118 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FOREST AND SHADE TREES. 
The beetles rest on the trunks and branches of various kinds of poplars 
in August and September, and also fly by night, sometimes entering the 
open windows in the evening. According to 
Riley this borer is universally destructive to the 
cottonwood in the Western States. 
The larva,—About two inches long ; the body very thick, 
rather larger before than behind; the segments full and 
rounded. The first segment broad, sloping obliquely 
downward to the head. On the upper side of the broad 
segment (prothoracic) containing the head is a large 
square yellowish horny area, succeeded by rough oval 
areas on the tops of the succeeding segments. These 
rasps serve as legs, which are wanting in the grub. 
The beetle is called the spurred Saperda (calcarata) from 
Fic. 56.—Poplar borer: a, natural the spine-like ends of the wing-covers. The body is 
el nppe and eer ee covered all over with a short and close nap, which gives 
ment enlarged.—From Packard. jf a fine blue-gray color; it is finely punctured with 
brown, with four ochre-yellow lines on the head and three on the top of the thorax; 
the scutel is also ochre-yellow, and there are several irregular lines and spots of the 
same color on the wing-covers; it is 1} inch in length. (Harris.) 
2, THE LESSER POPLAR BORER. 
Saperda mesta Leconte. 
Boring in the poplar and balm of Gilead, selecting the smaller branches, in many 
places not more than an inch or two apart, and situated chiefly at the base of the 
buds, the whole length of the excavation not much exceeding an inch; pupating 
early in May and becoming beetles by the end of May. 
The larva.—Nearly cylindrical, tapering a little posteriorly, and about half an inch 
in length. Head very small, dark reddish brown in front, pale behind. Body deep 
yellow. Second segment deeper in color and more horny than the other segments ; 
terminal segment a little more hairy than the others. (Saunders. ) 
3. THE POPLAR GIRDLER. 
Saperda concolor Leconte. 
Girdling the trunks of sapling poplars, by carrying a mine around the trank, which 
causes a swelling often nearly twice the diameter of the tree. 
Our attention was first directed to this borer and the marked effects 
of its work by Mr. George Hunt. In his company we have found nu- 
merous saplings of the common poplar in the woods about Providence, 
with the unsightly swellings around the trunk. The beetle is uniformly 
gray approaching the color of the downy under side of the poplar, with 
no spots, while the antenne are black, stained with gray at the joints. 
Length 10™. 
4, THE BROAD NECKED PRIONUS. 
Prionus laticollis Drury. 
Order COLEOPTERA; family CERAMBYCID2&. 
Boring in the wood of the trunks and roots of different poplars, a white soft grub ag 
thick as one’s thumb, producing an oval moderately convex black long-horned beetle 
0.90 to 1.50 long and less than half as broad, its wing-covers rough from confluent 
irregular punctures and with two or three raised lines, its thorax with three irregular 
