424 FRUIT INSECTS 



grape, in Tamarix, a much cultivated ornamental shrub, in the 

 subterranean stems of the Smilax or cat-briar in the South, and 

 in the upturned roots of a maple. The eggs have not been de- 

 scribed, but are probably laid on or in the bark of the smaller 

 branches, for one observer records having traced the burrow 

 to its beginning in such a location. The eggs are probably 

 laid in the spring from April till June, for at that time the adults 

 are most abundant and active. The burrows of the larva usu- 

 ally follow the pith and as a rule are three or four inches in 

 length ; they are packed full of the sawdust-Uke castings of the 

 larva. The full-grown grub is whitish with brownish jaws, 

 curved and about | of an inch in length. The time normally 

 spent in the larval stage has not been determined. The grub 

 transforms to a reddish-brown pupa in a cell at the end of the 

 burrow and the adult escapes by gnawing its way out to the 

 surface. The adult is a dark brown, cyUndrical beetle, a little 

 less than f of an inch in length, with the head drawn under the 

 thorax so as to be invisible when viewed from above. The 

 wing-covers are obliquely truncate behind and in the male 

 this dechvity is armed with a pair of blunt horn-hke processes. 

 Larvae and pupae have been found in grape-canes in winter, but 

 in the majority of cases the transformation to the beetle takes 

 place in the fall. The beetles usually hibernate in the larval 

 burrow, but sometimes emerge in the fall and tunnel into the 

 branches of various fruit-trees, where they pass the winter. 



As breeding takes place only in dying or diseased branches 

 the injury caused by the grubs is not great. The beetles, how- 

 ever, are capable of causing great damage, both to the grape 

 and to other fruits by their peculiar hal)it of burrowing into the 

 smaller branches, apparently for food and shelter only, as eggs 

 are not laid in such situations. 



Much may be done to prevent destructive outbreaks of the 

 grape-cane borer by cutting out in the spring all diseased and 

 dying canes in which breeding might occur and by burning all 



