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wished in the Canadian Entomologist for 1881 (Vol. XIII, p. 37), on some larva? collected 

 in 1880, by Prof. Sargent of the United States Census, Forestry Division, from European 

 larch trees growing in the neighbourhood of Brookline, Mass. The first notice of its 

 .occurrence in Canada was the announcement made at the annual meeting of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of Ontario for 1883, by the Rev. T. W. Eyles, of South Quebec, to the 

 -effect that much injury had been done during 1882 and 1883 to the tamarac trees (Larix 

 Americana) in the eastern townships, particularly in the townships of Bury and Fingwick, 

 by a species of saw-fly, which he thought was probably the same as that which had caused 

 so much injury in Maine and the other Eastern States, Nematus Erichsonii. Mr. Fyles 

 was at that time living at Quebec, and from the fact that he did not mention having found 

 the species in that locality it may be inferred that it had not reached there then. In the 

 Quebec Morning Chronicle of the 16th July last, however, Mr. Fyles publishes a letter in 

 which he states that the tamarac trees at Beauport, near Quebec, had been nearly stripped 

 of their foliage by the larva? of this insect, and in travelling from Ottawa to the Lower 

 Provinces, in the month of July, I observed almost all along the line of railway that an 

 enormous amount of damage had been done to the tamarac trees. For miles not a tree of 

 this species could be seen that did not bear umistakable signs of their presence. At first, 

 not knowing the appearance of the trees after they had been defoliated by these larva?, I 

 supposed that the brown appearance had been caused by forest fires, which are by far too 

 frequent in Canada ; but after a time a clump of trees occurred close to the railway and I 

 was able to detect the true cause of the injury. The trees about Quebec seem to have 

 suffered most severely, and from this point, proceeding east and west, the ravages appear to 

 diminish. In the Eastern Townships I found the tamaracs badly injured. Through the 

 kindness of S. A. Fisher Esq., M.P., I was enabled to examine some trees near Brome, P.Q., 

 which were almost defoliated by these worms. The tops of the large trees and all young 

 -trees which stood alone, away from the edge of the swamp, were entirely bare, on many 

 of them there was not a green needle to be seen. I think it is hardly probable that these 

 .trees will be able to survive, for they did not throw out any later leaves towards the end 

 of the summer. Among the trees destroyed this year were some small dead trees which 

 had presumably been killed the previous season, for the terminal shoots of the branchlets 

 were twisted and distorted in the manner peculiar to the attack of this pest. Some interest- 

 ing specimens of twigs were sent to me from Quebec, by the Rev. Mr. Fyles, in the month of 

 October, in which the tree had succeeded in pushing out the leaves which had been eaten 

 down by the Nematus in July, to the distance of about a quarter of an inch. It is just 

 possible that the trees may survive the attack, unless it is again repeated next season, for 

 ithese leaves, although insufficient to perform the full functions of the foliage to the plant, 

 may yet have stored up enough food to support the tree until the next season, when the 

 marauding army having passed on to more abundant feeding grounds, will allow the 

 weakened trees to regain their vigor, the very severity of the attack working a partial 

 remedy. The instinct of the parent fly will prevent it laying its eggs where there is an 

 insufficient food supply to carry the progeny to maturity. The most western point so far 

 .recorded for this insect is Alexandria, on the Canada Atlantic Railway — miles from Ottawa, 

 this, too, is the nearest point to Ottawa where I have observed the injury to be sufficiently 

 great to attract attention. At Casselman, 30 miles from Ottawa, by searching closely I 

 found a few twigs which had been punctured by the female for the reception of the eggs; 

 and at Ottawa itself, one twig was found distorted in the characteristic manner. From 

 these facts, and the remarkable rapidity with which this destructive insect has spread over 

 the continent during the past four years, I fear that by next year the tender green foliage 

 of the larches in this locality will be destroyed, and the trees rendered as unsightly as they 

 were in Quebec and New Brunswick last year. 



Below Quebec, along the Intercolonial Railway, particularly about Chaudiere 

 Junction, by the middle of July, there was not a leaf to be seen on the tamarac trees. 

 Soon after leaving Chaudiere Junction the country is open and there are no trees to be 

 =een for a long distance. It was not until the Province of New Brunswick was entered 

 that I again had a chance to notice the ravages of this insect. During a short visit to 

 Dalhousie, N.B., I had a good oportunity of observing the work and life -histories of these 

 .iiirvcfi closely. The first evidence that I saw of the presence of the insect was a row of 



6 (EN.) 



