108 Mr. F. G. Smith on the Habits of 



flat face of the stump, consequently the rain does not pene- 

 trate into the wood in quantities sufficient to hasten decay. 

 Moreover, when the tree was felled a coating of resin was 

 formed on the surface, which prevented the water from 

 sinking in. For three years therefore the wood was per- 

 fectly sound and free from superfluous moisture and quite 

 unsuitable for the accommodation of Asemum's greatest 

 enemy, viz. Bhagium bifasciatum. 



During these three years successive broods of larvse 

 entered upon existence. 



When at the end of this period the first brood emerged 

 as perfect insects, the second brood had to live the final 

 year of their lives under far less favourable conditions 

 than the first; for every time it rained during that 

 year, the open burrows of the larvse that had already 

 developed conducted the water into the centre of the 

 stump, everywhere spreading decay, which had the effect 

 of driving some of the larvse deeper into the roots while 

 many perished. 



This was proved by the fact that when I revisited this 

 spot the following year with my friend, Mr. Willoughby 

 Ellis, although a fortnight later than in the previous 

 year, there were but few recent though many old 

 burrows. 



The third brood exists under very unfavourable con- 

 ditions ; for, in the first place, they were tiny one-year 

 larvse when the rapid disintegration, caused by the open 

 burrows conveying the rain into the stump, commenced. 

 In the second place, these unfortunate larvse before they 

 were much older found that their burrows were repeatedly 

 crossed with the ever widening ones of their great rival 

 Bhagium, which species, owing to the decay caused by 

 repeated rains, has now completely gained the mastery over 

 the stump, so that the third brood of Asemum has very 

 little chance of completing its development. 



A few however succeed in finding their ways to the 

 thin rootlets, and I have found in upturned stumps in the 

 New Forest, the insect in all its stages ; the rootlets sound 

 but sometimes no thicker than one's little finger, the 

 whole of the decayed part of the stump including the 

 larger roots being given over to Bhagium. 



Since the discovery of this colony I have found a great 

 number of colonies of Asemum scattered all over the New 

 Forest and in remote corners of Hampshire and Dorset, 



