PACKARD] INSECTS OF THE FOEEST. 231 



some places the whole wootls, as far as 3^011 can see around 

 you, are dead, stripped of the bark, their wintry-looking 

 arms and bare trunks bleaching in the sun, and tumbling in 

 ruins before every blast, presenting a friglitful picture of 

 desolation. Until some etfectual preventive or more com- 

 plete remedy can be devised against these insects, and their 

 larvaB, I would humbly suggest the propriety of protecting, 

 and receiving with proper feelings of gratitude, the services 

 of this and the whole tribe of woodpeckers, letting the odium 

 of guilt fall to its proper owners." 



Not remotely allied to the weevils, which are distinguished 

 by their more than Roman noses, are the little snub-nosed 

 cylindrical timber beetles. Their hard bodies, short legs 

 and strong jaws admirably adapt them for boring in the 



bark and solid wood of trees. They are some- „ 



*' Fig. 1/5. 



times called wood-engravers. They may well be 

 styled animated gimlets, as they bore straight, 

 even and true holes, as if driven by the hand of 

 a carpenter. 



There are several species which have different 

 modes of assault. Tlie first is the Tomicus xylo- 

 graphus (Fig. 175), the true wood engraver. It 

 is quite small, chestnut-colored, about a line in 

 length, its wing-covers are bevelled off at the tip, the edges 

 of the declivity being armed with four or five teeth on each 

 side. The female mines the outer surface of the sap wood 

 and inner layer of the bark, lengthwise to the tree. Curi- 

 ously enough there are more males than females and they 

 help their partners, each working in turn. This is one of 

 the few cases among insects in which the two sexes unite in 

 the work of providing for the welfare of their future offspring. 

 The female is said by Dr. Fitch, from whose admirable 

 observations I am compiling this account, to make little 

 notches at intervals along the burrow. In each of these 

 notches from one to four eggs are placed. As the beetles, 



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