IX.SECTS AFFECTING PAKK AM) WOODLAND TREES 28 1 



different species of oak in and around Madison Wis., were seriously affected 

 by this borer whicli caused the death of isohited trees and groups of trees. 

 He also noted what appeared to be the same trouble at different points 

 through Ohio, Wisconsin ami Indiana, and later in West Virginia observed 

 a nunibt-r of trees dying in the same manner. 1((- found the larvae mining 

 the inner bark and outer sapwood and from his observations was led to 

 believe that the insect was capable of attacking and killing health}- oak and 

 chestnut trees. Two years later he states that this species was responsible 

 directly or indirectly for the death of a great quantity of oak and chestnut 

 timber not alone in West X'irginia, but in different sections of the country 

 between there and the Mississippi river. Prof. C. W. Johnson in 1896, 

 found that the red oak near Natrona, Allegheny co.. Pa., were? dying at the 

 top, and examination showed that the l)ark of the living ])ortion of th(- tree 

 near the top was a complete network of Agrilid burrows, probably this 

 species, scores of larvae being found in the inner liark. Mr W. H. Har- 

 rington in the same year, records taking this insect on bt^ech, and exjjresses 

 the belief that it infests this tree. This beetle was the subject of an 

 extended notice by Mr F. H. Chittenden in 1897, and from his account 

 many of the following facts are taken. He records injur}- to cliestnut trees 

 by this species in Botetourt co., \'a. in 1891, and the following year to 

 chestnut in the District of. Columbia. His attention was called in 1893, to 

 serious injuries in Virginia in the xicinit}- of Washington D. C. and inves- 

 tigation showed that this insect had inflicted considerable loss. He states 

 that the chestnut was almost universally infested and that the majority of 

 the trees had been recently killed. The damage was estimated at about 

 50^, and Mr Chittenden further states that a similar condition existed in 

 neighboring forests of the surrounding region. 



Life history and habits. This species operates just under the bark of 

 the tree, making galleries which run mostly across the grain, and when 

 completed are from 6 to 10 inches in length. The result is that a tree 

 seriously infested is very quickly girdled. The larval galleries were 

 observed by Mr Chittenden from the base of the tree well upward toward 

 the top. 



