THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 183 



trunk and branches with a white cottony secretion, under the protection 

 of which myriads of tiny lice live, puncturing the bark with their sharp 

 beaks and exhausting the trees by feeding upon the sap. 



While we are mainly interested in the preservation of our mature 

 forests, the future of our country demands that we shall not overlook the 

 young growth on which the lumber supply fifty or a hundred years hence 

 must largely depend, and which it should be the policy of our rulers to 

 protect as far as possible. Most of the governments of Europe are now 

 fully alive to the importance of this matter, and are annually spending 

 large sums of money in establishing young forests. Two years ago I 

 called your attention to an insect then recently discovered by Prof. A. R. 

 Grote, of Buffalo, which was greatly injuring the terminal shoots of both 

 the white and red pines in Western New York ; it was the larva of a small 

 moth, Nephopteryx Zimmcrmaiii, which fed under the bark, causing a free 

 exudation of resinous matter from the wounds it made, followed usually 

 by the death of the twigs infested. Since then it has been found over a 

 much wider area than was at first anticipated, and I have no doubt but 

 that it is to-day materially retarding the growth of young pine trees in 

 many portions of our Province. 



At the recent meeting of the Entomological Club of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science (where our Society was 

 represented by your President and Vice-President), Mr. S. H. Scudder, of 

 Boston, submitted some observations on another lepidopterous insect 

 which is injuring the young pines growing on the Island of Nantucket. It 

 is a species of Retinia closely allied to Retinia duplana of Europe. The 

 moth lays her eggs near the tips of the twigs, down which the young larvse 

 burrow, killing them outright, and thus stunting and almost destroying the 

 trees. Prof. Comstock, of Washington, also referred to' two other species 

 of Retinia which he had observed injuring the pine trees in that city. 



In addition to all these there are a score or two of species of insects 

 which are known to devour the leaves of the pines, damaging them in 

 some instances very much. From the facts enumerated it is~ evident that 

 we are suffering serious loss in all our lumbering districts from the silent 

 workings of these insidious foes, and since in some measure to be fore- 

 warned is to be fore-armed, I desire to call the special attention of those 

 immediately concerned in the prosperity, present and future, of the lum- 

 bering interests of our country, to this important subject. Unfortunately 

 it does not as yet seem to be within the power of man to do much directly 



