THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 23 



search for wood and bark beetles of all kinds in different sections of the 

 State, I have only one record of this species or its work in the wood of 

 an indigenous tree, and that was in a hemlock drift log, near an old 

 orchard in which the insect was abundant. Filch, Leconte and Packard 

 referred to the abundance of X. xylographus and Tomicus xylographus 

 under the bark of pine, but they were evidently referring, as Say did, to 

 the habits of Tomicus ccpJatus, which, while a true bark-boring beetle, is 

 also a wood engraver. 



Breedifig afid Feeding Habits. 



The habits of X xylographus are quite fully and accurately described 

 by Eichhoff', and recently Mr. Hubbard, in his excellent paper on the 

 ambrosia beetles of North America, has contributed additional informa- 

 tion, especially with reference to the ambrosia fungus upon which it feeds, 

 from all of which, together with what I can add from personal observa- 

 tions, we are enabled to present the following : 



The fertilized females pass the winter in their brood chambers and 

 emerge in the spring (April and May, near Morgantown, W. Va.). They 

 are then attracted to sickly, dying or felled trees, in the living or moist 

 dead wood of which they prefer to excavate their brood galleries. A 

 crevice or opening in the bark, such as may be made by other insects, or, 

 as I have observed, those made by the yellow-bellied woodpecker, but 

 more commonly the edge of a wound, or a dead place on a living tree, is 

 selected as a favourite point of attack. Here a female will commence 

 the excavation of a mine, and after she has penetrated the wood a short 

 distance, another female (as I have observed) will come to her assistance, 

 one working at the excavation, while the other guards the entrance and 

 assists in expelling the borings. The primary or main gallery is usually 

 extended into the heartwood before eggs are deposited. When the 

 primary gallery is completed (according to Hubbard) a bed is provided 

 on the sides of the gallery for the propagation of the special species or 

 variety of ambrosia fungus which is to furnish food for the future broods. 

 The first set of eggs are few in number (five to ten) and are placed with- 

 out any protection on the sides near the end of the main gallery, or in 

 cavities or short branching galleries (Plate 3, fig. 7, 8), one-half to one 

 inch from the end, where, upon hatching, the young larvae find a supply 

 of ambrosial food. After the first set of larvae have attained considerable 

 size, another set of eggs are deposited, and so on at intervals until a 



I. W. Eichhoff, European Barkenkafer, Berlin, 1881, pp. 280-281, 



