Chapter VIII. 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE BEECH. 



Fagus femiginea. 



The beech tree iu this country seems to be remarkably favored ; a 

 fewer number of insects living at its expense than can be said of any 

 other kind of tree so useful as this is for timber, for fire-wood, for 

 furniture, or as a shade tree. In Europe Kalteubach records one hun- 

 dred and fifty-four species of beech insects, of which sixty-seven are 

 Coleoptera (six of these, however, are not vegetable feeders, being 

 species of Tenebrio, Mordella, etc., and should not have been mentioned 

 as peculiar to the tree) ; of Lepidoptera eighty-one species are enumer- 

 ated; of Hymenoptera but a single saw-fly occurs on the tree, while 

 there are two European species of Cecidomyia and two Aphidne. 



AFFECTING THE TRUNK. 



1. Goes pulverulentus Haldeman. 



"The insect," Dr. Horn says, "is very destructive to living beech 

 trees. It bores into those branches which are about 3 inches in 

 diameter. The length of the channel is about 8 inches." Mr. Har- 

 rington thinks that it probably also bores in hickory, as he has taken 

 several specimens on the bitter hickory in July and August. 



The beetle. — The chief point of distiactiou between this species and tigrinus appears 

 to bo in the vestiture of the elytra and the length of the antennfe. Their size and 

 general color are about the same, but the eljjtra of pulverulentus are uniformly clad 

 with short hairs, and have no appearance of dark bands. The antennae (at least in 

 some specimens) are slightly longer than the body. (Harrington.) 



2. Tremex columba Linn. 



Mr. Harrington records finding December 8 a living pupa of this 

 insect in the heart of a green beech log over ten inches in diameter. 



AFFECTING THE LEAVES. 

 3. Smerinthus. 



A species evidently of Smerinthus and thought by Mr. Saunders to 

 be S. excwcatus has been found by Mr. E. B. Reed in September on the 

 beech in Canada. He observed that it produced a singiog noise when 

 handled or disturbed. (Can. Ent., i, p. 40.) 



