Insect Ravages in Woodlands, 



165 



87. Cavities made in Fallen Timber by the 

 Larvae of Insects, tending to rapidly 

 hasten its Decay. 



may still be good for car- 

 pentry, but improper for 

 coopers' use ; if the bur- 

 rows are large, they tend 

 to admit moisture, and to 

 become great open cavi- 

 ties, and in certain other 

 cases the wood is so eaten 

 that it becomes nothing 

 but a shell perhaps sound 

 and without the least ap- 

 pearance of injury exter- 

 nally, but wholly eaten 

 out into caverns within. 



661. These wood-eating 

 insects are especially com- 

 mon in decaying wood, 

 and where they are strict- 

 ly limited to this, they can 

 scarcely be considered as 

 of great injury, and in 

 some cases they may be 

 even beneficial, in hasten- 

 ing its decay. 



662. There are other 

 classes of insects found 

 upon wood and leaves, and 

 even in burrows in the 

 wood and bark, that are 

 predatory in their habits, 

 pursuing other insects and 

 destroying them, either in 

 the perfect state, or as lar- 

 vae, or by feeding upon 8 S. Wood that has been thoroughly ruined by the 

 their G^o-s. Larvae of the Cerambyx licros. 



fee*"* 



6621 These carnivorous insects are the surest agency for counter- 

 acting the inordinate increase of the injurious kinds, and when the 

 latter multiply to. undue extent, the abundance of food thus offered 

 leads to their increase also, until the balance of nature is again re- 



