84 Second Report on Economic Zoology. 



Natural Enemies. 



Bats, Goat-suckers and Owls eat the moths, aud the Green 

 Woodpecker the caterpillars and pupa\ The various Tits {Paridfe) 

 devour the e<;gs, according to Taschenherg, and prol>ahly the same 

 good is (lone by the Tree-creeper, Wryneck and Nuthatch. 



The pupte are sometimes killed l»y Ichneumon Fly larvae. 



, The Resin Gall Moth, 



{Betinia resinclla, L.) 



Specimens of the galls or ratlier cliambers or nests formed by the 

 Retinia resinella were received Ironi j\lr. J. E. Eraser, of Dores, 

 Inverness, with the following notes. The specimens were taken 

 from a iir plantation in the neighbourhood of Inverness, where this 

 injurious insect (not previously seen in the district or in Highland 

 forests) has made a serious invasion. " There is," writes Mr. Eraser, 

 " scarcely a single tree in a young plantation in this neighbourhood 

 but is infested, and they have been noticed on the branches of a tir 

 tree, 120 years old, that was blown down in one of the recent gales." 

 Later he writes (10.4.03), " that there are traces hereabouts that its 

 attacks are now pretty general." 



The moth that produces these gall-like chambers of resin is fairly 

 common in a few localities in Scotland, chiefly in Perthshire, where 

 it is found amongst tlie Scotch hrs. 



As a rule if the trees are healthy 

 this insect does no harm, but if they are 

 not so the attacked shoots die. This 

 is especially noticeable where the soil 

 does not suit the trees or where the 

 wind aud weather have l)een unfavour- 

 able. 



Tlie motli (Fig. 14) appears in May 

 and dune, and varies in size from tliree- 

 (puirters to nearly an inch in expai]se of 

 wings, tlie front wings are dark Idackish 

 grey, with numerous irregular silvery-grey transverse streaks, and 

 the costa beyond the middle spotted with white; the hind wings 

 greyish-brown and the fringes grey ; a fine silvery line forms the 

 boundary above the fringes. The eggs are laid by the female, on 

 recent shoots, especially the lateral ones of young pines ; they 

 are generally phiced under the whorl of buds. The caterpillar on 



rXVrm 



Fig. 14. — the kesin gall, moth 

 {Retinia resinella). 



