1912 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



57 



Sandra and xVndromeda) before coming out upon the broad open marsh which 

 borders the creek near its mouth. The deposits from the creek at its mouth and 

 the action of the winter ice have formed a patch of drier land here, which is 

 continued along the shore as a narrow marginal ridge. Here the trees are different 

 from those in the swamp behind, being mostly cedar, balsam, white spruce, silver 

 maple, black and green ash, with large willows about the margin of the creek. 



These woods have been, on the whole, very free from serious attacks by 

 insects for many years past. The only insect that has been responsible for the 

 killing of trees in large numbers is the Larch Saw-fly {Lygaeonematus ericJisonii 

 Hartgn.). which has been with us for about twelve years. Well do I remember its 

 'first appearance at De Grassi Point, although I am not sure as to the exact year. 

 It was either 1898 or 1899, though they may have been present in small numbers 

 a year or two earlier. Up till this time, part of the tamarack swamp was one of 



Fig. 24. Larch Saw-fly — a, adult; ft, cocoon; c, terminal twig of larch, 

 showing eggs in slits made by the female saw-fly. — c and 6 much 

 enlarged. 



the loveliest spots I have ever seen. This was a part near the creek where the 

 trees, though not large, grew fairly closely together, but offered glimpses of 

 beautiful vistas between their grey trunks and soft feathery green foliage. No 

 fallen trunks obstructed one's way and the ground was carpeted with deep sphagnum 

 moss and soft grasses, among which pitcher-plants, clumps" of the Showy Lady's- 

 Slipper, the beautiful Calapogon and the fragrant Pogonia, besides a number of 

 other orchids, grew in profusion. 



In the summer of 1898 (if this year be correct) I visited the swamp, as I do 

 every year, and found to my horror that most of the trees were nearly bare and 

 infested with myriads of greenish-grey false caterpillars, the larvae of the Larch 

 Saw-fly. The scattered trees in the pastures were but little affected, many of them 

 untouched, but next year the attack was more severe and the trees were everywhere 

 more or less infested, and ever since then until last year there lias been no per- 

 ceptible decline in the numbers of the pest. Every year the trees were stripped 

 nearly Imre and the mature ones, of which there were quite a number, soon began 



