1898.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 93 



pear midge winters underground in a little silken cocoon which is very 

 inconspicuous. In order to make certain that every stick introduced from 

 abroad does not contain the cocoons of midges it would be necessary to 

 remove every particle of soil from the roots. The cocoon in its entirety 

 is not over an eighth of an inch in length and may be concealed in any 

 little pellet of earth. In fact, the cocoon is surrounded with particles of 

 earth, which render it almost indistinguishable. Does any one claim that 

 it is possible to safely inspect thousands of pear stocks that are introduced 

 annually in such a way as to make certain that not a pellet of the earth 

 adhering to the roots contains a cocoon ? No sign of the appearance of 

 the midge can be detected upon the plant itself. If present at all it will 

 be in the soil. Now, of course, the imported stocks do not contain any 

 great bundles of earth ; but in the angles formed by the roots there always 

 is more or less soil attached and more than enough to shelter the insect 

 under consideration. I do not think that any inspection can be sufficiently 

 thorough to exclude any insect of this kind. 



Another species, recently introduced and still spreading, is the Wood 

 Leopard Moth, Zeuzera pyrina, also called the Imported Elm Borer. It 

 is an insect which is creating havoc with the shade trees in several Eastern 

 cities around New York, and which, on Long Island, is causing serious 

 injury to orchard trees as well. It requires the constant effort of the ento- 

 mologist to the Department of Public Parks in New York City to keep 

 the insect down in that city and wagon loads of wood are cut each winter, 

 because they contain borers ; nevertheless many trees are killed. In 

 Jersey City and Newark the trees along entire avenues have been de- 

 stroyed ; not only elms, but maples and other varieties. Could this in- 

 sect have been kept out by the system of inspection now proposed ? The 

 caterpillar of the Wood Leopard Moth has the habit of crawling from 

 place to place when it gets tired of one situation. It does not, even in 

 all cases, remain in the tree on which it has been feeding when it is ready 

 for pupation. Mr. Southwick once upon a time brought in an infested 

 stick and the larva disappeared from it. Later on, when the moth emerged, 

 he discovered that it had bored into the wood work of a window casing 

 and had pupated there. The insect may have been introduced into this 

 country in the woodwork of almost any box, barrel or crate, and not 

 necessarily on a living plant at all. In fact, the chances are all against 

 its having been introduced on a living plant. The probabilities are that 

 it came in with some sticks of wood used on the steamers for packing or 

 other purposes. Every living plant and every fruit on that steamer could 

 have been inspected and passed and yet hundreds of pupae of the Wood 

 Leopard Moth might have been in the sticks or planks that were used in 

 the packing or for other purposes and that were thrown away as useless 

 on the dock. I do not believe that any system of inspection would have 

 excluded this borer. Certainly not that which is confined to living plants 

 alone. 

 Also a comparatively recent introduction is the Sinuate Pear Borer. 



