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SOME FOREST INSECTS IN THE SEASON OF 1909. 

 Rev. Thomas W. Fyles, D.C.L. 



The prophet Joel speaks of certain insects injurious to vegetation as 

 ''God's great army." How telling a sermon might be preached upon the 

 words ! Regarding destructive insects in the light thrown upon them by- 

 Joel we may speak of such seemingly innoxious insects as, under peculiar 

 circumstances, might become exceedingly injurious, as God's army 

 reserves. It will be remembered that the Colorado Potato-beetle, the Larch 

 Saw-fly, the Gipsy Moth, the Brown-tail Moth, etc., in former days received 

 but little attention. They were, so to speak, held in reserve till time and 

 occasion suited the full development of their destructive powers. 



I wish to draw your attention to a few of the species of leaf-eating 

 caterpillars that came under my observation last season, and that, it seems 

 to me might under unusual circumstances, become exceedingly destructive 

 to the plants on which they feed. 



Anisota virginiensis, Drury. This moth is widely spread in the Pro- 

 vince of Quebec. I have known it to have been taken in the Eastern Town- 

 ships, at Cape Tourmente, in the Island of Orleans, at Hull, &c. 



Last June a friend sent me, from Missisquoi County, some oak leaves 

 thickly set on the under side with the eggs of the species. 



The egg of A. virginiensis is one-twenty-fourth of an inch in diameter, 

 globular, and of a rosy light brown; but as the larva within advances in 

 growth it becomes depressed and loses the roseate tinge. At length the 

 little black-headed larva snugly curled within, becomes plainly visible 

 through the shell. 



Doubtless, the eggs sent me had been deposited by several females of 

 the kind and at slightly different intervals for they hatched irregularly. 

 The first of the young larvae to appear left the shell on the 30th of June, 

 and the others appeared at intervals, during the next fortnight, conse- 

 quently some of them had reached the third stage while others were only 

 in the first. 



The newly hatched larva was one-eighth of an inch in length. Its 

 head was large in proportion to its body and jet black. The mouth-organs 

 were yellow. The body was yellow and set with short spines. The legs 

 were pale yellow and semi-translucent. 



The larvae are gregarious. They fasten themselves in their position 

 by a fine thread, and then eat away the substance of the leaf, leaving only 

 the mid-rib and some of the large veins. When they have finished one leaf 

 they proceed to another on the same twig, and having stripped it, they 

 advance to a third, and so on, moving from leaf to leaf and from twig to 

 twig. 



