79 



in regard to the treatment of this insect, which he reported to be almost 

 universally destructive throughout the berry-growing region of tin- 

 State of Maryland. In reply to inquiry he stated that at least fifty 

 complaints concerning its injuries were received at the station. He 

 estimated the damage to his own crop at about 8500 or $000 and to the 

 fruit-growing district in the immediate vicinity of Baltimore at about 

 $20,000. 



During this same month we received specimens of the insect from 

 Mr. M. V. Slingerland, of Ithaca, N. Y., who also transmitted a com- 

 plaint of injury that was undoubtedly due to the same species from 

 Mr. O. W. Coons, Wadalin, Dutchess County, N. Y. — [F. H. Chitten- 

 den. 



NOTE ON THE SCOLYTID, XYLEBORTJS TACHYGRAPHUS ZIMM. 



One of the rarest scolytid beetles in collections is Xyleborus tachy- 

 graphus Zimm., and until its discovery a few years since infesting the 

 tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) nothing was known of its habits. 

 In volume II of the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of 

 Washington (pp. 62-64) Mr. E. A. Schwarz, of this Division, gave some 

 interesting facts concerning this species and its food tree. 



A year or two following Mr. Schwarz's observations the writer had 

 occasion to observe this insect at work in other trees, there being evi- 

 dence to show not only that it is capable of considerable injury to 

 young forest growth, but that in previous years it had been sufficiently 

 abundant to have caused the death of many trees in a tract of wood- 

 land in the vicinity of Eosslyn, Va., and in the same neighborhood in 

 which the Liriodendron colony was found. 



May 28, females were discovered beginning their galleries in the 

 green and still living portion of a stump of box-elder (Kegundo negundo). 

 On the same tree similarly engaged was found Monarthrum mali\ an 

 account of which the writer has already given (1. c, p. 392). 



June 11 of the following year another colony was discovered, occu- 

 pied as before, on two saplings of red-bud (Cercis canadensis), both 

 plants to all appearance in perfectly healthy condition. The entrance 

 holes of the scolytid's galleries were a few inches above the ground 

 and extended about a foot up the trunk. They were very closely 

 crowded together, in one sapling no less than 16 holes being counted 

 on one side in a surface of Sh square inches, 9 of these occurring in a 

 space only an inch square. On the opposite side of the trunk only two 

 galleries had been started. Subsequently this species was found dead 

 in its galleries, at the bases of three other young trees, likewise dead. 

 viz, maple (Acer sp.), beech (Fagus latifolia ferruginea), and sumac 

 ( Uhus typhina). In the maple the longitudinal galleries of the beetle ran 

 parallel to each other and were constructed so closely together that the 

 trunk broke off at the point of attack under slight pressure. In the 

 beech and sumac the galleries were similarly crowded. In all findings 

 save the last the species was represented only by one sex, the female. 



