25 



of an inch long and one-sixteenth broad. Its head is black ; middle 

 portion of the bod} 7 red; the wing covers are marked with zigzag black 

 and gray transverse bands. 



The adult emerges from the bark of the infested tree somewhat 

 earlier than the spruce-destroying beetle, and remains hidden under 

 the flakes of bark or in the moss until the adults of the spruce beetle 

 commence to emerge. It then pounces upon the beetles as they 

 emerge and devours them. When those that escape fly away to settle 

 on- the living trees, this little clerid eneni} 7 evidently does as other 

 clerid species do. It accompanies them and continues its work until 

 the escaping beetles have burrowed into the bark. The adult clerid 

 does not follow them into their galleries, but does the next best thing- 

 deposits its eggs at the entrances, so that the active reddish worms 

 hatching therefrom can find their wa} 7 into the bark and feed on the 

 bark-beetle larvae. 



When the clerid larvse attain their full size they retire from the 

 larval mines they have depopulated and enter the central tube in the 

 primary or egg gallery made by the spruce beetle. This, in fact, seems 

 to be a favorite place for them to make their pupa cases in which to 

 transform to the pupa and adult. Some of the larva3 evidently make 

 pupa cases in the outer bark, as is the common habit of nearly all the 

 other species known to the writer; but it would seem that by far the 

 greater number pupate within the central tube in the broad egg gal- 

 leries excavated by the bark beetle. 



This clerid is, without doubt, a very efficient enemy of the bark 

 beetle, especially when it occurs in such numbers as observed in the 

 spruce near the head of the Kennebago River. 



A parasite was reared from a pupa case of this clerid which is very 

 closely allied to a parasite of the imported clerid found by the writer 

 in Germany. 



BIRDS AS ENEMIES OF THE BEETLE. 



As has already been stated, woodpeckers are the most important 

 enemies of the bark beetle, and appear to be of inestimable value to 

 the spruce-timber interests of the Northeast. Indeed, I feel confi- 

 dent that in the many hundreds of infested trees examined at least 

 one-half of the beetles and their young had been destroyed by the 

 birds, and in many cases it was evident that even a greater propor- 

 tion had perished from this cause alone. 



Estimating 100 beetles to the square foot of bark in the average 

 infested tree, and an average of 60 square feet of infested bark, it is 

 possible for each tree to. vield an average of 6,000 individuals; one 

 hundred trees, 600,000, and so on. It is therefore plain that, if one- 

 half or two-thirds of this number are destroyed by the birds and other 

 enemies, the amount of timber the remainder can kill will be lessened. 

 This is all the more apparent when it is remembered that it is only 



