INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE MAPLE. 105 
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 yel- 
low 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 black curved band and spot; legs yellow, while 
the under side of the body is reddish yellow, variegated with brown. Nearly an inch 
in length. (Harris.) 
Remedies.—This, like some similar borers, should be looked for in the 
spring, when it can be detected by the dust it casts out of its burrow, 
and when it can be cut out of the tree with a knife, or killed by inserting 
a stiff wire, or by the injection of kerosene oil into the hole. 
2. THE HORN-TAIL BORER. 
Tremex columba (Linnzeus). 
Order HYMENOPTERA; family UROCERID. 
Boring in the trunk and making large round holes, a large white grub, with a promi- 
nent spine on the end of the body, and transforming in the late summer into a large 
clear-winged saw-fly, with a long, large ‘‘saw” on the tail of the female. 
This interesting insect bores indifferently in various forest and shade 
trees, attacking the elm, oak, sycamore, and perhaps more commonly the 
maple. The holes of this borer may be recognized by their large num- 
bers within a given space, and by their regular, evenly-cut shape, being 
about the diameter of a lead-pencil. We remember seeing some years 
ago a tree at Saratoga Springs, in the trunk of which, where the bark 
had been removed, were a dozen or more of the round, even holes made 
by these insects, who seem to work somewhat in concert. Isolated 
shade-trees along roads and in streets are favorite places of resort: 
Harris says that an old elm tree in his vicinity used to be a favorite 
place of resort for this saw-fly, numbers of them collecting about it 
during the months of July, August, and the early part of September. 
‘Six or more females might frequently be seen at once upon it, employed 
in boring into the trunk and laying their eggs, while swarms of the 
males hovered around them. For fifteen years or more some large but- 
tonwood trees in Cambridge have been visited by them’ in the same 
way. The female, when about to lay her eggs, draws her borer out of 
its sheath, till it stands perpendicularly under the middle of her body, 
when she plunges it, by repeated wriggling motions, through the bark 
into the wood. When the hole is made deep enough, she then drops 
an egg therein, conducting it to the place by means of the two furrowed 
pieces of the sheath. The borer often pierces the bark and wood to 
the depth of half an inch or more, and is sometimes driven in so tightly 
that the insect cannot draw it out again, but remains fastened to the 
tree till she dies. The eggs are oblong- iy pointed at each end, and 
rather less than one-twentieth of an inch in length.” Harris adds, what 
has been observed frequently by others since his time, that these larvee 
