WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



87 



and distributed from the Pacific coast southward and eastward 

 to New Jersey, southern Pennsylvania and southern Ohio. In 

 West Virginia it is found, chiefly, on white elms along the low- 

 er Ohio and Great Kanawha rivers and other streams in the 

 southern half of the state. 



In some parts of its range — notably in Texas — the mistletoe 

 is extremely troublesome 5 and wherever it grows the host from 

 which the parasite draws the m.ajor portion of its living, suffers 

 appreciably. The injuries are somewhat offset, however, by the 

 high esteem in which this white-berried evergreen shrub is held 

 for purposes of holiday decoration. 



INSECTS THAT INJURE FORESTS AND FOREST 

 PRODUCTS. 



About twenty years ago the importance of the injury being 

 done to forests by insects began to attract special attention in 

 West Virginia. In 1891 and 1892 a destructive outbreak of the 

 southern pine beetle, {Bendroctomis frontalis Zimm.) occurred 

 throughout a considerable portion of the pine and spruce regions 

 of the State. This outbreak was made the subject of an extend- 

 ed investigation by Dr. A. D. Hopkins, who was at that time en- 

 tomologist to the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion. Later, many other species of insects destructive to forests 

 were included in the investigation and the results of the studies 

 were published as bulletins of the Experiment Station and in 

 various scientific journals. Dr. Hopkins was one of the pioneer 

 investigators of forest insect problems in this country an<l 

 subsequently he became an authority on the subject whose writ- 

 ings have attracted world-wide attention. 



Prom 1891 to 1902, or, for a period of about ten years, Dr. 

 Hopkins, as entomologist to the Experiment Station, devoted a 

 considerable part of his attention to original investigations of 

 forest insects with special reference to the distribution, life his- 

 tories, habits, natural enemies and m.ethods of control of the 

 more important species found in West Virginia. The numerous 

 papers dealing with this subject which he published while he was 

 employed in this State and other publications by him which fol- 

 lowed after he removed from here to take charge of forest insect 



