388 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



The comuiou white aut (Termes flavipes) destroys dead wood, stumps of trees, and 

 timber, just as does its nearest relative, T. lucifugus, in Europe. Of the latter spe- 

 cies some cases are reported where living pines and oaks have been destroyed in the 

 south of France. For T, flavipes only one case is known, in which living grape-vines 

 in a hot-house in Salem were injured (S. H. Scudder, Proc. Boston N. H. S., vol. 

 vii, p. 287). Now the earth in the hot-houses there in Cambridge is largely infested 

 by white ants, but, as far as I know, no destruction of plants has been observed. I 

 was very much interested by the information from Mr. F. W. Putnam that in a garden 

 in Irving street living maples were largely infested by white ants. The evidence of 

 the truth of this information was apparent by the first glance at the trees. They were 

 three in number, some few yards separated, more than 60 feet high, 2 feet diameter 

 at base, and apparently in good condition, except that the bark was in certain places 

 affected or split. Those places had somewhat the appearance of the well-known 

 winter splits of the bark of trees. In removing parts of the bark, directly living 

 white ants, workers and a few soldiers, were found, collected, and proved to belong 

 to T. flavipes. Closer observation showed that small open gangs, covered outside by 

 the loose bark, ran along the tree to a height of 30 feet or more. There wore on this 

 estate no old rotten stamps, but some of the adjacent uninhabited estates contained 

 them, where probably the nest may be found ; nevertheless, the whole estate was 

 so overrun by white ants that they had made along the fence a long track covered 

 with the hard clay-like mud with which they usually fill the eaten parts. As the 

 boards of the fence were thin, it was perhaps judged safer to build the canal outside 

 instead of on the interior of the boards. The house, a frame house, about ten years old, 

 the stables, and the wooden sheds were entirely intact. The estate near to it seemed 

 to be entirely free of the pest. The foliage of the infested trees looked very remark- 

 able. Mr. Sereno Watson, the curator of the Cambridge Herbarium, was at first at 

 loss to determine the leaves ; the size, the shape, and the venation would not agree 

 with any known species. But when he saw the tree, he was directly sure that it was 

 only the common Acer rtibriim. Some fresh shoots near the base of the tree had un- 

 mistakably the leaves of the common red maple. All the other leaves were very 

 small, mostly not more than 2 inches broad, the median lobe often short, sometimes 

 blunt, and not longer than the side lobes; the ribs below were about yellowish, and 

 decidedly less dark than on the red maple. The owner of the estate had for ten 

 years not observed any change in the foliage of the trees. During the last winter the 

 upper part of one tree, some 20 feet, broke down in a gale, and proved to be not in- 

 fested by white ants. Now it was considered safe to fell the whole tree. The bark 

 was, in the place where the gangs went up along the trees, extensively bored and 

 lioUowed by the white ants. The wood itself was only 2 feet above the ground filled 

 -with the common white ant holes and gangs, but no more than 1 inch deep around 

 the stump. The inner part of the tree showed the wood perfectly sound for 31 feet, 

 except a jjerpendicular hole of 2 inches diameter in the middle of the tree, going 

 down to the root. This hole, perhaps made by squirrels, had black auts as inhabit- 

 ants. The two other trees are still standing. In consequence of those facts, I looked 

 around in Cambridge, and have now the suspicion that perhaps the injury done to 

 living trees may be less rare than I had supposed. If similar observations are made 

 by entomologists, I would be thankful to have them communicated to me. 



13. Ptilinus mficornis Say. 

 Order Coleoptera ; family Ptinid^e. 



Mr. Harringtou states that he has seen iu Cauada ''great numbers 

 issuing from maple trees, leaving the wood riddled with small holes." 

 The beetles, he says, are very common and attack various trees, both 

 living and dead. '' When a tree, say oak, hickory, or maple, has been 



