COLEOPTERA SCOLYTID^E. 119 



suture ; it is not armed with spines or teeth, but the raised sides of 

 the apical depression and the sutural margins sometimes possess a 

 row of small setigerous tubercles." l 



PlTYOPHTHORUS PUBESCENT, Marsh. 



This is a very small species of beetle, which often follows in the 

 train of unpractical planting of young Scots pine trees. There is an 

 age of plant known in the trade as 2 yrs.-3 yrs., that is, two years 

 in the seed-bed and three years in the nursery lines ; in other words, 

 only once transplanted in five years. In this class the bill of 

 mortality is a very high one, and the beetles prefer the dead trees 

 of the class referred to, and may be looked for near the top of the 

 stem, where the thickness of the stem is about equal to that of an 

 ordinary drawing-pencil. 



Genus Xylocleptes. 



Fowler remarks : " The genus may be known by having the second 

 joint of the club of the antennas crescent-shaped, and completely em- 

 bracing the sides of the first; the funiculus is five -jointed; the 

 scutellum is indistinct ; and the apical portion of the elytra is 

 strongly inflexed in the male and fully inflexed in the female." 2 



Xylocleptes bispinus (Duft.) 



This species is found on the dead stems of Clematis vitalba, and 

 is, generally speaking, a South Country species. I am indebted to 

 Mr Hereward Dollman for the specimens in my collection. He 

 records them as being common at Ditching, in Sussex. 3 



According to Eichhoff, the mother-gallery is two-armed, and the 

 insect has a double generation. The beetles pass the winter in the 

 galleries, and appear in April or May. The first generation is devel- 

 oped by June or July, and the second from August till October. As 

 the latter time is rather a prolonged period, it is probable that the 

 late swarmers from the first brood may be confounded with the early 

 swarmers of the second brood. 



1 British Coleoptera, vol. v. p. 433. a Ibid., p. 435. 



3 Commander Walker has found it abundantly in Kent, and sparingly in the 

 Oxford district. 



