THE SPRUCE BUD- WORM. 831 



for January, 1881. In the account of the ravages of a caterpillar on 

 the spruces on the coast of Maine in Bulletin 7 of the United States 

 Entomological Commission, we refer to this insect, which we were unable 

 to identify, as, after repeated search in the latter part of the summer, 

 we failed to discover any traces of the insect in any stages. In our 

 account we gave greater prominence to the operations of borers and 

 bark beetles than to those of this caterpillar; and while considerable 

 damage was undoubtedly done to spruces and firs in Sagadahoc and 

 Cumberland Counties by those beetles, from further inquiries and 

 field-work carried on in June and July, 1883, in different parts of 

 Maine, we now have little doubt but that the destruction of spruces 

 and firs along the coast of the State was mainly due to the attacks of 

 this insect. 



The different climatic causes alleged to destroy forest trees in gen- 

 eral, would, in the present case, have injured pines and hard- wood 

 trees as well as spruces and firs, and the destruction would have been 

 general ; whereas the trees have been killed by a caterpillar which is 

 not known to live upon pines nor any trees but spruce, fir, and occa- 

 sionally the hemlock and larch. Individual trees, or clumps of trees, 

 were attacked, whether in high and exposed situations or in hollows; 

 occasionally from such centers the worms seem to have increased and 

 spread from year to year, until all the trees in localities several square 

 miles in extent were killed. Moreover, as we have seen in the case of 

 the attacks of the larch worm, the defoliation of spruces and firs re- 

 peated two and perhaps three summers is sufiicient to either kill the 

 tree outright, or so weaken it that bark-boring beetles can complete 

 the work of destruction. We are now inclined to the opinion, then, 

 that the Bud Tortrix is the sole or at least main cause of the destruc- 

 tion of spruces and firs in Cumberland, Sagadahoc and Lincoln Coun- 

 ties, Me., and that by their attacks they render the trees liable to 

 invasion by hosts of bark beetles. 



We next visited Harpswell Neck, and found from our own observa- 

 tion and by inquiry from others that a large proportion of the spruces 

 and firs for a distance of about 10 miles have died within about four 

 years. The pleasure of driving over this picturesque road, with its 

 striking northern harsh and wild scenery and frequent glimpses of 

 Casco Bay, in former years greatly enhanced by riding through bits of 

 deep, dark spruce forests, has been not a little marred by the acres and 

 even square miles of dead spruces, stripped of their dark sea-green foli- 

 age, reduced to skeletons, and presenting a ghastly, saddening, and de- 

 pressing sight, which border the road. And, indeed, one may travel 

 through the spruce forests of the coast from Portland to Eockland and 

 meet with similar sights. 



We visited late in August, in company with A. G. Tenney, esq., the 

 farm of Mr. William Alexander, passing, before reaching the road lead- 

 ing to his house, an area of several acres from which the spruce growth 



