REPORTS OF OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS. 19 



appears that it has been brought into this particular region by means 

 of a shipment of cedar posts and, escaping, has found the trees upon 

 the lawn of Mr. Harvey. These trees being smaller than the trees 

 usually attacked by this insect, the mode of attack was necessarily 

 changed to conform with the conditions. Instead of working under the 

 bark by running its galleries between the wood and bark, it attacked 

 the smaller twigs and limbs where it entered at the axils of these with 

 the still smaller twigs, reminding one of the attacks of Amphieerus 

 bicaudatus upon apple trees. 



I remember another case, something similar to the present, where the 

 shipment of posts of this tree was the means of introducing a number 

 of specimens of the cedar borer (Hyloti upes ligneus). Some of the 

 mature beetles escaped and found a tree growing in the lawn of a resi- 

 dent of West Point, this State, which they attacked, and deposited 

 eggs that developed into larva' that killed the tree. 



Lyda sp. on Plum. — The past summer, as in previous years, a species 

 of sawfly of the genus Lyda has been exceedingly numerous upon the 

 wild and some of the cultivated plum trees growing in parts of the 

 central region in this State. The larvae or slugs feed in colonies, spin- 

 ning webs and drawing the leaves of the branches and twigs together 

 in a somewhat similar manner to that of the choke-cherry fortrix 

 (Tortrix rileyana). Although this insect has been exceedingly common 

 and destructive to this tree for several years I have thus far failed to 

 obtain specimens for the purpose of rearing the imago. Such few speci- 

 mens as have been sent in have always arrived in a condition that 

 prevented their development, and circumstances have always prevented 

 me from visiting at the proper time the regions overrun to secure them 

 for myself, nor have any of my correspondents from whom accounts of 

 the insect were received sent me material that could be used for breed- 

 ing purposes. 



That this is a dangerous plum pest there can be no doubt, tor entire 

 groves are reported to have been stripped by the slugs within a very 

 few days. Its unsightly webs and the curled dead leaves frequently 

 remain upon the trees months after the injury has been committed. 

 Several trials with London purple sprays have been reported as only 

 partially successful. 



The Cucumber Plant-louse. — The cucumber plant-louse (Aphis cucum- 

 er is) has recently made its appearance in the State in hurtful numbers, 

 During the past summer complaints of its abundance were made by the 

 Gedney Pickle Company, of Omaha, which has about 1.000 acres o( 

 cucumber vines planted each year. A visit on the 27th of July to the 

 fields near the city of Omaha showed the louse present in moderate 

 numbers in a few of the fields, but as Mr. Gedney remarked, "in a few 

 days the entire field could be overrun by the pest." He, Mr. Gedney, 

 has paid some attention to the study of this insect, and was very 

 anxious about the outcome (A' the attack. Last year he said the com- 



