DESTRUCTION OF SPRUCES AND FIRS BY BARK-BORERS. 53 



In treating of the larval life of tliis insect in tiie Report above cited, 

 I wrote as follows: 



I can see no reason for supposing that the larva of this species should 

 so far depart from what is known of the habits of the family, as to feed 

 upon decaying wood. Westwood says of the Curcuiionidce, " these insects 

 are entirely herbivorous, some feeding upon leaves, others upon seeds, 

 and some upon the stems of vegetables." Riley asserts {^Third Mis- 

 souri Repoi-t, p. 10), of the members of the same family, " with the ex- 

 ception of an European species {Anthribus variiis) whose larvae were 

 found by Ratzeburg to destroy bark-lice, they are all vegetarians, the 

 larvae inhabiting either the roots, stems, leaves or fruits of plants, and 

 the beetles feeding on the same." 



Referring to the above paragraph, Mr. Warren Knaus, of Salina, 

 Kansas, has sent me the following communication: 



" I see that you do not indorse the idea that any of the curculio 

 larvae are lignivorous. I have never observed the habits of Sphenopho- 

 riis sculptiiis, having only taken two or three specimens in this county, 

 but for the past three seasons I have taken ]Vollastonia qiicrcicohi (Bohe- 

 man) from decaying- cottonwood \Popiiliis inonilifera\ logs and stumps, 

 and have never taken them in any other locality. I have observed logs 

 perforated in every direction, and have found small white larv;i:; at work 

 in these logs, and from the same logs have taken the above-named per- 

 fect beetle. I also find the beetle in the larval burrows, but have not 

 observed their habits sufficiently to determine definitely whether these 

 larvcE are those of W. quercicola. I trust, however, that next season I 

 may be able to test the truth or falsity of my present belief founded on 

 observations, that the larva; of this genus are lignivorous." 



Destruction oy Spruces and Flrs by Bark-borers. 



Extensive destruction of the spruces {Abies nigra and A. alba) and firs 

 {Abies balsafiiea) through the ravages of bark-boring beetles has for sev- 

 eral years past been observed in Northern New York and New England. 



The attention of Prof. C H. Peck, N. Y. State Botanist, had been 

 called, in 1873, to the fact that in some parts of the Great Northern 

 Wilderness of New York the spruce trees Avere rapidly dying, to the great 

 pecuniary loss of the lumbermen and land-owners. In some tracts of 

 considerable extent, nearly all the spruces were reported as having been 

 killed, giving to the forest a {)revailing brown hue as if a fire had run 

 through them. None of these affected districts, however, came under 

 the observation of the State Botanist at that time (27th A/i/i. Rcpt. ontiie 

 N. V. State Museum of Natural History, 1875, p. 75). 



The following year. Prof. Peck reports, that the dying of the spruces 

 was not of recent origin, but that it had been known in Lewis county 

 from ten to fifteen years previous, and in Rensselaer county, the same 

 destruction had been observed as early as the year 1845. 



