Ameri 



YOL. III. 



BROOKLYN, OCTOBER, 1887. 



NO. 7. 



Proceedings of the Entom. Club of the A. A. A. S, at the 

 New York Meeting, August, 1887. 



(Continued from p. io8, vol. III.) 



Prof. Lintner spoke of the alarming increase of the Larch Saw-Fly, 

 Nematus erichsonii. He gave a history of the dates and places at which 

 it had been heretofore observed, and the injury it had done. 



On July 7th it was reported to him from St Lawrence Co., N. Y.. 

 where it appeared on three Tamaracks growing in a door-yard. About 

 the loth of July they appeared in countless hosts completely covering the 

 trees so that the end of a finger could not be placed on a branch of one 

 of them without touching one or more of the worms. They also cov 

 ered apple and maple trees and shrubbery but ate nothing but Tamarack. 



About the same time examples of the larva were received from Otsego 

 Co. taken from the European Larch. The pupae were found after July 

 1 2th under moss some little distance from the trees. It has done con- 

 siderable damage also in Hamilton Countv in the Adirondack region. 

 Every Tamarack for miles around was entirely stripped, and looked as 

 though the fire had been through it. Dr. Packard says the attack is not 

 fatal to the trees and near Lake Pleasant early in August he observed the 

 Tamaracks putting out new buds. The larva were attacked by a Podisus 

 allied to modestus, and the pupae were eaten by ants. In Europe the 

 species seemed to be kept in check pretty well by its parasites and it has 

 never been destructive there. 



Prof Riley said we can hardly hope with Dr. Packard that the at- 

 tack will not be fatal to the trees. When he went over the ground in 

 Maine with Dr. Packard this spring, many trees were already dead. 



Entomologica Americana. Vol. hi. 



October 1887. 



