THE OAK-PRUNER. 87 



be of little service. It has three pairs of soft, coaical-jointed feet, resembling its an- 

 tenniB in their size and shape. The first pair is placed on an elevated wrinkle of the 

 skiu in the suture between the first and second segments of the thorax, more distant 

 from each other than are those of the second and third pairs, which are situated on 

 the middle of the elevation of the second and third segments. 



Some of the worms enter their pupa state the last of autumn, and others not till 

 the following spring. Hence in examining the fallen limbs in the winter, a larva 

 may be found in one, a pupa in another. Preparatory to entering its pupa state, the 

 larva places a small wad of woody fibers, sometimes intermingled with worm-dust, 

 below it, in its burrow, and sometimes another wad above it if the burrow runs far 

 up the limb, thus partitioning off a room one or two inches in length in which to lie 

 during its pupa state. The shriveled cast skin of the larva will be found at the upper 

 «nd of this cell, after it has changed to a pupa. 



Usually those insects which undergo a complete metamorphosis remain at rest, 

 lying dormant and motionless during their pupa state. The oak pruner, however, is 

 a remarkable exception to this. Wbenever its cell is opened it will be seen moving 

 from one end of it to the other with quite as much agility as it shows in its larva 

 state. The sutures of its abdomen have the same deep transverse grooves as in the 

 larvae, admitting the same amount of motion to this part of its body that it previously 

 had. And, lying on its back, it uses the tip of its abdomen as though it were furnished 

 with a proleg, the little sharp points with which it is covered being pressed against 

 the rough walls of the cell and the body pushed forward or drawn backward hereby, 

 step after step, at the will of the animal. 



Thepupa is of much the same size with the larva and of a yellowish-white color. 

 Its eyes are sometimes white, sometimes blackish-brown. The antenna-sheaths arise 

 i:i the notch upon the inner side of the eyes and, passing directly across the surface 

 of these organs, extend down aiong each side of the back above the sheath of the 

 fore and middle pairs of legs, then curving inward they pass back to the eye along 

 the inner side of the same legs, their ends being placed upon the eye slightly inside 

 of their origin. The knees of the hind legs protrude far out from under the upper 

 sides of the wing-sheaths forward of their tips, whilst the feet of these legs occupy 

 the space between the tips of the wing-sheaths. The back of the abdomen shows a 

 distinct, pale-brown stripe along the middle, on each side of which the surface of the 

 segments is furnished with numerous small, erect, sharp points of a dark brown color, 

 those on the apical segment being double the length of the others. 



The beetle. — They are usually from 0.50 to 0.55 in length and 0.12 broad, of a slender, 

 cylindrical form, of a dull black color, tinged more or less with brown on the wing- 

 covers, more evidently so towards their tips, whilst the antennae are paler brown, and 

 the under side and legs chestnut colored, sometimes bright, sometimes dark and 

 blackish. The surface is everywhere clothed with shortish, prostrate gray hairs, and 

 on the wing-covers these are in places more dense, forming small gray spots, and on 

 each side of the thorax, in the middle, is a whitish dot, formed in the same manner. 

 Sometimes also on the base of the thorax, on each side of its middle, a short gray 

 stripe formed by these hairs is very obvious, whilst in other individuals no traces of 

 these stripes can be discerned. 



The scutel also is densely covered and gray from these hairs. The surface, above, 

 is occupied by numerous coarse, round punctures, those on the thorax being of the 

 same size with those on the wing-covers, but more crowded, many of them running 

 into each other. Towards the tips of the wing-covers these punctures become per- 

 ceptibly smaller. 



In at least three-fourths of the fallen limbs no worm is to be found ; and an exam- 

 ination of them shows that the insect perished at the time the limb was severed, and 

 before it had excavated any burrow upward in its center, no perforation being present, 

 except that leading into the lateral twig. It is probable that in many of these in- 

 stances the limb broke when the worm was in the act of gnawing it asunder, either 

 from its own weight or from a wind arising whilst the work was in progress. And 



