REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST IOXO 959 



trees and, when hard pushed, they can subsist for a time, at least, on 

 a number of herbaceous plants. The common fruit trees, the elms, 

 maples and oaks are all eaten most readily, and, even were the list no 

 greater, the pest would be a most serious one to combat. It feeds on 

 many other plants, as the list of 536, given in the exhaustive report on 

 this insect in 1896, attests. It is very true that the caterpillar feeds on 

 some of these only when compelled by starvation, and that it can not be 

 considered an enemy of a number of others, but, even after making 

 most liberal allowance for these, the list is still a very formidable one. 



Destructiveness. Countless instances of serious injury by this pest 

 could be given, even if we did not go outside of America. It is well 

 known as a grievous pest in many parts of Europe, and its operations in 

 this country, when unhindered by man, have been appalling. Personal 

 observation of the infested areas in 1891 and later years leads me to 

 consider it a much worse insect enemy than the forest tent-caterpillar. 

 It defoliates forest and other trees just as completely as Clisiocampa 

 d i s s t r i a , and a series of such disturbances of nature may be expected 

 when the insect becomes well established in New York state. 



It may be very appropriate to refer, in this connection, to a brief 

 article 1 , " On the possible effects of the gipsy moth on American forests," 

 by Prof. N. S. Shaler, of Harvard university, whose opinion should be 

 given great weight on account of his intimate knowledge of the con- 

 ditions. A brief consideration of the habits of the insect and its effects 

 on forest trees is supported by the following striking paragraph : 



For a year the secondary buds of most trees, buds that put forth after 

 the crop of caterpillars has matured, serve to maintain the life of the 

 forest, but the plants are rapidly weakened by the tax, and perish after 

 two or three seasons of the infliction. It appears likely that in five years 

 none of the arboreal forces would survive. Therefore we may assume 

 that, if the gipsy moth becomes firmly implanted in our forests, these 

 forests are in large measure likely to disappear. The processes will 

 probably be slow, for the rate of dissemination of the insect is not great, 

 yet the moths if plentiful will invade railway cars and other vehicles, so 

 that the new colony may be planted at a distance of hundreds of miles 

 from the fields where the species have become abundant. 



The concluding paragraph is equally emphatic. 



What has been said above may make it plain to the reader that, if the 

 gipsy moth is allowed freely to extend itself in this country, the conse- 

 quences are likely to become most serious. They may indeed attain to 

 the hight of a calamity. It is possible that effective enemies of this 

 species may be developed in course of time, but the past 20 years has 

 failed to show any such. It is possible that some change of climate may 



1 Forester, Sep. 1900, 6 : 206. 



