Packard.] 
mSECTS OF THE FOREST. 
231 
some places the whole woods, as far as you can see around 
you, are dead, stripped of the bark, their wintry-looking 
arms and bare trunks bleaching in the sun, and tumbling in 
ruins before every blast, presenting a frightful picture of 
desolation. Until some effectual preventive or more com¬ 
plete remedy can be devised against these insects, and their 
larvae, I would humbly suggest the propriety of protecting, 
and receiving with proper feelings of gratitude, the services 
of this and the whole tribe of woodpeckers, letting the odium 
of guilt fall to its proper owners.’’ 
Not remotely allied to the weevils, which are distinguished 
by their more than Roman noses, are the little snub-nosed 
cylindrical timber beetles. Their hard bodies, short legs 
and strong jaws admirably adapt them for boring in the 
bark and solid wood of trees. They are some¬ 
times called wood-engravers. They may well be 
styled animated gimlets, as they bore straight, 
even and true holes, as if driven by the hand of 
a carpenter. 
There are several species which have difierent 
modes of assault. The first is the Tomicus xylo- 
graphus (Fig. 175), the true wood engraver. It Wood 
is quite small, chestnut-colored, about a line in 
length, its wing-covers are bevelled off at the tip, the edges 
of the declivity being armed with four or five teeth on each 
side. The female mines the outer surface of the sap wood 
and inner layer of the bark, lengthwise to the tree. Curi¬ 
ously enough there are more males than females and they 
help their partners, each working in turn. This is one of 
the few cases among insects in which the two sexes unite in 
the work of providing for the welfare of their future offspring. 
The female is said by Dr. Fitch, from whose admirable 
observations I am compiling this account, to make little 
notches at intervals along the burrow. In each of these 
notches from one to four eggs are placed. As the beetles. 
Fig. 175. 
