Looks like the damage from the locust (cicada) this past year. The adults after emerging and molting the exoskeleton, fly to twigs and feed on the sap. then females will make a slit and lay eggs in the twigs. the nymhs will hatch, fall to ground and stay there burrowing underground feeding on sap from tree roots, until emerging in one to three years or in case of the 17 year cicada, 17 years. The twigs of the tree die and usually fall off in the wind. I would prune back to the trunk and the tree will recover in the spring.
Looks like the damage from the locust (cicada) this past year. The adults after emerging and molting the exoskeleton, fly to twigs and feed on the sap. then females will make a slit and lay eggs in the twigs. the nymhs will hatch, fall to ground and stay there burrowing underground feeding on sap from tree roots, until emerging in one to three years or in case of the 17 year cicada, 17 years. The twigs of the tree die and usually fall off in the wind. I would prune back to the trunk and the tree will recover in the spring.