FOREST INSECTS 
Introduced parasites carried successfully through winter.--Two 
shipments of the tachinid parasite Compsilura concinnata Meig. were 
received by the Portland, Oreg., field laboratory from Melrose High- 
lands, Mass., last September. The first shipment contained 405 and 
the second 2/71 puparia, from which adults had started to emerge when 
the shipments were received. Through cooperation with the Oregon 
State Agriculture College, J. R. Roaf, Assistant in Entomology, under-— 
took the work of rearing, mating, and parasitizing various caterpillars 
with the flies. Four chalcid hyperparasites were intercepted. About 
half the shipments were liberated last fall. Many of the others died 
during the winter, but about 24 adults were successfully carried 
through in cages and, now that caterpillar food is again available, 
they have mated and started laying eggs on a large series of tent 
caterpillars, It is hoped that an abundant progeny will be produced 
by fall. 

Fir engraver beetle in northwestern Oregon.--Scolytus ventralis 
Lec, has recently been found to be numerous enough to cause dying 
white fir in at least three localities in northwestern Oregon. fF. P. 
Keen found this insect killing white fir on Senator McNary's farm near 
Salem; J. A. Beal later found a similar case at Clackamas, near Port— 
land, and more recently found this insect actively abundant near the 
coast at Grand Ronde, where previous attacks by it had so scarred 
white fir now being cut for pulpwood that the operators became alarmed 
and asked for an examination of their timber with recommendations for 
prevention of this damage. 5. ventralis occurs from British Columbia 
to Arizona and New Mexico. 
Barkbeetles make early attacks.--A mild winter and early spring 
have caused rapid development of barkbeetle broods in central Oregon 
pine forests. A recent examination by W. J, Buckhorn on the Ochoco 
National Forest showed that adults of Dendroctonus brevicomis Lec. 
had been emerging since early in April and the new broods had reached 
the stage of pupae and new adults on the south side of the trees and 
of larvae and pupae on the north side. Some adults emerged on April 
18 and 20, 57 days earlier than the first emergence last year, which 
did not occur until June 15. New attacks on logs felled during the 
winter were found on April 13, 84 days earlier than the first attacks 
found last season. Such early development makes possible a tremendous 
increase in beetle population and destructiveness this year. 
Are we due for another forest tent caterpillar outbreak?--Owing 
to the past mild winter, the western tent caterpillar (Malacosoma 
pluvialis Dyar) is unusually abundant on the willows and alders of 
he lower Columbia River Valley. In talking with W. J. Buckhorn, a 
local farmer recalled that in 1894 these tent caterpillars were so 
abundant that, like the locust hordes of Egypt, they devoured everything 
Green in sight, including the foliage of fir trees, The outbreak this 
year looks as though that early disaster might easily be repeated. 

