Insects Bred from American Larch 73 
Leptura vittata Oliv. 
Leng (1890, pp. 199) has recorded the habitat of this 
cerambycid as Canada, New York, New Hampshire, Maine, 
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, 
Louisiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. Very little is known 
regarding its host trees, and evidently larch is the first wood 
from which this insect has been bred. Blatchley (1916, 
pp- 1059) has taken the adult from the foliage of ‘Vi irginia 
creeper and other shrubs. The senior author has taken it in 
large numbers from the blossoms of wild spireea in the Cats- 
kill mountains during July and August. 
Specimens of this insect were bred from a partly decayed 
piece of root that had been free of the ground for some 
time. ‘The tree from which it came was ‘still alive. The 
root was covered with thin bark and is about four inches in 
diameter. Adult specimens of Dryocetes americanus were 
taken from beneath the bark in the spring before L. vittata 
emerged. Only a small piece of root was studied, but some 
half dozen larvee and adults were derived from it. Apparently 
the life history is not completed in one year, for wood con- 
fined in the breeding cage produced adults both in the early 
summer and in the following winter in the laboratory. It 
is very likely, however, that two years are sufticient for the 
completion of the various stages of its development. The 
larvee burrow through the sapwood and frequently they are 
found deep in the heartwood. The pupal chambers, how- 
ever, are found directly under the bark. The larval burrows 
are very similar to those of other cerambycids burrowing in 
the sapwood of trees. Fine dust-like frass is tightly packed 
in the larval burrows, while in the pupal chambers we find 
each end packed “with the characteristic excelsior frass. 
Adults emerged June 15 and 28 in the outdoor breeding 
cages and January 10 in the laboratory the following winter. 
Dryocetes americanus and Dryophthorus americanus and 
an unknown elaterid larvee were found associated. Phorbia 
fusciceps, a fly, was also taken from the wood, but had 
probably emerged from decaying fungi. No associated 
parasites were obtained. 
