DAMAGE TO CHESTNUT POLES BY INSECTS. 3 



entire pole was split open. In one line 10 to 12 years old (approxi- 

 mately 30 chestnut poles per mile, 25 feet long, about 6 inches diam- 

 eter at the top, 10 inches at the base, and apparently of second quality), 

 between Petersburg and Crewe, Va. — the poles had already been reset 

 once, east of Wilson, Va. — serious damage by the chestnut telephone- 

 pole borer rendered from 15 to 20 per cent of the poles unserviceable. 

 After the present second resetting it wafe esti- 

 mated that the poles can not last more than 

 four or five years longer. West of Wilson the 

 poles were naturally in much worse condition, 

 and many were broken oflf and only held up 

 by the wires on the sounder poles. In another 

 line examined, between Portsmouth and Boy- 

 kins, Va. (poles 30 feet long and apparently of 

 second quality), serious damage by this borer 

 averaged about 10 or 15 per cent, and between 

 Boykins, Va., and Weldon, N. C, according to 

 a linesman, 50 per cent of the poles are badly 

 decayed near the surface of the ground. 

 Much of this damiage, however, is due to fun- 

 gous heart rot. According to a statement 

 by the foreman of a resetting crew, between 

 Asheville, N. C, and Spartanburg, S. C, hundreds of chestnut poles 

 were badly decayed in the 6,7 miles of line reset, and were only held 

 up by the wires. The line was 15 years old. There was serious 

 damage by "wood lice" (termites) and also by " white wood worms." 



THE CHESTNUT TELEPHONE-POLE BOBEB. 



(Parandra brunnea Fab.) 

 CHARACTER OF THE INSECT. 



Fig. 1.— The chestnut telephone. 

 pole borer (Parandra brunneay. 

 Full-grown larva. (About 

 twice natural size. (Original.) 



The chestnut telephone-pole borer is an elongate, cylindrical, 

 creamy-white, wrinkled, round-headed grub or "wood worm" (fig. 1), 

 which hatches from an egg deposited by an elongate, flattened, shiny, 

 mahogany brown, winged beetle from two-fifths to four-fifths of an 

 inch in length. (Plate I, fig. 1 ; text fig. 2.) The eggs are probably 

 deposited from August to October in the outer layers of the wood or 

 crevices on the exterior of the pole near the surface of the ground; 

 often the young larvae enter the heartwood through knots. The 

 young borers (Plate I, .fig. 2) hatching therefrom eat out broad 

 shallow galleries running longitudinally in the sapwood, then enter 

 the heartwood, the mines being gradually enlarged as the larvae 

 develop. As they proceed, the larvae closely pack the fine excreted 

 boring dust behind them. This debris, which is characteristic of 



