Packard.] 
mSECTS OF THE FOREST. 
233 • 
Fig. 177. 
Fig. 178. 
Wine cask 
borer, 
enlarged. 
Chrysobothris larva. 
Fig. 179. 
Avery slender form is the wine cask borer (Fig. 177), 
which acts as a state constable, slily emptying the wine out 
of casks, or previously rendering them unfit for use by meta¬ 
morphosing them into sieves through the 
transforming power of its jaws. To show 
how abundant these insects may become, a 
piece of elm three feet long, bored by the 
Scolytus destructor of Europe, was estimated 
to have contained 280,000 larvae, while the 
Tomicus monographus, w^hich does much 
mischief by drilling holes in malt-liquor 
casks in India, has been thought to bore as 
TI 
many as 134,000 holes in the staves form¬ 
ing a single cask. These little beetles, 
when soft, fleshy grubs, are attacked by 
multitudes of the young of carnivorous 
beetles, such as Staphylinus and Hister 
and their allies. 
Often in walking through the woods 
one’s attention is attracted by large flakes 
of bark peeling off the trunks of pines. 
They are loosened by the gnawing teeth of grubs, such as 
are figured here (Fig. 178, a Chrysobothris larva, and 179, 
9 
A giant borer, 
natural size. 
