326 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 1908. 



possible the cycle to the moth stage the same season. Thus 

 farther south two broods may occur. 



Weather conditions may account in part for the fact that in 

 1908 this species was pupating about the time of month that 

 Packard records newly hatching caterpillars, mid July ; or for 

 the larvae of the first instar at Upper Gloucester this season on 

 July ii. 



The insectary observations were made with ample material. 

 There were 175 female moths which emerged in captivity. A 

 very conservative estimate of caterpillars hatching from the 

 eggs these deposited would be 8,000 or 9,000. (See page 331) 

 No count of the caterpillars in the first instar was made and 

 most of them were destroyed at that time after retaining several 

 hundred for the breeding observations. They were healthy in 

 captivity and an easy species to rear. They were fed entirely 

 upon beech. The foregoing record is for the earliest of the 

 larvae, a group of about 50 of the first hatching being caged 

 together for detailed data as to molting. For the later larvae, 

 molting records were not kept. 



Pupae collected at Upper Gloucester, June I, 1908, and sent 

 promptly to the Station, emerged to a great extent on the way. 

 The last of May to early June seemed a fairly uniform date for 

 the greatest number of emerging moths this season. 



As a check upon the insectary data a tour of largely infested 

 areas was made as follows : 



July ii at Upper Gloucester specimens from the first to the 

 fourth instar were found but the majority of them were in the 

 third. They appeared in general smaller than were those 

 reared in the insectary at the same stages, a fact possibly 

 explained by the food supply which was abundantly furnished 

 to the captive caterpillars while those at liberty at Upper 

 Gloucester had comparatively stripped the beech over 100 acres 

 or more and were in many cases starving to death. 



July 15. A devastated area of approximately 150 acres of 

 maple and beech was visited at North Fryeburg where the 

 caterpillars were observed to be a little older than at Upper 

 Gloucester. 



July 23. Upper Gloucester was visited again. Where cater- 

 pillars had been thick 12 days before very few were now to be 

 seen. In some places they were traveling up and down the trunks 



