207 



Fig 4. 



are left lying on the ground, especially in damp places, where it 

 perforates the wood in all directions. These beetles appear to 

 be very rarely attacked by parasites, but some of them are freely 

 eaten by native birds. Fig. 5 shows one of the more or less 



Fig. 5 



metallic or brassy weevils (Oodemas) that are quite peculiar to 

 the islands, and occur in all forests. They never attack healthy 

 wood, and rarely that which is not entirely dead, so that any sup- 

 position that they are the cause of the death of trees or their 

 branches is erroneous, ^fany other small native beetles are also 

 found in connection with dead forest trees, but none of these can 



