284 SOME NOXIOUS INSECTS. 



As long as a tree is healthy and vigorous they do not 

 touch it ; but in the course of nature its term of existence 

 is fulfilled, and it dies. Simultaneously it is attacked by 

 hosts of wood-eating insects, which bore their way into 

 it, lay their eggs, and so establish within it a series of 

 rapidly increasing colonies which weaken its substance. 

 At the first tempest down it comes. Then comes the 

 rain, and penetrates into the wood through the tunnels 

 made by the insects. Fungi now are formed, and still 

 further weaken the wood, making it soft and fit for the 

 food of another set of devourers. 



Waterton in his "Wanderings," details most graphic- 

 ally this portion of insect work : " Step a few paces 

 aside, and cast thine eye on that remnant of a Mora. 

 Best part of its branches, once so high and ornamental, 

 now lie on the ground in sad confusion, one upon the 

 other, all shattered and fungus-grown, and a prey to mil- 

 lions of insects, which are employed in destroying them. 



"Put thy foot on that large trunk thou seest to the 

 left. It seems entire amid the surrounding fragments. 

 Mere outward appearance, delusive phantom of what it 

 once was ! Tread on it, and, like the fuss-ball, it will 

 break into dust." 



What happens next is evident enough. It sinks into 

 the ground and is incorporated with it, thus making room 

 for a new tree to spring up in its stead, and supplying to 

 the ground the elements necessary for the nutriment of 

 the fresh growth. Thus it is that, were it not for the 

 Noxious Insects, man would long have ceased to maintain 

 his place in the world. 



