36 BULLETIN 244, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The Nantucket pine-tip moth (Betinia frustrana Scud.) attacks 
and deforms the rapid-growing tips of branches. The attack of this 
insect is locally the most perceptible injury, but the insect is not a 
serious menace. The presence of dead tips and pitch exudations are 
the characteristic external signs of the attack, usually equally present 
on other pines, for the insect is widely distributed and attacks without 
apparent discrimination practically all pines. As a rule, the insect 
is not abundant for more than one or possibly two years. By virtue 
of its high vigor and its capacity for forming new shoots, shortleaf 
pine recovers rapidly after an attack, suffering mainly the loss of 
time during the period of arrested growth. 
Trees cut or thrown during the summer months soon become in- 
fested with larvae of the southern pine sawyer, or borer, known com- 
monly as a "flathead." x The larvae of this genus, JlonoJi animus, 2 
hatched from eggs laid under the bark, feed on the rich sap wood, but 
seldom penetrate to the heartwood. They never attack living trees 
in the South. Rapid drying of the logs is the surest prevention; so 
that trees cut in the summer months should be removed from stands 
to dry situations exposed to sun and wind, or barked and opened up 
fully. Immersion in water where possible is the simplest remedy. 
Mice, chipmunks, squirrels, and buds are very destructive of seed, 
and, to some degree, of seedlings. The abundant production of seed, 
however, accounts for the plentiful regeneration of shortleaf in spite 
of these enemies. On account of the small size of the seed, hogs 
destroy little or none directly., and they cover many in the process of 
rooting, so that the hog is to be looked upon rather as a benefit than 
a menace to the shortleaf forest. In mixed pine and nut-bearing 
forests, the presence of the hog is decidedly favorable to the regen- 
eration of pine through the destruction of the hardwood seeds. In 
artificial forestation, mammals and birds are always one of the chief 
sources of injury, because they destroy large quantities of seed. 
FUNGI. 
The southern timber pines as a group are not badly infested with 
timber-destroying fungi until advanced in age or well past maturity. 
Up to 100 years of age, shortleaf pine is remarkably low in suscepti- 
bility to fungus attack; above this age, and especially after the age of 
about 150 } T ears, hi regions subject to frequent fires, fungi are. more 
prolific and more easily gam a foothold in the tree. 
Three species of fungi are more or less common in shortleaf pine 
and cause nearly all of the wood rot commonly known as ' 'redheart." 3 
Two species of fungi, Polyporus schweimtzii and Polyporus sul- 
phureus, enter the tree through wounds on the butt or on the stool of 
i The insect is really a roundheaded borer, and not a member of the flat-headed group. 
2 Chiefly, MonoMmmus tililator Fab. See Bureau of Entomology Bulletin 58, '-Some Insects Injurious 
to Forests," p. 41. 
:) Long, W, H., Office of Forest Pathology, V. S. Department of Agriculture. 
