THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 95 



ENTOMOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS. 



SOME WOOD-EATERS. 



BY W. HAGUE HARRINGTON, OTTAWA, ONT. 



It is to the Hymenoptena that the student must look for the most 

 varied and interesting phases of insect life. Here he finds numerous 

 avocations conducted with much intelligence, and in many families sees 

 strong social instincts developed. It is not, however, of these latter that 

 I intend now to speak, but of a few solitary ones. Even those just entered 

 upon the study of insect life must be fully aware of the continual destruc- 

 tion of our fruit and timber trees, both alive and in process of manufacture, 

 by the boring, wood-eating larvse of various insects. The loss thus 

 annually inflicted is not uncommonly set down as due to the obnoxious 

 habits-of Coleopterous larvae entirely, but a not inconsiderable part of it 

 is due to similar tastes on the part of insects belonging to other orders. 

 Such are found even among the Lepidoptera, one species of which — Cossus 

 Robinia. — bores half-inch tunnels into the trunks of living oaks, with such 

 deadly effects that Dr. Fitch has stated that : " Of all the wood-boring 

 insects in our land this is by far the most pernicious, wounding the trees 

 most cruelly." In the Neuroptera need only be mentioned the universally 

 renowned Termites or " white ants." So among the Hymenoptera are 

 found the common wood ants, constructing elaborate tunnels and galleries. 

 I have selected for the subject of the present paper the Uroceridce, a 

 family in the above order, the members of which in the larval state have 

 tastes and habits in common with the young of our Capricorn beetles. 

 They are stated " to abound in temperate climates where forests of pines 

 and firs prevail." Their popular name — " Horntails " — is derived from a 

 sharp horny point at the end of the body, varying in shape with the 

 different species. These insects bear a considerable resemblance to 

 wasps, and the females carry a formidable-looking boring apparatus, which 

 is often mistaken for a sting, but which at most is only capable of pricking 

 the skin, and discharges no poison, so that they may be handled fear- 

 lessly. The possession by the females of this "augur," "borer" or 

 " piercer," has caused much dispute as to the life history of the Horntails 

 and led to their being classed by early writers among the ichneumons. 



