CH. IV 



ALLIES AND ENEMIES 71 



it is in the larval stage that they can be captured most 

 easily and killed. 



Among the most deservedly unpopular insects of the 

 Tropics are the white-ants or termites. But to the 

 forester they are of concern chiefly on account of their 

 attacks on timber after it has been felled. It is not 

 common for them to attack healthy plants and trees, 

 but should the latter become affected from some other 

 cause their tissues are very soon attacked. It is for this 

 reason that termites are particularly dangerous in 

 nurseries and young plantations before young plants 

 have had the time to recover from the shock caused by 

 transplanting, and that, in such places, it is essential to 

 move the seedlings most carefully in order that the 

 root-systems may be disturbed as little as possible. In 

 permanent nurseries it may be feasible to prick out 

 transplants or cuttings into beds with a cement bottom ; 

 but this is not always practicable in temporary nurseries, 

 and the seedlings should either be raised in baskets or 

 taken up with large balls of earth. Various compounds 

 have been tried to preserve trees from attacks of termites, 

 with more or less success, but as the chief damage is 

 usually done to the roots or the collum, they are not of 

 very much use against these injuries. 



Where those useful animals, the ant-eaters, exist, 

 they should be strictly preserved ; bears are also useful 

 in destroying termites. Considerable damage to young 

 shoots is often caused by the attacks of Aphidae and 

 Coccidae. Only recently (1909 and 1910) the fine 

 avenues of Albizzia Lebbek in Cairo have been destroyed 

 by the former. It is evident that pure forests are par- 

 ticularly liable to the ravages of these insects, and that 

 a mixture of species is a great safeguard. The protection 

 of birds or insects which feed on these, such as certain 

 kinds of lady-birds, bugs, etc., is also essential. 



Damage is also done by certain ants which cut away 

 the leaves, by wood-boring bees and wasps, but as a rule 

 it is not on a wholesale scale. 



Among; other animals doing damage to the forest 



