108 NATURAL HISTORY. 



is knobbed or rugged. The female is larger than the 

 male, and has the fore part of the head covered with 

 hairs. This beetle is found only in the pine woods, 

 where it commits great ravages, not only on the living 

 tree, but also on the felled timber. The increase is very 

 rapid and numerous, being two broods in one year. The 

 eggs, white and shining, are about the size of a grain of 

 millet, and are arranged in galleries under the bark. 

 Each larva eats a new passage for itself in the alburnum 

 or sapwood, at the end of which gallery it undergoes its 

 transformation. These passages never cross each other, 

 but are of singular and irregular forms, somewhat resem- 

 bling the characters of Arabic writing. These searabese 

 generally seek, at first, sickly and unsound trees, but 

 soon leave them for the healthy, and being so numerous, 

 are hard to be dislodged from their harboring places. 

 They puncture the bark and alburnum so severely, that 

 the sap can not rise, and thus, deprived of nourishment, 

 the tree dies, but, nevertheless, if felled in time, the 

 wood can be used. There are several relative species 

 found on other trees. 



The Fir Moth (hylesinus piniperda), plate 22, fig. 2, 

 is two lines in length with a rather long body, sloping 

 towards the posterior portion ; yellowish-brown or black, 

 or else black, with reddish-brown elytra. This species 

 infest the wood of the fir, whether in the living tree or 

 felled timber, eating their way into it in the same man- 

 ner as above described, and are quite as hurtful. 



The Common Borer (ptinus fur) is rather more than 

 the tenth of an inch in length, with a small head, pro- 

 truding eyes, and long feelers. The body is hairy, color 

 reddish-brown, with two small bands ; on the corselet 

 are two knobs. This beetle is the pest of museums and 



