246 TRANSACTIONS OF THE HORTICULTURAL 



trees of the New World are not less healthful and delightful food 

 than those of its native home. This modern Columbus made its 

 advent here so modestly, and with so little disturbance to those it 

 found already in possession, that its very presence was not ob- 

 served until it had spread, quite gradually, along our eastern 

 border. 



It was first reported in America eleven years ago from Elmira, 

 New York, where it had begun operations as a peach bark beetle; 

 and in 1880 it was again mentioned as from Fair Haven, New 

 Jersey, where it had for several years destroyed all the cherry, 

 peach and plum trees set out on a particular lot. It was also 

 noticed at about the same time in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania, 

 and in the District of Columbia, as a cherry pest. In Maryland 

 it had attacked the peach, and last year its work on the apple in 

 Virginia was reported by Dr. Lintner, State Entomologist of 

 New York. I can find no published mention of its occurrence 

 west of these tide-water States. 



In Illinois it was first detected by us in June, 1888, at Albion,, 

 in Edwards county, burrowing the twigs of cherry trees; and 

 next it came to us from Villa Ridge, Pulaski county, where Mr. 

 Geo. W. Endicott had noticed it in the trunks and larger 

 branches of the Chickasaw Plum. In the Old World, besides the 

 trees mentioned, it has been found injurious to the quince. 



The method of its injury is well shown by the plum branch sent 

 me by Mr. Endicott, the bark of which is profusely perforated 

 with small holeb scarcely larger than pin pricks, thickest on the- 

 old leaf scars, but about equally distributed elsewhere. The bark 

 is everywhere completely undermined by rather regular galleries 

 made by the female beetle, which excavates the bark for the 

 deposit of her eggs, and continued by the larvse, which live upon 

 the inner layers of the bark and the outer parts of the sap wood. 



According to the European accounts of its life history, the 

 adult beetle emerges from the tree and begins to lay its eggs in 

 May, and the female, penetrating the bark and mining beneath 

 it, lays eggs to right and left as she goes. The young larva?, as 

 they hatch, move out in parallel lines, completely deadening the 

 bark as far as their work extends. Observations in this country 

 throw some doubt upon this life history, and make it seem prob- 

 able that there are two broods, the beetles emerging in early 

 spring, but upon this point I am not yet prepared to report. 



The adults have wings, but seem not to use them freely, since 

 the local spread of the species has been very slow so far as no- 

 ticed. Our breeding cage observations go to show that the beetle 

 often re-enters the same branch from which it has just emerged,, 

 though this may be thoroughly dead and dry. 



The number of kinds of fruit trees which it may destroy, and 

 the thorough-going character of its work, make this an insect 

 well worth watching ; and the fact that it distributes its attack 



