IQO TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the needles should be examined for signs of feeding. The 

 young caterpillars do not eat the whole needle but bite pieces 

 out of the edges of it. At a later date, when the caterpillars are 

 more fully grown and separate in search of food, the whole 

 rosette of needles will be eaten or only a stump left. In August 

 and September these defoliated dwarf shoots may sprout again, 

 and present almost the same appearance as they did in May, 

 except of course that the growth is irregular. These indications 

 are to be found in varying intensity on all trees that have been 

 attacked, but in the case of a serious infestation the trees 

 present a brown and withered appearance which is noticeable 

 hundreds of yards away, and, after a little practice, the more 

 seriously affected trees can be picked out at a distance. When 

 the attack is very serious and prolonged the trees die, and there 

 is then no difficulty in realising the damage done. Nearly all 

 these manifestations are shown in the articles on the saw-fly 

 which were written for the Journal of the Board of Agriculture 

 by Dr MacDougalH and Dr Hewitt, and in Leaflet i86. 



The Board would be glad if all persons connected with the 

 care of larch plantations would search for the pest during the 

 summer and autumn of 1910, and would communicate to them 

 immediately the discovery, by the presence of any of the above 

 mentioned indications, of saw-fly attack. In order, however, to 

 make any report of value, the following additional information 

 should be sent : — 



(i) The name of the wood or plantation, with some indication 

 of the place where it is to be found. 



(2) The approximate size of the wood. 



(3) A description of the intensity of the attack according to 

 the following scale : — 



Intensity I. — (Worst). Some trees already dead ; others 

 with crowns very thin and practically defoliated in 

 mid-summer. General appearance of trees moribund. 

 Leading shoots have been attacked. 



Intensity II. — No trees dead. Trees badly browned in 

 mid-summer. Few terminal shoots to lateral branches 

 produced during current year, dwarfed shoots thereby 

 stimulated to growth with result that these new shoots 

 have been utilised for Qgg laying by the saw-fly, 



1 CJ. Trans, xx., p. 4^. 



