INSECT ENEMIES OF WESTERN FORESTS 



161 



polished table tops where these native woods were used as a base 

 for A^eneer. A smaller brown species, Polycaon confertus Lee, also 

 mines in the wood of these and other broadleaved shade and fruit 

 trees in California and is sometimes responsible for the extensive 

 killing of twigs and branches. 



The lead cable borer {Scohicia declivis Lee.) {17) is an omnivo- 

 rous feeder in all sorts of seasoned hardwoods, and has been par- 

 ticularly destructive by boring into alcohol or wine casks and into 

 lead telephone cables. The adults are cylindrical dark brown or 

 black beetles about one-fourth of an inch in length and have the 

 head retracted under the thorax, giving them the appearance of bark 

 beetles. 



CARPENTER ANTS 



Large black ants belonging to the genus Camponotus are called 

 "carpenter ants" because of their habit of tunneling into the w^ood 

 of stumps, logs, dead standing trees, or the dead interior of living 

 trees, and even into 

 the f ramew^ork of 

 houses, where they 

 excavate large cavi- 

 ties that they use for 

 nests in wdiicli to rear 

 t h e i r young. The 

 wood is not eaten by 

 the ants, but cast 

 out in order to make 

 room for the nests, 

 causing little piles of 

 wood fibers to collect 

 below the entrance 

 holes. Their excava- 

 tions in wood are 

 frequently so exten- 

 sive as seriously to 

 impair its structural 

 value (fig. 81). In 

 the Pacific North- 

 west carpenter a n t 

 damage greatly ex- 

 ceeds and to a large 

 extent supplants that 

 done by termites — 

 the termite damage 

 being much more 

 prevalent farther 

 south. These ants 

 are general feeders, 

 including in their 

 fare both animal food and sweets, their preferred items of food ap- 

 pearing to be the honeydew excreted by aphids and the caterpillars of 

 certain lycaenid butterflies. They have even been known to shelter 

 the aphid eggs in their nest during the winter and carry them out 

 and place them on plants to develop in the spring. 



130643°— 39 11 



FiGUKE 81. 



-Carpenter ants and their work. (Natural 

 size.) 



