[29] Report of the State Entomologist. 171 



examined on the twenty-third, four on June first, and six others by 

 the eighth of June — the latest date of emergence. 



Disparity of sexes. — Of fifty-eight examples of the fly examined, 

 only one was of the male sex. Is it possible that the cocoons were 

 not received in season (May first) to secure the males, which ordinarily 

 are the first to make their appearance ? Still, in rearing, in July, 1888, 

 from the larvae collected on or about a poplar (Populus monilifera) a 

 number of the poplar saw-fly, Aulacomerus lutescens Lintn., a marked 

 disparity in sexes was also observed, although not so great as in the 

 larch saw-fly, above. Of fifty-two examples of this species reared, 

 only six were males. It is easy to carry through to its perfect stage 

 the first brood of this insect, and the conditions, therefore, attending 

 it within doors should so nearly approach those in nature that the 

 results should be almost the same. 



Injuries from the Insect. 



In August, the larches observed in the Lake Pleasant region which, 

 during the preceding month had been entirely denuded, had com- 

 menced to put forth new leaves. This was probably the second year's 

 defoliation of many of the trees. It is doubtful whether they would 

 be able to survive the repetition of the injury for another year. In 

 Maine and Canada, where the insect has prevailed quite generally 

 since 1864, the larches over large areas have been killed, and it is the 

 opinion of foresters that the entire loss of the foliage in early sum- 

 mer, for three consecutive years, proves fatal with very few exceptions. 



The addition to our list of insect pests of one which threatens the 

 entire destruction of a tree so valuable as the larch, can not be 

 regarded otherwise than in the light of a serious calamity. It would 

 appear, at the present, that this evil is destined to become more gen- 

 eral than the destruction of the spruce (the timber of which is of so 

 great economic importance) in many localities in northern New York, 

 for the latter, as yet, is but a local (?)disease, and may therefore prove, 

 when satisfactorily accounted for, to be the result of purely local 

 causes. There is hardly a doubt but that the range of this new pest 

 will be almost co-extensive with that of the larch, viz., over a large 

 portion of the northern United States and the adjoining British 

 possessions, even into the Arctic region.* 



* Northern Newfoundland and Labrador to ^he eastern shores of Hudson bay, Cape 

 Churchill, and northwest to the southern shores of the Great Bear lake and the valley 

 of the Mackenzie river within the Arctic circle ; south through the northern States to 

 northern Pennsylvania, northern Indiana and Illinois, and central Minnesota. 

 (Sargent's Report on the Forests of North America.) 



