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. When these pests are present in large numbers,