Twelfth Report of the State Entomologist 239 



^Kirby), in which they measure from about once and a half the length of 

 the body in the female, to nearly four times its length in the male. Many 

 of the members of this large family are remarkable for their size, beauty 

 of color, or elegance of form, and have been, on these accounts, favorites 

 with collectors. Unfortunately, a large number of the species, are quite 

 harmful to the trees that they infest. Among the notorious and well- 

 known pests, may be mentioned the oak-pruner, Elaphidioji parallelutn 

 Nevvm.; the round-headed apple-tree borer, Saperda Candida Fabr.; and 

 the common elm- tree borer, Saperda tndentata Oliv. 



Description of the Beetle. 

 " The head is yellow, with the antennse and the eyes reddish-black; 

 the thorax is black, with two transverse yellow spots on each side ; the 

 wing covers, for about two-thirds of their length, are black, the remaining 

 third is yellow, and they are ornamented with bands and spots arranged 

 in the following manner : a yellow spot on each shoulder, a broad yellow 

 curved band or arch, of which, the yellow scutel forms the keystone on 

 the base of the wing-covers ; behind this a zigzag yellow band forming 

 the letter W; across the middle another yellow band arching backwards, 

 and on the yellow tip a curved band and spot of a black color; legs 

 yellow, and the under side of the body is reddish-yellow, variegated with 

 brown. Nearly an inch in length." (Harris.) 



Ravages of the Insect, 



This borer has for many years been destroying a large number of our 

 sugar maples, as its burrows are usually carried around the trunk beneath 

 the bark, and when several occur in the same tree, they girdle it by their 

 interlacings and thus kill the tree. Even when they are not fatal to the 

 tree, they occasion unsightly cracking of the bark and serious deformities 

 of growth.* 



As early as 1859, my attention was attracted by the operations of this 

 insect in a long row of sugar maples bordering a lawn at Schoharie, N. Y. 

 One tree which I had examined, of some ten inches in diameter at the 

 base, which had been more seriously affected than the others, and probably 

 was the first to be attacked, had been nearly destroyed. Several of the 

 grubs had commenced their ravages side by side, and their united cuttings 

 had in places exposed the trunk for over a hand's breadth. The tree had 



*For additional features of these burrows see the Report of the Entomologist for the year 

 1886, [being the Third Report on the Injurious and Other Insects of the State of New York], 

 page 104. 



