SHOT-BORER BEETLES. 79 
I found amongst the above larve three pupe ; these were readily 
observable, even with moderately magnifying glasses, by their bright 
shiny whiteness ; the hinder edge of the thorax was well defined, and 
so was the longitudinal striation of the wing-cases. 
Notices of much injury from ‘‘Shot-borer’’ to Plum were also sent 
from near Evesham. A proprietor at Longdon Hill, in that neigh- 
bourhood, mentioned that his plantation of six years’ growth, and ten 
or eleven acres in extent, and very promising, had been badly affected, 
and quite ten per cent. of the trees had succumbed. 
In other places in the neighbourhood losses also were sustained, 
and a wish was expressed for certain information as to the cause of the 
mischief; but so far as I saw from specimens sent me, although there 
appeared to be a small quantity of the Xyleborus dispar (which did such 
great harm a few years ago) present, the greater part of the damage 
then in progress was caused by the X. saxeseni. 
As this species, although not new in England, is only recently 
observed (as above) with us as seriously destructive to Plum wood, I 
took the opportunity of consulting Dr. James Fletcher, the Ento- 
mologist of the Experimental Farms of the Department of Agriculture, 
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, during his stay in England, on the subject, 
and he carried a sample with him on his return home, regarding 
which he was good enough to write, on October 5th, as follows:— 
‘“‘T have delayed writing to you until I heard from our authority 
on Scolytide, Prof. Hopkins, of Morgantown, West Virginia. He says 
this is a very interesting species, and has quite a history. It seems 
that Say named it X. xylographus in 1825, and a short time after 
Ratzburg named the same thing X. saweseni, and although this fact 
has been referred to in publications by Eichhoff, Schwarz, and Packard, 
our European brethren persist in calling it saaeseni. It is an exceed- 
ingly common species here in West Virginia, occurring in the wood of 
old Apple trees. I have compared your English specimens with my 
large series of specimens collected here, and those from France and Ger- 
many, and it appears they must all belong to the same species.’’—(J. F.) 
The above communication is, I think, of much interest as identify- 
ing our infestation by comparison of specimens as similar to that of the 
United States of America and Europe, and also as giving the reason 
for the continuance of the difference in specific name by the American 
and European entomologists. 
The following extracts, taken from the notes published during the 
present year by Mr. H. G. Hubbard, one of the ‘‘investigators”’ of the 
United States Board of Agriculture,* agree excellently with what was 
* See ‘* Ambrosia Beetles of the United States,’ by H. G. Hubbard, in ‘Some 
Miscellaneous Results of Work of the Division of Entomology,’ United States 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1897, p. 24. 
