SOUTH AFRICAN BAGWOKMS. 668 



Eucalypti, while the privet is occasionally attacked. 

 Amongst the fruit trees may be mentioned : apple, plum, 

 cherry, apricot and guava. Peach, pear, and quince do not 

 seem to be favoured, neither the citrus trees nor vines. We 

 have seen quarter-grown bags on citrus" trees in a heavily 

 infested neighbourhood, but they did not reach maturity ; 

 while on peach, under similar circumstances, we have found 

 the young bagworms eating the rind of the young fruit. 



Character and degree of injury . —While the young 

 bagworms to a certain extent destroy the blossoms of the 

 wattle, the main injury is the destruction of the foliage. Not 

 only are the young leaves eaten off as fast as they appear, 

 and the entire tree defoliated, but even the bark of the 

 young shoots is chewed off when the food becomes scarce. 



Besides this injury to the tree due to the removal of the 

 foliage, the bagwomn often causes another kind of damage 

 during its resting period. When it attaches its bag, pre- 

 paratory for pupation, it fastens it securely to a twig by 

 means of a strong silken strand stretched tightly around it. 

 This strand acts as a ligature, the flow of the sap downward 

 is interfered with and a swelling occurs just above the strand. 

 Ultimately the strand cuts in deeper and deeper, and with a 

 sudden gust of wind the distal part breaks off. The writer 

 has seen the tops of several young trees destroyed in this 

 manner. 



Where the bagworms gather in clumps on the stem of the 

 tree, generally near a fork, for pupation, they attach them- 

 selves by gnawing off a considerable portion of the bark, the 

 particles of which are interwoven with the silk by which 

 they are attached. The injury caused by the two last 

 procedui-es may be considerable. 



Progress of infestation. — At first the caterpillars 

 gather on the tops of the trees, which are defoliated in the 

 early part of the season (November). After this the larvae 

 slowly travel downwards, consuming more and more of the 

 foliage, so that by the end of December the majority of the 

 trees have become bare, and new growth is kept down as 



VOL. 3, PART 3. 44 



