64 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND OBSEETATIONS. 



I have been able to extend the range of Carutn Bulho-castanum 

 considerably to the westward, and am not without hope that it may 

 yet be found in the Tring district. — R. A. Fryor, JJ.A., Hatfield. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



Destruction of ati Oak-tree by the LarvcB of the Goat Moth. — For 

 the last three years I have observed with vexation that a tine oak- 

 tree upon my farm, fit to square twenty or twenty-two inches and 

 to live another centiuy or two, has shown strange signs of prema- 

 ture decay. Knowing that there was no reason to suppose that 

 the roots could have tapped any substrata calculated to injure the 

 vitality of the timber, I recently made a careful examination of the 

 trunk. The bark was withered and split in three or four places, 

 as if the tree had been struck by lightning, but as the splits were 

 not vertical or continuous, I could not look on lightning as the 

 real cause. Careful search led to my noticing some small round 

 holes, two at the base and one nearly up at the fork, about the 

 size of a moderate bullet, round the oiifices of which was a kind 

 of black fetid oil, as if a greased and nisty auger had been driven 

 in. From the appearance I assumed that the larva? of the goat 

 moth ( Cossus ligniperda) had taken possession of the tree, and that 

 its days were numbered. Accordingly, on Wednesday the 21st 

 [April] I had it felled, and found that the east side of the bole 

 was riddled by innumerable families of larvae. Many dozens Avere 

 killed on the spot, more withdrew into the trunk and cannot now 

 be reached until the timber is broken up, and I have captured 

 a number which I shall endeavour to rear through the pupa stage 

 to the perfect moth. I fear that nearly all of them, however, are 

 too young for successful operations ; but should I succeed, I will 

 send some specimens properly set up to the Society. It may not 

 be generally known that this insect remains an exceptionally long 

 period (three years) in the larva state, and that only three year 

 olds are easily reared artificially. In this tree there must have 

 been contemporaneously three generations, some specimens being 

 less than half-an-inch long, and of the diameter of the smallest 

 wire, others upwards of two inches, and as substantial as my little 

 finger. The west side of the tree seems curiously free from the 

 honey-combing operations of the grub. Can any members of the 

 Society give me a reason for this ? — /. H. James, Kingswood, 

 Watford. 



The BeatWs Head Moth at Watford. — The neighbourhood of 

 "Watford is singularly prolific of that fine insect the death's head 

 moth {Acheroniia Atropos), and search in any large potato field 

 towards the end of July will i)robably be successful. AVith 

 perhaps the exception of tlie poi)lar hawk moth [Smerinthus PopuU), 

 none of the larger of our indigenous moths are so easily reared 

 from the larvae as the death's head. — /. If. James. 



