388 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
The common white ant (Tmnes tlavipes) destroys dead wood, stumps of trees, and 
timber, jusl m does its Dearest relative, T. liirifuyus, in Europe. Of the latter spe- 
cies some eases are reported where Living pines and oaks have been destroyed in the 
BOnth of France. For T. flavipea ouly one case is known, in which Living grape-vines 
in a hot-house in Salem were injured (S. II. Scudder, Proc. Boston N. II. s.. vol. 
vii, p. 287). Now the earth in the hot-houses there in Cambridge is largely it,: 
by white ants, but, as far as I kuow.no destruction of plants has been observed. I 
was very much interested by the information from Mr. F. W. Putnam that in a garden 
in Irving street living maples were largely infested by white ants. The evidence of 
the truth of this information was apparent by the first glance at the trees. They were 
three in number, some few yards separated, more than GO feet high, 2 feet diameter 
at base, and apparently in good condition, except that the bark was in certain places 
affected or split. Those places had somewhat the appearance of the well-known 
winter splits of the bark of trees. In removing parts of the bark, directly living 
white ants, workers and a few soldiers, were found, collected, and proved to belong 
to T. fiavipea. Closer observation showed that small open gangs, covered outside by 
the loose bark, ran along the tree to a height of 30 feet or more. There wore on this 
e>tate no old rotten stumps, but some of the adjacent uninhabited estates contained 
them, where probably the nest may be found ; nevertheless, the whole estate was 
so overrun by white ants that they had made along the fence a long track covered 
with the hard clay-like mud with which they usually fill the eaten parts. As the 
boards of the fence were thin, it was perhaps judged safer to build the canal outside 
instead of on the interior of the boards. The house, a frame house, about teu years old, 
the stables, and the wooden sheds were entirely iutact. The estate near to it seemed 
to be entirely free of the pest. The foliage of the infested trees looked very remark- 
able. Mr. Sereno Watson, the curator of the Cambridge Herbarium, was at first at 
loss to determine the leaves ; the size, the shape, and the venation would not agree 
with any known species. But when he saw the tree, he was directly sure that it was 
only the common Acer rubrum. Some fresh shoots near the base of the tree had un- 
mistakably the leaves of the common red maple. All the other leaves were very 
small, mostly not more than 2 inches broad, the median lobe often short, sometimes 
blunt, and not longer than the side lobes; the ribs below were about yellowish, and 
decidedly less dark than on the red maple. The owner of the estate had for ten 
years not observed any change in the foliage of the trees. During the last winter the 
upper part of one tree, some 20 feet, broke down in a gale, and proved to be not in- 
fested by white ants. Now it was considered safe to fell the whole tree. The bark 
was, in the place where the gangs went up along the trees, extensively bored and 
hollowed by the white ants. The wood itself was ouly 2 feet above the ground filled 
with the common white aut holes and gangs, but no more than 1 inch deep around 
the stump. The inner part of the tree showed the wood perfectly sound for 31 feet, 
except a perpendicular hole of 2 inches diameter in the middle of the tree, going 
down to the root. This hole, perhaps made by squirrels, had black ants as inhabit- 
ants. The two other trees are still standing. In consequence of those facts. I looked 
around in Cambridge, and have now the suspicion that perhaps the injury done to 
living trees may be less rare thau I had supposed. If similar observations are made 
by entomologists, I would be thankful to have them communicated to me. 
13. Ft il in us ruficornis Say. 
Order Coleoptera ; family Ptinid.e. 
Mr. Harrington states that be has seen in Canada "great numbers 
issuing from maple trees, leaving the wood riddled with small holes." 
The beetles, he says, are very common and attack various trees, both 
living and dead. u When a tree, say oak, hickory, or maple, has been 
