538 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
NOTES ON INJURIOUS INSECTS FOR 1899 
Several insects have appeared in unusual numbers or have attacked crops 
not previously affected by them. The unusual abundance of the milk- 
weed butterfly, Anosia plexippus Linn. may be mentioned, and 
of the harvest fly, Cicada tibicen Linn. The destructive work on 
sugar beets of the red-headed flea beetle, Systena frontalis 
Foerst. is noteworthy. The beetles had evidently bred beside a large 
field in Syracuse N. Y. where they were found in great numbers at the 
time of my visit to the locality, and from there had invaded the patch, 
giving it a brownish, ragged appearance. The pest was quickly con- 
quered by spraying with paris green. Ina few places in the central parts of 
the state, American elms suffered severely from the larvae of a flea beetle, 
Disonycha triangularis Say, which devoured the lower epider- 
mis of theleaves. In August the foliage of these trees presented the dried, 
brown appearance so familiar in the Hudson river valley in connection 
with the attacks of the imported elm leaf beetle, Galerucella 
luteola Mill. The pea crop on Long Island was ruined in places 
by the attacks of a plant louse, since named Nectarophora 
destructor Johns. One grower lost 20 acres and another 14 
through the work of this pest. Another insect which attracted much 
notice last summer was the so-called kissing bug, which in this state 
must be considered the masked bed bug hunter, Opsicoetus per- 
sonatus Linn. Undoubtedly some persons were bitten by this insect, 
but many of the newspaper stories rested on a very slender foundation 
in fact, at least so far as the identity of the creature was concerned. 
Raspberry saw fly. The pale green, spiny larvae of this insect, 
Monophadnoides rubi Harr. were received from Newark, Wayne 
co. with the statement by C. H. Stuart that they had been very injurious 
to raspberry plants. He wrote as follows: “The leaves of the infested 
patch looked today [June ro] like those of a badly infested currant bush. 
There is hardly a leaf in the field without several holes in it, and most of 
the older leaves are eaten to threads.” At Oneida, Madison co, two 
acres were defoliated by this insect, as I was informed by J. T. Thompson. 
They had occurred in small numbers the preceding season in the latter 
locality. The badly eaten raspberry leaves received the latter part of 
May from Mrs H. E. Robinson, of North Nassau, Rensselaer co. had 
probably suffered from an attack of the same insect, though no larvae 
were found on those submitted for examination. 
