OF THE FA KM A]^D GAEDEK. 



141 



the entomologist who makes a point of hunting for it, as 

 it remains quietly hidden by day and flies and moyes only 

 by night. The female deposits her eggs during the 

 month of June, mostly at the foot of the tree, and the 

 young worms hatch and commence boring into the bark 

 within a fortnight afterwards. These young worms dif- 

 fer in no essential from the full grown specimens, except 

 in the very minute size; and they invariably live for the 

 first year of their lives on the sap-wood and inner bark, 

 excavating shallow, flat cavities which are found stuffed 

 full of their saw-dust like castings. The hole by which 

 the newly hatched worm penetrates is so very minute that 

 it frequently fills up, though not before a few grains of 

 castings have fallen from it, but the presence of the woims 

 may be generally detected, especially in young trees, from 

 the bark, under which they lie, becoming darkened, and 

 sufficiently dry and dead to contract and form cracks. 

 Through these cracks, some of the castings of the worm 

 generally protrude, and fall to the ground in a little heap, 

 and this occurs more especially in the spring of the year, 

 when, with the rising sap and frequent rains, such cast- 

 ings become swollen and augment in bulk. Some have 

 supposed that the worm makes these holes to push out its 

 own excrement, and that it is forced to do this to make 

 room for itself; but, though it may sometimes gnaw a hole 

 for this purpose, such an instance has never come to our 

 knowledge, and that it is necessary to the life of the worm 

 is simply a delusion, for there are hundreds of boring in- 

 sects who never have recourse to such a procedure, and 

 this one is frequently found below the ground, where it 

 cannot possibly thus get rid of its castings. It is cur- 

 rently supposed that this borer penetrates into the heart 

 wood of the tree after the first year of its existence, 

 whereas the Elat-headed borer is supposed to remain for 

 the most part immediately under the bark; but on these 

 points no rule can be given, for the Flat-headed species 



