INSECTS AFFECTING PARK AND WOODLAND TREES 449 



Distribution. This species probably has a wide distribution in the 

 eastern United States, since it has been recorded from New York, New 

 Jersey, Ohio, southwestern Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Louisiana 

 and Minnesota. 



Natural enemies. Dr Hopkins has reared Elasmocerus termi- 

 natus Say, from wood infested by this species in company with others, 

 and has also obtained Hypophloeus p a r a 1 1 e 1 u s Melsh. from the 

 galleries of this insect. Dr LeConte has reared Ghariessa p i 1 o s a 

 Forst, and Phyllobaenus dislocatus Say from hickory limbs 

 infested by this species. 



Bibliography 



1890 Packard, A. S. U. S. Ent. Com. 5th Rep't, p. 296 



Chestnut timber worm 



Lymexylon scriceum Harr. 



A slender, white grub with a conspicuous hump behind the head and a dark brown, 

 obliquely truncate, serrate posterior extremity, makes extensive galleries in the wood of 

 living and dead chestnut and oak. 



This destructive borer tunnels the sapwood and heart of chestnut in all 

 directions, though its galleries are frequently oblique and along the lines of 

 growth. Entrance is effected at some wound or where a limb has broken 

 off. Its work in chestnut is so abundant in many sections as to cause mate- 

 rial depreciation in the price of otherwise valuable timber. The parent is 

 a slender, chestnut-brown, yellow-haired beetle about y 2 inch long. The 

 larva is white, slender, cylindric, about ^ inch long. It has a peculiar hump 

 behind the light yellow head, and a hard, dark brown, excavated, obliquely 

 truncate posterior extremity margined with stout quadrate teeth. 



All fallen or dead timber should be removed from the forest as soon as 

 practical, as this species breeds readily in dead trunks. Unnecessary blaz- 

 ing or wounding should be avoided, since such places are very favorable 

 to infestation by this borer. 



