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reasou why our parks could not be kept in the best condition, but with 

 a force of but two men, with the entomoloi;ist, the wonder is that even 

 a respectable showing can be made and tlie vegetation kept in as good 

 condition as we now find it. 



Mr, Howard said that he was very much interested in Mr. Southwick's 

 account of the use of water as an insecticide and referred to some 

 experiments in the same line wliich he had conducted, in which he 

 showed a strong stream of water to be an effective agent against the 

 rose slug and certain other insects. 



Some discussion followed on the nature of the work and the probable 

 species of the sap worm described by Mr. Southwick, which was thought 

 by Mr. Lintner to be probably a species of Sciara. 



Mr. Southwick then read the following paper: 



THE WOOD-LEOPARD MOTH IN THE PARKS OF NEW YORK CITY. 



By E. B. Southwick, Netv York City. 



This very destructive insect is now thoroughly established in the 

 parks and places of New York City, and is yearly doing an immense 

 amount of damage. 



This Zeuzera was first noticed by me in Central Park in the year 

 1884,* wben the gardeners brought me a large larva, which they had 

 taken from an elm limb. At the time I did not know what insect it 

 was. It resembled somewhat the larva of Xyleutes robinia', and I 

 thought it might possibly be that species which had taken to a new food 

 plant, as it was known to bore into the trunks of willow, oak, locust, 

 poplar, and chestnut. 



Although numbers of the moths had been taken at electric lights, 

 and the larvae had become more abundant, yet it was not until 1889 

 that the real species was found out. Mr. Angelmann, of Newark, N. J., 

 was the first to obtain the imago from the larva, and these were identi- 

 fied as Zeuzera pyrina, or Z. a^sculi, as some authors have it. This fact 

 was noticed in an article by Prof. John B. Smith, published in Garden 

 and Forest. 



This insect has now become one of the worst pests we have to deal 

 with, and already the trees and shrubs are becoming deformed from the 

 effects of their disastrous workings. 



They are already affecting more than 20 species of trees and shrubs, 

 and none seem to be exempt save the evergreens, and possibly a few 

 others. 



Even quite small shrubs are affected by them, which no doubt occurs 

 from the fact that the gravid female is blown from the trees, and being 



* Published in the New York Independent, October 1, 1891. 



