j S (,( ( j 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



feet up and down the trunk following the grain and without 

 diminishing sensibly in diameter. Then think of the yards and 

 yards of smaller galleries made by the larva while still young. 

 Such extensive and prodigious borings cannot be made in one 

 or two years, and certainly not in any tree trunk of moderate 

 size. There is certainly no other plant here than this Washing 

 tonia palm that is capable of supporting a brood of these huge 

 and voracious grubs. Therefore, I do not hesitate to assert 

 that they exist only in the Washingtonia, and that they are 

 very certain soon to become extinct . 1 regard the discovery of 

 a colony as one of the most interesting entomological events of 

 my life and I can assure you that if we breed the imagos 

 this year from this trunk, they will not soon be duplicated by 

 others. 



There are some thousands of the trees left, but they are in 

 small groups scattered miles apart in a few of the most inac- 

 cessible canons of the Sin Jacinto range. Here the beetles are 

 nearly extinct, but it is possible that in Baja California they 

 may survive a few centuries longer. In tunes past they were 

 abundant here, as evidenced by the numerous old trunks rid- 

 dled with their burrows. But the trunks that have fallen in 

 recent years are all free from their attacks, and as the Indians 

 have burned all the trees that are accessible, so that their 

 trunks are now bare of fronds, it must be now quite difficult 

 for the female beetle to find a n't receptacle for her eggs. I 

 am sure now that they do not oviposit in bare trunks or in 

 healthy trees, although it is possible that the beetles kill the 

 tree in which they ovipost their eggs.* 



* [Subsequently, in .nine. Mr. Huhhard forwarded to Washington the piec< - ol 

 1 tal i n wood ; and, niter some un Ton-seen aeciilenls and misfortunes, a small nuni- 



berof Imago beetles were bred from thew l at the Department of Agriculture 



during the latter part of August. In O'-tolier, IS'.IT, Mr. Iluhhard received a letter 

 from Dr. Murray, of P'lm Springs, stating that, owing to the excessive heat in 

 August, lie had lieen unable to visit Palm canon, and that, for the same reason, 

 none of his Indians had been willing to underta ke t he trip. The imago and larva 

 of liinapuie have been described and figured by the late I>r (i. II. Horn i Trans. 

 Amer. Knt. Soc , \\\, ISSli, pp 1-1. plate I i. While at San Diego, Pa la.. Mr. Muhhard 

 ascertained thai the type locality of /1i'Kif"t/f -n'l-ie/itn is I'alni Springs, I 'ala . 

 and not theMojave Desert, as stated by Dr. Horn The full-nrown larva' col- 

 lected by >[r ub bard are fully twice larger than that fitrured by Dr Horn. 

 M r. W. <;. Wright, the discoverer of 1 Una pate, has, as far as known to me, never 

 published anything on the food-plant or habits of this remarkable' species 

 E- A. s 



