150 BULLETIN 190, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Distribution. — United States ; temperate and subtropical zones of Mex- 

 ico and Central America. 



Type. — Male. In the United States National Museum. From Ober- 

 thiir collection. 



Remarks. — This species is a borer in the solid wood of oaks. Apparently 

 it does not discriminate as to the species of oak, and so it is found widely 

 distributed in the United States, in Mexico, and in Central America. 

 Color variations are insignificant. In warm or subtropical climates the 

 average size is larger. Under normal conditions oaks are attacked at 

 their bases and surface roots. The larvae in a 2-year life cycle produce 

 ugly wounds, tunneling inches deep in the solid wood and causing serious 

 injury to young trees, which are preferred. Until the habits and food 

 plants of the species were known, only a few moths had been captured in 

 widely separated regions and at long intervals. Now the species is rep- 

 resented abundantly in many collections, largely owing to concentrations 

 of the insect in woodlands with recently cut and removed timber where 

 the remaining oak stumps prove the attraction. Eggs are laid on the 

 bark and outer edge of the raw wood, the young larvae boring downward 

 to a depth of about 6 inches. The change to pupa in the spring of the 

 second year occurs in a chamber capped below and above, the exit being 

 well concealed by minute particles of wood. The moth, emerging in May 

 or June, leaves an upstanding half of the pupal shell protruding from 

 the stump's surface. On one stump as many as 50 of the shells were 

 counted. No such heavy infestations are likely on growing trees. The 

 stumps continue to serve as breeding places even when the upper part of 

 the trees are dead, the larvae tunneling deeper and deeper to the still living 

 tissue. Often the tunnels become partly filled with a white, spongy fungus, 

 which is not. however, a serious obstacle to the larva. Parasitism is 

 heavy. Virgin females attract males quickly after emergence and, enclosed 

 in a screened cage, they have been used successfully in the collection of 

 males. 



Records in United States National Museum: Long Island, N. Y., long 

 series, May-June 1908-1915 (G. P. Engelhardt) ; Framingham, Mass., 

 female. May 23. 1934 (C. A. Frost) ; Laurel, Md., male. May 14, 1911 

 (E. B. Marshall) ; Washington, D. C, female (Bur. Ent.) ; Ice Mountain, 

 W. Va., female, May 7, 1939 (Austin Clark) ; Hessville, Ind., long series, 

 May- June 1915 (Alex. Wyatt and E. Beer) ; Southern Pines, N. C, 

 males, females, April 1-7; Texas (Oberthiir collection), males and fe- 

 males; Dento and Dallas. Tex., males and females, March-April 1909 (F. 

 C. Bishopp) ; Jacksonville, Fla., female, March (A. T. Slosson) ; Talla- 

 hassee, Fla., male, February 28; Cincinnati, Ohio, male and female, May 

 2, 1902 (A. Braun). 



