This is, doubtless, because the outer layers of the
wood are softer and more juicy, and therefore more easily cut, besides
containing more nutriment and being, doubt less, better relished than
the drier interior.
This beetle does not bore, like some insects, but devours bodily all
the wood that is removed in making its burrows. The depth of each
vertical tube may be taken as an index to the length of time the
animal has been at work, and the number of these tubes generally tells
how many inhabit each bush, for as a general rule each individual
makes but one hole, and is commonly found at the bottom of it. All of
the excavations are black inside.
The beetle is sub-cylindric in outline, and very small, measuring but
3.5 mm in length. Its color is a dark chestnut brown, some specimens
being almost black. Its head is bent down under the thorax, and cannot
be seen from above (see Fig. 5).
[Illustration: FIG 5.--Corthylus punctatissimus.]
Should this species become abundant and widely dispersed, it could but
exercise a disastrous influence upon the maple forests of the
future--_G. Hart Merriam, M D, in American Naturalist._
* * * * *
THE RED SPIDER.
(_Tetranyehus telarius._)
The red spider is not correctly speaking an insect, though it is
commonly spoken of as such, neither is it a spider, as its name would
imply, but an acarus or mite. Whether its name is correct or not, it
is a most destructive and troublesome pest wherever it makes its
presence felt, it by no means confines itself to one or only a few
kinds of plants, as many insects do, but it is very indiscriminate in
its choice of food, and it attacks both plants grown under glass and
those in the open air.
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