THE SNOW-WHITE LINDEN MOTH 53 



and doing much damage to fruit-trees. Since that time we have heard 

 mention of the insect only now and then until within the last three years. 



Later history. On July 6th, 1909, we received from a correspondent 

 at Cooks Falls, N. Y., the following letter concerning this pest: "Last 

 year there appeared in this community a worm somewhat similar to 

 the common apple tree worm and known locally as the 'beech' worm 

 from its habit of eating the leaves of the beech tree. We thought it 

 would die out over winter, but have been disappointed in this hope. 

 It is again eating the foliage of the same trees it stripped last year and 

 is threatening large tracts of very valuable timber land. While it 

 appears to prefer the beech leaves it quite often attacks maple, birch, 

 etc. As our interests in timber land are considerable, we write to enlist 

 your aid in determining what species of worm this is, and how its ravages 

 can be stopped." In response to this appeal, the writer made a per- 

 sonal inspection of the infested area and found a fine forest of beech, 

 maple, and other wood, over five hundred acres in extent, literally 

 stripped of leaves by the larvae of this moth. The owner said that 

 they were so numerous that the dropping of the excrement sounded 

 like rain pattering on the leaves. The undergrowth was almost as 

 bare as it would be in winter. The young beeches had suffered more 

 severely than any other trees and most of them were entirely bare of 

 leaves. Hundreds of empty pupal cases, partly rolledr-up in eaten leaves, 

 were hanging to the trees. The caterpillars had covered a certain area 

 on the top of this particular mountain and part way down one side. 

 The line limiting their injuries was clear and evident to the eye long 

 before we reached the actual area. For two successive years this forest 

 had been denuded and the larvae were just as abundant this year (1910) 

 as ever. 



On July 9, 1909, a correspondent at Arena, N. Y., about twenty 

 miles from Cooks Falls, wrote that the caterpillars "are working mostly 

 on beech, ash, birch, and maple. In fact, nothing comes amiss to them. 

 In driving through the town of Hardenburgh, Ulster Co., I noticed 

 the trees were literally stripped of their foliage and a fence running in 

 the woods was so loaded with them (caterpillars) you could not see 

 the rails. They hang by webs on the trees, and looking through the 

 forest appears like looking through smoke or a fog." This same cor- 

 respondent wrote on May i6th, 1910, nearly a year later, that the trees 

 were again "literally covered with the very small caterpillars and that 

 if nothing can be done to check them the Catskills are doomed." The 

 . pest is evidently widely distributed, for there are reports of its injuries 

 in Ulster Co., Sullivan Co., and also in the forests of the Adirondacks. 



