1885.] Forest Trees in South Africa, 21 



It is to be hoped they will not emulate their congener, but hardly 

 to be expected. 



EUCNEMIDAE. 



The larvae of that family tunnel in trees that have died recently 

 3 species are known. 



ELATERIDAE. 



96 species. Some of those are gigantic. The genus Tetralolus 

 includes 7 species. I have been able to capture the larva of the 

 Alaus mcerens, which is considerably larger than the perfect insect 

 (the larvae of the Buprestidae and Elateridae contracting much 

 when assuming the chrysalid state). I found that larva in a dead 

 standing trunk of oak, which was perfectly riddled by large 

 galleries. On the outer bark was a single hole, and although I 

 searched diligently for more grubs, tearing the tree to shreds ; never- 

 theless I found but one. I had that larva for thirteen months without 

 noticing any increase in its size. But when I opened yesterday the 

 receptacle I kept it in, I found that the larva which I had not examined 

 for a month, had assumed the imago state, but was still very soft. 

 The chrysalis state, as you can see, is of short duration ; not more 

 than one month. The perfect insect is often found feeding on the sap 

 exuding from the oak. I also have captured it on the cluster pine. 

 The grubs of that family are known in England under the name of 

 wire- worm, and the perfect insect as skip- jack. 



PTINIDAE. 



It is mostly in dead wood or cut timber that those insects are met 

 with. 3 species of the genera Ptinus, Anobium and Dorcatoma are 

 known. The Anobium has probably been imported. 



BOSTEICHIDAE. 



If the Ptinidae attack only dry timber, the Bostrichidae's attacks 

 are only on living trees, and the damage done by them is very great. 

 They are essentially ligniperdoiis. Provided with extremely strong 

 jaws, they make a hole in the living trees, penetrating to the core, 

 and almost always cause death. Cases have been authenticated of 

 larvae of Bostrichidae having perforated some leaden roofs and also 

 typographic plates. Professor MacOwan has communicated to me a 

 species of Apate, which I believe to be the Apate frontalis Fahreus^ 

 and the Museum has received a specimen of the same insect from Col. 

 Bowker, who says that it causes great damage in Natal. I have 

 received a species of Synoxilon, found in a piece of Mimosa firewood, 

 but I have not been able to find out whether the wood had been 

 freshly cut, which I surmise to be the case. The grub of Bostrichidae 

 is a fat, legless rounded creature, very much the shape, though very 

 much smaller, of the larva of the Cyphonistes, I have shewn you. We 

 have 19 species of Bostrichidae. One of them, Apate muricata^ from 

 Leydenburg, is also found in old Caiabar. 



While preparing the woods for the Forestry Exhibition, I found 

 every morning, under some logs of freshly cut Sneezewood, 

 Ptaeroxylon utile, little heaps of fine yellow dust ; when turning those 

 logs, new heaps were forced on the upper side. I knew at once that I 

 had before me the result of the work of Bostrichidae, and when I had 

 those logs sawed into planks, I found numberless galleries spoiling 



