Dec 



1915 



••] Hardy, The Forests of Victoria. 



amongst the insects destructive to forests. The Wattle Goat- 

 Moth larvae destroy great quantities of the valuable tanning 

 wattles, Acacia mollissima and A. pycnantha ; but in plantations 

 grown for bark the stripping is chiefly done before the trees are 

 attacked. The Gum Emperor Moth, a favourite subject for 

 nature-study in the schools, has a large, brilliantly-coloured 

 caterpillar, which feeds indifferently on the native eucalypts 

 or the introduced Peruvian " Pepper-tree," Schinus niollc. 

 Two moths which, to the " unseeing eye," are so similar, and 

 whose larva? are much alike, while so different from others 

 that one wonders why one genera could not include both, are 

 the Cup-moths. Their pretty little larvae, coloured like small 

 Persian mats, adhere to the leaves by their viscid undersides, 

 without legs or prolegs, and can strip a sapling in very short 

 time. They are known as the Painted Cup-Moth, Lintacodes 

 longcrans, and the Mottled Cup-Moth, Doratifera vulnerans. The 

 larvae are further characterized by " fore and aft " sets of 

 small defensive spines, four rosettes in each set, and which, if 

 touched, impart a smarting pain. 



But of all the forest pests the most repulsive creatures are 

 the sociable larvae of the Gum Saw-Fly, Perga dorsalis, which 

 has a serrated or notched apparatus wherewith to make cuts 

 in bark for the deposit of eggs. The larvae are often seen 

 massed in bunches on twigs of eucalypt saplings — dark, ugly, 

 and hairy — flicking their " tails," which have no prolegs, and 

 emitting a malodorous liquid when disturbed. A colony of these 

 social larvae can strip a sapling in a few days. 



In certain localities the depredations of "white ants" are 

 severe, and, like the work of beetles, often concealed, to the 

 chagrin of saw-miller and forester, who then find a fair-looking 

 forest of barely mature timber comparatively worthless, the 

 trees, like medlars, being " fair without and rotten within." 

 So long as the mechanical stress in the tree is not reduced to the 

 breaking-point, the removal of the heart-wood by " ants " and 

 fungi does not imperil the life of the tree or its appearance for 

 some years. " White ants " are not true ants, and are properly 

 known as " termites " (Termes, sp.) 



Scale insects do considerable damage to twigs and foliage. 

 They form a group known as Coccids, and the Coccidffi form 

 a branch oi study requiring a specialist. Our member, .Mr. 

 Charles French, jun., as Government Entomologist, has 

 devoted considerable attention to this group. Wattles are 

 often attacked by both borers and scale at the same time, and 

 I have seen many tine Black Wattles so destroyed. Then there 

 is a gall-fly that converts the buds of eucalypts especially 

 E. rostrata — into clusters of malformations, swollen as large as 

 small cherries, which, by reason of weight, cause breakage <>| 



