no Hardy, The Forests of Victoria. [vohXXXli 



THE FORESTS OF VICTORIA. 



Part II.* 



By A. D. Hardy, F.L.S., Forests Department. 



(Read lie/ore the Field Naturalists' Chtb of Victoria, Bth Nov., 1915.) 



IV. — Destructive Agencies. 

 Of the animals that menace the forest, the following come 

 readily to mind :— Man, cattle, sheep, rabbits, hares, birds, 

 insects, termites, and scale insects, while the vegetable section 

 includes the parasites Loranthus and Cassytha, respectively 

 known as Mistletoe and Dodder-Laurel ; the weeds St. John's 

 Wort, thistles, &c, bracken, and fungi ; and also the lower 

 story scrub plants, such as Cassinia, Helichrysum, and the 

 Blackberry (Rubus). The meteorological contribution includes 

 electrical storms, violent winds, and drought. Of the animals 

 — man, legitimately in economic exploitation, and wrongfully 

 with fire and ringbarking axe ; cattle, in interference with 

 stream sources, the treading of seedlings, and introduction of 

 alien plants ; sheep, in eating of seedlings and distribution of 

 weeds; rabbits, and probably hares, in destruction of seedlings 

 and barking of saplings in drought time : birds (several species), 

 as carriers of mistletoe seeds, destruction of insectivorous birds 

 (by hawks, Butcher-birds. &c), destruction of eucalypt seeds, 

 and destruction of useful insects such as the bee (by Bee-eater 

 and Wood-Swallow) ; and insects, in over-consumption of pollen, 

 gall-forming, timber-boring, and defoliation. Wallabies and 

 kangaroos have been accused of eating seedlings and gnawing 

 bark of young saplings, but the damage is comparatively 

 insignificant, and is mostly during drought ; yet they are to be 

 reckoned with when deeding with forest grasses. The pro- 

 tected Koala and 'Possum do little harm, bu1 the former, 

 always plentiful in the National Park at Wilson's Promontory, 

 and there doubly protected, is, I am told, so stripping th< 

 eucalypts a1 their favourite haunt (Fraser's Creek) thai the} 

 may kill their soun e ol nuti imenl , 



Among insects, beetles chiefly ol the longicorn family — 

 are the worst, the larvae ol the lattei riddling the tree-trunks 



1 greal height, the mosl destructive being the triangular- 

 marked Banksia Beetle, the Banksia Borer, the Steel-blue 



oak Borer, Masters's Gum Borer, the Apple Gum Bimia, and 

 the Yellow Box Borer. Add to these various weevils, 1 o< kchafers, 

 &c, and there is a formidable lisl <>i destroyers, presenting a 

 problem foi theforesl entomologi 1 oi the future. One ol these 



tli . 1 1 kchafer, has ground gmbsj though the adull form 



feeds on the leaves ol the trees. In all the others the larvae 

 attack the timber^living in the tree ometimi > a Mi French 

 has pointed out, foi years. Several moths musl be included 



• Foj I'.iit I. Victorian Naturalist, September, 1915, p. 



