INSECT DAMAGING SPRUCE TREES IN MAINE 



731 



our actions. Conservation of our pri- 

 vately owned forest resources will never 

 become effective until there is a present 

 or prospective profit in practicing con- 

 servation. Our National forest re- 

 serves, now under legislative control 

 and administration, should be supple- 

 mented by the several State govern- 

 ments, as only the Nation or the State 

 can afford to hold forest lands in res- 



ervation. The cost of protection and 

 leforestation being borne by all the peo- 

 l>le, forest lands now held by the State 

 or the Nation should be withdrawn 

 from sale, protected against fire and 

 reserved for future use, following the 

 wise providence of the rulers of Egypt, 

 who in years of plenty stored up their 

 corn against the time of scarcity or 

 famine. 



INSECT DAMAGING SPRUCE TREES IN MAINE 



By Prof. John M. Briscoe 



OURIXG the past summer consid- 

 erable attention has been di- 

 rected to an insect which is dam- 

 aging spruce and fir trees in this State. 



Inquiries and specimens of the insect 

 have been received both by the Experi- 

 ment Station and the Forestry Depart- 

 ment of the University of Maine. The 

 specimens were identified as the larvae 

 of the spruce bud-moth (Tortrix fumi- 

 ferana) which injures spruce and fir, 

 and sometimes also hemlock and larch. 

 This insect feeds on the buds and young 

 leaves of spruce and fir chiefly, causing 

 a brown and withered appearance of the 

 infested trees. 



About one hundred years ago the 

 spruce trees west of the Penobscot 

 River and along the coast of Maine 

 were badly damaged and many of them 

 killed by the attack of an insect be- 

 lieved to be this same species. Some 

 thirty to thirty-five years ago another 

 outbreak of the spruce bud-moth oc- 

 curred, lasting four or five years. Dur- 

 ing this attack also many of the spruces 

 and firs along the coast were injured, 

 and many of these trees w^hile not killed 

 outright by the insects, w^ere, owing to 

 their weakened condition, left as an 

 easy prey to the spruce bark beetles. 

 Dr. A. S. Packard, in a paper written 

 at that time, comments on the depress- 

 ing and disfigured aspect of the country 

 about Casco Bay, owing to the depre- 

 dations of this insect. It was not, how- 

 ever, till the spring of 1909 that this 



insect again began to attract general 

 attention, first in Pennsylvania, and 

 later in New York and Canada. In 

 1910 it was much worse in the centres 

 of infestation, and in 1911 it had 

 spread to the coast of Maine, where its 

 work is now attracting much attention. 

 During the past summer the pest was 

 widely distributed over the State, re- 

 ports having been received from local- 

 ities in Aroostook, Penobscot, Han- 

 cock, and Piscataquis counties, and it 

 very probably occurs in others also. 



The insect which is responsible for 

 the destruction is a small caterpillar 

 about three-quarters of an inch in 

 length when full grown. Its head is 

 blackish, the body ranging from pale 

 brown to a rich umber brown, diffused 

 wath green, each joint with several con- 

 spicuous whitish warts, each with a 

 dark centre from which a single hair 

 arises. The miller or moth is about 

 one-half inch in length, measuring 

 when spread out nearly an inch from 

 tip to tip of wing. The legs, body and 

 hind wings are a glistening umber 

 brown, the fore wings have a ground 

 color of bluish gray, and when freshly 

 emerged marked with several conspic- 

 uous blotches and dashes of dark 

 brown to almost black. The eggs are 

 pale green, scale-like, flat beneath and 

 slightly convex above ; and are laid 

 soon after emergence of the moth. The 

 insect passes the winter on the trees 

 as very small caterpillars which, as soon 



