434 ANNUAL REPORT 



three-fifths to three-fourths of an inch in length, and the width across 

 the shoulders is about one-fourth of the length. The antennae are 

 nearly as long as the body, slender and tapering, and when at rest are 

 thrown backward and curved outward at the ends. There are two 

 very distinct white stripes running from the head to the tip of the 

 wing cases, between three rather broader cinnamon brown stripes. 

 These stripes are so well marked and destinct that they are siiiScient 

 of themselves to distinguish the species. 



The beetle makes its appearance in May and June, but remains 

 quiet and hid during the day and therefore is seldom seen except by 

 those who search for it. In this latitude the female deposits her eggs 

 about the last of June and first of July, one in a place upon the bark 

 of the tree, low down on the trunk or near the ground, or sometimes 

 in the axils of the lower limbs. From these eggs hatch in about two 

 weeks a minute footless grub of a whitish color with a yellowish 

 head, which eats its way directly through to the inner bark and newly 

 forming sap-wood. For the first year of their life they feed upon the 

 sap-wood, making paths just the size of the body in the bark and sap- 

 wood which are filled with their sawdust-like castings. Although its 

 operations vary somewhat, and some writers state that it works upward 

 from the place of entrance, what few observations I have been able to 

 make, tend to convince me that during the first season it works down- 

 ward toward the root of the tree, and that it remains at the bottom 

 of the burrow through the following winter inactive. The following 

 spring it commences to cut a cylindrical passage upward, and when 

 about half grown it commences gnawing through the solid wood, con- 

 tinuing to enlarge the size of its burrow as its body increases in size, 

 and pushing the sawdust so made downward and outward toward the 

 orifice made for entrance, which has been somewhat enlarged. This 

 burrow runs slantingly inward toward the pith of the tree and then 

 outward, terminating at the bark. It does not now continue to mine 

 into the bark, but filling up the burrow at each end and enlarging the 

 cavity it makes for itself a place to undergo its last transformation, 

 and then quietly awaits its change. When fully completed it pushes 

 back the castings into its nest, gnaws a round hole through the bark, 

 and comes forth and prepares to propagate its species. 



Our best entomologists difi'er about the length of time it remains 

 in the larvae state. Dr. Fitch says they remain in the larvae state two 

 years, Dr. Harris from two to three years, and Prof. Riley three years. 

 My observations lead me to believe that they remain in the tree about 

 two years and ten months, and inactive about five months of each 



