2142 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



about I in. from where it had first entered." 2013 



(Curtis Bint. E>it.,voUi\. p. 104..) 2^g. 2013. shows 



three longitudinal sections, or shoots, of Scotch ^/%-, 



pine, with the various perforations of the insects : V 



a, where it commences ; b, the aperture which it * ^ 



makes after it has finished its excavation ; and c, 



the end of the first and beginning of a second ex- 

 cavation." (Curtis, loc. cit.) Stephens states that 



it is extremely detrimental to the leading shoots of 



the Scotch pine, perforating them longitudinally 



and transversely, and also injuring the wood and 



bark of the trunk. This insect ( d.) is about 



one sixth of an inch in length, of a cylindrical 



form, and black colour, with lineate-punctate ^ \JJ 



elytra. It varies to a pitchy red or dull bufiish '^ 



colour. 



Dr. Ratzeburg has given numerous details^ re- 

 lative to the history of this species, and H. ater 



and angustatus, in the memoir above referred 



to • and Dr. Rossmassler recommends that trees infested with them to a great 



extent should be cut down and burned, as the only means of saving the rest 

 of the plantation or forest. 



Many species of longicorn beetles also inhabit the pine forests, amongst 

 which ^pondylis Auprestciides Fabr. (Gi/ll. Ins. Suec, iv. p. 117.), Prionus 



depsarius Fab. (GijIL, p. 116.), Liimia (Acanthocinus) jEdilis Fabr. (^Edilis 



montana Servillc, Gyll., p. 54.), and iihagium inquisitor Fabr., are parti- 

 cularly to be mentioned ; the last, according to Rossmassler (p. 77.), attack- 

 in" old trees of yi'bies excclsa, but committing less damage than the other 

 tribes. Some of the species of the genus Callidium are, however, much 

 more obnoxious. C. bajulus inhabits the wood of the yi'bies excelsa, in 

 which the larva is nourished ; it is also very abundant in old posts and rails 

 of deal, in which the female deposits her eggs by means of her elongated 

 telescope-like ovipositor, and also in the rafters of houses ; and Mr. West- 

 wood has been informed by Mr, Stephens, that, at his residence in South 

 Lambeth, it became necessary several times to cover afresh the leaden part of 

 the roof, in consequence of the insects which had been bred in the rafters 

 catinf their way through the leaden sheeting by which they were protected. 

 The proceedings of another species of the same genus (Callidium violii- 

 ceum) have been described by the Rev. W. Kirby in the fifth volume of the 

 Transactions of the Linnaan Society. This insect feeds principally on fir tim- 

 ber, which has been long felled, without having had the bark stripped off; a 

 circumstance of considerable importance ; as, by taking off the bark as soon as 

 the trees are felled, the attacks of various insects, subsequently to be no- 

 ticed, mi^ht be prevented. The larva, as soon as hatched, proceeds in a ser- 

 pentine direction, filling the space which it leaves with its excrement, resem- 

 bling sawdust, and thus stopping all ingress to enemies from without. It is 

 chiefly beneath the bark that it constructs its galleries, which are more tortu- 

 ous and irrcular as it increases in size : but, previously to assuming the pupa 

 state, it burrows into the solid wood to the depth of 2 in. or 3 in., and there 

 becomes an inactive pupa; the perfect insect generally appearing in the 

 months of May and June, gnawing its way out opposite to the hole by which 

 it descended into the wood. 



The internal Feeders which are found under the Bark, or the subcortical 

 tribes of beetles, are, however, those by which we find the greatest extent 

 of injury committed upon trees of the pine and fir tribe. The genus T6- 

 micus belongs to this tribe, containing numerous species, which, on account 

 of the peculiar habits and mode of burrowing, have been fancifully termed 

 printer, or typographer, beetles. The type of this genus is the ZJermestes 

 t)'p6graphus of Linnajus ; a small cylindrical beetle, one fourth of an inch 



