88 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



even though the worm may have withdrawn into its hole and plngged the opening 

 behind it, it is frequently discovered here, probably, and devoured by birds. After a 

 violent wind in the summer season, some of our insect-eating birds may always be 

 noticed actively in search of limbs and trees that have thereby been broken, their 

 instinct teaching them that this breakage usually occurs from the wood being weak- 

 ened by the mining operations of worms therein, whose lurking places are now opened 

 to them. And they will be seen industriously occupied in picking around the fract- 

 ured ends of the wood, and feasting upon the grubs which they there find. Num- 

 bers of our wood-boring larvae are thus destroyed, and the oak pruner, notwithstand- 

 ing the precautions it takes to secrete itself, doubtless frequently falls a prey to these 

 sagacious foragers. 



Remedies. — These insects will undoubtedly at times occur in such numbers as to 

 render it important that they be destroyed, at least where they resort to the peach 

 or other valuable trees. And this may readily be effected by gathering and burning 

 the fallen limbs in the winter or the early part of spring. (Fitch's Fifth Report, pp. 

 17-24.) 



We have preferred to quote iu full Dr. Fitch's account of this insect, 

 although somewhat prolix, and though he ascribes too much intelligence 

 to the larva. The following criticisms and observations are also quoted 

 in full from an article by Dr. John Hamilton, published in the Cana- 

 dian Entomologist, August, 1887 : * 



Divested of all romance and imagination, and descending to facts, the observations 

 of Professors Peck, Fitch, and Harris may be reduced to this : In the month of July 

 the parent lays the eggs on the limbs or in the axil of a leaf near the end of the twigs 

 of that year's growth of various species of oak, and perhaps other trees. After hatch- 

 ing, the young larva (in the latter case) penetrates to the pith and devours it down- 

 wards till the woody base is reached, and so onward to the center of the main limb ; 

 here it eats away a considerable portion of the inside of the limb and then, plugging 

 the end of the burrow, which it excavates towards the distal end, eventually falls to 

 the ground with the limb, which, being weakened, is broken oif by the high autumnal 

 winds. They exist here either as larvie or pupte till spring and emerge in June as 

 perfect beetles. Time, one year, though not so stated in words. 



The account given in detail below is so different from the above that were the iden- 

 tity of the individualsn ot established by actual comparison and by recognized au- 

 thority, it might well be asserted I had given an account of some other Elaphidion. 



April, 1H83, I procured a barrel of hickory limbs from a tree girdled early in 1882. 

 The limbs were from one-half to 1 inch iu diameter. Very few things developed from 

 them that season, but the next (1884) quite a number of species came forth — CJytan- 

 thus ruricola and albofasciatus, Neoclytua luscus, and erythrocephalus, Steitosphenus no- 

 tatns, etc. Many larv:e of some Cerambycidie continued to work on under the bark. 

 Late in the fall I observed that most of these had penetrated the wood, but some re- 

 mained under the bark till April and May of the next year (1885). The most of the 

 beetles appeared during the first two weeks of June, though individuals occurred 

 occasionally till September. A few larvte were still found at work, but by October 

 they likewise had bored into the wood and appeared as beetles the next June (1886). 

 The normal period of metamorphosis is therefore three years, but in individuals it 

 may be retarded to four or more years. 



At the present writing (June 5) these beetles are issuing in great numbers from a 

 barrel of hickory limbs obtained in Apiil, 1885, from a tree deadened in January, 

 1884, thus verifying the first observation. 



How the larv* get under the bark could not be ascertained. When first examined, 



*Also reprinted in the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Entomological Society of 

 Ontario, 1887, pp. 38-40. 



