90 



THE DESTRUCTIVE AGEXTS OF FORESTS. 



from 75 to 80 per cent of aH tlie mature pines were killed. 

 Previous to this killing of tlie trees very few destructive for- 

 est fires had occurred in this region but in 1895 fires raged in 

 the dead timlDer and caused great loss. Since that time, as a 

 more or less direct result of the insect outbreak, fires have 

 been frequent and destructive. 



The insects continued to multiply and spread for two 

 seasons and just at the time when it seemed that all otir spruce 

 and pine forests were doomed natural conditions destroyed the 

 beetles causing them to disappear as suddenly as they h-ad 

 come. Since 1893 no injtiry is known to have been done by 

 this species within the state. In Virginia and other states fttr- 

 ther to the sotitli it has continued to be more or less active and 

 there is a remote possibility of futtire recurrences of devastat- 

 ing swarms in the forests of West Virginia. 



The death of large areas of pine v-hich history records as 

 occtirring in some of the southern states has no dotibt resulted 

 from the attacks of the southern pine Vieetle. 



Several other bark beetles of this gentis have been fotind 

 hj Hopkins in Vest Virginia btit none of them is so destruc- 

 tive as the species just described. The Eastern Larch Beetle 

 (D. simplex Lec.^ has been fotind on the larch growing in the 

 north-eastern part of the state and one specimen of the Alle- 

 ghany Spruce Beetle 'B. punctafus Lec.^' vras found by Hop- 

 kins in Randolph county. The Black Turpentine Beetle B. 

 iurljrans Oliv.'i was found on yellow and white pine at Kana- 

 wha Station. "W. Va. The Red Turpentine Beetle 'B. vnJens 

 Lec.) bred in great numbers in the trees injured by the si:mth- 

 em pine beetle in 1891 and 1892 and did some damage to li^fing 

 pine and spruce trees in 1893 but was not notably injurious 

 thereafter. 



The Destructive Spruce Bark Beetle • PoJygraplius nifi- 

 pennis Kirby) is a small, black, elongate beetle that has caused 

 considerable damage to spruce in this state. It occasionally 

 attacks the bark of other trees but most of its injury is done 

 to spruce, especially to trees that have been injured or have 

 had their vitality impaired by other causes. In August, 1909, 

 Hopkins observed this insect to be killing spruce timber on 



