51 



Abundant in July of 1895. — In the middle of July of the present year 

 the capture of several of the beetles abroad led me to examine the elms 

 near my residence. At the base of a lar^e English elm ( Uhnus cam- 

 pestris) large numbers of the pup.ne were found lying on the hard, dried 

 ground between the branching roots and on the adjoining brick pave- 

 ment. Examination of other elms on Hawk street, between Hudson 

 avenue and Hamilton street, while some of the trees were apparently 

 exempt, more of them showed a similar abundance of pupae, with an 

 occasional newly disclosed beetle among them. In places twenty- five 

 pupoB could be counted to the square inch. Many were also seen in 

 crevices of the bark. They were transforming rapidly, for of five 

 placed in a vial on the loth two had changed to the perfect insect on 

 the 17th, and the remainder on the day following. 



From the fact that no larvae were noticed either at the base of the 

 trees or descending the trunk it was evident that their descent must 

 have commenced, at least two weeks earlier, or, more probably, in the 

 month of June. Absence from the city the month following June 10 

 had prevented my making any observations during this time upon the 

 development of the brood. 



A second brood. — I was again absent from Albany from July 15 to 

 August 12. On my return a great surprise awaited me. It had been 

 predicted that only a single brood of the Insect would occur in the 

 northern extension of the insect in Kew York, Professor Smith having 

 shown that there was but one annual brood in northern Xew Jersey, 

 and the statements made of two broods in the vicinity of Xew York 

 City were believed to rest on inaccurate observations. But here was 

 unquestionable evidence of a second brood in much larger numbers, as 

 might be expected, than the first. Many elms had their foliage entirely 

 destroyed. A notable illustration of the severity of the attack was 

 afforded in the condition of a row of nine English elms in Hawk street, 

 opposite my residence, centrally in the eastern portion of the city. The 

 elms were slender, and from sawing away the lower branches had 

 attained a height of nearly 100 feet. Every leaf had been destroyed 

 except a few which still retained their form, although skeletonized, on 

 the extreme lower branches.* At their bases, against the trunks, the 

 larvae, in the circular form that they assume when in readiness for pupa- 

 tion, and the pupa^, were lying to the depth of an inch or more in places 

 where they had not been swept away. On any of the trunks hundreds 

 of the larvae were within range of the ey^ at any one time, descending 

 to the ground, and many had transformed to i)up:e in the crevices of 

 the bark. Opposite to this row and on my own premises was a wide 

 branching Scotch elm (Ulmus montana). The leaves of this had been 

 much less eaten — had not been destroyed, although all showed the 

 peculiar eating away of the epidermis of the under surface and the 

 parenchyma characteristic of the work of the larva\ 



*A11 of tlie iufested Europeau elms observed in the city have been much more 

 badly eaten toward their tops, as if attack had commenced at the highest point. 



