44 



faeMees bulletin 843. 



cies is accountable for the wholesale cuttmg off or pruning of pecan 

 twdgs, this injury being often conspicuous during the late simimer and 

 early fall. This beetle is found over a wide range of territory, occur- 

 ring in most of the Eastern, Central, and Southern States, but in its 

 more northern distribution the extent of its depredations is not very 

 great. In the pecan-growing sections of the South it ranks as a fii-st- 

 clas3 pest because of the excessive severing of branches from pecan or- 

 chard and nursery trees by the adult beetles. Besides attacking the 

 pecan, this species has been reported as damagmg the hickor}-, persim- 

 mon, oak, walnut, elm, 

 maple, locust, linden, 

 and various pome and 

 stone fiTuts, including 

 the apple, pear, quince, 

 cherry, peach, and plum, 

 as well as orange trees 

 and rosebushes. In the 

 South, however, it seems 

 to confine its attaclvs, for 

 the most part, to the 

 pecan, hickory, and per- 

 simmon. 



Wlien the beetles oc- 

 cur in abundance they 

 are capable of doing 

 much damage by sever- 

 ing branches for the pur- 

 pose of egg-laying. It is 

 not uncommon to see the 

 gi'omid under pecan or 

 hickory trees literally 

 covered with tAvigs that 

 have been cut off by the 

 beetles, and twigs often 

 accumulate in the tree 

 tops in conspicuous bunches (fig, 53). By the severance of the tips 

 of the branches the fniiting area of the tree is greatly lessened or re- 

 duced and the nut crop indirectly affected for the following year, and 

 perhaps for a longer period. This t3'pe of injury, besides afflicting 

 the nut production, causes the development of many offshoots, wliich 

 destroy to some extent the sjinmetry of the tree. Pecan nui-series 

 growing adjacent to a badly infested temtoiy often suffer great loss 

 from the girdling of the terminal branches of the nursery trees. 



DESCRIPTION, SEASONAL HISTORY, AND HABITS. 



The beetles (fig. 54; fig. 55, a) range in length from one-half to 

 five-eighths of an inch, the female being larger and more robust than 



Fig. 53. —Thohiclcorytvvif;-,s;inllcr(0/(c;rf(r(.w7»r/(/to«,s-): Bunches 

 of cut-ofi twigs caught in branches of hickory tree. 



