THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
159 
„ uitidaria, 
„ subsericearia, 
„ remutaria, 
„ inornaria, 
„ degeneraria, 
Timandra emutaria, 
„ imitaria, 
Dosithea rusticaria, 
„ bisetaria, 
„ reversaria. 
Of the last-named species Guenee gives 
a reference to Sepp, for the larva, but 
the plate referred to (Vol. V. PI. 8) re- 
presents not this species, hut Hudena 
Dentina. 
The remarks of “ Medicus,” in the last 
number of the ‘ Intelligencer,’ p. 150, 
encourage me to hope that some ento- 
mologist may he able to give some infor- 
mation with respect to these numerous 
larvae, and even if no descriptions of the 
larvae have been preserved, as is only too 
probably the case, still any indications 
of food and times of appearance will 
be useful ; indeed I may truly say 
that “ the smallest contributions will be 
thankfully received.” — H. T. Stainton ; 
Feb. 8, 1858. 
ELM TREES; THEIR FOES AND 
THEIR FRIENDS. 
At the last meeting of the Entomological 
Society of London, Captain Cox entered 
into some details respecting his expe- 
rience with regard to that ravager of our 
elm trees, the Scolytus destructor , and his 
modus operandi of relieving the trees of 
its presence. 
Elm trees are not uufrequently to be 
met with in a drooping, dying state, and 
when that is the case they are found to 
be much infested by this beetle: for long 
it was assumed that the beetle attacked 
the trees because they were ill, not that 
the trees were ill because they were at- 
tacked by the beetle ; now the observations 
of Captain Cox all tend to show that the 
latter is the real state of the case. 
Of eighteen trees attacked by Scolytus 
in the Regent’s Park, which were ope- 
rated upon by Captain Cox, seventeen 
recovered : now if these trees were really 
dying, and had only been attacked by 
the beetle because of their sickly condi- 
tion, is it credible that, on removing the 
beetle, the trees should recover from 
their original disorder, whatever that 
might be ? 
Captain Cox’s account of the opera- 
tions of the beetle was as follows: — 
“ The female beetle takes advantage of 
some little projecting ledge of bark and 
works her way into the bark, forming an 
upright gallery, at the edges of which 
she deposits her eggs. The ‘ frass ’ 
thrown out by the female whilst making 
this gallery betrays her whereabouts. 
The larvae when hatched bore away from 
the maternal gallery in all directions, 
feeding in the bark between the outer 
bark and wood of the tree ; the larvae 
from the eggs of a single female will 
thus excavate an area of about 4 inches 
square. Consequently when a few hun- 
dred females have selected the same tree 
for the reception of their eggs the tree 
seems well nigh doomed ; the separation 
of so large a portion of the bark from 
contact with the wood necessarily having 
a most prejudicial effect on the health of 
the tree.” 
Captain Cox’s recipe for curing the 
attacked tree is, — remove the outer bark, 
not the alburnum or inner bark in which 
these insects feed ; they have then no 
shelter, and birds soon take good care to 
deposit these fat larvae in their stomachs 
for safe custody. Of course when a tree 
is only slightly infested by these creatures 
it may suffice to remove the bark par- 
tially, for as the habitat of the beetle is 
easily detected it is by no means difficult 
to point out the precise piece of bark 
that needs to be removed. 
Captain Cox has observed that after 
