43 



reports of Fitch have been but meagrely supplemented as regards many of our trees, 

 and, with the exception of a few well-known practical and economic entomologists, the 

 tendency has been apparently simply to collect and describe species. Dr. Packard has 

 recently compiled a very valuable "Bulletin on the Insects injurious to Forest and 

 Shade Trees," which has been issued by the U. S. Entomological Commission; but, 

 although of great assistance to a knowledge of the subject, it is necessarily incomplete, 

 and is intended to be preliminary to a more exhaustive treatise. 



In previous reports presented by our Society, descriptions have been frequently 

 given of insects injurious to various trees, but no paper entirely devoted to those 

 infesting a particular species, or genus, of forest tree has yet appeared. Now, however, 

 when our forests bid fair to receive more of that attention which they so richly merit in 

 view of their incalculable benefits to the Province, it is appropriate that our reports 

 should contain a series of articles treating of the more important at least of our timber- 

 trees. The present paper, as its heading shows, does not pretend to enumerate all the 

 insects infesting the hickory, but this genus has been chosen, partly because it yields 

 one of our most valuable woods, and partly because the writer has himself collected 

 from these trees a large proportion of the insects to be considered. 



It will require much more labour on the part of our members before a compara- 

 tively complete list can be compiled of all the injurious species. The U. S. Bulletin, 

 already mentioned, enumerates eighty-seven species infesting the varieties of hickory, but 

 of these only about one-half are recorded in our Canadian lists, although a majority of 

 the remainder must doubtless occur in Canada, as well as in the United States. There 

 are also many additional species infesting these trees which have not yet been noted. 

 In the present paper I will confine my remarks to the coleoptera, leaving for a future 

 paper, or to some member more competent, the consideration of the numerous species 

 belonging to the remaining orders. The list which I now present of our injurious 

 coleoptera infesting the different varieties of hickory contains no fewer than forty-eight 

 species, of which only twenty-six are mentioned in the U. S. Bulletin. Thirty-three of 

 the species have been collected by myself from these trees, and of these twenty-two are 

 in addition to the list of Dr. Packard. 



The first two beetles to be described 

 belong to the Scarabseidse, a family con- 

 taining some of our species which are 

 most destructive both in the larval and 

 perfect forms, and of which very familiar 

 examples are the May-bugs (Figure 11), 

 Lachnnsterna fusca, in its different stages, 

 which represents our common species. 



No. 1. Dichelonycha elongata Fab. is 

 a beetle about one-third of an inch long; 

 slender and cylindrical in shape, and of a 

 dark colour, with the exception of the 

 wing-covers, which are testaceous and 

 more or less uniformly tinged with green. 

 It is densely clothed beneath with short 

 white hairs, and is more sparsely hairy 

 above. The female has the thorax more 

 densely covered with this pubescence than 

 has the male, and is also distinguished by 

 the shape of the abdomen. The legs are 

 long and slender, ending in two claws which are forked at the tip, a characteristic 

 which gives to the genus its name of " Forked claws" (Dichelonycha). This species is 

 distinguished from several very similar ones found in Canada, by its blackish hind legs. 

 I have found it in June feeding upon the bitter-hickory (Carya amara\ and it also 

 occurs commonly on hazel, elm, beech, oak, etc. 



Fig. 11. 



