THE PASSING OF THE TREES 181 
proceeds. She uses insects, also, 
in great variety. Wood-borers 
and carpenter-worms penetrate 
to the heart of the solid trunks, 
in their feeding operations, open- 
ing passage ways for the water 
andforfungus spores. Engraver- 
beetles, excavating their nests of 
wonderful .design, loosen and 
perforate the bark. Wire-worms 
and. firefly larvee perforate the 
log heaps when in a crumbling 
Fic. 70. Three insect larvae that red-rotten condition; and white 
aie in logs. x, a carpenter-worm,; ‘ . 
, a wire-worm; 2, a snipe-fly larva grubs mix the last recognizable 
Cxylophagus). = 4 
remnants with the soil. So 
are the largest organic bodies on the earth reduced to 
earth again, and their masses of food materials put again into 
circulation; and in the process, generations of lesser organ- 
isms have been fed and housed. ‘This is nature’s method. 
Of course, the population of these logs does not consist of 
herbivores alone. Wherever fungi and herbivorous animals 
flourish, their enemies are sure to find them. Stripping 
off the bark from an old log, we are pretty sure to find 
fungus-eating animals of several sorts: various beetles, 
cockroaches, millepedes, sow-bugs and the minute white 
cylindric legless larvee of fungus-gnats. Also, we find true 
carnivores—centipedes, ground 
beetles, fireflies, etc., searching 
for animal prey. Even in the 
burrows of the heartwood borers, 
occur parasites that have found 
their: well-sequestered victims. 
Then there are vertebrate ene- ‘0,7! toes a a ra pe 
mies, also—salamanders, that — {/4#/);, >» # rovebeetle (Staphy- 
z y7 
