CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 41 



quainted with the Cossidoe to know this. ' It remained for that able entomologist and 

 excellent man, now gone to his rest, Dr. J. A. Lintner, State Entomologist of New 

 York, to name and describe this fine insect. 



The moth lays its eggs in crevices of the bark of the poplar. The young larvae 

 eat into the tree, and as they grow enlarge their tunnels. When they approach the end 

 of their larval career they bite their way to the surface, leaving only a thin flim of bark 

 between them and the outer air. They then retire into their tunnels, beyond the reach 

 of the woodpeckers, to undergo their pupal change. But when the time arrives how 

 can the footless chrysalis reascend the tunnel that the moth may escape? Nature has 

 provided for this. Around each of the abdominal segments of the chrysalis is a row of 

 serratures or teeth which give it a hold upon the sides of its tunnel and enable it to 

 work its way to the outlet. It then thrusts itself about half an inch through the open- 

 ing. Its case bursts open, and the perfect insect escapes. 



The horn-tail, Tremex columba, Linneus, is a creature of formidable appearance. 

 It has a stout acuform, but hollow ovipositor, which extends in its sheath from the 

 fcniddle of the underside of the abdomen to a length of half an inch beyond its extremity. 

 The Tremex drives this instrument through the bark and into the soft wood of the tree 

 K which is usually a maple or a beech), and then by muscular action it passes its eggs 

 through the ovipositor to the end of the wound it has made. The Tremex is, in many 

 instances, so exhausted in the process that it has not strength to withdraw its ovipositor 

 and perishes at its post. 



As soon as the young larvae are hatched they begin to tunnel in different direc- 

 tions, enlarging their passages as they grow. 



Other horn-tails of like habits to the Tremex are Sirex albicornis, Fabridius, 

 iSirex fiavicorniS; Fabr., and Paururus cyaneus, Fabr., and these assail the pine. 



It must not be supposed that nature has left these borers to multiply and work 

 their will without a check. If she had, the forests would long ago have disappeared. 

 No, a number of formidable ichneumon flies, with yet longer ovipositors, are en- 

 gaged in reducing their hosts. 



Indeed every kind of destructive insect has its foes. Insectivorous birds and 

 predaceous insects under ordinary circumstances keep the spoilers within bounds. 

 And man may give his assistance to nature for the same end. For instance, h"e can 

 preserve the woodpeckers and soft-billed birds. The man who would shoot a wood- 

 pecker deserves to be ostracized. I wish I could hear more frequently the boisterous 

 laughing call of that noble bird, the Bonnetted Woodpecker, Picus pileus, Alas, its 

 leauty has been to it ' a fatal gift.' It has drawn the attention of the fowler. 



When a tree is found with horn-tails affixed in the position I have mentioned, it. 

 may be known that that tree is a hopeless case. It should be felled, and split for stove 

 wood, and then certainly one colony of borers would be destroyed. 



The proper and timely burning of bush-piles will do much to lessen the num- 

 bers of insects. Brush should be burned, not when the ground is covered with dry 

 herbage and dead leaves, but when vegetation is lush and green; and this is the time 

 when insects abound, and when fire and smoke would work havoc amongst them. 



It would be, I think, for the public good if our government would appoint, in 

 every county in "which lumbering operations are being carried on, and new settle- 

 ments formed, Government Foresters, intelligent men of high character. Their 

 duties should be to preserve the game, destroy the wolves, regulate the burning of the 

 debris of the lumber camps and clearings, see to the due observance of forest-laws, 

 and generally to conserve woodland interests. They should wear a uniform that their 

 office might be known. I think that such government employes would have important 

 duties to perform, -and that their life would be an interesting and attractive one. I 

 can fancy them taking up Amien's song and saying: 



" Under the greenwood tree, 

 Who loves to roam with me, 

 And tune his merry note 



