266 WEST VIRGINIA EXPERIMENT STATION. 



and breed in fungi and lichens, several of the species are 

 known to be predaceous. Of the four species found in spruce 

 bark, two were with bark beetles and one, (Ips fasciatus^ Oliv.) 

 with its larvae, was with the spruce timber beetle. 



TENEBRION1D BEETLES. 



The Tenebrionids are elongated, slightly flattened, brown to 

 black beetles, with wing covers extending to tip of abdomen. 

 Some of this class of beetles feed on vegetable substances, such 

 as dried seeds, grain, fungi, &c., while others are known to 

 feed on insects. Two species were found in spruce bark, as- 

 sociated with bark beetles, both the adult and larvae ; one 

 species (Hypophloeusparallelus, Melsh.) was very common in 

 the mines of spruce bark beetles. It is also common in pine 

 and I have found it with a bark beetle in hickory bark. 



While this beetle and its larvae doubtless feed on the larvae 

 and possibly the adults of bark beetles, I have no evidence to 

 indicate to what extent it does so, except the inference drawn 

 from their common occurrence in the galleries of bark beetles. 



PARASITIC INSECTS. ICHNEUMONID PARASITES. 



The adult Ichneumonid parasites are wasplike insects, usual- 

 ly with long stings, or ovipositors, which they insert in the 

 bark and wood for the purpose of depositing eggs in or near 

 their bark or wood mining victims. Several examples of one 

 species of this class of beneficial insects 1 were found emerging 

 from the wood of a spruce tree, infested by one of the wood 

 wasps, 3 the larvae of which they had evidently destroyed. 

 Another species 3 was found with its ovipositor inserted in the 

 wood of a spruce log. M umerous examples of both species were 

 observed flying around logs and dead trees in the spruce forest 

 during the last of August and first of September. 



BRACONID PARASITES. 



The Braconids are similar in general appearance to the 

 Ichneumonids but are usually much smaller and have shorter 



1 Rhyssa albomaculata, Cress. 



2 Paururus ( Urocerus) edwardsii, Brulle. 



3 Thalessa nortoni, Cress. 



