THE DOUGLAS SPRUCE CONE IVIOTH 



(Cydia pseudotsugana, Kearfott.) 



INTRODUCTION. 



Our attention was first called to this species in the spring of 

 1900, during a collecting trip on the sloping mountain sides near 

 the mouth of Middle Creek canon, south of Bozeman. The adult 

 moths were seen in great numbers, flying in and closely around a 

 large tree of the species which, so far as we know, is the only one 

 attacked by the moth, namely, the Dougla,s. spruce or red fir, 

 Pseudotsuga mucron-ata. Thousand of the moths were flying 

 about this particular tree, dancing up and down in an apparently 

 purposeless manner, in the bright warm sunshine of the late after- 

 noon, never going more than about four or five feet outside of the 

 tips of the limbs, and surrounding the tree on all sides. From that 

 time to the present, we have been making observations and taking 

 notes and photographs as we have had opportunity, until it is now 

 thought that we should publish the results that have accumulated, 

 since the main facts of the life history are all secured. Specimens 

 of the injured cones and seeds and of the insects of the various 

 stages are preserved for future reference in the collections of this 

 department. ' _; 



NATURE OF INJURY. 



The larva or caterpillar of this insect feeds in the cones of the 

 tree above named, first eating from fleshy parts of the immature 

 cones and later devouring the seeds. So far as we know no other 

 parts of the tree are. attacked. 



EXTENT OF INJURY. 



The species is certainly very injurious to the cones of the Doug- 

 las spruce in this locality, and during the eight years that it has held 

 our attention, it has been about as injurious in one season as another, 



