The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1878-01-26
end of the insect. Through this
fine hair she deposits her eggs.
"Ehis,' said the scco,e sis
THE ICIINEUMoN FLY"

Aho Hull BIO tcpOSlCS uer eggs.
"This, said the scco,, sis
THE 1cINEUMoN FLY"
Ho next held an old piece Of
maple wood to tho writer's ear. A
faint noise was hoard.
"Hcre is grub hard at work.
Well, the ichncumon fly, by listen
ing on the tree, knows whore to
find her grub. The next thing is
to get in to it. She places her
eggs through this fine horse hair or
tail. Hero is microscope. Look
at the end of this egg-pIacer and
you will see O. two--bladed back saw.
SEQ it!" The writer nodded.
"With this saw the fly cuts through
the solid wood to the grub. But
when she reaches him she does not
destroy him. She simply drops an
egg upon his back; the egg matches
another grub, and the second grub
bores into tho first ono and foods
on him and destroys him, and
erlarges, until, in time, after vari-
GUS changes, it energies from the
tree cnothor ichneumon fly. 1t
cannot propagate its species with
out finding this grub.
''The fly has killed the grub" con-
tinued the speaker" but tho grub
has bored q holo which lets in the
air and moisture, and hastons the
decay Of the trec. lio has cut off
many Of the vessels that carry up
the sap, for the borors that escape
the fly do not go out tho way they
camo in. He cannot pass out the
hole through which he ontcrod, for
he has increased in size fifty times,
and moro than that, the hole has
grown over long before his maturi-
ty. On reaching full growth he
takes direct course outward, stop
ping at the bark, for should he go
through and poke out his head
some woodpecker might come along
and take it off. So the grub rests
under the bark, surrounding him
self with q ring of excroment. There
no undergoes his last trnnsforma>
ton and becomes beetle. Then
he gnaws Il hole through the bark
and escapes to tho open air.
LET us watch the maple tree"
said Mr.. Fuller. "The attacks of
theso insects, together with old age,
finally tell on it. Scores of insects
work upon it's leaves, others feed
upon the little twigs, and all almost
endless limo Of ants and bugs train
up and down it's trunk. It loses
vitality and dies. Then the wind
blows the old tree down. It scarce
ly touches tho ground before it is
attacked by an entirely different
class Of insects. They have no
tooth for live timber, but only for
that which is dying or dead. Some
bore straight into the solid wood.
Others go under tho bark and the
surface of tho wood. Their peculiar
Office seems to be to separate the
bark from tho wood, and for this
purpose they are made very thin,
some Of them not over tho hundredth
part Of an inch in thickness. The
holes and looseness OF tho bark al-
low the wator to get in and hasten
the decay of the log. The wood
becomes soft and mellow, liko wells
ripenod apple. Then the stage
horned beetles appear, the females
dropping their eggs where the
grubs will find suitable food. The
swapping bug also takes hand at
the old log, and revels in it's rotten-
ness.
"ruE LAST FEEDER OF ALL"
said Mr. Fuller, sis q great lazy,
shining, black beetle, with corrugat-
cd wing covers, a short jointed an.
tennm fraycd like tho end Of a
thread, good-sized mouth, and q
horn on his nose like that of n rhi-
noceros reversed. Ho is the LATEST
Of all beetles. When picking up nm
old log L have seon dozens drop to
tho ground, but not ono ever made
an attempt to escape. When this
beef tle has finished his work the
maple has gone through it's last
change. The old log is thoroughly
rotten and becomes pure vegetable
mold"
Here Mr.. Fuller sat down at the
tablo and began to write. The ro-
porter was about to leave when tho
entomologist said: II have given
you the littio know concerning one
beetle, but to-day there is not one
h1,p1ro1 nf o11r A M orioo,, iproo&e