THE INSECT RECORD FOR 1900 



BY CLARENCE M. WEED 



The most notable occurrence among the injurious insects ot 

 New Hampshire during the season of 1900 was the sudden 

 disappearance of the hordes of Forest Tent Caterpillars^ 

 that for several previous seasons had been so destructive. This 

 disappearance was so general and complete that it seems to 

 me it is only to be accounted for satisfactorily on the supposi- 

 tion that it was due to unfavorable weather conditions. And 

 as there is good evidence to show that the caterpillars hatched 

 from the eggs in great numbers and began feeding in apparent 

 health, it seems necessary to conclude that they were chiefly 

 destroyed by the unusual and severe frosts that occurred early 

 in May. 



The positive evidence upon which I base this conclusion is 

 chiefly derived from observations at Claremont, New Hamp- 

 shire. My assistant, Mr. W. F. Fiske, visited this locality, 

 May I and 2, 1900, and found that the caterpillars had hatched 

 from the eggs in abundance. They were probably not quite 

 so numerous as they had been a year before, but they were in 

 sufticient numbers to do great damage had they matured. But 

 they disappeared without doing any noticeable injury. On 

 May nth, there was a Very severe and widespread frost, the 

 temperature at Claremont going down to 16° F. and the ground 

 being frozen to a depth of half an inch, as I learn from Mr. 

 F. H. Foster. It seems to me probable that this remarkable 

 freeze killed the caterpillars. 



^CHsiocampa dis stria Harris 



