COLEOrXERA. 97 



and 1844, upon the European lindens, from the trunks and 

 branches of which they had just come forth. A knowledge of 

 the habits of this insect might have led to its more frequent 

 discovery. One of the lindens, above named, was a noble and 

 venerable tree, with a trunk measuring eight feet and five 

 inches in circumference, three feet from the ground. A strip 

 of the l)ark, two feet wide at the bottom, and extending to the 

 top of the trunk, had been destroyed, and the exposed surface 

 of the wood was pierced and grooved with countless numbers 

 of holes, wherein the borers had been bred, and whence swarms 

 of the beetles must have issued in past times. Some of the 

 large limbs and a portion of the top of the tree had fallen, 

 apparently in consequence of the ravages of these insects ; and 

 it is a matter of surprise that this fine linden should have with- 

 stood and outlived the attacks of such a host of miners and 

 sappers. 



The lindens of Philadelphia have suffered much more se- 

 verely from these borers. Dr. Paul Swift, in a letter wTitten 

 in May, 1844, gave to me the following interesting account of 

 them. " The trees in Washington and Independence squares 

 were first observed to have been attacked about seven years 

 ago. Within two years, it has been found necessary to cut 

 down forty-seven European lindens in the former square alone, 

 where there now remain only a few American lindens, and 

 these a good deal eaten." " Many of the beetles were found 

 upon the small branches and leaves on the twenty-eighth day 

 of May, and it is said that they come out as early as the first 

 of the month, and continue to make their way through the 

 bark of the trunk and large branches during the whole of the 

 warm season. They immediately fly into the top of the tree, 

 and there feed upon the epidermis of the tender twigs, and the 

 petioles of the leaves, often wholly denuding the latter, and 

 causing the leaves to fall. They deposit their eggs, two or 

 three in a place, upon the trunk and branches, especially about 

 the forks, making slight incisions or punctures, for their recep- 

 tion, with then- strong jaws. As many as ninety eggs have 

 been taken from a single beetle. The grubs, hatched from 

 these eggs, undermine the bark to the extent of six or eight 

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