526 



AMERICAN FORESTRY' 



greenish hue beneath. It feeds on the leaves of various 

 trees, being especially harmful to pear trees, and in a 

 less degree to oaks, elms, hickories, and other kinds. 

 This form gets its scientific name from the fact that the 

 under side of its body has a "wooly" covering, and it 

 seems to occur in greater numbers in New England. 

 Many life histories of the Goldsmith beetle have been 

 published, and a long and interesting account of it will 

 be found in Packard's "Insects Injurious to Forest and 

 Shade Trees" (pp. 274-276). This valuable work for 

 foresters was published by the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture in 1890, and may be found in many general 

 libraries. 



In the work just cited, we also find an admirable and 

 illustrated account of the Broad-necked Prionus (No. 9). 



FIG. 6. POTTER-WASP AND NEST 



This insect is by no means an abundant one, while perfect 

 specimens of the little pot it makes are rather rare objects 

 in museum collections. 



and a year or more ago the present writer gave an illus- 

 trated sketch of this beetle in Americ.\n Forestry. 

 Packard says of it, "Though usually living in the roots 

 and trunks of the poplar and balm-of-Gilead, Mr. F. 

 Clarkson states that at Oak Hill, Columbia County, New 

 York, this borer infests the black oak, the beetle emerging 

 at twilight during the first two weeks in July." He fig- 

 ures both the pupa and the larva. 



Tumble-bugs are among the most remarkable insects 

 that we have (No. 10), and the habits of many of them 

 are very extraordinary. One United States species is 

 very brilliantly colored. They are also called "dung 

 beetles," for the male and female will roll up a ball of 

 dung cow dung considerably bigger than either one 



of them, and tumble it over and over down a dusty 

 country road in a way most remarkable to behold. At 

 the end of such a long journey, the female lays her eggs 

 in this ball, and then buries it. The tumble-bug here 

 shown is a male, and so exhibits the "horn" on its fore- 

 head a character scarcely developed in the female. Life 

 histories of tumble-bugs in various parts of the world 

 are wonderfully interesting. Professor Comstock, of 

 Cornell University, in writing of them said that "thi^ 

 is one of the instances, rare among insects, where the 

 male realizes that he has some responsibility as a father, 

 and assists the female in providing for the young." To 

 this order belong the Scarabs, a tumble-bug held to be 



sacred by the ancient Egyptians (Scarabocus sacer). 



A most striking beetle is the big, gray and speckled 

 Eyed Elater, shown in No. 11, with the pair of elliptical 

 black eyes on its thorax. This is one of the "clicker 

 beetles," and during some summers we may meet with 

 several of them. However, the writer has never found 

 them to be over-abundant, having discovered, perhaps, 

 up to date, a dozen or more. Its larvae occur in decayed 

 trunks; and upon the whole, this interesting species is 

 not considered especially destructive to trees or plants. 

 Old, rotten apple-tree trunks is a good place to hunt for 

 its larvae, and the beetle preys upon other insect larvae. 

 More than 500 different species of these clicker beetles 

 occur in the North American insect fauna. 



Among the grape-vines in midsummer is the place to 

 look for the beautiful Spotted Pelidnota (No. 12), and 

 many people are very familiar with it. It feeds upon 

 the leaves of the grape, both the wild and the cultivated 

 kinds; but it does little or no harm, and is, withal, one 

 of our handsomest beetles. Beneath, it is bronzy-green, 

 and a shiny, tan-brown above, being spotted as shown 

 in the accompanying illustration. Most often the writer 

 has found its larva in old, dead stumps of the hickory 

 and different species of oak. 



Many species of beetles other than those figured and 

 mentioned here have most interesting histories, and they 

 would appeal to those foresters who investigate such 

 matters. A large number of them, or their larvae, are 

 dangerous enemies of our shade or forest trees, and 

 among them may be mentioned the Sawyer that destroys 

 evergreen trees ; various species of the Snout-beetles, 

 and, indeed, a perfect host of others, a mere list of which 

 would carry this brief article far beyond the limitations 

 of our space. 



Of all the families of wasps in this country, none can 

 exceed in interest the one known as the "potters," of 

 which family there are several genera. They have earned 

 their name from the fact that they build a nest which 

 for all the world closely resembles a little clay pot or jar 

 (see figure) ; and the circumstance that clay is the mate- 

 rial used, in no way detracts from the resemblance. Some 

 of these nests are of very light color, as was the one 

 here figured, while others are nuich darker, being of a 

 rich earth-brown. They are very rarely discovered, 

 v,'hich is chiefly due to their small size and to the secre- 

 tive habits of the makers of them, and there are not a 



