50 



SECOND REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



September 9th. 



Numbers of MonoJianinuts titillator [M. confuso}\ 

 were seen upon the trunks 

 of a few pine trees [prob- 

 bably not exceeding ten 

 inches in diameter] that 

 had lately been felled upon 

 the border of the pine 

 grove at the cemetery [at 

 Schoharie, N. Y.]. It was 

 apparently, just their sea- 

 son for mating, for as many 

 as ten or fifteen pairs could 

 be counted upon a single 

 trunk, at a time. Rarely 

 would a single female be 

 found unattended, and the 

 few such that were noticed, 

 remained so but for a short 

 time. ]f during the coup- 

 ling of a pair, a male 

 chanced to discover them, 

 a combat immediately en- 

 sued between the two males 

 which would be fiercely 

 contested and usually end 

 in the interlocked com- 

 batants falling together to 



l"iG. 2.-0, a, n a, Cuttinss made in a fir tree by Monohammus the ground. Upon SCpa- 

 coNFUsou for oviposition : b, one laid open to show the egg and ° i ir 



its position - natural size. j^jjj^g ^^^^ ^he victor return- 



ing for his ]jrize, he might have again to contest possession with another 

 rival. Some of the females, while still held by the male, were engaged 

 in gnawing holes in the bark into which to place their eggs. The 

 beetle reversing her position, and thrusting the tip of her abdomen 

 into the excavation, deposited her egg between the bark and the wood,* 

 as shown by examples in my collection. The egg is white, cylindrical, 

 with rounded ends, of a length three times its breadth, and is invaria- 

 bly placed longitudinally with the tree, f 



* Upon raising pieces of the bark into which I had seen the eggs placed, the eggs usu- 

 ally came away with them, b'ing exposed, with a large section (nearly one-half; of their 

 longitudinal diameter showing above the (under) surface. The eggs that Dr. Packard saw 

 the beetle deposit in the fir were inserted within the barh, and the larvaj hatching from 

 them, a week after oviposition " had begun to descend sWghiXy into the bark" (Ann. 

 Rept. Dept. of Agriculture for 18S4, p. 881). 



+ In the accompanying figure by Dr. Packard, the cuttings for the eggs are represented 

 as made indifferently either perpendicularly, obliquely or horizontally. In this instance 

 they were made iu a living and standing fir tree; in my observations, in felled pine trees. 



