382 Annual Report for 1911 of the Zoologist. 



widely. Later on the reports were less numerous than usual, 

 the explanation probably being, not that pests were absent, but 

 that several crops had suffered so severely from lack of rain 

 that there was little reason to inquire into anj'^ further cause 

 for their failure, the presence or absence of injurious insects 

 being of comparatively little account. 



Several of the pests inquired about possessed considerable 

 interest, especially among those injurious to forest trees, but it 

 was unfortunate that in some cases the attack was only reported 

 in its last stages, when material was scanty and there was no 

 possibility of obtaining certain evidence of the insect at work, 

 or of treating it effectually. All that could be done was to 

 note such facts as might be useful in investigation if they 

 chanced to recur next season. Experiments have been made in 

 the treatment of big bud disease in black currants, and the 

 attempts to clear up obscure points in the life-history of the 

 raspberry beetle have been continued. 



Many insects have been sent for identification.' Several 

 of the applications for advice concei-ned the occurrence of 

 various creatures in the water to which cattle and horses had 

 access, and* also pests of various sorts infesting houses antl farm 

 buildings or attacking stored produce, while some cases of 

 parasitic attack on domesticated animals were reported. 



Most of the ordinary farm and fruit pests have been 

 inquired about from time to time, and among the cases 

 reported a few were of unusual character, as, for instance, the 

 occurrence of the grub of the garden chafer in large quantities 

 in pasture land, and a crop of vetches suffering severely fi'om 

 an attack of black fly. 



FoKEST Tree Pests. 



Among the pests reported as injuring forest trees may be 

 mentioned spruce or larch chermes, Ohermes corticalis on Wey- 

 mouth Pine, beech coccus, pine bud-moth, pine saw-fly, pine 

 weevil, wood-wasp {Sirex), goat-moth, and elm-bark beetle. 

 These attacks presented no feature of special interest. 



Two rather severe attacks of willow beetle on osiers were 

 among the cases reported. This insect is injurious both in the 

 larval and adult stages, and greatly damages osiers, not only by 

 destroying the leaves, but by frequently eating the terminal 

 bud and thus stunting the plants. It is best treated by making 

 war upon the beetles in the adult stage — shaking the osiers over 

 tarred boards or vessels containing paraffin while the beetles 

 are at work, though some benefit is derived from spraying with 

 an arsenic mixture. 



The winter is passetl in thi' adult form, under lucsr bark, or 

 in crannies of the bark of various trees — poplar, ash, <tc. 



