IIG INJURIOUS INSECTS OF 1904. 



year specimens were sent to the Minnesota Entomologist from Caro- 

 lina poplars received into Minnesota from New York State, and ship- 

 ped from here to North Dakota, where twenty-five trees were reported 

 killed. 



This is the European alder and willow borer, Cryptorhynciis lapathi, 

 Linn., shown in our illustrations. It is a snout beetle belonging to 

 the family Curciilionidcr, dark brown, or blackish, nearly one-half 

 inch long, with a conspicuous whitish or yellowish (scaly) patch on 

 the rear part of its back; these yellowish scales are seen also on its 

 sides near its head. 



It makes a hole in the poplar tree, frequently attacking a tree near 

 the base, and in this hole deposits from one to four eggs. The 

 white legless larva with brown head which hatches from the egg 

 bores under the bark in the immediate vicinity of the place where it 



Fig. 123. — Work of the Mottled Willow Borer in Carolina Poplar. Original. 



has hatched during the first season, wintering in this position, and 

 tunneling into the wood the second season. This boring beneath the 

 bark, and the subsequent entering the wood will greatly injure any 

 tree, and in the case of small trees, if the insect is in the trunk, un- 

 doubtedly cause their death. The larva, becoming full grown, trans- 

 forms to a pupa at the end of the second summer, passing the second 

 winter, in this condition, and emerging as an adult beetle in the 

 spring, the third year from the egg. In other words, two years are 

 required for one generation. Mating and egg-laying take place after 

 the beetle has issued from the wood. 



The spread of this foreign insect westward in the United States is 

 of interest. It was described by Linneseus in 1763; in 1824 in the 

 vicinity of Liegnitz, a whole alder plantation was destroyed by it, 

 willows also suffering. In some way, possibly in cuttings from 



