NOTES ON INSECTS BRED FROM THE BARK 
AND WOOD OF THE AMERICAN LARCH — 
LARIX LARICINA (Du Roc) Koch 
By M. W. BLAcKMAN, Ph. D., and Harry H. Sracg, M. S. 
Several years ago the senior author was impressed by the 
fact that in comprehensive reports upon forest insects, such 
as those of Packard (’90), Hopkins (’93, ’99) and Felt 
(06) a considerable number of boring insects are recorded 
from pine, spruce and several other conifers but only a very 
few are reported from the American larch. For instance, 
Packard (’90) mentions only three borers in larch — Den- 
droctonus sp. (doubtless D. simplex), Hylesinus opaculus 
(probably Polygraphus rufipennis) and Tomicus (Ips) pini, 
— although he treats at considerable length thirty-three in- 
sects affecting the trees in other ways. Hopkins (93) in his 
Catalogue of Forest and Shade Tree Insects of West Virginia 
mentions no insects from larch, while Felt (’06) lsts but 
three boring insects from larch — Leptura sub-hamata Rand, 
Tomicus (Ips) pint Say and Tomicus (Ips) caelatus Eich. 
More recent papers by Swaine (711) and by Hewitt (712) 
dealing with larch insects list Dendrotonus simplex Lee., 
Ips balsameus Lec., Dryocoetus autographus Ratz., Dryo- 
coetus n. sp. and Ips caelatus Eich. as borers attacking 
recently felled larches or trees weakened by the defoliation 
of the sawfly. 
As it was believed that this paucity of forms known to 
inhabit the bark and wood in the larch was due-at least in 
part to lack of study of this tree as a host for boring insects, 
it was decided to take the first opportunity of making such 
a study. Such an opportunity was offered when the junior 
author on his return from his home reported the presence 
of many dying and dead larch near Crittenden, Erie county, 
[11] 
