I06 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Curious brown, somewhat flattened cases on mined leaves of English and Scotch elm 



Elm case bearer, C o I e o p h o r a 1 i m o s i p e n n e 1 1 a, p. 167 

 Red maple leaves folded in August or September, containing a long, tapering, blackish 

 tube, with the adjacent tissues on the underside skeletonized 



Maple trumpet skeletonizer, Thiodia signatana, p. 168 

 Yellowish or brown larch needles with hollow apex and small circular hole on one side 



Larch case bearer, C o 1 e o p h o r a 1 a r i c e 1 1 a, p. 170 



Forest tent caterpillar : maple worm 



jMalacosoiiia dissh'ia Hiibn. 



Blue-headed caterpillars with a line of silvery diamond-shaped spots down the middle 

 of the back, frequently defoliate maple and other trees in early summer, and when not 

 feeding assemble in clusters on the sides of the larger limbs and trunks. 



Stripping a large proportion of the foliage from maples has been a 

 marked characteristic of this species for the last four or five years in many 

 sections of New York, the climax being reached in 1898 and 1899. The 

 sugar maples of Delaware, Greene and Otsego counties suffered most 

 severely from the attacks of this pest in 1897 and 1898, large areas being 

 left with hardly a green leaf. The destructive work of this caterpillar in 

 1899 was more general than in the preceding two years, there having been 

 complaints received from about half the counties in the State, and in some 

 sections the depredations were worse than ever. This species appeared in 

 force in many cities and villages, threatening thousands of handsome shade 

 trees with defoliation, and had it not been for most energetic efforts on the 

 part of local authorities and private individuals, many maples along streets 

 and in parks would have been stripped of leaves. This native species is 

 generally distributed and its comparative abundance in a locality is there- 

 fore due to natural causes, favorable or otherwise, and very rarely can it be 

 said that the insect has migrated to any extent, except in a very local and 

 restricted sense. 



Early history in New York State. The earliest record of injury in this 

 State appears to be that of Dr Riley, who reported the species as being 

 quite destructive in certain parts of western New York in 1857. Peter 

 Ferris 10 years later, states that this insect had been troublesome in western 



