160 THE SCOLYTID BEETLES. 



I did not see this swarm or the many others like it which I subsequently learned 

 occurred in different sections of the State about the same time, since it would have 

 been very interesting and important to know the number of species that occurred 

 in them and the approximate proportions of each. a 



On my way to the spruce forests on May 20, I was informed at Bretz, Tucker 

 County, W. Va., that the swarm had occurred there on April 30. They came from 

 the southeast and "showered against the windows like hail," and. entered through 

 the open doors into the houses in such numbers that they had to be swept out. I 

 found a few examples of the turpentine beetle in the office of Mr. Shaw, who informed 

 me that it was the same insect that occurred in the swarm. At Mr. Frank Bennet's, 

 about 15 miles farther up the river (Dry Fork of Cheat), I learned that a similar 

 swarm had visited that section about the same time as the one at Bretz. Here I 

 found large numbers of the turpentine beetle in the webs of the apple tree tent cater- 

 pillar. The swarm that passed through Bretz and Morgantown doubtless originated 

 in the dead pine timber of Hampshire, Hardy, and Pendleton counties, and taking 

 a northwesterly course passed over the Allegheny Mountains and through the great 

 spruce forests of Randolph and Tucker counties about April 30, and reached Mor- 

 gantown on May 4. The swarm was also reported from different points along the 

 West Virginia and Pittsburg Railroad and from Pocahontas and Greenbrier counties, 

 which would indicate that this remarkable occurrence was quite general throughout 

 the spruce and pine areas. The fact that the turpentine beetle had been found so 

 common attacking living trees and occurred in such enormous numbers in these 

 swarms, together with the fact that numerous other species occurred in the swarms 

 and in the bark of dying trees, led one very naturally to the conclusion that even if 

 the destructive species had become extinct the timber would continue to be killed 

 by these surviving barkbeetles. 



The vast numbers of the red turpentine beetle which had bred in 

 the trees killed by the southern pine beetle during 1891 and 1892, 

 finding no more trees dying from this cause in 1893, attacked the 

 base of living pine and spruce, and did considerable damage during 

 the summer of 1893, but there was little or no damage caused by it 

 in 1894, and for many years thereafter it was a rare insect in the 

 coniferous forests of West Virginia examined by the writer. 



ECONOMIC FEATURES. 



In general, this species is of secondary importance in its economic 

 relations to American forests. In the East it has never been found 

 as the primary and only cause of the death of trees; in California, both 

 at Monterey and in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, it is more aggres- 

 sive, and it appears that numbers of trees have been killed or se- 

 riously damaged by it. The principal injury is to the base of living 



a The species found in the greenhouses and on paint which evidently came in the 

 swarm, May 4, 1893, are as follows: 



1. M onarthrum mali Fitch. 7. Hylurgops glabratus Zett. 



2. Gnathotrichus materiarius Fitch. 8. Dendroctonus terebrans 01iv.[= valens 



3. Xyleborus xylographus Say. Lee, which greatly predominated in 



4. Tomicus cacographus Lee. the swarm.] 



5. Hylastes cavernosus Zimm. 9. Ips fasciatus Oliv. 



6. Hylastes gracilis Lee. 



