iJo. 1. ] Miscellaneous Notes. 15 



tree, which constitutes the most generally useful wood of the country, 

 suffers severely from the attack of a boring- insect. This insect proves 

 to be the caterpillar of an ^gerlid motli, allied to the species which 

 attacks poi)lar trees in England; it has been kindly examined by Mr. F. 

 Moore, who determines it as a new species of Sphecia, which he describes 

 below as Sphecia ommaUaformis. The poplar trees are grown from 

 cuttings and when about two years old they are almost invariably 

 attacked by the caterpillar, which bores through the trunk and riddles 

 it in all directions close to the ground, generally killing off the stem 

 before it gets to be five years old, but leaving the roots intact, so that 

 fresh shoots are made from the ground. These shoots, having well 

 established roots to support them, generally manage to survive the 

 attack of the insect and to repair the damage by throwing fresh wood 

 around the injured portion. The loss therefore that is occasioned by 

 the insect, chiefly consists in the throwing back of the growth of the 

 young trees by two or three years. Now, as the tree is a fast-growing one, 

 this loss is very considerable, two-year old trees being often as much 

 as fourteen feet high, with trunks two and a half inches in diameter, 

 when they are killed down by the pest. Out of thirt.y-five trees, planted 

 out five years previously, Mr. Cleghorn found remaining eight of the 

 original trees which had survived the attack of the insect, fifteen trees, 

 each apparently from three to four years old, and twelve trees each one 

 to two years old, all growing upon the original roots and derived from 

 the shoots sent up after the original stems had been destroyed by 

 the insect. With regard to the life history of the insect, from May 

 to September, only caterpillars could be found in the burrows in the 

 trunks, but in September chrysalids began to be formed in cocoons made 

 of chips and situated near the entrances of the burrows, and moths 

 appeared in October. The eggs therefore are probably laid in the bark 

 in the early part of the cold weather, as the coldness of the Peshin 

 winter makes it unlikely that the moths could hybernate, though the 

 amount of fatty matter found in the body of the moth makes its hyber- 

 nation in this stage by no means impossible. Whether, however, the 

 moth lays its eggs soon after it emerges in the autumn, or hybernatesand 

 lays them in the spring, the cycle of the existence of the insect probably 

 extends through one year. 



The moth, which has been reared in the Indian Museum from stumps 

 forwarded by Mr. Cleghorn from Baluchistan, is a small clear winged 

 j3i]geriid, and so closely resembles the wasp Vespa cincta in appearance as 

 to be easily mistaken for it when looked at superficially ; and this likeness, 

 as in the case of other mimicking insects, no doubt affords the moth a 

 considerable degree of immunity from the attack of the birds which 

 would otherwise feed upon it, Vespa cincta, with its powerful sting, not 

 being an insect to be molested with impunity. (The figures show the 



