1916.1 PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 65a 



DEPARTMENT OF ENTOMOLOGY 



H. T. FERNALD. 



The work of the department has progressed satisfactorily 

 during the past year. Correspondence has, as usual, taken con- 

 siderable time, and the insects involved have been of many 

 kinds. 



The largest number of inquiries received has been about 

 plant lice, and scale insects have come next in order. The red 

 spider has been the subject of numerous letters, and methods for 

 the control of ants, the gypsy and brown- tail moths, tent cater- 

 pillars, bean weevils, root maggots, white grubs, cutworms, 

 grasshoppers and the rose bug have frequently been requested. 



Some unusual subjects of correspondence have been with ref- 

 erence to borers in furniture, the iris borer and fleas. Maggots 

 of the screw-worm (Compsomyia macellaria Fab.), taken from a 

 human ulcer, have been received, and lady beetles were sent in, 

 captured, it was stated, feeding on tent caterpillar larvae. 



The strawberry crown girdler {Otiorrhynchns ovatus L.) ap- 

 peared last spring in enormous numbers in a forest nursery in 

 the State, causing an estimated loss of over $15,000. Its work 

 was first noticed in beds of two-year-old white pines, the tops 

 of the plants turning brown. Examination showed that the 

 larvae had girdled the stems and roots of the plants at from one 

 to three inches below the surface of the ground. The trouble 

 was reported to this department on the 13th of May, and a 

 visit to the infested areas was made on the 15th. At that time 

 entire beds of the trees, perhaps ten feet in width by thirty or 

 forty in length, were without a living tree, and as these were in 

 rows about three inches apart and about an inch apart in each 

 row, the number of dead trees was very great. The pines in 

 these beds were about six inches high. Quite a large number of 



