DAMAGE CAUSED BY ANIMALS. 153 



round in the following spring. They then have a wealth of 

 material suitable for breeding-places offered to them on the falls 

 of the mature timber cleared during autumn and winter. The 

 generation may therefore perfectly well be said to occupy two years, 

 without in any way excluding the possibility and probability of a 

 simple annual generation of a portion of the beetles in consequence 

 of the ovi-deposition being continued throughout the whole year, 

 and of the more rapid development on warm situations and during 

 hot summers. 



The damage done by the beetles which come out in summer is 

 not very considerable, as they very soon take to their winter 

 quarters according to Altum, indeed, as early as the end of 

 August. They hibernate on areas with a thick soil-covering of 

 grass or weeds, preferring the edges of the crops bordering the 

 last falls of timber, where their breeding-places lie, so as to be near 

 at hand to commence their feeding and reproduction in spring, as 

 above described. 



Comparatively innocuous as is the boring of the larvae, the 

 damage done by the long-lived beetles is often enormous, for they 

 gnaw off patches of the young and tender bark from the stems 

 and branches of young Pine and Spruce plants, as well as of other 

 conifers, though only to a less extent, and in case of necessity even 

 attack different kinds of broad-leaved species, especially Oaks, 

 that may be interspersed among the conifers. In addition to the 

 bark, the beetle also devours the carnbial layer above the sap- 

 wood ; the patches gnawed, in size and shape often resembling a 

 lentil, get coated over with resin, and thus give the plants a 

 scabby appearance. When attacked to any great extent, the 

 young plants often die off in very large numbers, so that extensive 

 plantations may either be totally ruined, or at best a considerable 

 amount of re-planting may be necessitated. 



The damage inflicted throughout the vast coniferous forests of 

 Germany by this beetle have often been very considerable during 

 the last few decades, necessitating the outlay of large sums 

 without the attainment of satisfactory results in all cases. The 

 present method in Germany of making clear falls of mature timber 

 annually over extensive areas stocked with Spruce and Scots Pine, 

 which in many localities forms the rule, and the location of large 

 clearance areas side by side with the young plantations formed for 

 the reproduction of the woods that have been utilised, together with 



