PopnTar Science Monfhli/ 



071 



The first picture shows the Pigeon-Tremex, which destroys trees by boring into them. The 

 second shows the Ichneumon Fly which destroys the destroyer, thereby saving the trees 



B^ 



Even a Parasite May Prove to Be 

 Useful to Man 



►Z-Z-Z-." "Bz-z-z-z-z"— the buzzing 

 sound comes nearer. It is produced 

 by the vibrations of the wings of a most 

 peculiar looking insect. Its body is about 

 two and a half inches in length, with 

 transparent wings marked with dark spots. 

 Hanging straight down from the rear 

 end of the slender body is a thin, hair- 

 like something, about five or six inches 

 long, which seems to interfere with flight. 



Clumsily the insect circles around the 

 trunk of the big elm tree. The buzzing 

 ceases. The insect crawls around the 

 trunk for some time before it stops. 



Without further preliminaries the queer 

 insect raises its threadlike appendage 

 straight up, then curves it in form of a 

 loop over its back, so that the sharp 

 tip at the end of it comes down on the 

 bark. The appen- 

 dage, which seems 

 to have the rigidity 

 of a steel wire, is 

 planted perpen- 

 dicularly upon the 

 trunk and is dril- 

 ling a small hole 

 into it with sur- 

 prising rapidity. 

 At last the drilling 

 ends. With uner- 

 ring instinct the in- 

 sect, known as the 

 Ichneumon Fly, 

 has located the 

 burrow of another 

 insect, the large 

 Pigeon-Tremex, 



belonging to the insect family known as 

 Horn-Tails. The female has drilled 

 through bark and wood with its slender 

 ovipositor until it reached the burrow. 

 It deposits one egg in it. 



The Ichneumon Fly is a parasite. It 

 deposits its eggs in the burrows of the 

 Tremex and its larvae, which develop 

 from the eggs in a short time, feed upon 

 and kill the larvae of the Tremex which 

 they find in the burrow. It is the female 

 of the Tremex which drills the tell-tale 

 holes into the bark of our shade trees 

 and deposits eggs in them. The larvae 

 which come from these eggs burrow into 

 the heartwood of the tree unless their 

 career is cut short by an Ichneumon 

 larva. 



This ferocious hon 

 Virginia creeper — ( 



Reducing the High Cost of Build- 

 ing with Camouflage Lions 



MOSES 

 HAMBUR- 

 GER, of Los An- 

 geles, built himself 

 a new house, and 

 his soul lusted after 

 lions to guard the 

 portals thereof. 

 Accordingly he had 

 built nice inexpen- 

 sive bodies of laths, 

 fitting them with 

 faces of concrete. 

 Then he planted 

 Virginia creeper 

 with the result 

 that he now has 

 two m.agnificent 

 camouflaged lions. 



is made of laths and 

 :heaper than bronze 



