INSECTS IN THEIR RELATION TO FORESTRY 



BY DR. R. W. SHUFELDT, F. A. O. U., ETC., 



MEMBER BELGIAN ORDER OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM 

 (PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR) 



FOR the past half century and more, the immense 

 host of insects that are, to a greater or less degree, 

 inimical to our forest, fruit, and shade trees, have 

 been under investigation by entomologists in both public 

 and private life. The indefatigable workers in the various 

 Federal departments at 

 Washington and elsewhere 

 have contributed an enor- 

 mous literature to this sub- 

 ject, covering every line of 

 research embodied in the 

 science ; while the results 

 they have achieved have 

 been of the most incalcula- 

 ble value, not only to the 

 country at large, but to 

 those interested in trees of 

 all kinds anywhere. This 

 is true irrespective as to 

 whether the latter be repre- 

 sented by our most exten- 

 sive private or governmen- 

 tal forest owners, or by one 

 having but a few trees un- 

 der his care in any part of 

 the United States, or in 

 neighboring countries, 

 whereon such insects occur. 

 As stated above, a large 

 part of this literature, re- 

 ferring to the various for- 

 est-insect problems, has 

 been published by the 

 Government, and particu- 

 larly by the Bureau of En- 

 tomology of the United 

 States Department of Agri- 

 culture, of which Dr. L. O. 

 Howard is the Chief. 

 While a fairly generous 

 supply of these bulletins 

 and other publications are 

 issued, they by no means 

 reach all they should, nor 

 supply the demand for them by those interested in the 

 subject at large. This being the case, any extension of 

 the knowledge of such matters, in any of its departments, 

 should be regarded with favor ; and to this end popu- 

 larization of various phases of the science will, from time 

 to time, be the object of this section of American 

 Forestry. In this work the bulletins issued by the 



Fig. 1. 



THE LARVA OR CATERPILLAR OF THE REGAL MOTH 

 (atheroma regalis); NATURAL SIZE, FROM LIFE 



This elegant larva of the Regal or Royal Walnut Moth is of an intense 

 green color, with black and white markings. Its curious pairs pf "horns" 

 are brilliant scarlet, tipped with black. It is seen here feeding on the 

 leaves of the sycamore tree. 



Forest Insect Investigations of the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, of which Dr. A. D. Hopkins is in charge, have 

 been especially helpful, while in addition to such aid a 

 great many actual observations, extending over many 

 years, have been made by the present contributor in the 



fields and forests. The 

 observed phenomena thus 

 studied will all be incorpo- 

 rated as the material is 

 worked up and illustrated. 

 Almost without exception 

 the photographs of the 

 matter described have been 

 made from such material; 

 and where certain insects 

 have not been easily ob- 

 tainable, they have been 

 generously loaned the 

 writer from the duplicate 

 series in the United States 

 National Museum collec- 

 tions. For such courtesies 

 thanks are especially due 

 to Drs. E. A. Schwarz and 

 Harrison Dyar ; to Messrs. 

 Carl Heinrich, J. C. Craw- 

 ford, H. S. Barber, and to 

 others associated with them 

 in the Bureau. 



From the various sources 

 of information brought 

 down to us from the earli- 

 est time to the present day, 

 certain primary facts have 

 been established. In the 

 first place, the list of insect 

 forms that attack forest 

 trees in this country is not 

 an especially long one, 

 when we come to consider 

 the enormous array of 

 species that are entirely in- 

 nocent with respect to any 

 such charge. Many insects 

 attack trees that have no claim to be classed as forest 

 trees; while a formidable list of insects commit their 

 depredations upon certain shrubs and plants, and never 

 have anything whatever to do with trees. There are 

 insects that feed only upon the leaves of forest and shade 

 trees, causing damage to that extent alone ; some of the 

 bark beetles devote their attention to fully grown and 



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