INSECTS AFFECTING PARK AND WOODLAND TREES 



65 



Sugar maple timber beetle 



Corthxliis pumiatissimui Zimm. 

 A dark brown or blaik, ratht-r stout, cylindric beetle aliout \k incli long, makes cir- 

 cular sometimes sijiral galleries in the roots of underground stems of sugar maple, huckle- 

 berry and a number of shrubs. 



This species was met with by Dr C. H. Merriam in 1882, at Avhich time 

 it caused very serious injuries to the undergrowth of sugar maples in Lewis 

 county. New York. He states that a large per cent of the young trees 

 appeared to be dying, the leaves drooped, withered and finally shriveled and 

 dried, though they still clung to the branches. The majority of the trees 

 affected were from x jf, to about 3,'s inch in diameter and averaged from 3 to 

 6 feet in hight. On pulling up the affected trees they almost invariably 

 broke off at the level of the ground, and the ruptured portion showed that 

 it was perforated both vertically and horizontally by the peculiar channels 

 of this wood borer. During September and October Dr Merriam was 

 surprised to find that fully lO/'J of the apparently healthy young maples were 

 infested, by this beetle, and he concluded that they would all die during the 

 coming winter or next spring, so that hundreds of thousands of young trees 

 in Lewis county perished from the ravages of this borer during the summer 

 of 1882. 



Description. The beetle is a dark brown or black, 

 cylindric, rather stout insect about ]/% inch long. It 

 may be recognized on comparison with figure 7 and 

 particularly by its characteristic work shown at figure 9. 

 The galleries of this insect consist of a series of circular, 

 nearly horizontal borings just within the sajnYOod of the 

 affected tree. The different galleries are connected 

 either by vertical or nearly vertical passages as illus- 

 trated in figure 9. 



Life history. The life history of this insect in 'fis'^sim'u" (After Hubblrdi 

 huckleberry, has been carefully studied by Dr Schwarz. h^,. '^, I'^l p.'^jj'' 



