A Visitation of Geometrid Moths 1 



By William T. Davis 



The New York papers of July 17, 1908, and for two or three 

 days thereafter contained accounts of the great number of 

 measuring-worm moths, Ennomos subsignarius Hiibner, which 

 suddenly appeared in the city on the evening of July 16. The 

 visitation followed a westerly wind, and the white moths, which 

 were particularly numerous uptown, covered the fronts of build- 

 ings and swarmed by the thousands about the arc lights. 



A considerable amount of " Newspaper entomology " was given 

 by some of the writers, who stated among other things that the 

 brown-tail moth had come to town from Massachusetts, and much 

 injustice was done to the English sparrow, which was said by 

 several observers to pay no attention to the moths. The " City 

 a-flutter with Moths " was the truthful heading of one of the 

 articles published on the 17th of July, and the next day the same 

 paper stated " now, after forty-six years, the job which the 

 English sparrow was brought here to accomplish is before him 

 again. Yesterday thousands of the feathered little fellows 

 worked overtime. A sparrow without a fluttering bit of white 

 between his bills was infrequent. 



There was one thing that the writers and the entomologists to 

 whom they applied for information failed to record, and that was 

 the fact that the great swarm of Ennomos subsignarius which had 

 so suddenly appeared in the city, contained practically no females. 

 I was unable to find any females among the many moths on the 

 sides of the N. Y. Produce Exchange and the Custom House 

 building during July 17 and the day following. The fear ex- 

 pressed that next season the caterpillars will appear several 

 hundred-fold and the destruction will be great unless the pest is 

 successfully fought, is not well founded. 



1 Presented October 17, 1908. 



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