plant-lice. About the 

 twentieth of April, the first report of the appearance of the newly- 

 hatched apple-tree aphis, Aphis mali, clustering upon and cover- 

 ing the terminal buds, was received. Other reports from various 

 localities in the State of New York and in the New England States, 

 followed. The operations of the aphis upon the 3^oung leaves as 

 they developed greatly alarmed the orchardists, as the loss of the 

 apple crop was threatened. To the requests made for the best 

 method of destroying the insects, washes were recommended for 

 use in the event of the attack not being speedily arrested by 

 a heavy rainfall such as we often have during the early spring. 

 Fortunately, the desired rain followed, destroying myriads of the 

 aphides, and preventing any serious injuries from them later in the 

 season. But the apple crop had already been greatly reduced by 

 the early demonstration of the insects. 



