T30 



SECOND REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



culty presents itself: The insects " maturing late in summer " (August- 

 September), come forth from their breeding places, are seen abroad "in 

 September," " bore into twigs during the fall" (October-November), 

 " hibernate in the holes" (December-March), "continue feeding for 

 awhile in the spring," thus causing the withering of the leaves (April- 

 June), emerge from their shelter, mate," and repair to the forest again to 

 propagate " (in July). Where, under a calendar thus arranged, would 

 time be found for the three earlier stages of the egg, larva and pupa ? 



The insufficient and unreliable data that we possess for the completion 

 of the life-history of this insect have been dwelt upon at some length, 

 in the hope that it will be taken up and completed by some of our ento- 

 mologists or orchardists in the Western States, where the insect is of 

 common occurrence. 



We would expect, as the result of careful investigations, to find the 

 insect as a larva within the burrows made by it in grape canes, oak, hick- 

 ory, or in whatever food-plant it may hereafter be discovered, at any time 

 during the winter and through March and April, perhaps associated in 



the grapevine with its fellow Ptinids 

 Sinoxylon basilar e and Lyctus o^iacu- 

 lus (Figs. 30, 31): that passing into its 

 pupal stage from about the middle of 

 May to first of June, the beetle would 

 emerge early in June ; that it would 

 at once find its mate and the female 

 deposit her eggs, in accordance with 

 the law known to control so many of 

 our Coleoptera and other insects — to provide, first, for the continu- 

 ance of the species : that this accomplished, the beetles early in June 

 bore into twigs of apple, pear, etc., as before 

 stated, for food : that their lives within these bur- 

 rows may be and usually are prolonged for sev- 

 eral months, at times, even through the winter 

 and into early spring — one of the beetles having 

 been kept alive for five months under unnatural „ J^«-,a'/val 6:'thrpupa'; c^tf,e 

 and, therefore, presumably unfavorable conditions ^ff""" ^"""•^'-^'^ ^'"™™ ^«'='- 

 — within a small vial with some grapevine for food (Riley) : that they do 

 not emerge from these burrows, but complete their existence therein — 

 most of them dying in the winter, but some lingering for a few weeks 

 longer. 



Such a life-history would seem to meet all the conditions under which 

 the insect has been re])orted. 



Red-shouldered 

 Sinoxylon basilare ; a, the larva ; 6, the pupa ; 

 c, the imago. 



