41 



number the trees should be sprayed, if the fruit is very young, with 

 the Paris-green or London-purple solution. If they occur in injurious 

 numbers later in the year they can be jarred down upon sheets satu- 

 rated with kerosene. 



Great Damage by the Cottonwood Borer.— In our last annual 

 report we devoted a few pages to the Cottonwood Leaf Beetle (Plagio- 

 dera scripta), which was surprisingly abundant during last season, and 

 incidentally mentioned the Cottonwood Borer (Saperda calcarat(i), with 

 the statement that its injuries had not of late been at all comparable 

 with those of the former insect. During the season of 1885, however, 

 not a single complaint of the Leaf Beetle has been received, while the 

 work of the Borer in parts of Dakota has been very noticeable. Dr. J. 

 V. Lauderdale, post surgeon at Fort Sully, sent us specimens of the 

 Larvse ou July 25, with the statement that they were committing "fear- 

 ful ravages" among the cottonwoods at the post. "Trees of ten and 

 twelve years' growth are dying from the top limbs to the ground." 



This borer is a very difficult insect to fight, piercing the trunk of the 

 tree, as it often does, midway up amongst the branches. There is really 

 no remedy save cutting out the pupa3 in April or May, or the larvae ear- 

 lier. The beetles make their appearance in June. Where a tree is so 

 badly damaged that it has become unsightly, it should be cut down and 

 burned before the beetles issue. 



Leptocoris trivittata injuring Apples (Plate I, fig. 5.).— This 

 bug is quite a common species and has been found in a great variety of 

 situations. It is characteristically a plant-feeder, but has never been 

 known to occur in such numbers as to do much damage to any culti- 

 vated crop. It has been found in large flowers like magnolia, covered 

 with pollen, and occurs in summer on the stems and leaves of annual 

 plants, which it probably punctures. In August of the present year, 

 however, specimens were sent to us by Mr. A. L. Siler, of Ranch, Kane 

 County, Utah, as injuring fruit at Kauab, the county seat of the same 

 county. Mr. Siler's attention was called to them by the postmaster, 

 Mr. B. L. Young, who stated that these insects were destroying their 

 fruit crop, eating the fruit as fast as it ripened. On one tree which Mr. 

 Siler examined, and which bore apples of a medium size, they were 

 present in enormous numbers, and every apple that he could see was 

 covered with the bugs. They were stated to have bred on the Box Elder 

 shade trees (Negundo aceroides). 



We wrote Mr. Siler, advising him to have the trees sprayed with a 

 dilute kerosene emulsion by means of a force-pump with a spray-nozzle. 

 The breeding of the bugs on Box Elder, and their desertion of this tree 

 for the ripening fruit, makes the case precisely similar to that of the 

 Red Bug or Cotton Stainer (Dysdercus 8Uturellu8, to which it is moreover 

 quite closely related) in Florida, as where cotton and oranges are grown 

 near together the bugs desert the cotton, on which they breed, for the 

 more attractive fruit. There the bugs are attracted to piles of cotton- 



