54 REPORTS OF OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS. 



ing thriving woodland, owing to the rapid growth of the young trees. 

 In one place in particular, on the new wharf road in Brunswick, of 

 which photographs were taken in 1883, and which are reproduced as 

 Plates xiii and xiv of my report, the new growth of spruces and firs 

 has within ten years completely changed the aspect of the fields and 

 woodlauds at that spot. And so it is with an extensive tract of land 

 on Birch Island, devastated by this worm about ten years previously. 

 These coniferous trees grow nearly a foot a year, under favorable condi- 

 tions, and thus rapidly cover and conceal old stumps, piles of trash 

 wood and fallen trees, as well as places more or less bare of vegetation. 



It is also to be observed that neither the caterpillars nor moths of 

 the species have been observed at or about Casco Bay since 1883 or 

 1884, none of the worms being detected on the trees, and none of the 

 moths being taken by the net or captured at light. 



The larches or hackmatacks in Maine have in general recovered from 

 the attacks of the larch worm, which was so abundant a few years ago. 

 No specimens either of the worm or of the sawfly were collected or 

 observed during the past two years. While a few old trees died, the 

 younger ones, or those not too much ravaged, appear to have leaved 

 out and to have recuperated. 



The Fir Leaf -sheaf Worm. — During the past two or three years the 

 firs on the shores of Casco Bay at Brunswick, Me., have been disfigured 

 in an unusual way by the larva of a Tineid moth, which has been 

 determined by Prof. 0. H. Fernald to be Blastobasis chalcofrontella 

 Clem. My attention was called to the work of this caterpillar during 

 the end of June and in July, 1891, the worms occurring as late as July 

 15. The terminal branches of the trees bore some dead red 4 ' needles" 

 or leaves, which, however, had not been gnawed off by the worm. On 

 the under side of such twigs or small branches were masses of castings 

 or excrement, enveloping what seem to be the swollen or hypertrophied 

 bases or sheaths of the leaves, and which look like flower buds. They 

 are about a fifth of an inch long, forming masses about an inch in 

 length. These empty capsules were sewed together by a few silken 

 threads, and among them the little caterpillar resides. It does not bore 

 into the twig itself, which is green and fresh, but the tree is none the 

 less seriously disfigured by its attacks. As the worms did not occur 

 later on in the season I judge they begin theix work in the spring, or at 

 least in May. Some that were found July 15 finished their transforma- 

 tions towards the end of the season, the moth being found dead in the 

 breeding box in May of the following year. Whether it emerged before 

 the winter or not I can not state. 



A small Tortricid larva was observed at Brunswick, Me., early in 

 the summer of 1890, and in 1891 at work on the end of the twigs of the 

 spruce. It cuts off the needles for a space of about an inch in length 

 and spins a web next to the twig by which the faded red needles are 

 attached to the twig. When about to transform it spins a rude, 





