Packard.] 



r^SECTS or the forest. 



237 



be found in rotten pine stumps. The beetle itself occasion- 

 ally enters our houses at night. Pine stumps are excellent 

 breeding places for this and the borer of the large black 

 Prionns beetle (Fig. 181, beetle and pupa), which occasion- 

 ally leaves its native pine and cuts down our young plums, 

 pear trees and grape vines. 



As an example how forest insects may by their widespread 

 ravages change the entire appearance of a landscape, I may 

 cite the case of the injury committed one season in a 

 growth of young pine saplings, or rather bushes, about six 



Fig. 181. 



Prionus and pupa. 



feet high. For several square miles their tops had turned 

 yellow, as if they were dying at the roots. But near the 

 tops were exudations of pitch, forming large masses. On 

 cutting these off, a little caterpillar was found in a hole be- 

 neath the pitch, and this was without much doubt the secret 

 of the mischief. It seemed at the time impossible for one 

 or two little caterpillars to do such injury to a large and 

 flourishing bush. I have not since seen such an unusual 

 fatality in j'oung pitch pines, nor this caterpillar, and am 

 now inclined to think that the mischief was produced by the 



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