TORREYA 



^ Vol. 1^ No. 6 



NoNembcr-Deceniber, 1928 



The Japanese Beetle 

 Popillia Japonica Newm. 



This new and dangerous pest was introduced twelve years 

 ago in the vicinity of Philadelphia and has spread rapidly 

 throughout the eastern parts of Pennsylvania, all of New 

 Jersey and southern New York, including the western half of 

 Long Island and Connecticut and has been reported recently 

 from the vicinity of Springfield, Massachusetts. 



It breeds so rapidly and feeds on such a variety of plants 

 that it is recognized as a dangerous enemy, so that a special 

 commission has been appointed to study its habits, food and 

 natural enemies and to establish a quarantine and inspection 

 system in order to try to check its damage. It is admitted that 

 it will be impossible to destroy them entirely or to keep them 

 from spreading, but they may be controlled by spraying, trap- 

 ping and by their natural enemies both native and introduced. 



The beetle is about half an inch in length with a brilliant 

 green head and body and bronze-colored striped wings with 

 tufts of white hairs on the segments of the abdomen. It feeds 

 in the daytime, preferably in warm sunny weather and nibbles 

 the leaves usually on the upper side. They attack the willows 

 and poplars, elms and lindens, and show a preference for the 

 sassafras and horse-chestnut. They also prefer any species of 

 Asiatic origin such as barberries, knot-weed, rose-of-sharon, 

 cherries, peaches and plums. The fruit-bearing trees and vines 

 are often completely stripped of leaves and fruit and orna- 

 mental plants such as roses, hollyhocks, dahlias, cannas etc. 

 attract them by their showy flowers. Certain vegetables also, 

 such as cabbages and corn and a few berries, raspberries and 

 blackberries, attract them, so the quarantine demands the 

 examination of all such shipments from infected areas. 



In certain portions of Pennsylvania and New Jersey as 

 many as sixty bushels have been caught in traps in one day. 

 They are boiled and fed to the chickens or used as manure. 



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