Sept. 1895.] 



IKJtiRIOUS INSECTS AND FUNGl. 



171 



could be found all over the "break." In a few weeks, the 

 greater part of the trees had succumbed entirely to the on- 

 slaughts of the beetles, except the spruces, which were not 

 touched until the others were destroyed. Numbers of the trees, 

 which were only from 9 inches to 15 inches high, were barked 

 all round 



This plantation was surrounded with firs blown down by the 

 memorable gale of the 17th November 1893. Other plantations 

 on this same estate are also surrounded with fallen fir trees, but 

 are not at present infested. 



The beetles injure fir trees by biting away the rind from the 

 stems, the shoots, and the branches. In bad attacks the rind 

 is bitten ofiT completely round the stems and branches, deep into 

 the sap wood, so that the tree dies or the brauches and shoots 

 dry up. The beetles are especially fond of the larch, and strip 

 the rind off below the groups of leaves, or needles, with great 

 rapidity. They are also fond of Scotch firs, Weymouth pines, 

 Pimtsmaritima, so largely grown in Fra.nce, and deodaras.* Sap 

 and resin escape freely from the wounds made by the insects in 

 the Goniferce they infest, and the trees soon show signs of exhaus- 

 tion and quickly die. Young trees from two to seven or eight 

 years old are principally attacked, and it is rare to find beetles 

 upon trees of more than 14 years. 



In the middle of the young plantation destroyed in Scotland, 

 there was a small group of larch 12 years old, which was not 

 touched. AVhen newly-planted trees, fresh from the nursery, 

 are attacked, as happened in the case in Scotland cited above, 

 especially if they are planted in the spring, and a dry season 

 follows, they cannot resist the onslaughts of numerous beetles. 

 Although these beetles prefer varieties of the Goniferce, they are 

 sometimes found upon the oak, ash, birch, apple, and other 

 deciduous trees. They are very troublesome in continental 

 woods and forests. It does not appear that they are known in 

 America. Packard, in his comprehensive report on forest insects 

 in the United States, 188S-1890, does not mention Hylohius 

 ahietis. 



Life History. . 



The beetle is large and very conspicuous. It is rather more 

 than half an inch in length when fully grown. Its ground- 

 colour is pitchy black. Its head and thorax are thickly covered 

 with punctures. The very Jong rostrum or snout has a deep 

 groove on both sides, into which the antennae, or rather their 

 lower joints, can be conveniently packed. The wing-cases are 

 deeply punctured, and marked with patches of yellow hairs 

 arranged in somewhat irregular transverse rows. There are 

 small patches of yellow hairs upon the thorax and a fringe of 



* Some of these beetles kept in glass boxes preferred branches of Cedrus 

 Deodar a to larch and Scotch firs. 



O 88180, 



D 



