' 30. 
or twig attacked. For some time the injured branches only were sent, 
but at last Mr. William Duane Wilson, of the lowa Homestead, forward- 
ed some branches of the grape-vine, with the insects in them, and on 
examination they proved to be the apple-twig borer, Amphicerus (Bos- 
trichus) bicaudatus, of Leconte. These insects measure from .25 to .35 
of an inch in length, and are small, dark chestnut-colored beetles, of a 
cylindrical form, having the front part of the thorax roughened with 
elevated points, the male having two little horns, and the tips of the 
wing-covers above, provided with two prickle-like points curving in- 
ward. In his letter Mr. Wilson complains much of the injury done by 
these insects in Iowa, and says that seven to nine year old vines are 
killed from the root up, and that out of fourteen vines, eleven were 
killed. Mr. Allen Crocker, of Burlington, Kansas, some time ago stated 
that in Kansas this insect did much damage by boring into the twigs 
of the white hickory. Other correspondents say that it also attacks 
apple, pear, and cherry trees in a similar manner, by boring into the 
twigs and young branches. It is in the perfect or beetle state that the 
insect does the injury to our fruit and forest trees, boring into the twig 
just above a bud, working downward sometimes to the depth of two or 
more inches through the pith, thus finding in the branch both food and 
protection. Even in midwinter both male and female beetles may 
sometimes be found hiding in their cylindrical burrows, and always 
with the head directed downward. The insects are plentiful in the 
Western States, and, although they have been taken in Maryland and 
Pennsylvania, we have received no accounts of their ravages from east- 
ern correspondents. The only remedy that can be suggested, when the 
insect attacks twigs and branches,is to cut them off some distance 
below the place injured and to burn them immediately, with the beetles 
inside, as it is not likely that any preparation could be applied to the 
trees that would prevent their attacks. 
THE ARMY OR SNAKE-WORM AGAIN.—In regard to this singular 
worm, a description of which was given in the monthly report for Octo- 
ber, 1872, Mr. M. H. Spera writes from Ephratah, Pennsylvania, as fol- 
lows: ‘“ During the past summer I found several of these ‘snakes,’ one of 
them, when found, measuring eighteen inches in length, and numbering 
497 worms, some being .380 of an inchin length. It was moving rapidly. 
Several days after I found another, not as large as the former, contain- 
ing 364 worms. Of these I secured a number, placing them in a glass 
box, in which I also placed damp earth and moss. When I pjaced them 
in the box, about 3 p. m., they would crawl on the glass, but by next 
morning they had all disappeared beneath the earth and moss. The 
perfect flies appeared on the afternoon of the fifth day, and on the sixth 
’ and seventh, their description perfectly agreeing with that given in the 
monthly report. The first was found on the 27th of July, the second 
several days after.” 
THE ROSE-BUG.—Mr. Charles B. Thompson, of Elwood, New Jersey, 
writes to the Department that after having made many inquiries as to 
the means of extirpating the rose-bug, and tried many reputed remedies 
without success, he at length accomplished his object by the use of dry, 
unleached oak-ashes. He scattered the ashes upon the vines and the 
branches of peach and apple trees that were infested by the bug early 
in the morning, while the dew was on the leaves. The result was that 
within four days after this application the bugs had almost entirely 
disappeared. 
Mr. George Hardy. of Avola, Vernon County, Missouri, has made a 
similar experiment with the same favorable result. He writes to the 
