42 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



VIII 

 REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 



The State Entomologist reports that the depredations of the 

 apple tent caterpillar and the forest tent caterpillar, so evident the 

 last two years, were continued the past season, though severely 

 infested localities were more restricted than in earlier years. 

 Popular warning notices were sent out by him early, and on Long 

 Island in particular, a power-spraying outfit was used most suc- 

 cessfully though the large areas of infested oak made it impossible 

 to cover all satisfactorily with the equipment available. 



The work of the season showed an unusual and entirely unex- 

 pected outbreak of the cherry leaf beetle, Galerucella 

 cavicollis Lee, a small, reddish brown insect which appeared 

 in immense numbers in widely scattered localities and caused con- 

 siderable apprehension because of its feeding upon cherry and 

 peach tree foliage, though in most instances the damage was com- 

 paratively insignificant. 



Oil injuries. The unfortunate developments folloAving the 

 applications of oils or oily compounds to the bark of deciduous 

 trees, noted in earlier years, has again come to attention and in one 

 locality was followed by serious injury to forest trees. The 

 Entomologist experimented with this compound upon small forest 

 trees of different varieties under normal conditions, and within 

 six months of treatment six out of ten trees were dead, while the 

 remaining four showed evidence of injury which may be followed 

 by death another season. Details of this work are given in the 

 report of the Entomologist. 



Fruit tree insects. Practical work v/ith the codling moth was 

 undertaken by the Entomologist in cooperation with the bureaus of 

 farmers' institutes and of horticulture of the State Department of 

 Agriculture, and the Monroe County Farm Bureau. These studies, 

 conducted in three commercial orchards in western New York, 

 extended through the growing season and showed, first of all, a 

 marked discrepancy between the habits of the insect in portions of 

 the western part of the State as compared with what obtained in 

 the Hudson valley. The cool evening temperatures prevailing near 

 Lake Ontario at about the time the moths appear result, in some 

 years at least, in a delayed deposition of eggs and a very high 



