REPORTS BY THE HONORARY SCIKNTISTS. 345 



2. Report of Honorary Consulting Entomologist 

 for Session 1903. 



During the year a considerable amount of material has been sent 

 on to me for identification, and among it, as usual, that ever- 

 present enemy, the Pine Beetle {Hylesinus piniperda). As I 

 pointed out in a report on this beetle some years ago, nothing is 

 so favourable for the encouragement and spread of the pest as 

 leaving felled Scots pine timber or blow-downs unbarked for any 

 length of time, as such material is instinctively chosen for breeding 

 purposes. In woods where the beetle is troublesome, the most 

 • practical remedial measure is to adopt the system of traps or 

 "catch-trees." These " catch-trees " may be sickly pines standing 

 in the wood and marked, or else trees felled here and there at 

 intervals for the purpose. Such standing trees, or felled unbarked 

 logs, will be chosen by the beetles for their egg-laying. When 

 these come to be barked at proper intervals, the whole of the 

 enclosed brood in the larval stage can be burned with the bark. 

 There should be a series of such traps from March right on till the 

 autumn, a new series being prepared every month. Great care 

 must be taken to make the round of such traps at regular and 

 proper intervals, and as a guide in this connection 1 may mention 

 that the whole life-cycle can be passed through in eighty days. 

 Such predaceous insects — enemies of H. piniperda — as Clerus 

 formicarius and Rhizophagus depressus, both of which I have 

 found attacking wood-boring beetles, should be spared. 



In the autumn of last year I had sent on to me, by Mr Wm. 

 Inglis, Cladoch, Brodick, a specimen of Sirex juvencus, the Steel 

 Blue Wood Wasp, and also its handsome parasite, Rhyssa persua- 

 soria. This repeated capture of Rhyssa is interesting as another 

 proof that the Steel Blue Wood Wasp breeds in our woods. 



Mr Fred Moon, Foynes, Limerick, has been most active during 

 the year in his insect observations. His sendings included Melo- 

 lontha vulgaris, whose grubs caused much destruction in a nursery 

 to young conifers. I hope that in the next Transactions Mr Moon 

 will give a detailed account of his observations and hght against 

 the pest. From the same observer came Eel-Worms, Orchestes 

 fagi, Orchestes querci, and Rhagium hifasciatum. In connection 

 with 0. querci, the weevil whose grubs are destructive miners in 

 oak leaves, there have been some interesting observations. When 



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