2142

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

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about 1 in. from where it had first entered.” 2013(Curtis Brit.Ent., vol.iii. p. 104.) Fig. 201.3.showsthree longitudinal sections, or shoots, of Scotch ry-vppine, with the various perforations of the insects : N <a, where it commences ; b, the aperture which it h ^makes after it has finished its excavation ; and c,the end of the first and beginning of a second ex-cavation.” ( Curtis, loc. cit.) Stephens states thatit is extremely detrimental to the leading shoots ofthe Scotch pine, perforating them longitudinallyand transversely, and also injuring the wood andbark of the trunk. This insect ( d .) is aboutone sixth of an inch in length, of a cylindricalform, and black colour, with lineate-punctate a V,elytra. It varies to a pitchy red or dull buffish **colour.

Dr. Ratzeburg has given numerous details re-lative to the history of this species, and H. aterand angustatus, in the memoir above referredto; and Dr. Rossmiissler recommends that trees infested with them to a greatextent should be cut down and burned, as the only means of saving the restof the plantation or forest.

Many species of longicorn beetles also inhabit the pine forests, amongstwhich .Spondylis iuprestoides Fabr. (Gyll. Ins. Suec., iv. p. 117.), Pridnusdepsarius Fab. (Gyll ., p. 116.), Lamia (Acanthocinus) iEdilis Fabr. (iEdilismontana Serville, Gyll., p. 54.), and Rhagium inquisitor Fabr., are parti-cularly to be mentioned ; the last, according to Rossmassler (p. 77.), attack-ing old trees of A'bies excelsa, but committing less damage than the othertribes. Some of the species of the genus Callidium are, however, muchmore obnoxious. C. bajulus inhabits the wood of the yf bies excelsa, inwhich the larva is nourished; it is also very abundant in old posts and railsof deal, in which the female deposits her eggs by means of her elongatedtelescope-like ovipositor, and also in the rafters of houses; and Mr. West-wood has been informed by Mr. Stephens, that, at his residence in SouthLambeth, it became necessary several times to cover afresh the leaden part ofthe roof, in consequence of the insects which had been bred in the rafterseating their way through the leaden sheeting by which they were protected.

The proceedings of another species of the same genus (Callidium viola-ceum) have been described by the Rev. W. Kirby in the fifth volume of theTransactions of the Linncean Society. This insect feeds principally on fir tim-ber, which has been long felled, without having had the bark stripped off; acircumstance of considerable importance; as, by taking olf the bark as soon asthe trees are felled, the attacks of various insects, subsequently to be no-ticed, might be prevented. The larva, as soon as hatched, proceeds in a ser-pentine direction, filling the space which it leaves with its excrement, resem-bling sawdust, and thus stopping all ingress to enemies from without. It ischiefly beneath the bark that it constructs its galleries, which are more tortu-ous and irregular as it increases in size : but, previously to assuming the pupastate, it burrows into the solid wood to the depth of 2 in. or 3 in., and therebecomes an inactive pupa; the perfect insect generally appearing in themonths of May and June, gnawing its way out opposite to the hole by whichit descended into the wood.

The internal Feeders which are found under the Bark, or the subcorticaltribes of beetles, are, however, those by which we find the greatest extentof injury committed upon trees of the pine and fir tribe. The genus T6-micus belongs to this tribe, containing numerous species, which, on accountof the peculiar habits and mode of burrowing, have been fancifully termedprinter, or typographer, beetles. The type of this genus is the -Dermestestypdgraphus of Linnaeus; a small cylindrical beetle, one fourth of an inch