238 
HALP HOimS WITH rN-SECTS. [Packard. 
little caterpillar, the more since similar damage is caused to 
pine bushes in Europe by a little Tortrix, with similar 
habits. 
A not uncommon sight in isolated pine trees is a nest of 
saw-fly caterpillars, whose sawdust-like castings form a large 
mass collected among the leaves. These “false caterpillars,” 
as they are called, are social and live huddled up together on 
the end of a pine branch. Small trees are often ruined by 
them. 
It always seems as if artificially planted forests suffer the 
most from the attacks of injurious insects. One of these saw 
flies, before unknown to science, has been found ravaging a 
plantation of young pitch pines on Cape Cod. By means 
of the saw-like ovipositor these curious flies are able to cut 
slits in the leaves and stems of plants. The present species 
{Lopliyrus pini-rigidi) thus slits, and inserts an egg in each 
side of the needle of the pine. The males are easily distin¬ 
guished from all other saw-flies by the beautifully pectinated 
antennae and shining black bodies. 
We could go on describing the insects injurious to our 
pine trees, but the enumeration would be tedious to the 
reader. About a hundred different species are known to 
prey on our native pines, and a number of them attack the 
imported ornamental pines and firs of our lawns. They 
attack the roots, the trunk, the leaves and the seed in the 
cones. M. Perris, a French naturalist, has written an ex¬ 
tensive work on the insects of the maritime pine of France, 
describing with care a hundred species found on that tree 
alone; and not only the destructive kinds, but all the nu¬ 
merous parasitic and carnivorous forms which take up their 
abode beneath the bark of the tree and wage a ceaseless 
warfare against the primitive occupants. If any one would 
like to look behind the scenes and witness the struggle for 
existence going on under the bark of a pine tree, let him go 
to the woods for himself and study the various insects, in- 
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