IMPORTANCE AS A PEST TO NURSERY STOCK. 



As a rule the cotton wood leaf-beetle does but little injury in the 

 nursery, especially in the east. There have been a few instances, 

 however, where the beetles have appeared in eastern nurseries in 

 sufficient numbers to do serious injury. One of the most important 

 of these is recorded in Insect Life by Mr. Thos. B. Meehan who 

 states that the "willow beetle " did serious injury in his nursery 

 at Germantown, during the spring of 1887, to Carolina poplars 

 and Kilmarnock and New American willows. 



In this State, the only instance of injury to nursery stock by 

 this insect which has come under the writer's notice was in the 

 nurseries of the Smiths & Powell Co., of Syracuse. In 1895 and 

 1896 the beetles did serious injury in a few blocks of Carolina and 

 Norway poplars. They were especially injurious during the 

 spring of 1896, threatening to ruin all of the Norway and Carolina 

 poplars in this nursery. 



HISTORY AND PRESENT DISTRIBUTION. 



The original home of the cottonwood leaf-beetle is not pos- 

 itively known. 



In this country, it did not attract much attention until about 

 1876. In 1877 and 1878 the beetles did serious injury to cotton- 

 wood in the prairie states, especially Dakota, Kansas and Nebraska, 

 where the cottonwood is valued for both ornamental and commer- 

 cial purposes. In 1884 the cottonwoods in these sections were 

 again seriously injured by the beetles which, it is said appeared in 

 swarms, quickly stripping the trees of their leaves. 



On the authority of Dr. C. V. Riley^ thehabit of feedingon cotton- 

 wood was acquired loag after the species was known as a pest to 

 willows and he suggests that " a special cottonwood feeding race 

 of the species has of late years been developed. ' ' 



The cottonwood leaf-beetle occurs throughout the United 



3U. S. Dept. Agr. Aan. Rpt. 1884: 337; reprint from article in N. Y. 

 Tribune, Oct. 9, 1878. 



