148 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



Professor Smith was interested in these examples of wood- 

 pecker work and comments upon them in Entomological News, 

 volume 5, page 73, March 1894. He was particularly interested 

 in a fine specimen of the larva of a Cossid moth, probably Pm- 

 noxystus guerciperda Fitch, which Mr. Brakeley discovered in an 

 oak, a woodpecker having failed in an attempt to get the insect. 



On PLATE 6, figure i, is shown an interesting double drilling in 

 a white oak. Under date of June i, 1895, Mr. Brakeley made the 

 following comment on the specimen figured : " Woodpecker, parti- 

 tion hole. The space under the partition [not shown in the figure] 

 was so tightly packed with larval excelsior that at first thought 

 it was solid wood. Woodpecker drilled lower hole first and no 

 find; was just below the grub's excelsior. Then he drilled the 

 upper hole and got the grub, leaving a curious solid wood par- 

 tition between the two drills. Evidently a work saver and 

 thought it no use to do useless work and so left a partition." 

 This second and upper hole would probably not have been neces- 

 sary if the larval chamber had not been so tightly packed with 

 frass as to prevent the woodpecker's flexible tongue from finding 

 the grub. 



Some of the most interesting specimens are those in which the 

 hole made, perhaps many years before the tree was felled, has 

 been completely covered by subsequent growth. First there is a 

 core of bark partly filling the funnel-shaped hole made by the 

 woodpecker, and later this is succeeded by the usual annual rings, 

 thus completely obliterating the tragedy. Years go by and the 

 tree is felled and sawed into lengths, and one of these when split 

 shows where the larva lived and died, for the woodpecker got 

 the insect in spite of the inch of solid oak between the larva 

 and the outer world. Such a specimen is shown on plate 6, 

 figure 2, where the tree had completely covered over all signs of 

 the hole made by the woodpecker at least fifteen years before 

 the tree was felled. 



