50 
F. W. SILVESTER—REPORT ON INSECTS 
the caterpillar has been reached; or, by means of a hooked wire, 
the caterpillar when feeding near the outside of the tree may be 
drawn out. Another good plan is to inject paraffin by means of a 
sharp-nozzled syringe into the tunnel; any other poisonous fluid 
or the fumes of anything poisonous might be applied in the same 
way, and a hit of soft clay kept well pressed up to the mouth of 
the hole would keep the application from escaping.” The injury 
effected by this timber-pest is well shown in a portion of the ash 
tree which Mr. Gadsden sent to me, and through his kindness 
those who are present will be able to see the destruction wrought 
by Cossus ligniperda. The other part of the tree, at the request of 
the Consulting Entomologist to the Royal Agricultural Society, has 
been prepared by Mr. Mosley, Beaumont Park, Huddersfield, as a 
specimen for the Museum at Kew Gardens. It is gratifying that 
our Society should be able to make an acceptable contribution 
towards completing the examples of insect-injury in such an im¬ 
portant collection. 
Dr. Brett has informed me that Dr. Peter Hood noticed the 
codlin-moth in his garden at Watford last year, though not in such 
numbers as usual, and to this he attributes a large crop of small 
apples. He has observed that in the spring, when apples are about 
to set, the codlin-moth lays an egg in the immature apple; the 
larva hatched from this eats the core of the apple, and in course of 
time the apple falls and the larva eats its way out. The tree being 
thus thinned, the apples are less numerous hut finer when the 
codlin-moth is abundant than when it is scarce. I am also in¬ 
debted to Dr. Oswell Livingstone, of St. Albans, for the following 
valuable communication on the codlin-moth:—“You ask me to 
send you an account of the ravages of the larvae of the codlin-moth 
in my garden during the last two summers, and I am glad to do so 
now, hoping that there may be some remedy found for the pest. 
The codlin-moth (Tortrix pomonana ) is small, brown, and rather 
insignificant-looking, which makes it difficult to detect in the 
crevices of the bark of trees, where it loves to conceal itself during 
the daytime. In the evening it leaves its hiding-place, and flies 
about among the apple trees, resting on a young apple here and 
there to lay an egg in the crown of the fruit. In due time this 
egg is hatched, and the young larva immediately eats its way into 
the substance of the apple, which, however, does not cease growing 
till the larva has reached its full size. At this period of its life 
the caterpillar seems to require stronger nourishment, and so attacks 
the core, eating the pips clean out, after which it makes its way to 
the surface, lowers itself to the ground, and proceeds to take the 
form of the chrysalis. The apple, of course, loses its vitality and 
soon drops off. In the spring of 1884 and 1885 my apple trees 
were loaded with fine, healthy young apples, but as the summer 
went on and the apples reached a certain size they dropped off, 
and the ground under the trees was covered with young fruit. 
Each of these apples contained the galleries excavated by the larvae 
of the codlin-moth. Out of an excellent crop of apples, as they 
