1907.] 



The Larch Shoot Moth. 



395 



Another paper on the same subject was read by Professor 

 Kosutany of Budapesth, in which he suggested the desirability 

 of researches on subjects of international importance being 

 carried out on a similar method by a number of experimental 

 stations in different countries. An International Commission 

 of Agricultural Research might be formed to decide the points 

 to be investigated and to publish the combined results. Such 

 a Commission might with advantage have its headquarters 

 in Rome in order to keep in touch with the International 

 Agricultural Institute, but might hold meetings every two or 

 three years in different countries. 



Professor Kosutany also suggested that a Central Committee 

 or a Central Station might be formed in each country, which 

 should direct and carry out international investigations, as 

 well as investigations of national importance, and generally 

 direct and advise local experimental stations. 



THE LARCH SHOOT MOTH. 



(Argyresthia {Tinea) laevigatella.) 

 R. Stewart MacDougall, M.A,, D.Sc. 



Still another enemy of the larch in Britain falls to be recorded 

 in the tiny moth, Argyresthia laevigatella. This moth is not 

 to be found in the British lists. Professor Somerville, in 

 sending me some material showing the work of the caterpillar, 

 in the month of May, wrote : " This is a very serious enemy 

 in the neighbourhood of Oxford, and, I believe, has not hitherto 

 been recorded in Britain." From this material I bred out five 

 moths. I have also received from Col. Bailey examples of the 

 damage done by the caterpillars in Bagley Woods, Oxford. Pro- 

 fessor Somerville records, in the Quarterly Journal of Forestry * 

 that in the district round Oxford larches up to twenty years of 

 age have been much injured during the past autumn and spring ; 

 and in the same number of the Quarterly Journal of Forestry 

 Mr. John Bennet records the caterpillars as destructive on 

 young larch near Basingstoke in Hampshire. 



Argyresthia laevigatella is one of the Micro-Lepidoptera, 

 some of which, belonging to the genera Retinia, Tortrix, and 

 Coleophora, are already well known as harmful forest insects 



* Quarterly Journal of Forestry, Vol. I, No. 3, July, 1907. 



