February, '19] BURKE: flatheaded barkborers 105 



at Cleveland, Ohio, Rutherford, N. J., Mt. Kisco, N. Y., Walhng- 

 ford, Conn., and in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. It has not been 

 done in the big area because there is not the money to do it at the 

 present time. 



By vote of the association the motion was carried. 



Adjournment. 



(Papers read by title.) t 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES ON SOME FLATHEADED BARKBORERS 

 OF THE GENUS MELANOPHILA 



By H. E. Burke, Specialist in Forest Entomology, Forest Insect Investigations, 

 Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture 



Among the flatheaded barkborers most destructive to forest trees 

 are several species of the genus Melanophila. One species, M. drum- 

 mondi, is of particular interest at the present time because it attacks 

 the sitka spruce which is so necessary in the manufacture of aeroplanes. 

 This and other species, M. gentilis, M. fulvogvttata and M. californica, 

 attack and kill some of our most important coniferous forest trees. 

 Many sugar pine, yellow pine, douglas spruce, true firs, true spruces, 

 hemlocks and larches in American forests have been killed at various 

 times past and are now being killed by these pernicious pests. Even 

 should an attack not kill the tree the injury made often causes checks, 

 "gum spots" or other defects to form in the wood which reduces its 

 value for timber. 



A curious injury to sugar pine and yellow pine timber in northern 

 California consists of a brown, pitchy, irregular scar several inches in 

 diameter from which radiates small, winding, pitchy lines. The forest 

 pathologists consider the central scars to be caused by a light or 

 diffused stroke of lightning which slightly separates the bark and wood. 

 The radiating lines are the mines of Melanophila larva? whose mothers 

 were attracted to the scars to lay their eggs. When the attack failed 

 the larva? died and the new growth covered the wound, forming the 

 curious defect. 



Dr. A. D. Hopkins has published notes on the injuries caused by 

 several species of Melanophila in bulletins 32 and 50 of the West 

 Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station and 21, 37, 48 antl 53 of the 

 Bureau of Entomology. The writer has mentioned them in the I'nited 

 States Department of Agriculture Yearbook for 1909 and in papers in 

 the Journal of Economic Entomology for June, 1917, and April, 

 1918. Many other observations have been made from time to time 

 by various members of the Branch of Forest Insect Investigations. 

 The present paper is a summary of the data obtained from all of the 

 above notes. 



