INSECTS AFFECTING I'ARK AND WOODLAND TREES 34 1 



Pitch-mass borer 

 Par/iai'!iifliii(i piiii Ivcllicott 

 Large brownish pitch masses on [jine trunks nuiy he caused by tliis borer. 

 This species is one of the more common pine borers and evidences of 

 its work are h\ no means rare in the vicinity of Albany. Its recorded dis- 

 tribution is j^nvcn as Canada, Xew \'ork, New Jersey and New liampshire. 

 'I lie life history of this species has been worked out very fulh' in' the 

 latr I )r kcUicott, its describer, and the following is taken lars^rely from 

 his account. 



Description. Male. Head, paljii, antennae, thora.x, and legs wholly 

 metallic blue or green black. Collar edged with orange in front. Abdo- 

 men blue black above, with the posterior half of the fourth segment orange ; 

 underside wholl\- orange. Anal tuft orange, blue black abo\e in the mid- 

 dle. Fore wings opa<[ue, metallic blue or green black with discal mark 

 somewhat deeper in color. Hind wings thinly co\'ered with blue black 

 scales; outer border very narrow, blue black. 



Female. .Same as the male. 



Expanse: male and female, 28-30 mm ( Tieutinmuller). 



Life history. The larvae occur more frequently than elsewhere just 

 below a branch, sometimes about the border of a wound made bv the a.xe, 

 or where a limb has been wrenched off by the wind, rarcK in the axils of 

 the branches. It appears to attack larger trees than Zimmerman's pine 

 pest and more frecpiently occurs at a considerable hight, having been taken 

 30 to 40 feet from the ground. While the larvae as a rule probably take 

 advantage of the broken cortex. Dr Kellicott found instances of where they 

 had worked through the bark into the soft lajers. Pupae are to be found 

 the last of May and the moths appear from the middle to the end of |une 

 and possibly others com<; forth in Inly and .August, for 1 )r Kellicott found 

 seemingly fully grown larvae in Jidy, though some apparently mature cater- 

 pillars taken Ji:ly 15th remained in their pitch cells unchanged till the 

 following November. 



According to the observations of l)r Kellicott three years are required, 

 in some instances, to complete the life cycle. The larvae run more or less 



