118 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA: 



delicate in texture, but soon hardens by exposure to the 

 light and air, and in a very few hours takes wing, and 

 flies oil' to its natural food plants. In Victoria 1 have 

 seen them only on gum trees, but in New South Wales 

 they are said to feed also on the bottle brush ( Cailistemon ). 

 Tlie perfect insect (see Figs. III. and IV.) has a dark 

 metallic bluish body, mtli yellowish-orange scutelluni, 

 which is raised, and which imparts a somewhat singular 

 appearance to the insect. The veins of the wings are 

 very prominent, the antenna? being short and somewhat 

 club shaped. On Fig. V. is sliow^n the saw-like process 

 (enlarged) of the female, and with this she makes the 

 incision in which to deposit her eggs. There are a 

 number of species of this genus in Australia, so that we 

 have given the above brief description, although for all 

 practical purposes the plate will be sufficient. 



In Victoria we have but one insect belono-ino- to this 

 family w hicli attack fruit trees, this being the well-known 

 ••'Pear-slug" (^Sekmdiia cerasi), this, however, being an 

 introduction from Europe. 



In America and elsewhere saw flies are responsible for 

 most of the damage done to fruits of many kinds, and 

 although the large species under notice has so far kept 

 away from the introduced fruit trees it is a sworn enemy 

 of the forester, as when once a sapling is defoliated and 

 otherAvise injured by this pest, it seldom if ever makes a 

 timber tree. 



Prevention and Remedies. 



In small ])lantations the foliage may be made obnoxious 

 to the insect by spraying with kerosene, but on large 

 timber areas this process would doubtless be both tedious 

 and costly, and, as these grubs are large and easily seen, 

 hand-picking would, next to poisoning their food, be the 

 easiest and best way of dealing with them. One thing is 

 certain, if eucalypts are to be grown here on a commer- 

 cial basis, that pests of all kinds must be watched and 

 kejJt out of the plantation if at all possible. 



