The Larch Bug— What is it? 



By D. SYM SCOTT, Forestek, BALLixAcorETE, Tipperary, Ireland. 



Young foresters, and for that matter old ones too, will find a world 

 of interesting information by devoting a little study daily investi- 

 gating into and experimenting on the life and habit of this minute 

 and destructive insect. This insect, as seen about the first of May, 

 is a mere fleshy excrescence apparently void of locomotion. Its body is 

 corded, and of an oval shape, with six short legs and a pair of antennce. 

 About the second week in May it begins to lay eggs, which are semi- 

 transparent, oblong, and all attached together with a fine ligament. 



Immediately after the eggs are deposited the insect gets enveloped 

 with a coating of parasitical fungi. The eggs are hatched in a few 

 days, and the young brood will in four days after be found coated 

 with the white down, under which they go on producing and repro- 

 ducing through seven or eight generations, when at the end of the 

 insect season eggs are produced to continue the tribe the following 

 summer. Most insects have three stages of life — larva, pupa, and 

 imago, but with the one under discussion I have detected no meta- 

 morphosis whatever. This is simply an outline of their develop- 

 ment; a closer observation will disclose much more interesting 

 matter. 



Being anxious to see this subject get an airing in this Journal I 

 herewith give my own ideas, trusting they will provoke discussion. 

 Early in May only females are found, and they produce their eggs 

 before being covered with fungi. The first brood contains both 

 males and females. The males after congress disappear, but the 

 females go on producing through several generations when males are 

 again produced, with the result that eggs are deposited which remain 

 over winter. By watching the insect narrowly it will be observed 

 that the first and last broods have a per-centage of winged insects, 

 smaller and more nimble than those which are wingless. The 

 former I accept as males, the latter as females. Another, thing I 

 would draw attention to, — the first brood is a few days before being- 

 covered with fungi. Succeeding broods get covered immediately on 

 leaving the egg. Incubation takes place very quick in successive 



