90 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



that are usually found on the grubs of the other Capricorn-beetles ; 

 the eleventh and twelfth rings are very short ; no appearance of 

 legs can be seen, even with a magnifying glass of high power. 

 The grub, with its strong jaws, cuts a cylindrical passage through 

 the bark, and pushes its castings backwards out of the hole from 

 time to time, while it bores upwards into the wood. The larva 

 state continues two or three years, during which the borer will be 

 found to have penetrated eight or ten inches upwards in the trunk 

 of the tree, its burrow at the end approaching to, and being cov- 

 ered only by, the bark. Here its transformation takes place. The 

 pupa does not differ much from other pupae of beetles ; but it has 

 a transverse row of minute prickles on each of the rings of the 

 back, and several at the tip of the abdomen. These probably 

 assist the insect in its movements, when casting off its pupa-skin. 

 The final change occurs about the first of June, soon after which, 

 the beetle gnaws through the bark that covers the end of its bur- 

 row, and comes out of its place of confinement in the night. 



Notwithstanding the pains that have been taken by some per- 

 sons to destroy and exterminate these pernicious borers, they 

 continue to reappear in our orchards and nurseries every season. 

 The reasons of this are to be found in the habits of the insects, 

 and in individual carelessness. Many orchards suffer deplorably 

 from the want of proper attention ; the trees are permitted to 

 remain, year after year, without any pains being taken to destroy 

 the numerous and various insects that infest them ; old orchards, 

 especially, are neglected, and not only the rugged trunks of the 

 trees, but even a forest of unpruned suckers around them, are left 

 to the undisturbed possession and perpetual inheritance of the Sa- 

 perda. On the means that have been used to destroy this borer, a 

 few remarks only need to be made ; for it is evident that they can 

 be fully successful only when generally adopted. Killing it by a 

 wire thrust into the holes it has made, is one of the oldest, safest, 

 and most successful methods. Cutting out the grub, with a knife 

 or gouge, is the most common practice ; but it is feared that these 

 tools have sometimes been used without sufficient caution. A 

 third method, which has more than once been suggested, consists 

 in plugging the holes with soft wood. If a little camphor be pre- 



