\ 
122 tOcteb( 
I have observed that, when the eggs are hatched (or rather before that time), 
the young larvae have their heads towards the bairk, in which, daring the summer 
they busily feed. They are straight, white, footless, fleshy grubs, with a distinct 
head and powerful mandibles, and I have observed them to be hatched about thei 
third week in May. In the autumn they assume the pupa state, and shortly after- 
wards that of the imago. The perfect beetles, however, usually remain during the' 
winter months at the ends of the burrows formed by the larvae, and emerge in 
spring to continue their ravages, leaving a very distinct circular aperture ; on a 
sculptured piece of bark all the very obvious holes are apertures of exit, those of 
entry being obscure. 
It often happens that the parent beetles have made their burrows so close ( 
together that the supply of bark is quite inadequate to the wants of the lai'vce, sO' 
that their very abundance is its own remedy, and most of them perish. In other i 
instances the vitality of the bark ceases before the larvae are fall fed, the tree' 
having fallen too long when attacked, so that but a small proportion usually coma' 
to maturity. 
I have remarked the preference of H.fraxini for fallen timber, nevertheless it' 
does occur on living trees. On almost any young ash tree I have found marks > 
shewing that a burrow had been formed and a brood perfected, and that the tree iai 
now exfoliating the destroyed bark. Sometimes I think the gi'owth and vigour of: 
the trees appear to have been decidedly checked by them ; and, though I have nofc'i 
met with an example, I doubt not that trees are occasionally killed by this beetle. Ini 
other instances trees with these marks appear to be uninjured. Where they are- 
injurious, they may be extirpated by cutting down affected trees, stripping off and 
burning the bark, &c. ; but as I suspect that it is the want of dying timber which 
forces them to attack living trees, I would suggest that placing fresh logs, during; 
the spring months, in the neighbourhood of affected trees, as traps, and destroying! 
the beetles which come to them, would be more effectual. 
1 have found one tree which owed its fall to the operations of H. crenatus. The 
beetle had obviously been in possession many years ; it had commenced the attack 
near the foot of the tree, and destroyed the bark round more than half its 
circumference, and to a height of 15 or 20 feet, the limb above being dead. The 
portion of bark longest destroyed had fallen away, — the wood beneath being in: 
possession of Sinodendron and Dorcus, and rapidly rotting. The tree was blown 
over in one of the gales of last winter. I Jiave also found E. crenatus sparingly in 
several other trees, all pollarded or otherwise sickly. Unlike H.fraxini, E. crenatiis 
takes two years to undergo its transformations, the larvae assuming the pupal state 
at the end of the second summer, so that at present full-grown larvae and perfect 
beetles are both to be met with. Felled timber would be unable to support this 
long larval existence. E. crenatus accordingly is never met with except in living 
trees ; and, while an affected tree continues alive, I believe that none of the 
beetles desert it for another. They economise it as much as possible, the destroyed 
bark being more completely riddled and devoui-ed by them than by any other 
beetle of the family I am acquainted with ; the burrows of the larvae are much 
more irregular also, so that it is impossible to iind one of those perfect maps of their 
voyages (as in E. fraxini) which have secured for the Xylophaga as a family the 
name of " typographers." Last winter the blown down tree I have mentioned 
