52 a EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



The potato plant louse, normally present but in such small 

 numbers that it can be entirely ignored, u'as this year so abun- 

 dant and caused such rapid destruction in badly infested fields 

 that especial attention on the part of the department was called 

 for, and a bulletin delineating its habits and methods for its 

 control was prepared and published. 



During the early part of August the department received 

 numerous reports of "greenish caterpillars" defoliating forest 

 and shade trees, notably maples and beeches, from towns in 

 Berkshire, Franklin and Hampshire counties. Upon a careful 

 survey of the infested region the injury was found to be due 

 principally to two species, — larvse of the two-lined prominent 

 moth and the green-striped maple worm. An indication of the 

 nature and extent of this injury may be gathered from the 

 following report: "Individual trees were often completely 

 stripped of foliage, and, in some localities, the woods were so 

 denuded that it appeared like late fall, when half to two-thirds 

 of the foliage is gone." 



Mention may here be made of several species of somewhat 

 less importance, from an economic standpoint, but of interest 

 from the fact that they had not been reported to this office be- 

 fore, or, at least, not as occurring in numbers enough to be a 

 source of danger. In this class belong the grape-vine tomato 

 gall midge, asparagus miner, parsnip web-worm and celery and 

 parsnip plant louse. These, while not occurring in large num- 

 bers in any particular region, were quite generally present 

 throughout the State. 



Of the common pests, plant lice of all kinds, the squash-vine 

 borer, flea beetles, cabbage worms of several kinds and the 

 potato stalk borer were present in large numbers, and caused 

 a corresponding amount of damage to crops. 



As in former years, numerous species brought to this country 

 from abroad on imported nursery stock were sent to this office 

 by the inspectors for identification. This work, while calling 

 for considerable expenditure of time, is, nevertheless, of value 

 in order to keep the department in touch with insects which 

 might, if they once became established, develop into serious 

 pests. An instance of this is the so-called orange-tail moth, a 

 European species closely related to the brown-tail moth, which 



