5 



and partially destroyed the timber, or where logs after being cut have been allowed to 

 remain a season in the woods or in the mill yard — there these insects gather and soon 

 i ultiply to a prodigious extent. The mature insect is over an inch in length; the 

 antennas of the male reaches the extraordinary length of from two to three inches, 

 while those of the female are shorter. The female lays her eggs in the crevices of the 

 bark, where the larvae when hatched eat their way into the wood, burrowing extensive 

 galleries through the solid timber ; when mature they are large, white, almost cylindri- 

 cal, footless grubs. They pass their chrysalis stage within their burrows, and the per- 

 fect insect on its escape eats its way out through the bark. There are about a dozen 

 species in this family known to be destructive to pine. 



Most of the insects belonging to the family Buprestidce may be recognized by their 

 brilliant metallic colours ; they have very short antennae which are notched on one side 

 like the teeth of a saw, and are often hidden from view by being bent under the thorax. 

 Ckalcophora liberta is one of the most destructive to pine trees, and its history is very 

 similar to that of the long-horned beetle just described, but the larva is of a different 

 form, and has the anterior segments or rings of the body very large, reminding one of 

 the appearance of a tadpole. The perfect insect is about three-quarters of an inch long, 

 of a brassy or coppery hue, with the thorax and wing-covers deeply furrowed by irregu- 

 lar longitudinal depressions. Dr. Fitch enumerates twelve species belonging to this 

 family which are known to be injurious to pine. Additional information in reference to 

 these beetles may be found in an article contained in the last annual report of our 

 Society, by Mr. J. Fletcher, of Ottawa. 



The cylindrical bark beetles, Scolytidce, are also a numerous family, eight species of 

 which are kuown to attack pine. The boring Hylurgus, Hylurgus terebrans, is probably 

 one of the commonest. This beetle is about a quarter of an inch long, of a chestnut 

 red colour, thinly clothed with yellowish hairs, and is found during the month of 

 May. The larva, which is a small yellowish white footless grub, bores winding passages 

 in every direction in the inner layers of the bark of the tree, and also through the outer 

 surface of the wood. 



In some parts of our Province pines are greatly injured and sometimes killed by 

 the attacks of a woolly bark louse, which covers parts of the trunk and branches with 

 a white cottony secretion, under the protection of which myriads of tiny lice live, 

 puncturing the bark with their sharp beaks and exhausting the trees by feeding upon 

 the sap. 



While we are mainly interested in the preservation of our mature forests, the future 

 of our country demands that we shall not overlook the young growth on which the lum- 

 ber supply fifty or a hundred years hence must largely depend, and which it should be 

 the policy of our rulers to protect as far as possible. Most of the governments of 

 Europe are now fully alive to the importance of this matter, and are annually spending 

 large sums of money in establishing young forests. Two years ago I called your atten- 

 tion to an insect then recently discovered by Prof. A. E. Grote, of Buffalo, which was 

 greatly injuring the terminal shoots of both the white and red pines in Western Nev 

 York; it was the larva of a small moth, Nephopteryx Zimmermani, which fed under thb 

 bark, causing a free exudation of resinous matter from the wounds it made, followed 

 usually by the death of the twigs infested. Since then it has been found over a much 

 wider area than was at first anticipated, and I have no doubt but that it is to-day ma- 

 terially retarding the growth of young pine trees in many portions of our Province. 



At a recent meeting of the Entomological Club of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science (where our Society was represented by your President and 

 Vice-President), Mr. S. H. Scudder, of Boston, submitted some observations on another 

 lepidopterous insect which is injuring the young pines growing on the Island of Nan- 

 tucket. It is a species of Retinia closely allied to Retinia duplana of Europe. The moth 

 lays her eggs near the tips of the twigs, down which the young larvae burrow, killing them 

 outright, and thus stunting and almost destroying the trees. Prof. Comstock, of Wash- 

 ington, also referred to two other species of Retinia which he had observed injuring the 

 pine trees in that city. 



In addition to ail these, there are a score or two of species of insects which are known 



