THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 43 



have invariably found it more plentiful in trees growing on high land 

 than in those growing on low land, and it has also been my experi- 

 ence that it is worse in ploughed orchards than in those which are 

 seeded down to grass. Fifty years ago, large, thrifty, long-lived trees 

 were exceedingly common, and were obtained with comparatively 

 little effort on the part of our ancestors. They had not the vast army 

 of insect enemies to contend with, which at the present day make 

 successful fruit-growing a scientific pursuit. This Apple-tree borer was 

 entirely unknown until Thomas Say described it in the year 18.4; and, 

 according to Dr. Fitch, it was not till the year following that its de- 

 structive character became known in the vicinity of Albany, N. Y., 

 for the first time. Yet it is a native American insect, and has for ages 

 inhabited our indigenous crabs, from which trees my friend, Mr. A. 

 Bolter, took numerous specimens, in the vicinity of Chicago, ten years 

 ago. It also attacks the quince, mountain ash, hawthorn, pear and 

 the June-berry. Few persons are aware to what an alarming extent 

 this insect is infesting the orchards in St. Louis, Jefferson and adjacent 

 counties, and, for aught I know, throughout the State. A tree be- 

 comes unhealthy and eventually dwindles and dies, often without the 

 owner having the least suspicion of the true cause — the gnawing 

 worm within. Even in the orchard of the most worthy president of 

 our State Horticultural Society, I found one or more large worms at 

 the base of almost every tree that I examined, notwithstanding he had 

 been of the opinion that there was not a borer of this kind on his 

 place. 



At Figure 14, this borer is represented in its three stages of larva 

 («), pupa (5), and perfect beetle (o). The beetle may be known by 

 the popular name of the Two-striped Saperda, while its larva is best 

 known by the name of the Round-headed apple-tree borer, in contra- 

 distinction to the Flat-headed species, which will be presently treat- 

 ed of. 



Tho average length of the larva, when full-grown, is about one 

 inch, and the width of the first segment is not quite i of an inch. 

 Its color is light yellow, with a tawny yellow spot of a more horny 

 consistency on the first segment, which, under a lens, is found to be 

 formed of a mass of light brown spots. The head is chestnut-brown, 

 polished and horny, and the jaws are deep black. The pupa is of 

 rather lighter color than the larva, and has transverse rows of minute 

 teeth on the back, and a few at the extremity of the body ; and the 

 perfect beetle has two longitudinal white stripes between three of a 

 light cinnamon-brown color. The Two-striped Saperda makes its ap- 

 pearance in the beetle state during the months of May and June, and 

 is seldom seen by any but the entomologist who makes a point of 

 hunting for it — from the fact that it remains quietly hidden by day 

 and flies and moves only by night. The female deposits her eggs dur- 

 ing the month of June, mostly at the foot of the tree, and the young 

 worms hatch and commence boring into the bark within a fortnight 



