0182 
it was worked up into barrels, although, owing to the very min 
holes made by the insects it was almost impossible to detect their 
presence. 
Roxvan GARDENS, Kew, to Inpra OFFICE. 
. Royal Gardens, Kew, 19 July 1890. 
I am desired by Mr. Thiselton Dyer to inform you that he has 
received ko the Sojseintendad of the India Store Department cor- 
respondence on the subject of injuries to staves of beer barrels noticed 
ina — consignment made to Calcutta 
of the staves received from India were brought to Kew by 
by M r W. H. Hooker, and they were submitted for examination to 
Mr. W. T. H. Blandford, F.E.S., Lecturer on Entomology at the Indian 
Civil alo. Nest Cooper’ s Hill. 
3. Mr. rd's Report, a copy of which is herewith enclosed, is 
an able and oboe document. The cause of the injuries complained 
of is clearly traceable to the attacks of a small beetle known as Tr rypo- 
eaa _signatum, Fabr., which had bored into the wood, and thus in 
cases e wo was worked up produced a continuous 
< cn between the outside and inside of the barrels. This beetle is 
known as attacking newly-felled oak timber, and is recognised amongst 
other characteristies by the peculiar series of short chambers made by 
its larve at the extremity of the burrow. One of these burrows was 
found by Mr. Blandford in the oak staves received at Kew, and a 
sae of it is given in the Report. 
4. The perforations made by the beetle are exceedingly minute, and 
they can only be detected by a very searching examination. It would 
almost impossible for an offieer charged with the duty of inspecting 
.A large number of barrels to detect one, two, or three of these perfora- 
tions in each barrel, and especiall 
i ) they are covered over by the h The inju he o 
staves must, however, have been apparent at the time they were worked 
by the coopers, as one of the burrows been earefully plugged 
externally with a small wooden 
I am, &c. 
A. Godley, Esq., C.B. (Signed) D. Morris. 
Report on Two Pieces of Brrr-Cask Sos Oak-staves) pierced by a 
There appears to be six burrows in all running straight through the 
pieces of cask from * side to side. I cut down upon and examined them 
.all from end to end. 
Five burrows are simple vertical channels from * side to side : some 
marked with beer-staining, some not. One was carefully plugged 
— with a small wooden plug. Sae was packed in its outer 
half by the chewed débris left by a boring insec 
cve ad in them examples of an insect ds. however, has had 
nothing to do with the boring; t hey are young larvae of earwigs or 
some ng insect which have crawled into the holes rinra hei ntly. 
The remaining two holes (A. B.)on the outside and inside of the 
stave respeta were found on examination not to correspond. 
* From outside to inside or the reverse. 
