74 
PINE. 
“ In some instances they have spread on to the Larch, but not in 
such close phalanx as when at work on the Scots Fir. I took a 
branch or two home, and enclose the chrysalids of two which changed 
in the house. They appear whiter and flatter than the plates show. 
“ I have never been able to catch the flies ; when I have seen them 
they have darted down through the tree and sheltered themselves in 
the rank heather at the root. In the belts where grass and not heather 
covers the soil they appear in small numbers. They attack the 
Austrian and Corsican Firs as readily as the Scotch. 
“ I am persuaded that where the trees are small, up to 8 ft. (that 
is to say, forty acres, about 200,000 plants) they will not survive.” 
On July 30th Mr. Cattley sent me the following note, which well 
describes the complete disappearance of even a widespread attack of 
caterpillars when the time has come for their change to chrysalis :— 
“ I was absent from home for a fortnight, and on my return the 
caterpillars had completely disappeared; no doubt they had spun and 
hidden somewhere. But where ? My men and I sought them high 
and low, and only found two esconsced within the whorl from which 
the leader shoot of a Fir, 5 ft. high, had sprung. We searched also 
in the deep heather, 1 ft. or 1ft. high, at the root of the tree, and 
did not find one. 
“ One thing that I remark is that, though the tree may be stripped 
bare in all other respects, the terminal shoots both of leader and 
laterals being the growth of the year, is never touched by the cater¬ 
pillars.” 
Later on (Oct. 15th) Mr. Cattley wrote further with regard to the 
above habit he noted August 25th :—“ A few clusters of Sawfly cater¬ 
pillars are seen on the Firs. They now feed on the shoots of the year, 
which the spring brood avoided. 
“ These latter grubs are much larger than the early lot which had 
disappeared ; they are paler in colour, and sometimes yellow. I carried 
a cluster home, and fed them till they changed to the cocoon. The 
cocoon is like the spring lot, except that it is one-half larger ” ; this 
was at the end of August. On Sept. 6th some of the previous lot of 
Sawflies had come out (of the summer cocoons), the males smaller and 
sparer than the females, with broad comb-like antennae and black in 
colour ; “ and after these had come out I found scores of empty cases not 
in the ground , but in the rank growth of heather. 
“ The late batch of caterpillars go, like the early ones, in close 
phalanx, as close as they can place themselves. There is not one 
group of these for a hundred of the early lot. To-day (Oct. 15th) 
not any are to be met with, but I have seen them within a fortnight. 
“ Trees that have been attacked for years in succession have a 
dwarfed and tufty appearance, but I have not often found them killed 
