ii8 First Report on Economic Zoology. 



forms an excellent trap ; in a few hours, says KoUar, they will be 

 found covered with beetles, particularly so when the stem (of each 

 trap) has been pressed into the earth. 



These decoys must not be laid too late and must all be burnt 

 before the brood escapes. This plan has frequently been known to 

 clear a forest of Hylobius pest. 



Billets of imbarked fire-wood laid about will attract the beetles 

 to lay their eggs. These should be destroyed from the end of June 

 to the middle of July. 



Smearing the lower parts of the trunks with a mixture of mud 

 and lime early in April would probably check egg-laying or perhaps 

 it would be better still carried out in March. 



Young trees containing Pissodes larvae should be pulled up and 

 burned in June and July. 



All cones attacked should be collected and burned ; they may 

 easily be told by the exuding turpentine. Wood-peckers (Ficadce) 

 should be encouraged. 



The Spruce Gall Aphis. 



(Chermes ahietis, Linn.) 



Deformed growths on Spruce were sent by Mr. J. Saunders, of 

 49, Eothesay Eoad, Luton. These proved to be caused by the Spruce 

 Gall Aphis {Chermes ahietis, Linn.). These galls are at first bright 

 green and rosy and shaped like a small pine-cone. The " mother " 

 Chermes is oval, wingless, and woolly, green and purple in hue with 

 blackish legs. This form is found in the spring and inserts her 

 proboscis into the tissue of the plant just below a bud. This causes 

 the irritation which commences the diseased growth. 



The female lays her eggs amongst a woolly secretion on the gall ; 

 the young larvse coming from the same stick their proboscides into 

 the gall which still further swells and grows up more or less around 

 each larva. The larvje are really enclosed by the unnatural swollen 

 leaves of the bud overlapping them. Later these galls harden, 

 become brown, the chambers split open, and the Chermes make 

 their exit. These soon turn to pup?e, and then yellowish-green 

 winged females, which fly from spruce to spruce and deposit about 

 twenty eggs each. These eggs give rise to larvce which grow into 

 the " mother-queen " in the spring. The male is a small apterous 

 louse found in the galls, very sedentary in habits. 



