lyS SF.CONl) REl'ORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



them, or destroy them when they arc about to enter the ground, l^lack- 

 birds cat them when turned up by the plow in fields, and hogs are 

 excessively fond of them, and, when suffered to go at large in the woods, 

 root them up and devour immense numbers just before the arrival of 

 the period of their iinal transformation, when they are lodged immedi- 

 ately under the surface of the ground. It is stated that many perish 

 in the egg state, by the ra])id growth of the bark and wood, which closes 

 the perforations and buries the eggs before they have hatched,* and 

 many_ witliout doubt, are killed by their perilous descent from the 

 trees. 



Other insects also prey upon them. Dragon-flies { Libelluhdce) have 

 been seen to seize and devour them when they have just emerged from 

 their pu))al state, and are still tender and heli)less. The larva: of some 

 species of fly, probably of the Tachinidw^ iirc known to feed upon them 

 internally. 



It is a fortunate circumstance in the economy of this insect, that so 

 large a number of forest trees serve the jnirposc of oviposition equally 

 well with our fruit trees; were it otherwise, its attack would invariably 

 prove fatal to most of the young apple, pear and peach stock lying 

 witliin its range. 



Preventives of Injuries. 



No method is known by which these attacks may be prevented, and 

 very little can be done to mitigate them, when made by such innumer- 

 able hordes as are often witnessed. Something may be accomplished 

 by beating them or by picking them by hand from young trees in the 

 early morning and toward evening when they hang inactively upon the 

 twigs, and it would be practicable, by the aid of a strong wind blowing 

 in the right direction, to drive them with poles from the trees, compel- 

 ling them to take wing and to seek the foliage of neighboring forest- 

 trees. Without the wind, they would probably, after a short erratic 

 flight, again return to the trees or transfer themselves to an adjoining 

 orchard. 



Destroyed by a Fungus. 



As the attack of the fungus, Mdssospura cicadince, referred to on 

 page 171, was observed by Prof. Peck to be of economic importance in 

 preventing the propagation of the species, his remarks thereupon are 



*Tlus soiTu'tiines occurs iii llirifty yomij^ upplo-trc'cs,_ and in tvvifjs of considerable size, 

 nsiially us larf;;e as a man's finger, where tlie injury caused by tlie [deposit of Ihe eggs 

 has not been sullicient to check, inateriully, the growth of llio branch. In such cases the 

 twigs grow so i-apidly, that in Uie coiirse ot ll)o niontli winch intervenes between the time 

 of tlic laying and the hatching ot the eggs, Ihe wound heals completely over, the tent ot 

 splinters is nearly or quite overgrown, and the young insects never emerge from the eggs^ 

 being inclosed in a living scpulclicr (l^e Buron, Second liijiorton the Insectn oj llUnoib, J872, 

 pp. 12G r). 



