PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 85 



Wa.hington : 1938 No. 3033 



EVIDENCE OF TRIASSIC INSECTS IN THE PETRIFIED 

 FOREST NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA 



By M. V. Walker 



In my nature notes for May 1935, I described for the first time 

 some peculiar markings that occur on many of the petrified logs 

 in the Petrified Forest National Monument, Ariz. It was thought 

 that these were made by some form of insect (larvae) that had at- 

 tacked the trees, and for purposes of identification they were described 

 and named. Some time later Dr. Junius Henderson visited the Petri- 

 fied Forest National Monument Museum, and his attention was called 

 to these markings. He at once suggested that the material be assem- 

 bled for publication, and accordingly I prepared the present descrip- 

 tive article. 



At first I was unable to find descriptive literature concerning such 

 occurrences, but in October 1936 an article appeared in the Journal 

 of Paleontology by Dr. Charles T. Brues, of Harvard University, 

 entitled "Evidence of Insect Activity Preserved in Fossil Wood." 

 I was greatly interested in this descriptive material and am now 

 more convinced than ever that several types of "borings" may eventu- 

 ally be described from the petrified wood of the Petrified Forest 

 National Monument. Dr. Brues had only a few specimens available 

 for study, but we have, in the logs of the Petrified Forest region, 

 literally thousands of specimens of this nature. Surely a trained 

 observer would not lack for study material for a research problem 

 in the Petrified Forest National Monument. It is hoped that this 



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