198 FRUIT INSECTS 



headed borer" has been recorded as injurious to apple trees in 

 Arizona. If its life habits are similar to those of Chrysobothris 

 femorata just discussed, the same remedial measures should 

 prove effective in controUing it. 



Reference 

 U. S. Bur. Ent. Circ. 32 (third revise). 1907. 



The Apple Wood-stainer 



Pterocydon (Monarthrum) mall Fitch 



Half a century ago this minute, reddish-brown Scolytid 

 beetle (Fig. 189), only about yV of an inch in length, was 



reported from Massachusetts as rid- 

 dhng the trunks of apple trees with 

 their burrows. The insect belongs 

 to the interesting group of beetles 

 known as Ambrosia beetles, which 

 Fig. 189. — The apple wood- propagate a mold-Uke fungus in their 

 stainer beetle (x 14). burrows that staius the walls black, 



and is eaten by the beetles and fed by them to their offspring 

 or grubs. The parent beetle bores through the bark into the 

 wood for about J of an inch, then excavates a main 

 transverse tunnel or gallery in the sohd wood from the sides 

 of which short galleries made and occupied by grubs extend at 

 right angles upward or downward. This wood-stainer breeds 

 only in diseased or dying, felled or girdled trees, and sawed 

 mahogany lumber. Its food-plants include nearly twenty 

 different forest or timber trees, as well as the apple, orange and 

 morello cherry among fruit-trees. It has also been called the 

 Lesser Cask-beetle because of its fondness for boring into wine, 

 beer and vinegar casks, often doing much damage in this way. 

 As there are no recent records of its injuring orchard trees, it 

 needs no further discussion as a fruit pest. The deterrent 



