4 BULLETIN 352, U. S. DEPAETMEXT OF AGEICULTUEE, 



restricted localities, was generally destructive throughout two com- 

 paratively large regions; the one, in the Appalachian region, involving 

 the greater part of New York, Pennsylvania, and northern West 

 Virginia; the other in the northern part of lower Michigan, espe- 

 cially in the Grand Traverse region, where cherry growing is very 

 extensive. In regard to the latter region Prof. R. H. Pettit, of the 

 Michigan Agricultural College, writes (in litt. ) that during the period 

 of destructiveness by this beetle nearly every mail brought com- 

 plaints. No complaints were received by the Bureau of Entomology 

 from the territory intervening between these two regions. One of 

 the writers, on June 17 and 18, traveled by trolley through Ohio from 

 Sandusky to Ashtabula, stopping at a nmnber of points between, and 

 no injury by these beetles was noted. 



The majority of complamts came in June. However, the beetle 

 was reported from Jamestown, N. Y., as early as May 12, and from 

 Willi amsport, Pa., May 21. The general migration to cultivated 

 food plants in northwestern New Yo^k and Pennsylvania did not 

 occur until the week of June 7. Farther south, in West Virginia, it 

 occurred about the same tune, the first report having been sent 

 June 9. 



THE 1915 INVASION OF THE LAKE ERIE GRAPE BELT. 



The beetles appeared in the vicinity of North East, Pa., on June 7, 

 literally covering the leaves of the trees attacked. Early in the 

 morning their advent attracted the attention of fruit growers living 

 3 or 4 miles south of Lake Erie, and by noon they were found in great 

 numbers in orchards near the lake. After this first day of migration 

 the increase was comparatively small, and no increase at all was 

 noticeable in the vicinity at large after June 9, although there was 

 some local shifting of numbers. 



During the first few days of the migration stories told by fishermen 

 of the abundance of the beetle on the lake were current; how pieces 

 of wood floating on the water had been covered with them; how they 

 had crowded on black buoys until the color of the buoys had been 

 changed to red ; and how the water itself had been full of them. But 

 even after giving these stories the full discount that is generally 

 accorded to stories of like origin, the fact still remains that the migra- 

 tion of great numbers of beetles extended for some distance over the 

 lake. Dead beetles were found in considerable numbers on two of 

 the lake beaches by one of the writers on June 10, when a strong 

 north wind was blowing, and it was reported that they had been 

 washed up in windrows. The occurrence of these beetles m the 

 lake gave rise to the opinion that they had come from Canada. 



The actual source of the beetles was to the south of the grape belt, 

 from cut-over forest land grown over by pin cherry. The preceding 



