45 



I confess that I was surprised to liiid tliat tliis modern and more or 

 less successful fiike was but a revival of (he old sulphur-plu^- remedy 

 which has repeatedly been exploded in this country since certainly as 

 long ago as 1830. 



THE :\IAPI>E LEAF-LOUSE. 



In Springfield the maple is practically as important a shade tree as 

 the elm, and it is discouraging to hiid that the maple is also attacked 

 by a new and serious insect enemy. On the occasion of my July visit 

 to Springfield I found Pseudococcus aceris occurring in ver}- great abun- 

 dance on nearly all of the leaves of perhaps a majority of the maples 

 in the city. Tins insect, as is well known to members of this associa- 

 tion, is x>robably imported from Europe, and, while first found in this 

 country eighteen years ago, has only begun to attract much notice since 

 last year. In the writer's article op. the species in Insect Life, pub- 

 lished last December, the only known localities in the United States 

 were Peoria, 111., Mount Carmel, 111., Lancaster, Pa., Jamaica Plain, 

 Brookline, and Norwood, Mass., and Kingston, E. I. All of these 

 localities, except Peoria, 111., and Lancaster, Pa., were discoveries of 

 last season, and it is very probable that the insect would have remained 

 unimportant and would not have seriously spread had it not been 

 assisted by one or more nurseries. The Norwood (Mass.) locality is a 

 large nursery, and the insect may have been sent out for a luimber of 

 years from this and perhaps other nurseries. It has evidently been 

 increasing and spreading from tree to tree in Springfield for a long time, 

 and it is practically impossible now to tell how or when it was intro- 

 duced. In mj^ July trip I did not notice the insect in any city other than 

 Springfield, although, as a matter of fact, I was not looking for it or 

 expecting to find it until after I reached Springfield, and, like the San 

 Jose scale, it has probably been disseminated by nurseries for a number 

 of years, and i^robably now occurs in man 3^ unsusx^ected localities. In 

 fact, only two weeks ago I received specimens from Dr. Smith, with the 

 information that it occurs abundantly in Xew Brunswick, N. J.* It is 

 quite likel}", in fact, that it has in a number of localities been mistaken 

 for the common cottcmy maple scale {Pulv in aria innumcrabilis) and so 

 has not been thought worthy of special notice. 



I have so recently set forth the life history of this insect that it will 

 be unnecessary to do more than state that there are three annual gener- 

 ations, the adult egg-sac bearing females occurring upon the leaves and 

 the young larvte as well, half grown larva3 of both sexes migrating 

 frequently to twigs and branches, full-grown male larva> freipiently 

 reaching the top of the trunk. Half-grown larva' hibernate usually at 

 top of trunk and at crotch of the lower limbs. This latter peculiarity 

 renders the insect more easy to treat than it might otherwise be. 



*IhaTe siiico been informed by Mv. A. V. (.'a2)en, of Holyokc. Mass., that it also 

 occurs iu that city. 



