OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 109 



and redescribed by Mr. P. Gennadius in the American Naturalist for 

 January, 1874 (p. 57). 



Many years ago I bred this insect from maples that were being 

 injured by it around Chicago, and made brief reference to it in the 

 Prairie Farmer for April 17, 1869. In 1867, while on a visit to Mr. B. 

 N. McKinstry, of East Sumner, Ills., I found that he had lost many 

 young trees by it. It has also been unusually abundant around 

 Onarga, Ills., and infests more or less the maples in the city of St. 

 Louis. Mr. Edward Orton, of Yellow Springs, Ohio, in sending me 

 specimens in 1869, thus speaks of its injury: "I collected the Tro- 

 chilium from the trunks of maples {Acer saccliarinum) in the streets 

 of the city of Springfield, Ohio, on Saturday, May 29, 1869. The insects 

 were emerging in great numbers from the trunks of several trees. I 

 took them on the trees, and even extricated some from the pupa cases 

 — which remain fastened to the trees." 



It is referred to quite frequently in the tl^-ansactions of our west- 

 ern horticultural societies, and its work often confounded with that 

 of the Flat-headed Borer. Mr. Merton Dunlap refers to its injury 

 around Champaign, Ills.,* while Mr. Gennadius states that it has killed 

 a number of maples on the University grounds at that place. f 



It appears to be very generally distributed over the country, 

 though as none of the older eastern writers on economic entomology 

 refer to its injuries, we may infer that it does not attract the same 

 attention in the Atlantic as it does in the Middle States. 



The moths begin to issue from the trees the latter part of May, 

 and continue to issue throughout the summer. The worms are found 

 of all sizes, during this time, and throughout the winter. 



I have always found the worms in such trees as had been injured, 

 either by the work of the Flat-headed Borer, the rubbing of the tree 

 against a post or board, or in some other way. Where the bark is 

 kept smooth, they never seem to trouble it, the parent evidently pre- 

 ferring to consign her eggs to cracked or roughened parts. For this 

 reason the worm is not found in the smoother branches, but solely in 

 the main trunk. Whether the soap application will prevent the moth 



iiuder cousideratiou in this genus. Subsequently Mr . Walker wi'ote : " ^jeria has been divided bj' 

 lluebuer and Newman into several genera, which differ as much from each other as they do from Sphecia, 

 but they are here reunited, for the characters by which they are distinguished w'ill not apply to the exotic 

 species, and the latter, as yet, can hardly be divided into corresxjonding genera." (Brit. Mus. Cat. 

 Lep., viii., p. 13 ) 



And for this little freak of Mr. Walker's, his name, according to the fashion adopted in the List 

 of Lepidoptera referred to, must supersede tlie describer's, as authorit3% to a whole string of our Ameri- 

 <jan species, many of which he i)erhai)S never saw or heard of. Wherein lies the practical advantage or 

 the justice of such a system, must be left for its advocates to discover ! 



* Trans. lUs. State Hort. Soc. 1872, p. 6.5. 

 t Farmer, Dixon, Ills., Feb. 18T4. 



