V 



INSECTS AFFECTING PARK AND WOODLAND TREES 365 



Tickler 



m Monohammiis titillator Fabr. 



A brownish mottled cylindric beetle, about ^2 inch long, and with very long slender 

 antennae, may be found in small numbers on pine trees in midsummer. The larvae 

 bore in the wood. 



This beautiful little beetle was met with in very small numbers in 1901 

 on both white pine and hard pine. This species is evidently widely dis- 

 tributed, since its range has been given by Dr Horn as from Canada to the 

 state of Washington and southward. It occurs on pines in June and July 

 throughout the state of New Jersey as recorded by Dr Smith. This 

 insect was noticed briefly by Dr Harris, but he was not aware of its habits. 

 Mr F. C. Bowditch has ascertained some interesting facts regarding it. 



Life history and description. Mr Bowditch records taking adults under 

 the bark of yellow pines in June, at which time a number were nearly ready 

 to emerge, and a week later he discovered no less than 80 beetles in one 

 tree in all stages of development, the largest being near the base. The 

 larvae bore through the trunk, when it is less than 6 inches in diameter, 

 instead of working here and there on the surface of the wood. He states 

 that the larva feeds on the sapwood or inner bark till fall, when it turns and 

 bores outward, leaving its passage filled with chips, and forms a hibernating 

 cell about y 2 to 1 IO inch beneath the bark, in which it completes its trans- 

 formation during the winter or even as late as the last of June. The grub 

 has been described by Mr Bowditch as follows: 



The larva is a footless, yellowish, white grub, more or less hairv, 

 cylindrical in shape, about 1 \ [ inches long, and 3/ 20 of an inch in diameter. 

 The body including the head is made up of 14 segments, the last eight 

 of which have a kind of ridge on each side, covered with hairs longer 

 than those which are found on the rest of the body and which doubtless 

 assist it in locomotion, the second segment next the head is flattened on 

 the upper side. 



Bibliography 

 1873 Bowditch, F. C. Am. Nat. 7 : 498-500 



