SHOT-BOKER. 333 



from a little under to a little over three quarters of an inch 

 across. — Ed.). The female then proceeds to bore passages, 

 and in a small chamber at the opening of each of these she is 

 stated to lay her snow-white, longish eggs. The first-hatched 

 larvae are recorded by Schmidberger as being noticeable about 

 the end of May, and these are considered by him to arrange 

 themselves (in the same manner as the beetles we noticed as 

 above described) one after the other in the tunnels so as to 

 fill them, and to feed there on a whitish substance with which 

 the passage is encrusted, and there the maggots, according to 

 the observations quoted, turned to chrysalids and thence to 

 beetles.* 



The method of feeding of the maggots is more fully des- 

 cribed by Herr W. Eichhoff, Imp. High Forester in Muhl- 

 hausen, Alsace, as follows : — " The dispar only uses the wood 

 which is still fresh, and full of sap for the brood ; this sap 

 soaks (' sweats ') so constantly out of the walls of the breeding 

 galleries, that presently this thickens into white-of-egg-like 

 coagulations (called by Schmidberger ' Ambrosia ') ; and from 

 these the coatings of fungi which have been so often men- 

 tioned develop, whereby after a time the surface of the circular 

 galleries become stained black. These coagulations, and 

 occasionally the fungoid growths, serve exclusively for the 

 nourishment of the young larvae. f 



As yet the only observations which I have received of 

 severely injurious presence of the Shot-borers in this country 

 have been from the fruit-grounds at Toddington, near Chel- 

 tenham, and from various localities not far from Kidderminster, 

 and the only trees which suffered in these cases were Plum 

 trees. 



In Germany it has been recorded as seriously injurious to 

 young Apple trees, also as breeding in the stumps of felled 

 Oaks and Beeches, and in fallen trees ; and in America this 

 same species of beetle, commonly known there under the 

 scientific name of the Xylehoriis pyri, — popularly as the 

 " Pear BHght " or Shot-borer Beetle, is recorded as injurious 

 both to Pear and Apple, as well as occasionally to Apricot 

 and Plum. 



Prevention and Remedies. — Where the trees attacked are 

 still young (that is still only, as was the case at Toddington, 

 about three-quarters of an inch across the stem), the only 



* Bostrichus disjMr, Schmidberger (Apnte diqmr, Fab.) ; Xi/loteriia dispar, 

 Erichson. See ' Naturgeschichte cler Sch;idlichen Insecten von Vincent KoUar,' 

 pp. 261 — 273, and English translation ' Kollar's Treatise on Insects,' pp. 25-4 — 202. 



t ' Die Europiiischen Borkenkafer,' von W. Eichhoff, Kaiserl. Oberfcirster in 

 Mulhausen, Elsass, Berlin, 1881. 



