347 



the starting point, and in consequence has more gnawing to do than if 

 it had not made this mistake in the preliminary suivey. The channel 

 slopes in a very little from either side, not unlike the notch made by a 

 beaver in gnawing oif a tree. 



The eggs are deposited beneath the bark of the girdled branches, 

 and just at the base of side shoots or aborted buds. Usually there is 

 but one at a shoot, but in case the latter is large there may be two or 

 three. The aperture of the puncture is somewhat oval in form, being 

 slightly flattened on the under side. Immediately beneath it, and 

 capped with a gummy substance for protection, is the egg, a pale white 

 elongated body, with a longitudinal diameter about three times as great 

 as the transverse. It lies just under the bark, or in some cases, 

 between the layers of the bark. The number of eggs thus deposited 

 by a single female varies somewhat. Of seven branches examined, 

 two had eight punctures each, two nine, and three fourteen. The 

 girdler seems to be very careful to place all its eggs along the main 

 axis of the limb. In no case was there a puncture on a side shoot, no 

 nmtter how many twigs or buds it might have. 



These eggs were found to hatch in from three to four weeks after the 

 branches had dropped, the larva* appearing as very small cream colored 

 footless grubs. As these larv* are still very small at this writing 

 (November 12), they will doubtless pass the winter in this state, feed 

 and grow rapidly when spring comes, transform in mid-summer, and 

 emerge as a perfect insect about the iirst of August. 



A detailed description of the beetle is hardly necessary, as it is 

 figured and described in several reports on insects injurious to forest 

 trees, and in horticultural reports. To those, however, who might not 

 have such report at hand, a means of roughly identifying it may be 

 acceptable. It has the characteristic long antennte of most Ceramby- 

 cidte, is sub-cylindrical in shape, and varies from about eight to eleven- 

 sixteenths of an inch in length, the nuxles being smaller than the 

 females. The general color is a reddish, ash-sprinkled brown, with a 

 broad ashy belt nearly midway across the elytra. The thorax is also 

 ashy, contrasting slightly with the color of the head antl the humeral 

 belt. Numerous ochreous spots dotting the elytra can be seen by close 

 inspection. 



The drawing (after Riley) tignred in most reports on the insect is not 

 quite true to life in one or two points. The girdler at work should be 

 located on that portion of the branch containing the punctures for 

 ovipositing, and not on the stub that will remain on the tree. The egg, 

 also, should be nearly twice as long as figured, in order to preserve the 

 true proportions when based on the transverse diameter shown in the 

 drawing. 



It ought not to be very ditticult to get rid of these prnners in a yard 

 or park, for one has only to carefully collect and burn all fallen or 

 lodged branches in order to destroy all the eggs and larva? for the next 

 season's brood. 



