47 



larvre are also found, from quite small to nearly matured. A long 

 period of development would also account for the rarity of this, one 

 of the most destructive insects of chestnut and red oak timber. 



EUPSALIS MINUTA DESTRUCTIVE TO STAYE TIMBER. — On July 10, 



1897, 1 received specimens of wood, from white oak stave bolt, from a 

 cooperage company in St. Louis, Mo., with the statement that the wood 

 was infested with so-called "seed bugs," which was causing serious loss 

 to the stave and cooperage industries. Another larger section of a 

 bolt was received on July 30, in which numerous specimens of very 

 young Brenthid larvae were found, making microscopic holes entirely 

 through the bolt. Previous observations of the habits of Eupsalis 

 minuta made it plain to me that the larvae might be either in the wood 

 of the tree before it was felled, or the eggs deposited after the bolts 

 had been split and piled. Upon further inquiry it was learned that 

 the timber was cut in the winter and spring and left in ricks in the 

 woods until they could be hauled to shipping points during the spring 

 and summer. Thus the ricks of unseasoned wood were naturally both 

 in a position and condition to attract the beetle for oviposition. It was 

 found that the young, almost microscopic larva?, excavated their bur- 

 rows directly across the grain of the wood in such a manner as to ren- 

 der it worthless for the purpose for which it was intended. The remedy, 

 or rather preventive, recommended was to commence cutting the tim- 

 ber late in the summer and early fall, and endeavor to have the bolts 

 hauled out of the woods before the middle of April, or, if this could 

 not be done, to have the timber split into smaller dimensions and piled 

 so it would be partly dried before the beetles commenced to deposit 

 their eggs in the spring. Keeping the bolts in ponds or streams, or 

 spraying them with strong brine was also recommended, when it was 

 necessary to keep the timber in the woods during the time the beetles 

 were nying. 



This insect has since been found in stave timber in West Virginia, 

 and from what 1 have observed and the information I have obtained, 

 the loss occasioned by this so-called "seed bug" aggregates many thou- 

 sands of dollars each year in this and other States, which, it is believed, 

 can be largely prevented by slight changes in methods of cutting and 

 handling timber. The work of two or three species of Ambrosia beetles 

 was also observed in the wood sent from St. Louis, and that observed 

 in West Virginia. 



SCOLYTID INJURIES TO WHISKY AND VINEGAR BARRELS. — My atten- 

 tion has recently been called to the fact that some insect boring in the 

 staves of whisky and vinegar barrels causes considerable loss from 

 leakage. Tbe character of the specimens of work I have examined 

 indicates that this trouble is caused by species of the genera Xyleborus 

 and Monarthrum. 



BUPRESTID LARVA DESTRUCTIVE TO LIVING WHITE PINE TIMBER. — 



On Decemer 1, 1897, while making some investigations in the white 



