28 



Thus far this most injurious insect has only been found in certain portions of this 

 country, being v ry abundant in the Niagara district, and in the neighbourhood of Montreal 

 and Quebec, but happily rare, or entirely absent, from almost all other parts. Prof. Bell (in 

 the Fi'iit Growers Report for 1875) relates that a specimen was captured in the year 1873 

 near the Town of Belleville ; no doubt it was imported, probably in the larval state, in trees 

 from the United States or some other district infested by the insect. 



VII. — MONOHAMMUS CONFOSOR, KiRBT. — A PiNE-TREE BORER. 



This fine beetle, which is especially remarkable for the extraordinary length of its 

 ^antennae, is, in our pine regions, one of the most oomuion and destructive of our insect enemies. 

 Its general colour is an ashen grey, mottled with variable darker spots ; the scutellum is white ; 

 there are also patches of whitish colour on the head, thorax and abdomen. These variations 

 of colour, being due to a covering of very fine short hairs, which oftentimes are rubbed off, 

 are not to be depended upon in the determination of the species. As in J/. saiteUatus (fig. 

 1,) ench side of the thorax is armed with a short thick spine. The length of the insect varied 

 from three-quarters of an inch to an inch and a half — the average size being over an inch ; 

 the antennae of the males vary in length from one and a half to three inches ; tho.se of the 

 female are somewhat shoiter. The larva is a large, white, somewhat cylindrical grub, desti- 

 tute of feet. Duiing the summer, the female lays her eggs in crevices of the bark of the 

 white and red pine, selecting for the most part timber that has been scorched by fire, or felled 

 by the wind or the lumberman's axe ; the larva when hatched soon eats its way into the wood, 

 an d before this period of its existence is closed it often burrows immense galleries through 

 and through the solid interior. As it lives a long time in the larval state, the perfect^inseot 

 is frequently only developed after the timber has been built into a house, und then suddenly 

 emerges from its concealment to the great consternation ot the inhabitants of the dwelling. 

 The larva, when burrowing in the wood, makes a loud noise like the boring of an auger, which 

 on a still night may be heard for a considerable distance. The species is very generally 

 distributed throughout Canada and the Northern States ; in the pine-growing regions it is 

 often excessively abundant. 



A very interesting and valuable account of this insect is given by the late Mr. E. 

 Billings, of the Canadian Geologic.il Survey in the Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, for 

 December, 1862, (vol, vii. pp. 440 438). As the work is not likely to be in the hands of 

 more than a very few of our readers, we cannot do better than give some extracts I'lom it. Mr. 

 billings, from his long residence in the lutnberiug districts of the Ottawa valley, had more 

 than ordinary o; portunities of observing the life and habits of the insect, and may therefore 

 be justly considered an excellent authority upon the subject. "These insects," he relates, 

 " attack de id timlier. and also trees wliicli have received some injury, and are in an unhealthy 

 cou' ition. I have never sien the fem:de layinsr her eggs on a perf ctly healthy and sound 

 pine tree. Timber newly fallen is always attacked by them. The first dwellings con^tructed 

 in the new settlements are generally made of logs with either the whole or a portion (if the 

 bark remuining on them. TI'C inside Is not plastered, except in the crevices between the 

 logs; if these latter happen to be pine, the }fo .o/iammus lays her eggs in the bark, on the 

 outside of the house, and for months afterwards the larva may be heai'd in the stillness of 

 the ni>;l)t, making a noise like the boring of a small augur. The perfect insect sometimes 

 comes out on the inside of the wail, and suddenly drops down upon the floor, the table or the 

 bed, to the ijreat alarm of the ioma'cs, who imairine that an insoct with such srreat horns must 

 bite or sting w^th proportionate severity. 



■' For the manufacture of boards or planks, the pine trees are cut up into lengths of from 

 twelve to eighteen feet, and are either drawn or floated to the mill. The logs are got out 

 during the winter, and it they remain in the mill yard one sea.son, they are invariably found 

 to be bored through in all directions by larvaj of these beetles, and the boards greatly deterio 

 rated in value. Where extensive operations are carried on, a single lumberman will some- 

 times have a licen.se giving him pos.session of over a hundred square miles of pine forest. 

 In ihe months of May :ind 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 attacked by both M. C'oii/iisw and M. ScuteUatws, and within one year are 



