SHADE TREE INSECTS 139 



The fall web-worm * (Hyphantria textor) 

 Order — Lepidoptera. Manual, p. 321 



This is a typical American species and found 

 from Canada to Texas; it has been recorded as 

 feeding upon 120 species of trees; the moths are 

 white or spotted with black and conspicuous; the 

 larvae make ugly silken nests all over affected trees. 



The moths lay 400 to 500 eggs in clusters on the 

 leaves ; the caterpillars feed in masses and spin webs 

 enclosing leaves; they pupate in cocoons just below 

 the surface of the soil or on ground under trash or 

 • about trunks of trees; farther south there are two 

 broods, but only one in central and northern New 

 York; the pupae pass the winter in cocoons. 



Control — Cut out nests of larvae; spray with ar- 

 senate of lead around the nests of the larvae. 



Bronze birch-borer ^ (Agrilus auxins) 

 Order — Coleoptera 



This is a small olive-bronze colored beetle about 

 one-half an inch long that is killing so many of the 

 white birches in New York State. It attacks the 

 top branches first but gradually spreads to all parts 

 of the tree. The larvae bore through the sap-wood 

 just beneath the bark and sometimes deeper into 

 the solid wood. The larvae pupate in cells beneath 

 the bark and in May or early June the beetles make 

 half-round exit holes in the bark and emerge 

 through these. 



Control — The only way of arresting the spread 

 of the pest and stopping the death of healthy trees 

 is to cut down and burn the infested ones before 

 May first. 



* Felt— Insects Affecting Park and Woodland Trees, Vol. I p 142 

 5 Shngerland— Cornell Univ. Expt. Stat., Bull. 234. 



