Billings on the Pine-boring Beetles, 43''' 



antennaB. When two of them going in opposite directions, met 

 face to face, a clumsy kind of afighttook place, in which they reared 

 up and pushed against each other, until one or the other fell over 

 backwards. They bit each other with their mandibles, but with 

 no eflfect that I could perceive. The females fought with each 

 other, or with the males, indifferently. There can be little doubt 

 but that this tree was, during the next twelve months, totally des- 

 troyed. If there were 150 females, and if each laid 200 eggs, and 

 half of these produced a healthy larva, then in one year this tree 

 must have been perforated by 15,000 galleries. I examined other 

 trees in the neighbourhood, and on a few only did I see any of the 

 beetles, usually from one to four or five on each. I can only ac- 

 count for the preference given to this particular tree, by supposing 

 that it was in a better condition for the nourishment of the larva 

 than the others, and that the instinct of the females directed them 

 to it. It is probable that nearly all the females for a considerable 

 distance around were thus brought together on one tree, and were 

 followed by the males. 



I cannot say whether or not these insects ever attack a perfect- 

 ly healthy and sound tree. I think they do not ; and yet their 

 ravages are certainly highly injurious to the commerce of this 

 country, as they destroy a vast deal of the fallen or scorched tim- 

 ber, which otherwise might be brought to market at any time dur- 

 ing several years after the trees have received their death-blow by 

 fire or storm. I think also that thousands of the trees, only suiB- 

 ciently injured by fire to throw them for a while into a weakly or 

 unhealthy condition, would recover were it not for the attacks of 

 these formidable creatures. 



The beetles of the genus Monohammus are, as is well known 

 to entomologists, assisted by many species of other genera in the 

 work of destroying pine trees. Canadian naturalists who have 

 selected the wonders of the insect world for their study, have 

 1>efore them a vast and little- wrought field. In an interesting 

 paper on the trees of Canada, by our colleague, Mr. Robb, it is 

 said that Canada produces "about seventy kinds of timber trees, 

 of which, at present, we make profitable use of not more than 

 eight or ten, the rest being left to absolute decay. Her forests 

 extend over about 360,000 square miles ; and are unrivalled 

 throughout the world for the variety of species, and more partic- 

 cularly for the size of the timber of full growth. Of sixty-four 

 samples sent to the Paris Exhibition of 1855, by Mr. Andrew 



