1890.] WINTER MOTH 183 



my best thanks for the exceedingly interesting transmission, 

 received through your kindness this morning. Your own 

 " Insect Life," 3 pts. ; " The Root Knot disease " ; and Mr. 

 Koebele's "Australian Thrips" are all very valuable contribu- 

 tions to my library, and I greatly wish I were able to recipro- 

 cate more worthily. There is one point in reply to which, if 

 you are quite willing, I should much like to be allowed to 

 insert a few lines. It is to the paragraph headed "Traps for 

 the Winter Moth Useless," p. 289, of March No. of " Insect 

 Life." Mr. R. McLachlan is mentioned as having stated 

 that traps which aim at destruction of the males of the 

 Cheimatobia brunata, Winter moth (fig. 30) are useless, as 

 enough will remain to fertilize the winged females. This I 

 should have conjectured to be a well-known fact but it is 

 not this point which we are in any way working on, in any 

 of the prevention details with which I am myself acquainted. 

 Our difficulty, as you will see mentioned in my thirteenth 

 Report, if you will kindly turn to p. 67, is the transportation of 

 the females in the act of pairing by the winged males to the 

 trees. This is a point much observed in this country, and I 

 have to-day once again had my attention drawn to this 

 difficulty in the matter of prevention, by a Somersetshire 

 correspondent who in confirmation of his observation has 

 preserved the pair in his collection. It is solely to meet this 

 difficulty that we use tarred boards and lights in any pre- 

 ventive operations with which I am connected. I do not 

 see the " Gardeners' Chronicle," and I am not in communi- 

 cation with Mr. McLachlan or I would have replied in my 

 own country and given the necessary explanations, but, if 

 you approve, I should much like to be allowed to insert the 

 above observations, otherwise the various Superintendents 

 and myself might appear to your readers (whose good 

 opinion I should like to merit) as wonderfully ignorant of 

 what I believe is a well-known fact. 



We have now formed a kind of Society Conference with 

 Experimental Committee of some of our best orchard 

 growers in the West of England for the purpose of them- 

 selves experimenting, and reporting to the frequently 

 recurring meetings as to the effects of Paris-green, 

 London-purple, &c. At last our people are roused to 

 feel that " greasing " will not do everything. 



I shall look with exceeding interest to the result of your 

 Hypoderma or (Estrus (Warble and Botfly) experiments. I 

 sincerely hope that you will be able to rear the imago. 



I have been greatly disturbed (and am consequently not 



