ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 319 



erable time and labor. So much time, indeed, that the asso- 

 ciate editor feels that he can no longer afford it, and, therefore, 

 with this year, resigns its compilation to Messrs. Henry L/. Vie- 

 reck and James A. G. Rehn, who have kindly consented to 

 undertake the task. P. P. C. 



THE stump of a pine tree has been standing in my back yard since the 

 tree died, three years ago. Last January it was pulled down to make 

 room for a driveway. All the larger roots and about two feet of the trunk 

 were perforated by immense white larvae, a number of them dropping 

 from the roots grubbed out, and several cocoons were found, but the 

 larvae had not yet gone into the pupa stage. The space occupied by the 

 tree was transformed into a smooth, hard driveway. About the middle 

 of May numerous holes nearly an inch in diameter and a couple deep 

 began to appear in the driveway. By the 3oth I counted 32, and already 

 suspected that the pine stump was responsible for it, but could not detect 

 the beetle in the act of emerging. Finally we decided to excavate the 

 driveway and determine what the species might be, but by a lucky obser- 

 vation were saved the labor. A small hole hardly ^-inch in diameter 

 was discovered near a large one vacated the night before, which, when 

 touched, enlarged to | 4 "-inch in size, exposing the head and antennae of a 

 9 Prionus californicns standing on end, with its mandible just below the 

 opening, the ground being excavated, leaving a thin crust with a breath- 

 ing-hole in the center. This crust readily gave way at the slightest touch. 

 Half a dozen holes of a like character were at once found, each contain- 

 ing a well-hardened Prionus. The next evening, the 3ist, four more 

 fresh occupied holes were found, with evidence that the beetles had 

 worked to the surface during the day, and lay at the small opening ready 

 to emerge at dusk. 



In one instance a small pebble had been encountered large enough to 

 occupy half the diameter of the opening. The beetle worked at it some 

 moments with his open mandibles without success, finally lowering them 

 beneath the stone, and, with a toss of the head, loosened it and the earth 

 for a half inch beyond. The pebble was drawn below, the earth smoothed 

 and rounded, when all action ceased until the final emergence after dark. 

 In Insect Life, vol. 5, page 34, we find that the larvae of Prionus cali- 

 fornicus is found only in decaying and rotten stumps and roots of live 

 oak, and that it emerges in July and August. Finding them in pine, 

 therefore, is another record, and the date of emergence much earlier than 

 heretofore recorded. Of the six which emerged the 3oth, 3 were and 

 '39- Of the four taken the 3ist, i was and 3 $ ; the former was recog- 

 nized in his attempts to mate with one of the females before any of them 

 had been out of the ground five minutes. On June ist five 9 were found, 

 and on June 2d two y , none on the 3d or 4th, 2 males and i 9 on the 5th. 

 FRANK S. DAGGETT, Pasadena, Cal., June 5, 1901. 



