a 



LEPIDOPTERA. 279 



gloss like lead ; the fore edges are somewhat darker ; the fringes of 

 these fore wings are grey or brownish-grey. 



" The hind wings arc dark-grey, and not so glossy. The face is 

 white ; the base of the antennae is white, and the rest of the antennas 

 dark and light-ringed. There is a tuft of hairs on the head ; the 

 colour of the hairs is given differently by different Continental author- 

 ities, in my own specimens the colour is yellow. The abdomen of 

 the moth is dark-grey. 



" Caterpillar. The larva is pale yellow when young, but later is 

 pale grey with a dash of red, and is dark striped towards the hind 

 end of the back. The head and the three front pairs of legs are black. 

 The length, 6 to 7 millimetres. 



" Pupa. The pupa is dark-brown, with a black head ; its hind end 

 is distinctly pointed." 



As regards the life-history of this insect, the moth appears in the 

 latter end of May or beginning of June. The eggs are deposited in 

 the lower part of the shoot of the current year. The egg soon hatches, 

 and the tiny caterpillar bores below the epidermis. Meanwhile the 

 shoot develops, but when winter overtakes the larva it hibernates in 

 the hollow made by itself. In early spring it awakes, and commences 

 eating where it left off, with the result that the shoot is very much 

 weakened, and thus the injury not only arrests development but finally 

 kills the twig, as shown in fig. 266, which was photographed in the 

 latter end of June 1907. 



The caterpillar is full fed about the end of April, so that the pupal 

 stage is comparatively short. 



As regards remedies for this pest, it is perhaps well to remember 

 that the creature has only been recently recognised in this country, 

 and therefore the full extent of the damage is not thoroughly under- 

 stood. If the damage be done to twigs on trees from ten to twenty 

 years of age, little could be effected ; but if (as I have from preliminary 

 observation discovered) on young trees the second year after planting, 

 something might be done. One rarely sees larch plants in the nursery- 

 lines affected. The inference, therefore, is that weakly shoots are 

 selected, as dead twigs are obviously a necessity for the final trans- 

 formation of the creature. Hence the greater vigour accruing from 

 careful planting would to some extent act as a check. When, how- 

 ever, the young shoots are attacked, the dead or dying twigs in the 

 recently planted wood should be recognised as early as possible in 



