DAMAGE TO CHESTNUT POLES BY INSECTS. 6 
entire pole was split open. In one line 10 to 12 years old (approxi- 
mately 30 chestnut poles per mile, 25 feet long, about 6 inches diam- 
eter at the top, 10 inches at the base, and apparently of second quality) , 
between Petersburg and Crewe, Va. — the poles had already been reset 
once, east of Wilson, Va. — serious damage by the chestnut telephone- 
pole borer rendered from 15 to 20 per cent of the poles unserviceable. 
After the present second resetting it was esti- 
mated that the poles can not last more than 
four or five years longer. West of Wilson the 
poles were naturally in much worse condition, 
and many were broken off and only held up 
by the wires on the sounder poles. In another 
line examined, between Portsmouth and Boy- 
kins, Va. (poles 30 feet long and apparently of 
second quality) , serious damage by this borer 
averaged about 10 or 15 per cent, and between 
Boykins, Va., and Weldon, N. C, according to 
a linesman, 50 per cent of the poles are badly 
decayed near the surface of the ground. 
Much of this damage, however, is due to fun- 
gous heart rot. According to a statement 
by the foreman of a resetting crew, between 
Asheville, N. C, and Spartanburg, S. C, hundreds of chestnut poles 
were badly decayed in the 67 miles of line reset, and were only held 
up by the wires. The line was 15 years old. There was serious 
damage by " wood lice" (termites) and also by "white wood worms.' ' 
THE CHESTNUT TELEPHONE-POLE BORER. 
(Parandra brunnea Fab.) 
CHARACTER OF THE INSECT. 
Fig. 1. — The chestnut telephone- 
pole borer (Parandrabrunneay. 
Full-grown larva. (About 
twice natural size. (Original.) 
The chestnut telephone-pole borer is a creamy white, elongate, 
stout, cylindrical, so-called " round-headed" grub or "wood worm" 
(fig. 1), which hatches from an egg deposited by an elongate, flattened, 
shiny, mahogany brown, winged beetle from two-fifths to four-fifths of 
an inch in length. (Plate I, fig. 1 ; text fig. 2.) The eggs are probably 
deposited from August to October in shallow natural depressions or 
crevices on the exterior of the pole near the surface of the ground; 
often the young larvae enter the heartwood through knots. The 
young borers (Plate I, fig. 2) hatching therefrom eat out broad 
shallow galleries running longitudinally in the sapwood, then enter 
the heartwood, the mines being gradually enlarged as the larvae 
develop. As they proceed, the larvae closely pack the fine excreted 
boring dust behind them. This debris, which is characteristic of 
