76 PLUM. 
The beetles breed in the tunnels, and in September (in this 
country) borings may be found so crowded with female beetles that 
there appears to be hardly room for one more. The males are more 
rarely met with; but whilst amongst fifty to sixty female ‘‘ Shot-borer”’ 
Beetles which I took in September, 1889, from their borings, I only 
XYLEBORUS DIspAR.—Female beetle (uppermost), male (lowest), magnified, lines 
showing natural length; horizontal and vertical workings in Plum stems. 
found one male beetle,—in the following December I found more 
present, and on or about the following 10th of January I found in a 
piece of Plum stem of two inches and a quarter in diameter about 
seventeen males to six females. 
Very complete observations of the infestation were sent by Mr. C. 
D. Wise from the Toddington Fruit-grounds in 1889, and were duly 
reported (see my ‘ Thirteenth Annual Report’), and the prompt re- 
medial measures taken, especially that of cutting down and burning 
such trees as were attacked, acted so well that in the following year 
Mr. Wise reported that only one case of attack had been found, and 
since then until the present year (1897) no further reports of presence 
of Shot-borer Beetles have been sent to an extent calling for mention, 
if indeed anything at all of their presence has been noticed. 
This year, however, on June 9th, Mr. C. D. Wise wrote me, from 
the Toddington Fruit-grounds, that they had a very severe attack of 
Shot-borer Beetles. He mentioned :— 
‘In one plantation of about eight acres, containing about one 
