288 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pul3. Doc. 



tity of the Bombyx (^Ocneria) disjmr, a well-known enemy of their gardens 

 and forests, had devoured the foliage of the trees, which in some locali- 

 ties were quite bare. In the autumn millions of their eggs were dis- 

 covered, enveloped in a silky sort of covering, and attached to the 

 tnmks and branches. Many were removed ; but the hand of man was 

 powerless to work off the infliction, and the owners of the trees resigned 

 themselves to their loss." * The insects were finally checked by the 

 birds, which ate their eggs. For the past few years this insect and 

 another allied species ( Oastropacha monacha) have been very destruc- 

 tive in some parts of Germany, — so much so, in fact, that the Prussian 

 government has probably expended more money in its efforts to control 

 them than the State of Massachusetts has expended here in the attempt 

 to exterminate the gypsy moth. 



The Increased Destructiveness of Introduced Insects. 



The following quotation, from the first annual report of the injurious 

 and other insects of the State of New York, by J. A. Lintner, State 

 entomologist, is given to show how much ixiore destructive imported 

 pests have become here than in their native countries : — 



" It is well known to entomologists that those of our insect pests 

 which are of European origin have become far more injurious here 

 than they were ever known to be in their native homes. This may be 

 illustrated by a reference to a few of our injurious species. The wheat- 

 midge, introduced to this country about the year 1820, and first observed 

 in northern Vermont (Fitch, Sixth-Ninth Reports Insects, New York, 

 I860, p. 8), has never throughout its entire European history, extending 

 over nearly a century and a half, displayed an approach to the destruc- 

 tiveness which it has shown since its advent here. 



"The ravages of the cabbage butterfly (Pieris rapre, Linn), brought 

 to this comitry by the way of Quebec, about the year 1S58, have greatly 

 exceeded those committed by it in Europe. It has proved very destruc- 

 tive to cabbages wherever it has appeared, and it seems destined to 

 spread over all the United States, as it crossed the IVlissouri River in 1880 

 and has entered Nebraska. (' Canadian Entomologist,' xiv, 1882, p. 40.) 



" The asparagus beetle (Crioeeris af^paragi, Linn), which has at times 

 destroyed entire plantations of asparagus upon our sea-board in the 

 vicinity of New York, has been known for centuries in Europe, but 

 has hardly been referred to by writers on economic entomology as an 

 injurious insect. Although common in Russia, a writer in referring to 

 it, in 1880, states that it is never known to be obnoxious there. 



• Agriculture of Mass., 1S65, p 116. 



