1913.1 PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 85 



INSECT RECORD FOR 1912 IN MASSACHU- 

 SETTS. 



II. T. FEKNALD. 



The correspondence received by the experiment station dur- 

 ing 1912 was unusual because of its scope, nearly 400 different 

 insects being subjects of inquiry. 



As was to be expected, heat and a dry period were favorable 

 for plant-lice of many kinds and for the San Jose scale, and 

 these pests were much in evidence everywhere, over a hundred 

 separate inquiries being received referring to plant-lice. The 

 elm-leaf beetle was also abundant, and where not cared for by 

 spraying, caused much injury. 



Ants in houses and in lawus, cutworms, wireworms, various 

 soft scales, the squash vine borer, asparagus beetles, the spiny 

 elm caterpillar and the gypsy and bro^^^l-tail moths were also 

 the subjects of many letters, and these, with the other pests 

 mentioned, formed the bulk of the correspondence. 



The birch-leaf skcletonizer, Buccidatrix canadensi sella 

 Chamlx, has attracted little atteiition this year, and it seems 

 probable that it will not be noticeable another fall. The work 

 of the bronze birch borer, Agrilus anxius Gory, has been much 

 in evidence, but while many cut-leaved white birches succumbed 

 to its attacks during the first year or' two it was present, some 

 now appear to be more resistant and more or less immune. At 

 one time it seemed as though all of these trees would be de- 

 stroyed ; at present it seems possible that some of them may 

 escape. 



ISTumerous egg clusters of the apple-tree tent caterpillar, 

 Mnlacosoma americnnn Tab., sent in for identification; in- 

 quiries about the apple-twig borer, Srhisfocerof^ Jiamatiis Fab., 

 the bud moth, Spilonoia occllana Schiff., and apple aphids in- 

 dicate that more careful attention than ever before is beino; 



