121 
Pra ee, NDT 
THE LOMBARDY POPLAR BORER. 
(Agrilus granulatus, Say.) 
Order COLEOPTERA. Family Buprestipa. 
By Prof. T. J. BURRILL. 
It is known by every one that the Lombardy poplar lives but a 
short time in the rich soils of the Mississippi valley, where its growth 
is exceedingly rapid. Many suppose that this is due to some degen- 
eration, through the processes of propagation or otherwise, of the 
constitutional vitality of the tree,—that it is inherently short-lived. 
After some studies upon this subject, I am quite sure, that the early 
death of the tree comes from other causes, and is due to agencies 
outside the tree itself and not specially connected with the soil 
or climate. For the present note, one of these, and only one, may 
be mentioned. 
About the middle of June a small beetle (Agrilus granulatus, Say) 
lays its eggs in the crevices of the rough bark, depositing them 
singly here and there, but sometimes only an inch or two apart, on 
the trank and limbs old enough to become roughened by the fissures 
and cracks of the outer bark. The larve penetrate the living bark 
and enaw tortuous galleries in it and the young Jayer of wood just 
beneath. These galleries are at first as fine as the puncture of a 
cambric needle, and never become larger than one-tenth of an inch 
in diameter. For the most part they run in irregularly horizontal 
directions, or crosswise of the grain of the wood. When numerous, 
as they often are, they sometimes cross each other, but this is un- 
common. They are closely packed with the excrement of the larve. 
The latter are exceedingly slender, slightly flattened, much elon- 
gated, footless and white; the first segment of the thorax is some- 
