THE PASSING OP THE TREES 



181 



FIG. 70. Three insect larvae that 

 live in logs, x, a carpenter-worm ; 

 y, a wire-worm; z, a snipe-fly larva 

 (Xylophagus) . 



proceeds. She uses insects, also, 

 in great variety. Wood-borers 

 and carpenter-worms penetrate 

 to the heart of the solid trunks, 

 in their feeding operations, open- 

 ing passage ways for the water 

 and for fungus spores . Engraver- 

 beetles, excavating their nests of 

 wonderful design, loosen and 

 perforate the bark. Wire-worms 

 and firefly larvae perforate the 

 log heaps when in a crumbling 

 red-rotten condition; and white 

 grubs mix the last recognizable 

 remnants with the soil. So 

 are the largest organic bodies on the earth reduced to 

 earth again, and their masses of food materials put again into 

 circulation; and in the process, generations of lesser organ- 

 isms have been fed and housed. This is nature's method. 

 Of course, the population of these logs does not consist of 

 herbivores alone. Wherever fungi and herbivorous animals 

 flourish, their enemies are sure to find them. Stripping 

 off the bark from an old log, we are pretty sure to find 

 fungus-eating animals of several sorts: various beetles, 

 cockroaches, millepedes, sow-bugs and 

 cylindric legless larvae of fungus-gnats, 

 carnivores centipedes, ground 

 beetles, fireflies, etc., searching 

 for animal prey. Even in the 

 burrows of the heartwood borers, 

 occur parasites that have found 

 their well-sequestered victims. 

 Then there are vertebrate ene- 

 mies, also salamanders, that 



the minute white 

 Also, we find true 



FIG. 71. Adult insects found under 

 bark of logs; a, a fire-fly (Lampy- 

 ridae); b, a rove-beetle (Staphy- 



linidae). 



