114 LONG HORNED BEETLES. 



early winter breaks them off, dropping twig and larva to the 

 ground. To girdle a twig from the inside is a nice trick, and it 

 is difficult to explain how the larva succeeds in performing it. 

 When we look at one of the squarely cut off twigs we can de- 

 tect that it has been cut in a spiral manner. The purpose of cut- 

 ting them off seems to be plain, being done to preven't the drying 

 of the wood, which in contact with the ground and covered with 

 snow during the winter, is not apt to become (too dry for the re- 

 quirements of the enclosed insect. In such burrows, usually 

 made in the tips of twigs and smaller branches, the larva winters, 

 and completes its 'transformation in the month of June or July 

 following. 



Under infested trees we can find such fallen twigs in large 

 numbers during the fall, and as they contain the culprit it is of 

 course very simple to gather and burn them. These insects are, 

 however, ndt an unalloyed evil, as they tend to make our shade 

 trees near the house much denser by forcing the plant to produce 

 a number of small twigs instead of a few large ones. 



The insect also attacks the wood of young shoots, especiallv 

 if these should have been injured by fire, or by the tramping of 

 ca'ttle. The writer has seen an extreme case, in which these in- 

 sects in less than five years destroyed all the young growth of 

 trees over an area of several hundred acres. In this case the 

 land was covered with a very dense growth of black oak, pop- 

 lars, hazel and other plants. As soon as cattle were permitted to 

 force their way through this tangle of small trees to reach a lake 

 surrounded with pastures, narrow cattle paths were first formed 

 which soon widened to broad avenues, as the bruised trees in- 

 vited destruction by all kinds of insects, but especially by these 

 pruners. Their presence could easily be detected by 'the fact that 

 the whole ground was covered quite deep with pruned twigs. 

 Five years later only a few stumps of the larger trees, with the 

 exception of some few poplars and willows that sprang up as soon 

 as the oaks disappeared, remained. 



The adult beetles are very elongated, brown, covered with a 

 whitish, mottled pubescence ; they have long and rather stout an- 



