INSECTS INJURIOUS IN THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 



835 



Fig. 280. 



of grapes, and moves on and continues to depo- 

 sit eggs in bunches, until she has been delivered 

 of about one hundred and twenty in all. In 

 March and April they are batched, after which 

 they sit near the spot whfire they were hatched 

 in a crowd together for several days, according 

 to the warmth of the weather, as if it were to 

 gain strength to enable them to ascend the trees. 

 At this time their destruction should be attend- 

 ed to, and if omitted an important chance is lost. 

 The typographer bark-beetle, fig. 280 {Boa- 

 tAchus tijpographns Fabr., Tomicus typographi- 

 cus Latreille). — The bark- 

 beetles are by far the most 

 formidable of those insects 

 which commit such destruc- 

 tion on the different kinds 

 of pines and firs, and this 

 is the most destructive of 

 them all. The section takes 

 their name from the place 

 of their abode, which is 

 under the bark, where they 

 find their food, which con- 

 sists of the alburnum and 

 partly of the inner bark it- 

 self. B. typographus, for the 

 most part, attacks the silver 

 fir (Abies picea), although 

 it visits other pines also. We 

 are not aware that it has been 

 found injurious to young 

 trees, nor that it abounds to 

 a very great extent in Bri- 

 tain, probably on account of 

 the comparatively few sil- 

 ver firs we have of from eighty to one hun- 

 dred years' growth, the age at which they do 

 most mischief. That they do exist we have the 

 evidence of our own eyes, having detected them 

 this season in trees at Braco Castle, Perthshire; 

 they have also been observed in England. This 

 insect, in the beetle state, is nearly two lines 

 and a half in length, and about one and a quar- 

 ter broad, covered with a hairy coating. While 

 it remains on the bark it is of a rusty yellow 

 colour, becoming of a brownish black after it 

 escapes into the air, jaws sharply toothed, wing- 

 cases deeply punctured, broadest behind, deeply 

 and obliquely impressed. The thorax and ster- 

 num darker than the wing-cases. The female 

 is distinguished from the male by her thicker 

 abdomen, which is barely covered by the wing- 

 cases. The pupae are white and soft at first, 

 becoming harder and more yellow by degrees. 

 The larva is three lines long, white and wrinkled 

 when it quits the egg, its head changing soon 

 afterwards to pale yellow, the back being red- 

 dish striped, jaws sharp, antenna short, feet 

 six, and of a dirty yellow colour. Two broods 

 appear annually in Germany, while m Bntam it 

 is believed there is only one, which makes its 

 appearance in June or July. They pair shortly 

 after quitting the place of their bu:th, when 

 each pair selects a suitable place on the tree of 

 their choice, and commence boring a hole in the 

 trunk, pointing upwards, to the depth of nearly 

 an inch, or as deep as the sap-wood. Both assist 

 in the operation, and when completed the male 



TYPOGRAPHER BARK- 

 BS£TL£. 



dies, and the female proceeds to burrow Out a 

 perpendicular canal in the inner bark to the ex- 

 tent of 3 or 4 inches, with shallow branch-exca- 

 vations on both sides, in each of which she lays 

 an egg, which she carefully covers with a sort of 

 paste made of the finer particles of the bark. 

 In the course of fourteen days, if the weather is 

 good, the larvae make their appearance, and 

 commence gnawing tortuous passages in a way 

 somewhat similar to what is represented p. 473, 

 fig. 204, but much more tortuous and curious, 

 and which, on account of their resemblance to 

 letters, have obtained for the beetle the name 

 of typographer. KoUar remarks, that "warm 

 and dry summers, followed by a dry and cold 

 winter, are favourable for the propagation and 

 increase of all insects injurious to forest trees. 

 Hot weather shortens the period of transforma- 

 tion, and thus, by affording time for the matura- 

 tion of several broods, causes a superabundant 

 number of insects to be found. On the con- 

 trary, damp and cool summers and winters, 

 alternating with wet, frost, and cold, are effec- 

 tual in lessening both the number of the insects 

 and their destructiveness." Trees which begin 

 to appear sickly, at whatever age, should be 

 closely examined, and wherever the insect is 

 suspected to be at work, a small piece of the 

 bark should be removed by a sharp gouge, and 

 when its true position is found, the bark should 

 either be carefully pared away until the enemy 

 is reached and abstracted, or the spot over 

 which they lie should be hit with a wooden 

 mallet several times, which will destroy the 

 insects by bruising them to death. No trees 

 suspected of containing the insects should be 

 allowed to remain after being cut in the neigh- 

 bourhood of others, and all trees seriously 

 affected should be cut down. The bark in all 

 cases should be removed and burnt. 



The pine-tree lappet-moth, Bomhyx (Gastro- 

 pacha) pini Autor, DendroUmus pini Curtis 

 and Stephens. — The caterpillar of this moth 

 lives on the foliage of Pinus sylvestris and its 

 varieties, and upon none other. When they 

 attack a tree, they entirely consume the leaf and 

 sheath even to the bark; when the shoots are 

 young, they also eat the young tender bark; and 

 when they have stripped one tree of its foliage 

 they retire to another. The perfect insect ap- 

 pears in July and August, the female laying 

 from one hundred to two hundred eggs in a 

 roundish flat heap. In about fourteen days the 

 caterpillars are hatched, ascend the tree, and 

 commence their work of destruction. This is 

 the time to watch for and to destroy them. 



Tortrix {Orthotcenia) turionana Curtis and 

 Stephens. — The larva of this very small lepi- 

 dopterous insect for the most part attacks the 

 Scotch fir, Pinus sylvestris, and the Austrian 

 pine, Pinus nigricans ; but it has recently been 

 found upon some of the more rare and valuable, 

 such as Pinus insignis, Llaveana, and ponderosa. 

 The eggs are laid in July, and are hatched in 

 ten or twelve days, when they immediately 

 penetrate into the centre of the bud, which they 

 completely destroy. After descending through 

 the bud to its base, they then attack the adjoin- 

 ing buds in the same manner, not only destroy- 



