SMALL PINE SAWFLY. 
95 
came on the trees last summer. They left the trees when all the 
previous year’s foliage was eaten off. There were no cocoons on the 
trees, but plenty about half an inch under the soil (under and near the 
trees). The trees are from six to ten feet high, and about nine years’ 
growth. I have not seen any flies since June last; part of the grubs 
appear to have left the cocoons, but I cannot say if they are last year’s 
cocoons that the Sawflies have come out from.” 
Rather more than half of the fifty cocoons sent me in January were 
empty, but from the irregular form of the opening I should conjecture 
that the caterpillar inside had been taken by small insect-feeding birds, 
as the titmice, or the field-mouse or field-vole, both of which are stated 
when pressed by hunger to feed on Pine Sawfly cocoons. In the 
specimens sent me I observed that the bark was gnawed, and Mr. 
Burgess remarked that from this cause “ the turpentine or resin is now 
exuding from the small branches of the trees.” 
On a neighbouring property the forester got rid of the attack by 
employing people to crush the caterpillars which were devouring the 
foliage, in their hands. 
The above information confirms what is considered one of the best 
methods of getting rid of the pests, namely, making the caterpillars fall 
by throwing dressings or by shaking. If this was done early in the 
attack, either over rough cloths, so that the fallen grubs could be 
collected and destroyed, or with bands of Davidson’s composition 
(which would stick fast the grubs that tried to go up the trees again), 
daubed round the base of the stem, this would do a great deal of good. 
The best time for shaking is said to be in the early morning, when 
the caterpillars are somewhat torpid; and it is stated, by Prof. Th. 
Hartig, that in German forestry one man to shake, with two women or 
children to spread a cloth beneath the boughs to catch the fallen 
caterpillars, will clear fifteen trees of twenty-five years’ old before 
nine o’clock in the morning. Where the trees are small, the plan of 
crushing the caterpillars by drawing the shoot through a strongly- 
gloved hand answers well. Where circumstances permit of the upper 
surface being skimmed and the rubbish burnt with the contained 
cocoons, this is an excellent way to prevent recurrence of the 
mischief; but as the details of how to deal with this attack have been 
previously given, I mainly mention the above as being an instance of 
mischief caused by a somewhat different kind to the one most 
commonly observed, and of which I am endeavouring to complete the 
whole life-history. 
