Billings on the Pine-boring Beetles, 435 



touched they withdrew a short distance, but not out of sight. 

 With the poiT\t of my geological hammer I sooq stripped off the 

 bark, and extracted all three. It seems improbable (although it 

 is possible) that they all arrived at the surface at the same time. 

 It is more probable that after the opening is made, the insect 

 remains for a while, perhaps for a couple of days, iu its burrow, 

 until its elytra become consolidated. Although I have often 

 found large white or yellowish larva, deep in the body of pine 

 trees, I have never been able to ascertain to what species they 

 belonged. This and many other questions relating to the natural 

 history of these insects, remain to be decided by the researches of 

 our entomologists. 



These insects attack dead timber, and also trees which have 

 received some injury, and are in an unhealthy condition. I have 

 never seen the female laying her eggs on a perfectly healthy and 

 sound pine tree. Timber newly fallen is always attacked by them. 

 The first dwellings constructed in the new settlements are generally 

 made of logs with either the whole or a portion of the bark remain- 

 ing on them. The inside is not plastered, except in the crevices 

 between the logs; if these latter happen to be pine, the Monoham- 

 mus lays her eggs in the bark, on the outside of the house, and 

 for months afterwards the larva may be heard in the stillness of 

 night, making a noise like the boring of a small augur. The per- 

 fect insect sometimes comes out on the inside of the wall, and 

 suddenly drops down upon the floor, the table, or the bed, to the 

 great consternation of the inmates, who imagine that an insect 

 with such great horns must bite or sting with proportionate 

 severity. 



For the manufacture of boards or planks, the pine trees are cut 

 up into lengths of from 12 to 18 feet, and are either drawn or 

 floated to the mill. The logs are got out during the winter, and 

 if they remain in the mill-yard one season, they are invariably 

 found to be bored through in all directions by larva of these 

 beetles, and the boards greatly deteriorated in value. Where 

 extensive operations are carried on, a single lumberman will some- 

 times have a license giving hini possession of over a hundred 

 square miles of pine forest. In the months of May and June it 

 often happens that great fires sweep through the woods, burning 

 up all the fallen trees and dry branches strewn over the ground, 

 and so scorching the living pines that most of them wither at the 

 top and die during the season. Trees thus injured are soon after 



