REPOET - OF ^ THE - ENTOMOLOGIST. 



117 



The insect was described in the Agricultural Eeport for 1858, as oc- 

 curring in Florida, where it was commonly known as the " lubber," from 

 its sluggish habits. It was very voracious, and was quite destructive 

 in the young orange-groves by devouring the leaves. The insects also 

 destroy many garden- vegetables and plants, though they were not espe- 

 cially destructive to them at that time and place, but appeared to be 

 more injurious to the foliage of the orange-tree. They crawl slowly 

 over the ground or upon shrubs, and are so nauseating that even fowls 

 reject them as food. The eggs are probably deposited in the earth ; the 

 young larvj© are striped like the mature insects, but are perfectly wing- 

 less ; they are of a black color, beautifully striped and banded with 

 orange or red ; the pupse also are black, shaded, and striped on the 

 thorax with yellow or orange red, and the abdomen is banded, and the 

 hind thighs bordered with the same color. The insect, when fully 

 grown, is from 2 to 2.50 inches in length, and is of a yellow or orange 

 color, barred and spotted with black. 



Fig;. 7. 



The wing-cases are extremely short, reaching only half way to the 

 extremity of the abdomen, and are totally useless to the insect for the 

 purpose of flight. These wing-covers are yellowish, shaded with rosy- 

 pink, and are barred and spotted with black. The insects are extremely 

 voracious, and from their large size are able to consume an immense 

 quantity of food, and no doubt, if found in great numbers, would do 

 immense injury in market-gardens; but as they never fly, merely creep- 

 ing or jumping heavily, they can be readily destroyed by catching in a 

 net, or by crushing with the foot, in every stage of their existence. It 

 would, however, be well to destroy them when very young, as if allowed 

 to grow they will consume as much as half a dozen common grasshop- 

 pers {Galoptenus) at one meal. 



i^umbers of letters have been received by the Department from the 

 Western and Southwestern States during the past season complaining 

 of the injury done to fruit-trees by a sm^dl insect, which bores into the 

 wood and frequently destroys the branch or twig attacked. For some 

 time the injured branches only were sent, but at last Mr. William Duane 

 Wilson, of the Iowa Homestead, forwarded some branches of the grape- 

 vine with the insects in them, and on examination they proved to be 

 the apple-twig borer, AmiMeerus (Bostrichus) licaudatus of Leconte. 

 These insects measure from .25 to ,35 of an inch in length, and are small, 



