172 



INJURIOUS INSECTS AND FUNGI. 



[Sept. 1895. 



yellow hairs beneath it. The legs .are black with yellow hairs, 

 but the feet have a yellow or ferruginous tinge, and the tips or 

 clubs of the antennae are ferruginous. Canon Fowler says that 

 the colour of some of these beetles is pitchy ferruginous, and 

 the legs reddish or pitchy red, It is probably iti those which 

 have hibernated that the lighter shades of colour appear. 



Towards the end of April, if the weather is suitable, the 

 beetles couie forth and soon Jay large whitish eggs, about the 

 eighteenth of an inch long and somewhat barrel-shaped, in 

 the stumps of conifers cut the preceding year, in freshly cut 

 logs, and unbarked pieces of wood, in which the sap-wood is 

 sufficiently moist to support the larvse, and upon the lower parts 

 of the stem and exposed roots of dead trees. The eggs are laid 

 singly. The larva, which comes from the egg in about sixteen 

 or seventeen days, is yellowish white, without legs, having a 

 brown head thickly covered with bristles. The upper part of 

 its body is considerably thicker than the lower part. It makes 

 mines or passages in the sap-wood, upon which it feeds during 

 the autumn and winter, and changes in the early spring to a 

 pupa in a cocoon. The larva is found only in the stumps and 

 logs of fir trees. Ratzeburg, however, says that it has been found 

 in juniper and yew stumps, which belong, or are closely allied, 

 to the Conifer oe. The larva is never seen in living trees. Some 

 of the beetles live throughout the winter in moss, grass, weeds, 

 and rubbish. It is asserted by several observers that some of 

 the beetles live for three years, but this has not been proved. 



Methods of Prevention and remedial M easures 



It is most important to remove all fir logs, stumps, and timber 

 from the neighbourhood of young fir plantations, and land that 

 is to be planted with firs, especially larch, Scotch fir, and 

 Weymouth pine. 



After a fall of firwood, where there is any fear of infestation, 

 the land should not be planted again for at least three years. In 

 the second year, the grass, weeds, rubbish, and remains of wood 

 should be burnt by firing it in dry weather, so as to destroy all 

 wood that may be lying about and the larvse and beetles that 

 may be present. 



It is most desirable that the stumps and roots of felled firs 

 should be raised and cleared away if possible. If this is not 

 possible, the land should not be planted again until the stumps 

 are completely decayed. 



Where infestation is frequent, German and French foresters 

 arrange their " breaks " of fir forest so that no " break " shall 

 come to be cut close to another " break " where the trees have 

 been recently planted, in order that there may be no stumps, 

 logs, or bits of wood for the beetles to deposit eggs in, adjoining 

 or near newly planted fir trees. Brehm says this plan has been 

 most successful in the Hartz Mountains. 



