922 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE SEQUOIA GIGANTEA. 

 1. Gonops fissunguis Leconte. 



'^ Three specimens from Big Trees, California." (Leconte's Rhyncho- 

 phora.) 



2. A LONGICORN BOREK. 



While at the Big Trees of the Mariposa Grove, we observed that one 

 of them had been mined under the bark by what may have been a 

 longicorn borer, as the mine was broad and shallow, being about 4""° 

 broad and about four inches long. 



3. The sequoia ^gerian. 



Bemhecia aequoiw Hy. Edwards. 



Order Lepidoptera; family .^geriad^e. 



Very destructive to Sequoia sempervirens, as well as to Pinus ponderosa 

 and P. lambertiana. H. Edwards. (Papilio, Vol. I, p. 181.) 



'■'• Bemhecia sequoice Hy. Edw. is devastating the pine forests of Men- 

 docino County, California, and is particularly destructive to Sequoia 

 sempervirens^ Pinus ponderosa, and Pinus lambertiana. The eggs appear 

 to be laid in the axils of the branches, the young caterpillar boring in a 

 tortuous manner about its retreat, thus diverting the flow of the sap, 

 and causing large resinous nodules to form at the place of its workings. 

 These gradually harden, the branch beyond them dies, and the tree at 

 last succumbs to its insignificant enemies. Hundreds of fine trees in 

 the forests of the region indicated are to be seen in various stages of 

 decay. A similar habit seems to prevail in the life-history of Sciapteron 

 pini Kellicott, a species described by its author in the Canadian Ento- 

 mologist, 1881." (H. Edwards in Bull. U. S. Ent. Comm., No. 7, Appen- 

 dix.) 



