MAPLE BORERS. 385 



shield the tree from the other borer, it will indirectly shield it from this 

 one. Mr. Gennadius recommends whitewashing the trunks, and filling 

 up all holes and fissures with mortar, so as to render the bark as smooth 

 as possible." 



Mr. W. Saunders remarks that the female deposits her eggs on the 

 bark of the soft and sugar maple trees, chiefly on the former, aud when 

 hatched the young larvae burrow through the bark and feed upon the 

 inner portion and sap wood, never penetrating into the solid heart- wood. 

 The excavations made by the larva are filled with its brown castings. 

 When it is fully grown it eats its way nearly through the bark, leaving 

 but a very thin layer unbroken ; it then retires within its burrow, and 

 having inclosed itself within a loose, silky cocoon, changes to a brown 

 chrysalis. A short time before the moth escapes the chrysalis wriggles 

 itself forward and pushing itself against the thin papery-like layer of 

 bark, ruptures it and protrudes as shown in Fig. 142, d. Soon afterward 

 the imprisoned moth in its struggles ruptures the chrysalis and escapes. 



"This insect appears to be increasing in numbers every year, and is 

 very destructive, especially to young maple trees. Many of the shade 

 trees in London are much injured by it, and when very numerous it is 

 liable to completely girdle the tree and kill it. It is also found through- 

 out the Middle States. To prevent the moths from laying their eggs 

 the trunks of the trees should be painted about the first of June with a 

 mixture of soft-soap and lye about the thickness of paint, or with a mixt- 

 ure of lime and soap. When once the larvae obtain an entrance it is 

 very difficult to discover them, and they will then carry on their de- 

 structive work all through the summer." (Can. Ent., xiii, p. 69.) (See 

 also Insect Life, ii, 1890, 251.) 



The moth. — Head aucl palpi deep reddish orange, thorax ocherous yellow; abdomen 

 bluish black varied with yellow, with a deep reddish terminal tuff. Fore-wings with 

 the edges and median vein bluish black dusted with yellowish ; a large discal bluish 

 black patch ; end of the wing ocherons yellow with a blackish subterminal band 

 aud the veins blackish. Hind wings with a blackish discal patch. Body 

 beneath ocherons yellow, with a bluish black patch on each side of the second ab- 

 dominal segment. Middle and posterior tibiae ringed with bluish black ; the fore- 

 legs blackish, with the coxae (or hip joints) touched with reddish orange; expanse 

 of wings about 0.80 inch. 



The larva is a little over half an inch long, livid white, the head small and yellow, 

 cervical shield paler; with sixteen legs, all of which are reddish. (Clemens.) 



7. The flat-headed apple-tree borer. 



Chrysobothris femorata Fabricius. 



In the Mississippi Valley, sometimes riddling soft maples through and through, 

 sometimes coniining itself mostly to the inner bark, causing peculiar black scars and 

 holes in the trunk ; a flat-headed grub, transforming to a flat, hard-shelled beetle. 

 (Riley.) 



While this beetle more commonly infests the oak (p. 64) and the 

 apple, it threatens in the Western States, according to Riley, to impair 

 the value of the soft maple for shade and ornamental purposes. 

 5 ENT — ^25 



