880 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



had escaped earlier in the season were found lying upon the ground or 

 in the moss under the trees. No cocoons with the pupa within, or any 

 other fully grown worms, were to be found. 



On the same dny (August 30) we examined a noble larch on Mr. Gil- 

 man's ground, which had been nearly killed, as he informs us, by these 

 or similar worms. 



On September 6 we found that the hackmatacks in cold, boggy, wet 

 land on the crown of Rocky Hill, near Brunswick, had suffered more 

 than elsewhere. Many of the trees were wholly or partially defoliated. 

 According to Mr. Simpson, the injurj^ was here done "about haying 

 time," July, 1881, but the worms had been at work in June and July of 

 the present year. The trees at the time of my visit (September 6) were 

 putting out a new set of leaves on the terminal shoots, the needles or 

 leaflets being from one-third to one-half an inch in length. We also 

 noticed from the railroad train in going from Brunswick to Boston, 

 about the middle of September, that the hackmatacks had been stripped 

 near Portland and Saco ; no trees being observed west of Saco, along 

 the line of the Eastern Railroad. 



Our attention, however, had previously been called to this insect by 

 its ravages near Augusta, Me., where it first, perhaps, attracted general 

 attention. 



The following notice appeared in the Daily Kennebec Journal for July 

 25, 1882 : 



A white worm about three-fourths of an inch long is destroying the foliage of the 

 hackmatack and fir trees in certain sections in this vicinity. The trees appear all bare 

 and brown, as though scorched by fire. 



On applying for .specimens and further information to the editors, we 

 received the following note from Mr. W. A. Newcomb, of the Journal, 

 under date of July 31 : 



I send you to-day some of those worms that are eating the hackmatack trees. I 

 could not find any of the large, full-grown worms, and I think they have gone into the 

 chrysalis state. These that I send are just hatched out, and were all the specimens 

 I could find. 



Mr. Newcomb afterwards (August 21) sent me the fully grown worms 

 of this brood, which were then at work on the trees. 



The following correspondence and extracts will give an idea of the 

 extent of the ravages of this worm in Maine. The "juniper " is evi- 

 dently a local name for the hackmatack: 



Another destructive pest has put in its appearance in the shape of a green worm. 

 It preys on the juniper trees. All t e^juniper trees in the swamps, and the shade 

 trees, look as though fire had scorched them ; the entire foliage is eaten in a few days 

 by millions of these worms. — Dover Corr. Bangor Commercial, July 28, 1882. 



FoxcROPT, August 17, 1882. 



Your card to the Commercial is before me. The worms which destroyed the juniper 



foliage came like a shower, and lasted about a week ; they eat the trees clean, and 



departed all at once, no one knows where o-- when. I have tried to find one to day, 



but could not. The worms were green, smooth, about three-fourths of an inch long, 



