Annual Report for 1912 of the Zoologist. 289 



been sent in from the Worcestershire and Wisbech fruit 

 gi'owing districts is now under investigation. So far all 

 attempts to find a fungus capable of causing the disease, or, 

 again, attempts to transmit it to healthy foliage have failed. It 

 is hoped to continue the investigations next season. 



Two cases of the American gooseberry mildew have been 

 reported on. In one of these the disease had spread to red 

 currants. 



Miscellaneous Fungi. 



Dry rot in floors and lath and plaster partitions formed the 

 subject of an enquiry, and a specimen of the fungus causing it 

 (Merulms lacrymans) was sent from Scotland, where it had 

 been found in the open — a somewhat unusual occurrence. 



R. H. BiFFEN. 



School of Agriculture, 

 Cambridge. 



ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1912 OF THE 

 ZOOLOGIST. 



As usual the variable weather conditions of the year were 

 strikingly reflected from month to month in the applications 

 for advice received by the Zoological department. This was, 

 perhaps, most noticeable in the early summer, when dry- 

 weather pests, and especially aphis of all kinds, began to be 

 generally complained of, and seemed likely to do great harm. 

 The succeeding wet weather introduced a new set of pests, but 

 at least had the advantage of much mitigating the damage 

 which had been anticipated. The subjoined notes give an idea 

 of the scope of the work of the department during the year, 

 call attention to the appearance of certain rather unusual 

 injurious insects, and indicate the principal investigations which 

 are being carried out, and the results so far obtained. 



Forest Tree Pests. 



Among forest insects the following have been the subject 

 of enquiry : — Willow beetle, larch bug, elm and ash bark- 

 beetles, larch tineid {Argyresthia laevigatella), large poplar 

 longicorn, pine sawfly, pine shoot tortrix, pine beetle, cock- 

 chafer, garden chafer, and beech coccus. The list contains 

 nothing new, but a few notes are appended on some of the 

 insects. The absence of some pests is, moreover, noteworthy. 

 There was no recurrence of the mysterious attack on Douglas 

 firs by a geometer caterpillar, notified last year by Mr. Percy 

 Rogers, and its identity remains unknown. Again no complaints 

 have reached me from Members of the Society of the great 



VOL. 78. L 



