144 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA: 



attention was directed to the great destruction of timber 

 which was taking place in the Rosedale and other 

 districts of Gippsland ; and these larvae were suspected 

 by the late Dr. A. W. Howitt who was himself a lover 

 of trees, and an authority on Australian eucalypts to 

 be the principal culprits. I visited the districts, and 

 found that the doctor had been correct in his surmises, 

 as hundreds of acres of trees largely composed of red 

 gum (Eucalyptus rostra to) had been stripped of their 

 foliage by these grubs ; and, as this work of destruction 

 had been going on for some years, the trees became 

 exhausted, and were dying off by the hundreds, the 

 larvae of the pest being present in countless numbers. 



Successful treatment seemed to be out of the question, 

 as the great height of the trees rendered any spraying 

 impossible, when, fortunately, a terribly long-sustained 

 drought was broken by a very severe thunderstorm, 

 followed by a great rain and hail, the combination of 

 these downpours having evidently destroyed the greater 

 part of the larvae ; and thus further encroachments from 

 this pest ceased, at least for a season or more. 



The eggs of these moths are deposited in large 

 numbers amongst the loose bark of the large eucalypts, 

 and the newly-hatched larvae crawl up the tree, and at 

 once commence to eat the whole surface of the foliage. 

 The larvae lie, and crawl flat along the surface of the 

 leaves, and without the jerky motion so frequently 

 noticed in the caterpillars of some moths. 



The grubs of these moths are mostly voracious feeders, 

 and are evidently not relished by birds, which latter 

 so far as a long bush experience serves me seldom, if 

 ever, eat these small, though handsome, caterpillars. 



Mr. Froggatt, in his valuable work, "Australian 

 Insects" (a book which, by the way, no working 

 entomologist, naturalist, or fruit grower should be 

 without), makes mention of these larvae attacking the 

 foliage of apricots ; and in our own State they are known 

 to attack apple trees also. 



