STATE AGKICULTURAL SOCIETY. 323 



APPLE. TRUNK. 



tractedj sometimes through one or more small orifices which 

 appear to be gnawed by the worm. But I have met with many 

 instances where none of this powder w^as protruded, the blackened 

 and slightly depressed surface of the bark being the only indica- 

 tion of the mischief that was going on beneath. And not unfre- 

 quently the worm eats downwards, under the bark of the root, to 

 a distance of two to four inches below the surface of the ground, 

 instead of being always at or slightly above the surface, as pre- 

 vious accounts have implied. And it is of course impossible for 

 any castings to be protruded from this part of its burrow, as the 

 soil is firmly pressed against and moulded to the root. And 

 W'here this j^owder appears externally, it commonly has the aspect 

 not of having been thrust out by the worm, but of having 

 crowded itself out, from the mass under the bark swelling by 

 being dampened by rain soaking through the dead bark and satu- 

 rating it. 



The worm is almost always found at some part of the outer 

 edge of its burrow, where it is lying apparently dormant, crowded 

 and tightly wedged between the bark and the wood. Like most 

 other larvae, this moults, and its cast skin will sometimes be found 

 among the dust in the burrow. At length, in the course of the 

 second summer, when it has grown to half or three-quarters of an 

 inch in length and its jaws have become suificiently strong for the 

 work, it begins to bore a cylindrical passage upward in the solid 

 wood, making hereby a secure retreat, in the interior of the tree, 

 in which to lie and sleep during its pupa state. It is not till just 

 the close of the larva period of its life that it completes this cylin- 

 drical burrow by extending it onwards and obliquely outwards to 

 the bark. It then stuff's the upper end of this passage with 

 sawdust-like powder, and its lower end with short fibres of 

 wood arranged like curly locks of hair, thus forming an elastic 

 bed on which to repose during its pupa state. After it has 

 changed from its pupa to its perfect form, it still remains dormant 

 and motionless in its cell, sometimes for several wrecks. Awaking 

 at length to life and activity, it crawls upward, loosening and 

 pulling down the dust and chips from the u}>per end of its burrow, 

 till it reaches the bark. Through this it cuts a remarkably 



