ENTOMOLOGY 287 



warm day during the season. When spring opens and the buds 

 of the boxelder begin to burst the bugs scatter from their hibernat- 

 ing places and seek their food plant. The eggs are laid normally 

 in the crevices of the bark of the food plant, 'but the instinct of the 

 mother bug is by no means true, since she will oviposit in almost 

 any situation, frequently even laying eggs in her hibernating quar- 

 ters. Few of the young hatching from such eggs will ever reach a 

 suitable tree. In Kansas the first adults begin to appear after mid- 

 summer and at this time bugs of all sizes begin to congregate in 

 lines up and down the trunks and branches of the trees. Accord- 

 ing to Professor Popenoe they may frequently be seen crowding in a 

 broad line extending from the ground up to the secondary branches, 

 in a company including larvae of all sizes, pupae, and fully matured 

 individuals. When the leaves drop, practically all are full grown 

 and they fly away in search of winter quarters. They feed upon 

 a number of different plants, preferring, however, tne boxelder. 

 When they fly into greenhouses they occasionally damage the 

 growing plants in the winter time. They are most frequently sent 

 to economic entomologists with accounts of their fall congregating 

 and also with tales of congregating in houses which they have 

 entered. They are said even to have entered the beds, and one or 

 two accounts have been sent in to the effect that they bite human 

 beings, like bedbugs. 



Spraying the trees in the early part of the season with kero- 

 sene emulsion will result in the death of the majority of the im- 

 mature individuals. When they crowd together in the autumn 

 upon the trunks of the trees they can be readily destroyed with hot 

 water or may be swept en masse into kerosene pans. A little indus- 

 trious work at this time of the year will reduce the numbers of the 

 insect so greatly that little damage need be feared from them the 

 following season. 



The White Marked Tussock Moth. (See insects affecting the 

 apple.) Two broods occur each season, the young larvae of the first 

 appearing soon after the leaves are well out upon the majority of 

 the shade trees. The winter is passed in the egg stage. The newly 

 hatched larva feeds for a time upon the epidermis of the lower side 

 of the leaf but as it grows older and stronger more of the leaf is 

 eaten until by the time it is full grown all but the midrib and larger 

 veins are devoured. The principal hosts for this species are lin- 

 dens, horse chestnuts and elms. 



As a general specific measure to be used in combating this pest, 

 the author believes there is nothing more effective and practical 

 than collecting or treating the egg masses during the winter 

 months and keeping the trees banded with tanglefoot from the mid- 

 dle of June until the first killing frost. This measure is especially 

 commendable for individual operations as the cost would not bo 

 excessive to hire nimble workmen to climb the trees and destroy 

 the egg-masses. It would only remain to keep the bands in good 

 working order. If the work of destroying the cocoons is thor- 

 oughly done and the trees so treated arc not close enough to neigh- 



