262 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 1907. 



of these insects will inevitably bring disaster with the necessity 

 of combating them over ever increasing areas at enormous 

 expense. 



Forests Attacked by One of "The Prominents." 

 Heterocampa guttivitta Walk. 



For a distance of more than 40 miles across Southern Oxford, 

 Cumberland and Androscoggin Counties, a caterpillar invasion 

 swept clear of foliage much of the forest growth over large 

 areas. The complaints were numerous about the middle of 

 August. A correspondent from Wayne wrote : "These cater- 

 pillars are on all the maples in this section and stripping the 

 foliage." From West Bridgton another said : "They are ruin- 

 ing the hard wood growth in the forests of Fryeburg, Sweden, 

 and of a part of Bridgton." A resident of Bridgton reported 

 them as "very plentiful here and devastating certain sections 

 of the forests. They seem to prefer the beech trees, though 

 they also are found on maple and apple trees." Specimens 

 accompanying all these and various other reports all proved 

 to be the same species, Heterocampa guttivitta. 



August 15 and 16, South Leeds and Upper Gloucester were 

 visited by the writer. At Upper Gloucester a beech forest was 

 stripped as bare of foliage as winter trees. The insects for the 

 most part were full grown and buried for pupation. By lifting 

 back the top of the leafy soil from 1 to 3 inches the freshly 

 formed pupse and newly buried larvee were found to be thick. 

 The cocoon was very slight and was torn in disturbing the soil. 



Numbers of Carabid beetles were searching about the bases of 

 trees, most conspicuous among which, probably, because of its 

 size, was the Fiery Hunter, Colo soma calidum. The predaceous 

 bug, Podisus modestus (shown in Fig. 44) was particularly 

 -active. This species in both larval and adult stages was found in 

 considerable numbers on the trunks of the trees sucking the 

 blood of wilted looking caterpillars which they had stabbed. At 

 the bases of many of the trees were little heaps of dead and half 

 sucked caterpillars, while the group of Podisus modestus just 

 above and still at work on other victims showed the cause of 

 their condition. At South Leeds these caterpillars had entirely 

 stripped a beautiful hard maple grove and were at work rid- 



