EBPOET 



Office of the State Entomologist, ) 

 Albany, December 11, 1888. j 



To the Honorable Board of Regents of the University of the State of 

 New York: 



Gentlemen. — In accordance witli chapter 355 of the Laws of 

 1883, I beg leave to present to your honorable board the follow- 

 ing report embracing, results of my studies and observations on 

 the Insects of the State of New York during the year 1888 : 



Interesting insect attacks of an unusual number have presented 

 themselves for study, of which by far the larger number have 

 been upon our fruit crops. While it is evident to all who are 

 engaged in agricultural pursuits that insect depredations are 

 annually increasing in our country, both in the number of pests 

 and in the aggregate of the losses that they occasion, it is 

 equally evident to the entomologist, who is specially charged with 

 the study of these depredations, that the increase in new forms 

 of attack lies largely in the direction of fruit pests. A sufficient 

 reason for this may be found in the increasing attention that is 

 being given to fruit culture, and its remarkable extension, as a 

 commercial interest, year by year. How such extension in the 

 production of special crops tends to augment insect ravages in 

 still greater proportion, has been shown by me in former reports 

 and needs not to be repeated at the present. 



Several of the new attacks are still under study and have not 

 progressed sufficiently to warrant present report upon them. Of 

 these are two forms of insect injury to fruits and fruit trees which 

 have for years been an enigma to us, but have found their explana- 

 tion during the past summer, although not yet assigned to 

 the particular species which cause the injury. In one, the young 

 fruit of the apple and pear, and perhaps the quince, are pitted, 

 become gnarled, often distorted, and fail of development even 

 when they remain upon the tree ; in the other, the trunks and 

 2 



