16 L, Feringiiey, Insects Injurious to [Jan. 28, 



has been done in the Cape Colony, for investigation into the life- 

 habits of those insects that are injurious to vegetation in general and 

 forest trees in particular. 



It is only lately that a Forest Department has been formed. The 

 head of the department, Count de Yasselot, has succeeded in bringing 

 together some specimens of the indigenous woods, and in having them 

 exhibited in the Forestry Exhibition of Edinburgh, where a gold 

 medal was awarded to the Cape Colony. The sundry kinds of woods 

 must, then, have been admired, or at least, thought worthy of atten- 

 tion, and, for all we know, may become a source of revenue for the 

 Colony, under a careful and systematic plan of forestry regulations. 



Now, the insects, mostly or almost exclusively coleopterous (with the 

 exception perhaps of certain moths of which more anon), have a very 

 great influence on forest trees. In truth, a giant of the forest will 

 succumb before the attacks of an insect one line long. What a sino-le 

 Scohjtus cannot do, thousands will, and they do it too, because th*eir 

 number is legion. Many times in looking at some of the larger forms of 

 Prionidae (a few of which I exhibit), the fact thatasingle one of these 

 has perhaps caused ih.Q utter destruction of a noble tree that took 

 years to come to a perfect state, until the auger of a female of those 

 insects selected its surface in which to deposit an QgQ, has forcibly been 

 brought to my mind. 



I do not pretend to say that a knowledge of the life-habits of the 

 insect or insects, thus causing damage to trees, will enable one to 

 eradicate the evil ; but it will go far towards finding a remedy for it, 

 and I wiU give as example the case of the European long-horn 

 ^' Ceramhjx _ herosy Common formerly, near Paris, according to 

 Blanchard, it is now very scarce, and that, because from the moment 

 that its life-habits have become well known, man has been able, 

 knowing where, when and how to find it, to cope with it successfully 

 and to reduce its ravages to a minimum. 



Being, unfortunately, without any knowledge of the habits of life 

 of ligniperdous South African insects, I must treat by analogy of those 

 which happen to be noxious elsewhere, and which according to their 

 natural affinities, must be noxious also in South Africa. 



As I have stated before, the coleopterous order of insects is that 

 which causes most damage to trees, and, as I have devoted eight years 

 to forming a coUection of South African Coleoptera, I have been able, 

 I beheve, to arrive at an approximate idea of their affinities. 



DISTRIBUTION OF INSECTS. 



The forests, or bushes, as they are termed in colonial phraseology, 

 are comparatively of small extent. They are mostly found in the 

 eastern part, beginning from Plettenberg Bay, and extend along the 

 sea-coast, as far as Mozambique. Nowhere is, I believe, this more 

 exemplified than near Durban, Natal, which possesses a luxuriant 

 semi-tropical vegetation, which ceases entirely as one advances into 

 the interior of that Colony. If we take the western parts, we find a 

 stunted vegetation ; and here and there a clump of trees, mostly thorn 

 {Acacia horrida) some Karee Boom {Rhus vminalis), except in 

 kloofs in which a few indigenous trees are still found, where the work 

 of denudation by the axe has been hampered for some reasons. 

 Some mountains have a few Proteacae, That rarity of trees implies 



