PACKABD.] PINE MONOHAMMUS. 529 



Monohammus scutellatus and marmoratus are the most common and per- 

 nicious borers which occur in the pine timber of New York. "On a 

 still summers night the peculiar grating or crunching noise which the 

 larvae make in gnawing the wood may be distinctly heard at a distance 

 of eii'ht or ten rods. That the insect does not open a passage out of the 

 wood, whereby to make its exit, until it attains its perfect state, I infer 

 from the fact that several of these beetles gnawed their way out of one 

 of the pillars of the portico of a newly-built house in my neighborhood 

 some years since, the noise being heard several days before they emerged, 

 and while they were still at some distance in the interior of the wood." 



Mr. Bowditch found, June 9, at Brookline, Mass., this species in Finns 

 mitis, the yellow pine, in which were several holes about the size of a 

 pencil. "On removing the bark I found an adult insect already free 

 and the heads of several others appearing through the wood. On further 

 investigation during the next few weeks I obtained from the tree no 

 less than eighty of these beetles in all stages of development, which, 

 considering the size of the tree, was a large number. I observed that 

 the largest beetles were near the foot of the tree * * * After re- 

 maining in the pupa state during a space of time which varies according 

 to circumstances, it is transformed to a beetle, and after a short time 

 gnaws its way out, appearing from the lirst of June to the middle of 

 July." 



I have found numbers, at least twenty, of these larvae under the bark 

 of the white pine {Pinus strohus) at Brunswick, Me., in the early part of 

 June, but no pupae or beetles, though most of the larvae were fully grown. 

 Some were one-half an inch long, and had, without much doubt, hatched 

 from eggs laid in the preceding June or July, so that the larvae must 

 live nearly two years before transforming. My attention was called to 

 their presence in the tree by the creaking made by the larvae, the noise 

 being heard a rod from the tree. Some of the larvae were molting. In 

 this process the entire head of the tegument about to be cast is pushed 

 off anteriorly, while the thin skin of the rest of the body peels off' from 

 the prothorax backwards. 



Mr. A. O. Goodell, of Salem, Mass., presented the museum of the Pea- 

 body Academy with an adult of this species which came from a pine 

 bureau about the year 1875. The bureau had been in the house for 

 about fifteen years previous, being newly made when purchased. The 

 family had heard the creaking noise for some time before the insect ap- 

 peared; and, after inquiring into the circumstances, I have no doubt 

 but that the insect had lived in the bureau for fully fifteen years. 



This longevity is probably due to the fact that the insect had not 

 coupled, it being well known that continence in insects leads to the pro- 

 longation of life far beyond their natural term of existence. Further 

 observations and experiments on this point are greatly needed. 



Apropos of this interesting subject I quote the following observations 

 of Dr. Fitch :* 



"The wood of the apple-tree was formerly highly valued for cabinet- 

 work in this country. In 1786, a son of General Israel Putnam, residing 

 in Williamstown, Mass., had a table made from one of his apple-trees. 

 Many years afterward the gnawing of an insect was heard in one of the 

 leaves of this table, which noise continued for a year or two when a large 

 long-horned beetle made its exit therefrom. Subsequently the same 

 noise was heard again, and another insect, and afterward a third, all of 

 the same kind, issued from this table-leaf; the first one coming out 



* Third Repoit on the Insects of New York. By Asa Fitch, Trans. N. Y. Ayric. Soc, 

 1856, p. 326. 



34a 



