THE SPRUCE BUD-WORM. 831 
for January, 1881. In the account of the ravages of a caterpillar on 
the spruces on the coast of Maine in Bulletin 7 of the United States 
Entomological Commission, we refer to this insect, which we were unable 
to identify, as, after repeated search in the latter part of the summer, 
we failed to discover any traces of the insect in any stages. In our 
account we gave greater prominence to the operations of borers and 
bark beetles than to those of this caterpillar ; and while considerable 
damage was undoubtedly done to spruces and firs in Sagadahoc and 
Cumberland Counties by those beetles, from further inquiries and 
field-work carried on in June and July, 1883, in different parts of 
Maine, we now have little doubt but that the destruction of spruces 
and firs along the coast of the State was mainly due to the attacks of 
this insect. 
The different climatic causes alleged to destroy forest trees in gen- 
eral, would, in the present case, have injured pines and hard- wood 
trees as well as spruces and firs, and the destruction would have been 
general ; whereas the trees have been killed by a caterpillar which is 
not known to live upon pines nor any trees but spruce, fir, and occa- 
sionally the hemlock and larch. Individual trees, or clumps of trees, 
were attacked, whether in high and exposed situations or in hollows; 
occasionally from such centers the worms seem to have increased and 
spread from year to year, until all the trees in localities several square 
miles in extent were killed. Moreover, as we have seen in the case of 
the attacks of the larch worm, the defoliation of spruces and firs re- 
peated two and perhaps three summers is sufficient to either kill the 
tree outright, or so weaken it that bark-boring beetles can complete 
the work of destruction. We are now inclined to the opinion, then, 
that the Bud Tortrix is the sole or at least main cause of the destruc- 
tion of spruces and firs in Cumberland, Sagadahoc and Lincoln Coun- 
ties, Me., and that by their attacks they render the trees liable to 
invasion by hosts of bark beetles. 
We next visited Harpswell Neck, and found from our own observa- 
tion and by inquiry from others that a large proportion of the spruces 
and firs for a distance of about 10 miles have died within about four 
years. The pleasure of driving over this picturesque road, with its 
striking northern harsh and wild scenery and frequent glimpses of 
Casco Bay, in former years greatly enhanced by riding through bits of 
deep, dark spruce forests, has been not a little marred by the acres and 
even square miles of dead spruces, stripped of their dark sea-green foli- 
age, reduced to skeletons, and presenting a ghastly, saddening, and de- 
pressing sight, which border the road. And, indeed, one may travel 
through the spruce forests of the coast from Portland to Rockland and 
meet with similar sights. 
We visited late in August, in company with A. G. Tenney, esq., the 
farm of Mr. William Alexander, passing, before reaching the road lead- 
ing to his house, an area of several acres from which the spruce growth 
: 
