118 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



called Quercus cocci/era, was for many ages used for the pur- 

 pose of communicating crimson and scarlet colors. This con- 

 tinued to be the case until its place was taken by cochineal, 

 the product of another similar insect, found on a species of 

 cactus which is a native of Mexico. 



As growing in New England, none of the forest trees have 

 more numerous enemies of the insect race than the oaks. Their 

 leaves are fed on by the slug-caterpillar, (Limacodes ; Harris's 

 Report on Insects, p. 304,) and by the caterpillar of the hag- 

 moth, {Limacbdes pithecium, ib. 304) ; they are rolled up and 

 destroyed by the leaf-rollers, ( Torlrices, ib. 347) ; and devoured 

 by the scarred Melolontha. {Melolontha variolosa, ib. 30), a 

 beautiful beetle of a light brown color. The juices of the small 

 twigs are sucked by the white-lined tree-hopper, (Membracis 

 univittata, ib. 180) ; their leaves are sometimes stripped by the 

 tent-caterpillar, (Clisiocampa sylvatica, ib. 271); by those of 

 Petasia ministra, (Drury, II, 28) : by those from which pro- 

 ceed the beautiful Luna and PolypMmus moths * ; by the 

 tawny caterpillar of the large Ceralocampa imperialism (ib. i, 

 17 ; plate ix, 1 and 2) ; by the stinging caterpillar of the rare 

 Satumia Maia, (Harris, 285) ; and more extensively than by 

 any other, by the oak caterpillar, (Dryocampa, ib. 291). 



The oak-pruner, (Elaphidion putdlor, ib. 81,) a long-horned 

 beetle of a dull -brown color, lays its egg in the axil of a leaf, 

 or of a small twig, near the extremity of a branch. The grub, 

 when hatched, penetrates to the pith, and then continues its 

 course towards the body of the tree, devouring the pith, and 

 forming a cylindrical burrow several inches in length. It ends 

 by severing the wood of the branch, leaving it to be broken off 

 and precipitated to the ground by the autumnal winds. By this 

 untimely priming, the ground is often strown with branches, 

 some of them an inch in diameter and five or six feet in length. 

 If these are collected in autumn and burnt before the ensuing 

 spring, the development of the beetles is prevented, and future 

 evil guarded against. 



* Harris, pp, 282 — 3. Dr. Harris is of opinion that the strong silk, forming the 

 large cocoons of these insects, might be substituted for that of the common silk- 

 worm. 



