ADDITIONS TO THE THIRD REPORT ON THE CAUSES OF 
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE EVERGREEN AND OTHER 
FOREST TREES IN NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND. 
By A. S. Packard. 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
In Dr. Packard’s third report, prepared for the Report of the Ento- 
mologist, Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture for 1885, was 
contained certain matter, mainly descriptive, which, though valuable, 
was considered hardly appropriate for a report which it is desired to 
make severely plain and practical. This matter was, therefore, pruned 
from the Annual Report and is published here in the more limited edi- 
tion of the Bulletin. — (C. V. R.) 
THE BLACK-HEADED SPRUCE BUD WORM. 
(Teras variana , n. sp., Fernald.) 
This caterpillar is so commonly met with on the spruce and hr that we 
have given it the above English name, though there are other species 
which have green bodies and black heads. We first met with it on the 
terminal shoots of the Black Spruce on Peaks Island, in Portland Har- 
bor, June 22, 1881, and also at Brunswick and Harpswell on the day 
following, when it was associated with the caterpillars of the Spruce 
Bud-worm ( Tortrix fumiferana). Unlike that species it does not, so far 
as we have observed, cause any decided alteration in the appearance of 
the shoots of the tree, not being social or abundant enough to strip the 
leaves from a single shoot, as in the case of the Spruce Bud-worm, or 
the Reddish -yellow Spruce Bud- worm (Steganoptycha ratzeburgiana ) 
found on the White Spruce last season. 
The egg-laying habits are not yet known, as none of the moths on 
issuing from the chrysalis mated or proceeded to deposit eggs. 
The caterpillars usually live near the ends of the shoots, feeding on 
the new leaves, which begin to grow out early in June; cutting off the 
tender leaves, they make a passage-way between them and the shoot, 
which they line with white silk. When disturbed they rapidly crawl 
out of their silken retreat and let themselves down to the ground by a 
17334 — No. 12 2 17 
