180 PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



with greyish-white fringes. The lower side is of a glossy, silk- 

 like dark-grey, and spotted with yellowish-red and white near 

 the upper edges. 



The caterpillar, attaining a length of about O56 inches, is light- 

 brown in colour, with glossy black head and thorax. 



The chrysalis is of a dirty yellowish-brown colour, and about 

 0'32 inches in length. 



The moth swarms during the evenings about the beginning of 

 July, whilst during the daytime it remains quietly seated on the 

 needles and shoots of young Pines, with the wings ranged over 

 each other like the tiles on a roof. 



The female deposits her eggs singly on the buds of the young 

 shoots, almost unexceptionally of young Scots Pine between 

 5 and 12 years of age, into which the tiny caterpillars proceed to 

 bore, when they make their appearance from the shell in August ; 

 but owing to the diminutive size of the caterpillar, the havoc it is 

 beginning to commit is hardly noticeable during the first autumn. 

 During the following spring the caterpillar becomes more ener- 

 getic and active, and the damage done is greater ; still the bud is 

 able to develop itself partially, before the shoot dies off through 

 being hollowed out. As a rule, the terminal bud gets hollowed 

 out first, and then later on the side-buds forming the whorl 

 Should one of these remain uninjured, it takes over the function 

 of the leading-shoot. But in doing so, it not infrequently happens 

 that a shoot thus damaged makes a downward bend before com- 

 mencing its upward growth ; it recovers itself when the injury 

 inflicted has only been moderate, though even then the bend at 

 the damaged place is still recognisable many years afterw 

 and sometimes even when the tree approaches maturity. 



In June the caterpillar enters the pupal stage of metam 

 phosis at the base of the hollow it has scooped out inside t 

 shoot. 



Where this insect occurs in any large numbers, the young 

 Pines are apt to be attacked every year, when they of course 

 become sickly in growth and crippled in development, so that the 

 total damage done may be somewhat considerable. 



The only means of preventing its attacks is to break off all the 

 shoots attacked, which are easily recognisable, during May and 

 till the middle of June, so as thus to destroy both caterpillars 

 and chrysalides ; but in respect to the latter, care must be tak 



