164 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM ' 



for spraying in the spring. It is expected that this call will be supple- 

 mented by the city fighting the pest where it is impossible for land hold- 

 ers to accomplish the desired object. 



Injuries to fruit trees. In earlier years this was regarded as a very 

 serious enemy of the apple-tree in Ontario, for Rev. C. J. S. Bethune, 

 writing in 1871, stated that it was a bad pest, and that in the western 

 states it had defoliated some orchards and even attacked the fruit. In 

 his second report, Dr Lintner records several instances of severe injuries 

 to fruit trees by this species. Serious depredations have also been 

 reported by Mr Lowe, entomologist of the agricultural experiment station 

 at Geneva. In 1895 he received many complaints, specially from Yates 

 and Ontario counties, the larvae not only devouring the foliage, but 

 attacking the fruit. In the report of the station for that year, he writes 

 that one fruit grower estimated the loss on his apple crop at 25%. 



City pest. Though this insect occurs in the country and occa- 

 sionally is quite destructive to fruit and other trees, it is in the cities and 

 towns that it flourishes and proves most injurious. The cause for this is 

 found largely in the protection afforded by the English sparrow, which 

 not only fails to feed upon it, but drives away native birds that would. 

 A curious instance of the survival of the fittest and the danger of import- 

 ing some natural enemy for the purpose of keeping in check an injurious 

 insect, is shown by Dr J. L. LeConte (see citation), who instances the 

 extermination of Eftnomos subsignarius Hiibn. in Philadelphia by this 

 imported bird. After the destruction of Efinofnos^ the larvae of JVoto- 

 lophus found abundant food and, being unmolested by the sparrows on 

 accountof their irritating hairs, they soon became an even worse pest 

 than the former species. 



Description. A casual observer may have his attention arrested 

 by an unusually pretty caterpillar with a coral red head, a pair of 

 long black plumes just over it, a single one at the opposite extrem- 

 ity of the body, four delicate yellowish or white brush-like tufts on 

 its back and just behind them, separated only by a segment, two small, 

 retractile, red elevations. Along the back, except for the tubercles and 

 tufts, there is a broad black band bordered by yellowish subdorsal stripes. 

 Each side is dark gray, except the yellowish tubercles. A black line 

 indicates the position of the spiracles or breathing pores, and below this 

 latter line it is yellow, the legs being paler (fig. \,d). This gives the 

 general appearance of the caterpillar after it has become half or two- 

 thirds grown, and at a time when its depredations begin to be apparent. 



