234 N.EW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



days a record was kept, the figures being 238 and 338, or an average of 

 over 2 1 and 30 eggs per da)^ respectively. The average numbers deposited 

 during the first n days of the month are 14 and 18 respectively, which 

 shows there was an increase of one-half or more in the case of each 

 beetle after June 11. Those deposited after the 25ih were apparently 

 the last efforts of the insects to provide for the perpetuity of their kind, 

 though the quality of the eggs had not deteriorated. 



During the whole period the beetles were under observation, they con- 

 sumed large quantities of foliage, comparatively speaking. Many leaves 

 of the trees outside were also badly riddled by their feeding. If we con- 

 sider for but a moment the relatively large bulk of eggs produced by the 

 beetles, it is not surprising that they require a large amount of food. 

 Without attempting to make precise measurements, it would seem that a 

 cluster of 30 eggs would present, after deposition, a bulk about equal to 

 that of the parent insect. If this be a fair estimate, they produced on 

 the average from nearly one-half to nearly two-thirds of their bulk in 

 eggs daily during the first 11 days in June and from the 12th to the 23d 

 the daily average was from over two-thirds to an equal bulk. This rapid 

 elaboration -of eggs must make a large demand upon the system and 

 require an abundant food supply. 



Lest it be thought that the period of oviposition was abnormally pro- 

 longed, I would state that recently deposited eggs were to be found on 

 the trees up to July 9. This record indicates most emphatically the 

 value of spraying to kill the beetles, specially before they have reached 

 the more prolific period mentioned above. 



A few notes confirmatory of previous records concerning the life history 

 of this insect in Albany and Troy will undoubtedly be of interest. The 

 last of the overwintered beetles were seen early in July. On the i6th, 

 recently transformed adults were easily found, and fresh eggs a few days 

 later, either .singly or in small clusters, indicated the beginning of oviposi- 

 tion by the second brood. On 12 August, Mr P. C. Lewis, who had charge 

 of the spraying in Albany, informed me that the second brood of larvae 

 had been quite injurious in certain parts of the city and that the beetles, 

 ever on the watch for tender foHage, riddled the leaves very quickly. A visit 

 to Troy on the 13th showed that practically the same conditions prevailed 

 there. Soon after the foliage appeared it was attacked by the beetles and 

 by the time the leaves were about half grown many larvae were to be found 

 upon them. The injury to the elms in Troy by the first brood of larvae- 

 exceeded that of the preceding two years, because it was not only much 

 more extended but the skeletonizing of the leaves was more thorough. 

 As a rule all the European elms were practically defoliated. The same 

 would have been true of Albany were it not for the spraying done. 



