CHAP, cxrii. 



CONI'FERA:. ^BIETlNiE. 



2U3 



long, and of a pitchy black or reddish colour, with long yellow hairs ; the 

 elytra being obliquely truncate, with six teeth on each side, behind the margins 

 of the truncation. This beetle is, fortunately, very rare in England; but in 

 Germany it has, at various times, abounded to so great an extent, that the 

 great pine forests have suffered very severely. "The insect, in its prepa- 

 ratory state, feeds upon the soft inner bark only ; but it attacks this impor- 

 tant part in such vast numbers (80,000 being sometimes found in a single tree), 

 that it is infinitely more noxious than any of those that bore into the wood ; 

 and such is its vitality, that, though the bark be battered, and the tree plunged 

 into water, or laid upon the ice or snow, it remains alive and unhurt. The 

 leaves of the trees infested by these insects first become yellow ; the trees 

 themselves then die at the tops, and soon entirely perish. Their ravages have 

 long been known, in Germany, under the name of wurm-trdkniss (decay caused 

 by worms) ; and, in the old liturgies of that country, the animal itself is for- 

 mally mentioned under its vulgar appellation, the ' Turk.' This pest was 

 particularly prevalent, and caused incalculable mischief, about the year 1663. 

 In the beginning of the last century, it again showed itself in the Hartz 

 forests. It reappeared in 1757, redoubled its injuries in 1769, and arrived at 

 its height in 1783; when the number of trees destroyed by it, in the above 

 forests alone, was calculated to amount to a million and a half; and the 

 inhabitants were threatened with a total suspension of the working of their 

 mines, and, consequently, with ruin. At this period, these insects, when 

 arrived at the perfect state, migrated in swarms, like bees, into Suabia and 

 Franconia. At length, between the years 1784 and 1789, in consequence of 

 a succession of cold and moist seasons, the numbers of this scourge were 

 sensibly diminished. It appeared again in 1790; and, so late as 1796, 

 there was great reason to fear for the few fir trees that were le't." (Wilhebn's 

 Recreations in Nat. Hist., quoted by Latreille and by Kirby and Spence.) 



Rossmassler gives the old trees of J^bies excelsa as the habitat of this spe- 

 cies ; but Gyllenhal adds Pinus sylvestris ; justly calling the insect « pineto- 

 rum pestis." (Lis. Suec.,i.p. 111. pag. 351.) Its passages are 2014 

 so similar to those of Scoly tus destructor (figured in p. 1 388.), 

 that we have not thought it necessary to give a representation of 

 them. Its proceedings are also very similar to those of the Sco- 

 lytus (to which genus, indeed, it is very nearly allied) ; so that 

 it would be as erroneous to attribute the destruction of the 

 German forests to other primary causes, and to consider the 

 Tomicus typographus as a secondary cause, as it is to deny 

 that the Scolyti are the cause of the destruction of the elms 

 around London. Wilhelm, indeed, expressly states that the 

 misplaced confidence which many persons entertained that the 

 insects attack only trees already injured, and that their ra- 

 vages are suspended by the insects themselves, has lost many 

 hundreds of trees. The remedies suggested in a preceding 

 page (1390.), for the destruction of Scolyti, may also, to a 

 great extent, be advantageously adopted for the extermination 

 of the Tomici. 



Rossmassler, Bechstein, and Ratzeburg detail the natural 

 history of several other species of this genus of beetles. T. 

 chalcographus attacks old trees of J^bies excelsa ; T. pinastri, 

 those of Pinus sylvestris ; T. abietiperda, Pinus Picea ; T. 

 iaricis inhabits Larix communis. T. 8-dentatus and T. su- 

 turalis are also pine feeders; as is also T. bidens. Fig. 2014^. 

 represents the workings of the last-named species beneath the 

 bark of a four-years-old fir tree. 



Tomicus chalcographus Gyll. (6-dentatus Oliv.) has not 

 hitherto been recorded as a native of this country : it must, 

 however, have been long since introduced from the north, in the fir trees 

 so constantly imported. Mr. Spence has recently communicated specimens 



6 z 



fe 



