962 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



least 5 pounds to every 50 gallons. The application should be made as 



soon as the leaves are well grown, and then the caterpillars will be 



poisoned while young and most susceptible to the insecticide. 



% 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



A very complete and exhaustive account of this insect in America may 

 be found in the Gipsy moth, a report of the work of destroying this insect 

 in the commonwealth of Massachusetts y together with an account of its his- 

 tory and habits both in Massachusetts and Europe, by E. H. Forbush and 

 C. H. Fernald. Many of the facts given in the above account have been 

 taken from this valuable work, which also contains a very complete 

 bibliography of the insect. This work renders a bibliography|unnecessary 

 in connection with the above brief notice. 



Ypsolophus pometellus Harris 



PALMER WORM 



Ord. Lepidoptera : Fam. Gelechiidae 



The outbreak of this insect in certain parts of New York state last 

 summer was unusual though not unprecedented. My attention was 

 first called on June 13 by J. F. Rose, voluntary observer for Genesee 

 county, to the serious injuries by this insect. Specimens were sent at 

 this time and also about a week later. The condition of the foliage and 

 young fruit then is well shown on pi. 2, fig, 5, Mr Rose stated that 

 the crop in this orchard of 300 trees was a complete failure, though the 

 trees had bloomed well. He found palmer worms in greater or less 

 numbers in every orchard he visited but one, though as a rule the 

 trees were not so badly affected as in the first. This pest was pres- 

 ent in considerable numbers in many of the apple orchards of central and 

 western New York and was the cause of complaints in the vicinity of 

 Albany, where some trees were seriously injured. 



Early history. This insect received the popular name of palmer 

 worm in 1791, at which time it was abundant and destructive in New 

 England orchards and forests, particularly in Cumberland county (Me.). 

 Its ravages did not attract notice again for 62 years, when it was exceed- 

 ingly numerous in all of the New England states and in eastern New 

 York, at which time it came under the notice of Dr Harris, its describer, 

 and Dr Asa Fitch, entomologist to the New York state agricultural 



