THE POPLAR AND WILLOW BORER 459 



Howard (1895) states that E. V. Wilcox sent him specimens of the 

 beetle and the larva from Cambridge, Massachusetts, reporting that 

 willows in that section were severely infested. Jack (1897) records the 

 beetle as being very abundant about Boston and Cambridge, it having been 

 present in the Arnold Arboretum for many years and at that time proving 

 very injurious to many species of willows and poplars and to two species 

 of birches. Up to that time it had been supposed that the insect was 

 restricted to the eastern Atlantic border, but in 1896 Ottomar Reincke 

 collected it near. Buffalo. 



The beetle has now become well established in the Eastern States but 

 its westward and northward spread has not been very rapid. Burgess 

 (1903) records it from Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1901 ; Bues (Bues and Sandsten, 

 1904), from two nurseries in Wisconsin in 1903; and Washburn (1904) 

 reports receiving specimens from the extreme northwestern corner of 

 Xorth Dakota, where the insect had been introduced on nursery stock 

 from. New York. This stock had been first shipped to a Minnesota nurs- 

 eryman, who in turn had distributed it, some of it reaching northwestern 

 Xorth Dakota. It is clear that the beetle was thus, in all probability, 

 widely distributed in the Northwest. 



Patch (1908) first observed the insect at Orono, Maine, in 1907, and in 

 1911 it was found also at Augusta and at Presque Isle. Forbes (1911 a) 

 records the beetle from Chicago in 1908, where it was abundant and 

 destructive throughout the city. He reports that it has not been found 

 elsewhere in the State. 



FOOD PLANTS 



The poplar and willow borer has a fairly wide range of food plants. 

 European writers record it as attacking the following species : alders 

 Almis liridis DC., A. incana Willd., A. glutinosa Willd. ; willows Salix 

 caprea L., 5. liminalis L., 5. purpurea L., 5. triandra L. ; poplars Pop- 

 ulus alba L. ; birches Betula species. Jack (1897) states that in America 

 aJl the native willows except the slender-stemmed species are subject to 

 attack. This is confirmed by C. S. Sargent, Director of the Arnold Arbo- 

 retum at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Of the imported willows the fol- 

 lowing have been observed injured in the Arnold Arboretum: Salix alba 

 L., 5. Jragilis L., 5. babylonica Tourn., 5. pentaiidra Linn. 



The following species of poplars are also recorded as host plants: Pop- 

 idus balsamifera L., P. deltoides Marsh., P. alba L. Schoene (1907 a) 

 records the following species of willows as host plants: Salix lucida Muhl., 

 5. caprea L., 5. cordata Muhl., 5. sericea Marsh., 5. alba L., 5. amygda- 

 loides Anders. In addition two species of birch are known to have been 

 injured Betula pumila L. and B. nigra L. These, however, are rarely 

 attacked. 



