REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I9IO 65 



way across the wing obliquely toward the apex. Behind the 

 anterior white saddle there is a tuft of raised, black scales and 

 several similar ones at the apex of the fore wings. This species can 

 hardly be considered as of much economic importance, since its food 

 plant has very little commercial value. 



Beech tree blight (Pemphigus imbricator Fitch) . 

 This rather common insect is easily recognized by the woolly plant 

 Hce or aphids occurring in masses on the under side of the limbs. 

 This species is quite resistant to cold, since it was observed the 

 latter part of October, 1903, after the temperature had been quite 

 cold and while an inch of snow was to be seen on adjacent hillsides. 

 It is a widely distributed species, having been reported from various 

 parts of the State. It was undoubtedly this species which was 

 reported by Dr D. B. Miller, Jersey City, N. J., under date of 

 October 31st, as being abundant on the lower small branches of 

 young beech trees in Delaware county. Mr George C. Wood, writ- 

 ing from the Trenton camp grounds at Barneveld, Oneida county, 

 August 22d, stated that they were having a great deal of trouble 

 with the insect, adding that every beech tree was covered with it 

 and that it was fast killing the branches. Mr Frank A. Schmidt of 

 Ilion, writing under date of September 14th, states that practically 

 all of the beech trees in that vicinity were affected by this pest. 

 The insects were so numerous that the lower branches of nearly all 

 the beech trees were completely covered with the white, woolly 

 aphids. These limbs seemed to have lost all vitality, since those 

 half an inch in diameter could be bent and twisted like a piece of 

 rope. 



The great abundance of this insect over so large an area appears 

 to be unusual for New York State, Owing to the fact that it occurs 

 upon forest trees, active remedial masures are ordinarily imprac- 

 tical. We must depend in large measure upon natural enemies. 

 One of the most important of these is the caterpillar of a native 

 butterfly, Feniseca tarquinius Fabr. The mother insect 

 deposits her eggs upon the twigs of beech, alder etc. in the midst 

 of colonies of woolly aphids. The caterpillars, upon hatching, spin 

 • a thin web and devour many of the plant lice, completing their 

 growth within thirteen days. 



Silver fir aphid (Chermes piceae Ratz.) . Nordmann's 

 firs received from Europe the past season and submitted for exam- 

 ination by the State Department of Agriculture, were infested by 

 a Chermes which was provisionally determined as the above named 



