X-j8 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of tree-planters, although during the harvesting and shearing 

 periods specially attractive offers from farmers occasionally 

 induce our employees to temporarily leave the service of the 

 Department, only to find on again making application that the 

 vacancy thus created has been filled." 



The aim of this very able report is to show in as condensed a 

 form as possible what has already been accomplished by the 

 Department. It is profusely illustrated by excellent photographs 

 which show very clearly every phase of the work involved from 

 the nursery to the completed plantation, and a study of these 

 plates indicates in an unmistakable manner how efficiently that 

 work is being done. 



28. Note on the Occurrence in Scotland of Megastigmus 

 pinus in the Seed of Abies nobilis, Lindl.^ 



By James Fraser, B.Sc. 



The Chalcid Family of the Order Hymenoptera contains a 

 very large number of species, the great majority of which are 

 parasitic on other insects. Some species, however, are 

 phytophagous in habit, and of these, several, belonging to the 

 subfamily Megastigminae and the genus Megastigmus, lay their 

 eggs in seeds : in these seeds the larvae hatch and feed so that 

 the seeds are ruined. Pupation of the full-fed larvae takes place 

 under cover of the hollowed-out seed, from which, when ready, 

 the adult insect issues by a hole. 



Of Megastigmus species that infest conifer seeds three have 

 been recorded in Britain : — 



Megastigmus pinus, Parfitt, of this note; 

 Megastigmus spermotrophus, Wachtl. ; and 

 Megastigmus strobilobius, Ratz. 



Megastigmus spermotrophus was first described as a new 

 species by Wachtler of Vienna, in 1893, the insects having 

 issued from the seeds of the Douglas fir. In 1906 this insect was 

 recorded by Dr MacDougall here in the seeds of Douglas fir from 

 Aberdeenshire where the insect had proved very destructive. 

 Later, in 1909, the species was recorded by Crosby in a bulletin 

 from Cornell University. The seed from which he obtained his 



' Reprinted from Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin. , vol. xxvi. , part 4. 



