ATTACKING THE BRANCHES. 143 



its transformations, and finally escapes as a perfect beetle. 

 This insect is about eleven-twentieths of an inch in length, 

 with a robust body of a brownish-gray color with dull red- 

 dish-yellow dots, and having a broad gray band across the 

 middle of the wing-cases. The antennae are longer than the 

 body. The beetle is more common on the hickory than on 

 the pear. 



To subdjie the insect, the dead and fallen twigs should be 

 gathered and burnt. 



No. 68. — The Pear-blight Beetle. 



Xylehorus pyri (Peck). 



During the heat of midsummer, twigs of the pear-tree some- 

 times become suddenly blighted, the leaves and fruit wither, 

 and a discoloration of the bark takes place, followed by the 

 speedy death of the part affected. Most frequently these effects 

 are the result of fire-blight, a mysterious disease, probably of a 

 fungoid character, but occasionally they are due to the agency 

 of the pear-blight beetle. In these latter instances there will 

 be found, on examination, small perforations like pin-holes at 

 the base of some of the buds, and from these issue small cylin- 

 drical beetles, shown magnified in Fig. 150, about one-tenth 

 of an inch long, of a deep brown or black color, with 

 antennae and legs of a rusty red. The thorax is Fig. 150. 

 short, very convex, rounded and roughened; the 

 Aving-covers are thickly but minutely punctated, the 

 dots being arranged in rows; the hinder part of the 

 body terminates in an abrupt and sudden slope. 



The beetle deposits its eggs at the base of the bud, 

 and when hatched the young larva follows the course 

 of the eye of the bud towards the pith, around which it passes, 

 consuming the tissues in its course, thus interfering with the 

 circulation and causing the twig to wither. The larva changes 

 to a pupa, and subsequently to a beetle, in the bottom of its 

 bnn'ow, and makes its escape from the tree in the latter part 

 of June or the beginning of July, depositing its eggs before 



