I02 STJ^ANGE DWELLINGS. 



CHAPTER IX. 



WOOD-BORING INSECTS. 



BEETi.ES— The ScoLYTUS and its ravages— Mode of forming the Tunnels 

 Curious instinct — Worm-eaten Furniture, its cause, and the best method of 

 checking the Boring Insects — Ginger-borers — The Wasp Beetle, its shape, 

 colours, and tunnelling powers — The MuSK Beetle — Its beauty and fra- 

 grance—Difficulty of detecting the Musk Beetle — Its Burrows and their 

 inmates — The Rhagium and its Cocoon— Wood-boring Bees — Willow 

 Bee, its Tunnel and mode of making the Cells — Food of the Young — The 

 Poppy Bee— The Pith-boring Bees and their Habits— Structure of the 

 cells and escape of the Young — Shell-nests of Bees — Wonderful adaptation 

 to circumstances — How the Bee burrows — The Hoop-Shaver-Bee — 

 Gilbert White's description of its habits — The SiREX and its Burrow — Its 

 ravages among fir-trees — Carpenter Bee — Mode of making its burrow — 

 The Goat Moth — Its unpleasant odour — Shape and colour of the larva — Its 

 winter cocoons — Escape of the moth from the burrow— Clear-wings Wolf 

 Moth and Honey-comb Moth, 



We now leave the earth -burrowers, and proceed to those insects 

 which tunnel into wood and other substances. 



Beetles generally burrow while in their larval state, though 

 there are some that do so when they have attained their perfect 

 form, and are able to bore their way through wood or into the 

 ground with wonderful ease. 



Perhaps there is no wood-boring beetle which is known so 

 well as the little insect which is called Scolytus destructor. I am 

 not aware that it has a popular name that tvill distinguish it 

 from other small beetles which bore into wood. 



The accompanying illustration will probably call to the mind 

 of the reader, the insect which now comes before our notice. If 

 he should have examined the bark of certain trees, particularly 

 that of the elm, he will often have seen that it is perforated with 

 circular holes, very like those which are drilled into worm-eaten 



