NOTES ON SOME XYL0PHAC40US BEETLES. 



Ex T. A. CHAPMAN, Esq., M.D., Abergavenny. 



CRVPHAlsUS BI^ODVLTJS.— Rat-. 



On some Aspen trees growing near Abergavenny I have detected certain 

 beetles, which are interesting, not only on account of their rarity, but also on 

 account of their habits. Last spring, I observed that two of these trees, which 

 are from 20 to 30 years old, had been blown over in a manner similar to that in 

 which f)oplars often suffer, viz., they had been snapped across at about the level 

 of their lower branches ; one of them fell last winter, the other during the 

 previous one. On both I found evidence of theii- having began to decay before 

 they yielded to the storm, but the more recently fallen one was still so far alive 

 as to be attempting to throw out leaves, yet many of its branches had been 

 long dead, and one side of the stem was so also ; this I soon found to be caused 

 by a small beetle belonging to the family Hylesinidaj. This beetle, Crpphalus 

 binodulus (Ratx.), had previously scarcely occui'red in England, except on one 

 occasion, when a few were taken near London. It is named hinodulus from the 

 female beetle possessing two spines at the apices of the elytra ; but those which 

 1 have found vary from the type in so far that very few specimens present 

 these spines at all. I have placed a series of the beetles in the box now before 

 you and also some living specimens. 



Hylesinus crenatus, a tree destroyer which we examined in the spring, 

 commences his attack close to the ground ; Cryphalus hinodulus, on the contrary, 

 first attacks the branches, and then advances downwards. A colony is probably 

 commenced by one, or by a few, pairs, but they rapidly miiltiply. There arc 

 about a dozen of the young Aspen trees (Popvlus trcmuki) on which I find them, 

 and of these, besides the two already mentioned, they have tliis season killed a 

 third tree. The leaves which it threw out abundantly last spring (1868) are 

 now all black and dead, and I suspect that this is entirely the work of the 

 present season. A foui-th tree is far gone, and several others are invaded. Like 

 most of the Xylophagn, it attacks the bark only. In the genus Hylesinus and 

 others of this family, the parent beetles make a long straight burrow, and the 



