234 OAK. 



less distinct ; the head dusky brown ; body between the wings 

 marked across with dark brown and grey or ochreous ; the 

 abdomen brown and grey in alternate rings. It is to be seen 

 at the end of June and beginning of July. 



Prevention and Kemedies. — The moths are heavy and 

 sluggish, and may be taken easily by hand as they rest 

 quietly during the day on the bark of the tree out of which 

 they hatched. 



The caterpillars sometimes leave the trees, and may be 

 found straying about in May and in the autumn, and in such 

 case they should always be destroyed ; but generally (as above 

 mentioned) they change to chrysalids at the entrance of their 

 burrows, and where trees are known to be infested these 

 reddish chrysalids should be looked for during June or early 

 in July, and destroyed where found. 



Any mixture that can be laid on the tree, so as to prevent 

 the moth laying her eggs on the bark, is useful. 



A mixture of clay and cow-dung smeared over the bark has 

 been found to answer well, and has the advantage of gradually 

 washing or cracking off without injuring the bark beneath it. 

 Soft-soap has also been found useful applied as follows : — 

 Several pounds of the soft-soap are mixed in a pail with 

 warm water to about the consistency of thick paint ; the 

 operator, who is also supplied with a bag of sand and a coarse 

 cloth, dips the cloth in the soap and sand and rubs the bark 

 thoroughly, and then, with a painter's brush, lays on a thick 

 coat. 



This treatment is a good means of preventing oviposition, 

 and also of rubbing off or destroying eggs that may have been 

 laid on the bark ; but in some cases a good syringing with a 

 garden-engine, of some of the soft-soap washes with a little 

 mineral oil in them, might do better, for they would run down 

 a little way into the ground, and thus deter attack which 

 sometimes is begun a little below ground-level. In the case 

 of an attack on some Poplars and Willows near Llanelly, 

 S. Wales, of which specimens were sent me in 1883, the 

 caterpillars had made their way into the wood at the lower 

 part of the stems of the trees below the surface of the ground, 

 and had bored upwards. 



Where the caterpillars can be reached, the simplest and 

 best method of getting rid of them is by killing them in their 

 burrows by passing a bit of thick strong wire up the tunnel. 

 A glance at the state of the end of the wire, when it is with- 

 drawn from the hole, will show whether the caterpillar has 

 been reached or not. If the end is fouiid to have wet, white 

 matter on it, the caterpillar has been reached. I have also 



