REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



379 



the castings, and under this mass the caterpillar lives concealed from 

 the prying gaze of insectivorous birds. 



As it was late for the caterpillars, nearly or quite all having trans- 

 formed into moths, only a single belated worm was found, which, there 

 is the strongest presumptive evidence for believing is the young of the 

 moth in question. It is much smaller, nearly one-half as large, and en- 

 tirely different from the caterpillar of the common spruce bud-worm 

 (Tortrix fumiferana) and is of a general reddish-yellowish hue. 



The body is flattened, the head of a deep reddish honey-yellow, while 

 the body is pale rust-red, with a darker dorsal stripe and a paler band 

 on each side. The piliferous warts are paler than the ground color. 

 The body low down on the sides and beneath is yellowish. All the legs, 

 both thoracic and abdominal, are pale honey -yellow. Leugth, 7 mm . 



Without doubt the caterpillar hibernates when nearly full grown, at- 

 tacks the shoots in June when the new leaves are growing out, and goes 

 into the chrysalis state by the elid of the month, the moths appearing 

 during the first and second weeks of July. Of course it is desirable that 

 the caterpillar be reared, so as to leave no doubt as to its identity with 

 the moth in question. 



When the young trees and shrubs are found to be affected, they 

 should be sprayed with Paris green or London purple in solution. 



THE COMMON LONGICORN PINE- BORER. 

 (Monohammus confusor Kirby.) 

 [Plate Y, Fig. 3 j Plate VI, Fig. 1 ; Plate VII, Fig. 1.] 



Although this borer is destructive to the white pine, I have not yet met 

 with an instance where a living pine tree has been killed outright by 

 it. In Maine, however, wherever the fir abounds, this insect is very 

 destructive. While the fir is the least valuable of our timber trees, it 

 is a beautiful shade and ornamental tree, though short-lived. It is 

 especially liable to attack from this borer. In passing along any road in 

 Cumberland County, particularly near the sea-coast, and also on the 

 islands in Casco Bay, great numbers of dead firs are to be seen perfo- 

 rated with the round holes, large enough to admit a lead pencil, made 

 by this borer for the exit of the beetle. 



I have already given instances in Bulletin 7, United States Entomologi- 

 cal Commission, pp. 220, 236, of living fir trees killed by this borer. During 

 the past summer I have observed several, at least four or five, living firs 

 in which these borers were at work. The trees were either wholly fresh 

 and alive or some of the branches were dead, as well as a part of the bark 

 on one side. A large number of fully grown worms were taken out of 

 a fir on Frenchman's Island, which was dead on one side, the other 

 half of the tree being alive, and the leaves all fresh and green. There 

 seems no reasonable doubt but that this tree, then, is attacked while 

 in a perfectly healthy state by this borer, and killed after one or two 

 yea rs. 



How thoroughly one or two females of this beetle may stock a single 

 tree with young borers may be seen by reading the following account, of 

 observations made by us the past summer. It should be stated in this 

 connection that we have been told by an intelligent lumberman near 

 Bangely Lake, Maine, that large masses of living firs in that region 

 have been killed outright by the borer, which is undoubtedly this spe- 



