138 



Psyche 



[December 



fifty species of polypores found in New Jersey were observed to be 

 infested by insects and Polyporus versicolor appeared to attract the 

 largest number of species all of which belonged to the Coleoptera. 



This polypore is extremely common in most parts of New Jer- 

 sey, occurring on all kinds of dead wood, many stumps being com- 

 pletely covered by it. According to MurrilP it also causes a serious 

 root-rot in many trees and is a wound parasite in Catalpa. The 

 pileus or shelf -like part of this fungus is thin and leathery, densely 

 imbricate, variable in color and marked by narrow multicolored 

 zones of various colors ranging from w^hite to yellow, brown, red- 

 dish, greenish, blackish, etc. The context or inner substance of 

 the pileus is white and it is this portion which appears to furnish 

 most of the food for insects although at times the entire fungus is 

 riddled. 



It is diflBcult to explain why versicolor harbors so many insects 

 unless it is the qualities of the context which attract them. Other 

 polypores having a much thicker and fleshier context attract con- 

 siderably fewer species. Altogether twenty -four species of Cole- 

 optera, representing thirteen families, were found associated with 

 versicolor as shown bv the following table : 



COLEOPTERA ASSOCIATED WITH POLYPORUS VERSICOLOR. 



Family. 



Species. 



Location. 



1 Northern Polypores, p. 6, 1914. 



