File:Annual report (1901) (14770055473).jpg

Identifier: annualreport891901021newy (find matches)
Title: Annual report
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: New York (State). Forest, Fish and Game Commission
Subjects: Forests and forestry Fisheries Game and game-birds
Publisher: (Albany, N.Y. : The Commission)
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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m borers, we have the total of 40 per cent, or over half of the animalfood, made up of these enemies of the forest. The American tent caterpillar (Mal-cosoma aniericana), a notorious pest to both orchard and forest trees, was found inmany of the stomachs. Some other beetles besides the woodborers are also eatenby the downy woodpecker. Over 50 specimens of Dorytomus mucidits, one of thesnout beetles or weevils, and a species which subsists on trees, were taken fromone stomach. Ants enter the diet of the downy to nearly the same extent as beetles, viz, 23per cent of the entire food. These are largely species of the genus Camponotus,which inhabit the interior of the more or less solid wood, and constantly enlargetheir quarters by extending their galleries in all directions. Other of the speciesupon which they feed are those that protect and care for the plant-lice, with manythat get their living in various ways. Bugs (Hemiptera) are represented in the downys diet by several families, but
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NORTHERN HAIRY WOODPECKER, MALE BIRDS AS CONSERVATORS OF THE FOREST. 243 most notably by plant-lice and scale insects. The former constitute 4 per centof the years food, but as they can only be found during the warmer portion ofthe year, they amount to quite a considerable percentage of the food for thosemonths. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that these soft-bodied creaturesare so soon reduced to an unrecognizable pulp in the stomach it is probable thatmany more are eaten than were positively identified. Scale insects (Coccidae) werealso eaten, and several stomachs were entirely filled with them, but like theplant-lice, they are difficult to determine after digestion has somewhat progressed,so that it is probable many were overlooked. The Hairy Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus). The hairy woodpecker is as common as the downy in most parts of the UnitedStates, and to the ordinary observer is only to be distinguished by its greater size,as its colors and markings are very nearly the s

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