4 ;8 



Notes on Insect and Fungus Pests, [sept., 



Pests of Forest Trees. — The memorandum issued by the 

 Board on the subject of the Large Larch Sawfly, to which 

 reference was made in the issue of the 

 Notes on Journal for July, p. 316, produced a 



Insect and Fungus number of reports from the affected 

 Pests. districts. The Board's Inspectors have 



also been engaged in searching sus- 

 pected districts, and have discovered a number of cases of 

 infested larch plantations which were not known to be 

 attacked before. The pest has spread from the Welsh area 

 into the Western counties of England, and has been recorded 

 in Herefordshire. It is satisfactory, however, to be able to 

 record that in several places the infestation is less serious 

 than last year, especially in those plantations where remedial 

 measures were attempted. 



A number of other forest pests have also been reported, 

 chiefly by the owners of the plantations. The Pine Sawfly 

 (Lophyrus pini) has been found in the neighbourhood of 

 Carlisle, in several places in Wales, and in West Scotland, 

 as well as in Northumberland and Rutland. In some of the 

 cases the trees affected were only a few feet high, and it 

 seemed quite possible to pick or brush the caterpillars off the 

 trees, and to drop them into buckets containing a little 

 paraffin, or to jar them off the trees on to tarred sacks. The 

 removal and destruction of the moss and litter under such 

 trees in the autumn and winter would be advisable. 



The Small Larch Sawfly (Nematus laricis) has been 

 reported from Crieff (Perthshire) and Northumberland. In 

 both cases it appeared to be doing some damage. Some of 

 the caterpillars were found feeding well into August. 



In three places reports were made to the Board that larch 

 trees had been attacked by some pest, which, in one case at 

 least, was supposed to be the Nematus Erichsoni. No cater- 

 pillars were found, but the shoots of the larch presented un- 

 mistakable signs of the presence of the grub of the Larch 

 Shoot Moth, Argyresthia (Leaflet 208). As a result of more 

 careful observation and search the Larch Shoot Moth is 

 being found over a wide area in Britain. The Argyresthia 

 attacks were reported from Midhurst in West Sussex, 

 Wiveliscornbe in Somerset, and Woodbridge in Suffolk. It 



