8 



The evidence found by the writer in old dead standing and felled 

 trees indicates that the pine-destroying beetle has been present for a 

 much longer time. It was also evident that much of the devastation 

 supposed to have been caused by forest fires was caused, primarily, bv 

 insects. 



Mr. Graves, in his exhaustive report on the Black Hills Forest 

 Eeserve. a refers, on page ST. to insects and the dead pine timber as 

 follows : 



On the high limestone divide, from near Crook Tower to the head of Little Spear- 

 fish Creek, there are numerous patches of dead and dying timber. These patches 

 are usually rectangular in shape and follow the tops of the divide and ridges, or run 

 lengthwise up and down the slope. This forest has for the most part not been lately 

 burned, and there is a heavy matting of litter and humus on the ground. The injury 

 is confined to the limestone formation and to high elevations. The trees are in many 

 cases second growth and apparently perfectly thrifty. This injury is probably 

 caused by insects. On all dead and dying trees examined were found bark borers, a 

 species of the Scolytida?. working under the bark. In most cases the leaves were 

 clinging to trees which had been dead for several seasons. While these borers do not, 

 as a rule, attack vigorous trees, no other cause of the death of this timber could be 

 found. 



Mr. H. E. Dewey, writing to the Division of Entomology from Lead. 

 S. Dak., on August 12. 1S99. stated: 



* * * There have been none in the trees this year until last Wednesday, the 

 9th. On that day there was a southwest wind, and a swarm of them came. My 

 dwelling is in what was a grove of young native Black Hills pines. The bugs settled 

 on the house like a plague of locusts. At night they left the house and scattered 

 about. I have examined the trees, and with one exception do not find that they 

 attacked them. This one excepted tree is a sight. Hundreds of bugs settled on it 

 during the night, and by morning they had buried themselves out of sight in the 

 trunk. As they bored their way in. the dust from their boring, which was very 

 fine, filtered out from the top to the bottom of the tree like fine sawdust, and fell 

 about the tree on the ground. They could be plainly heard at their work as they 

 bored into the wood. The tree was a vigorous young pine about 15 feet high and 6 

 inches in diameter at the ground, and there is no apparent reason why they should 

 select it more than others. Last year they were here in June. 



The following copy of a letter addressed to the Department of the 

 Interior. Division of Forestry, was submitted to the author from the 

 Division of Entomology, with a specimen of the insect, which, together 

 with the specimens sent with Mr. Dewey's letter, formed the material 

 from which the species was named and descriptive notes were made. 

 The letter is dated Piedmont. S. Dak.. August 14. 1S9S. and reads as 

 follows: 



Many of the pine trees in this vicinity are dying. Small holes appear in the bark, 

 a reddish pitch exudes, the leaves turn brown, and in a few weeks the tree dies. I 

 think the mischief is done by the small black insect inclosed herewith, which I found 

 in one of the holes. Is there any remedy? 



1 Nineteenth Annual Report U. S. Geological Survey. lSv">7-i(S. Part V. pp. 67-164. 



