332 
Annual Report for 1908 of the Zoologist. 
standing danger to all the orchards in the neighbourhood for 
several years. 
This seemed to be a particularly appropriate case for 
banding the trunks, and this measure was decided on, though 
the trees were large and about five hundred in number. 
As is well known, the female winter moth cannot fly but 
crawls up the trunk to lay its eggs on the shoots, and the 
sticky material on the bands prevents its reaching its 
destination. 
Coniferous Trees . — Two cases of Pine-beetle attack ( Myelo - 
philus piniperda ) were reported early in the year. It was 
noticed that numerous young shoots had fallen off and strewed 
the ground, and these, on examination, showed signs of the 
work of the beetle. The following extract from my 1903 
Report with regard to it may be reprinted here : — 
“ Pine trees, especially the Scotch fir ( Pinus sylrestris ), are much injured 
by the feeding of this beetle in the young shoots, which are killed by its 
boring. The shoots are not attacked for the purpose of breeding, for which 
the bark of dead or dying pine trees is utilised. Under such bark the 
female beetle bores a tunnel some four inches long, its direction- lying up and 
down the trunk, except for a sharp bend at the entrance end. Along this 
tunnel the eggs are laid, and the grubs which hatch out form smaller galleries 
more or less at right-angles in the soft inner bark, turning to pupae at the blind 
ends of the galleries, and eating their way out through the bark as beetles, 
some in July, but most in the following April or May. 
“ It follows that the best way to prevent the beetle from attacking the 
shoots is to deprive it of all suitable breeding places. Dead pines must never 
be left lying on the ground with the bark on — unless, indeed, as traps to induce 
the beetles to lay in them, in which case the bark should be stripped off and 
burnt with the contained grubs early in June. It is best to fell and strip 
failing pines, and to attend to the stumps of previously felled trees.” 
The other coniferous pests complained of have for the most 
part belonged to the aphis group, the larch-bug being the 
most familiar example. From time to time I have asked 
members to inform me of any case of larch-bug disease where 
no galled spruces could be found in the neighbourhood, but no 
such case has so far been brought to my notice. According to 
the present state of our knowledge the spruce is the principal 
host of this insect, and it is on that tree alone that both sexes 
are to be found, but winged females migrate to the larch, and 
there set up larch-bug disease. 
The fact that many members of the aphis tribe alternate 
between two plants, the one known as the principal host, and 
the other as the intermediate host, is obviously of great 
practical importance. 
In May some twigs from Silver Fir ( Abies pectinata) were 
sent for examination. They were attacked by a Chermes 
which seemed to me to agree with the description given by 
Cholodkovsky of Chermes coccineus, a form which alternates 
