BEETLES BORING IN AERIAL CABLES. 201 



BEETLES BORING IN AERIAL CABLES. 



Mr. C. P. Lounsbury, Chief of the Division of Entomology, Union of South Africa, 

 has forwarded the following note from the Postmaster- General of the Union with 

 regard to damage done by beetles to aerial cables : — 



" Lead-covered aerial cables, containing wires insulated by means of paper, are 

 used largely by this Department for telephone distribution purposes. An examination 

 of one of these cables at Yeoville resulted in the discovery of a clean-cut hole about 

 one- eighth of an inch in diameter. A small section of the cable was cut out and a 

 beetle was found inside the cable immediately behind the hole in the lead sheath. 

 .... This is the second beetle discovered, and in both instances the hole was bored 

 at a point in the cable sheath immediately underneath the marline suspender, by 

 which the cable is attached to the suspending wire. This seems to indicate that 

 the marline is likely to harbour these insects, and that having made a comfortable 

 nest therein the boring operations are commenced. Very few of our cables are 

 suspended with marhne, the usual practice being to utilise galvanised iron rings 

 through which the cable is threaded ; with these no trouble has been experienced." 



Mr. Lounsbury states that the specimen submitted to him was damaged, but 

 that it w^as a Bostrychid and probably Sinoxylon nificorne, Fhs. It seems likely 

 that in these cases the beetles were really attracted to the rope suspenders and that 

 the boring of the cable was merely an accidental consequence. 



The Postmaster-General adds the following quotation from an electrical journal : — 

 " In Shanghai there is a curious flying insect which is able to bore holes in which to 

 lay its eggs in the lead covering of overhead cables, but the author knows of no 

 case in a tropical country where an insect has damaged an armoured lead-covered 

 cable." 



Similar damage to aerial cables has been reported from Hong Kong, Queensland 

 and the Argentine. In the Queensland case the insects were discovered and proved 

 to be also Bostrychid s, of two species, Bostrychopsis jesuita, F., and Xylopertha sp. 



Lesne (Ann. Soc. Ent. France, Ixix, 1900 (1901), p. 591, note) quotes a record of 

 another Bostrychid, Scobicia jmstulata, boring in gas-pipes in Europe. 



