176 HARDY CONIFEROUS TREES. 



Burning all dead and dying brushwood, so as to do away 

 with the breeding-grounds of the insect, is the only reasonable 

 remedy when whole plantations are attacked ; but in the case 

 of single specimens, collecting and burning the affected shoots 

 is to be recommended. 



Pine weevil {Curculio Abietis) attacks several species of 

 Pinus, Picea, and Abies. The buds of the leading shoots or the 

 bark on the stem and branches suffer most. It is a blackish- 

 brown beetle, nearly \ an inch long, and usually attacks 

 young trees up to twelve years old. The breeding-ground 

 being dead and dying wood, recently felled trees and their 

 stumps, one means of retaining the insect in check will be 

 the keeping of the woodlands free from such. Fresh pieces 

 of pine bark placed beneath infested trees often prove 

 excellent traps. The trees should be shaken carefully, and 

 the traps examined the following morning, when many insects 

 may be destroyed. 



Pine sawfly {Lophyms Pint). — Although not plentiful 

 in this country, this insect occasionally commits much damage 

 by defoliating the conifers on which it is found. The full- 

 grown caterpillar is of a greenish-yellow colour, about i inch 

 long, the male smaller than the female. By shaking the cater- 

 pillars into a sheet placed beneath the infested tree, many 

 may be collected and destroyed. Sprinkling the trees with 

 Paris green or Hellebore is also to be recommended. I have 

 counted one hundred and seventy caterpillars on a shoot 

 under twelve inches long. 



Pine shoot nnoths {Retinia turionella and R. buoliand). 

 — These usually attack the various species of Pinus, but I 

 have only found them on P. Strobus, P. excelsa, P. stlvesiris, 

 and P. Pinaster. Quite recently I visited a Scotch pine 

 plantation, the buds of the trees in which were in many 

 instances quite destroyed by the caterpillars of this beautifully 

 coloured moth. At the base of the buds the moth lays its 

 eggs, and into these the caterpillars enter by hollowing out 

 the centre, thus destroying their vitality, and causing them to 

 feel soft and empty to the touch, and to take on a withered 



