42 



and of a black color ; it is concealed, when not in use, between two 

 narrow, rust colored side pieces, forming a kind of scabbord to it. 



The male is extremely unlike the female in color, form and size, and 

 is not furnished with the remarkable borer of the other sex ; is rust- 

 colored, variegated with black ; antennae rusty yellow or black- 

 ish ; wings smoky, but clearer than those of the female, and of a 

 blackish color ; the other legs are rust-colored, and more or less shaded 

 with black ; the length of the body varies from three-quarters to an 

 inch and a quarter ; the wings expand from an inch and a quarter to 

 two inches or more. 



The female pierces through the bark into the wood in which she 

 deposits her eggs ; these are oblong-oval and pointed at each end. The 

 larva' are yellowish-white grubs with six true legs; they are cylindri- 

 cal in shape, rounded at the hind extremity, from which proceeds a 

 horny conical spine ; when full grown, they are about one inch and a 

 half in length. They bore into the trunks of elm»and oak, and have 

 also been charged with attacking the apple tree in Illinois, and Mr. 

 Wier has noticed them boring in the sycamore. 



They are subject to the attacks of two ichneumon flies — Pimple 

 atrata and rimpla lunator. 



So far as I am aware, they have not proven injurious to any con- 

 siderable extent in the West. 



Xyleutes robinue — Peck — The Locust Tree Carpenter-Moth. 



This moth belongs to the section Heterocera or moths, family Comdx; 

 and was formerly placed in the genus Cossus, but is now placed in 

 Xyleutes, a genus established by Newman for these Carpenter-moths. 

 Harris places it in the family Hepialidae which is nearly equivalant to 

 Cossidse. The body is densely covered with minute hairs; the head is 

 small ; antenna' of but moderate length, and furnished on the under 

 side with a double set or two rows of minute, closely set comb-like 

 teeth (bipectinate.) The male is dark brown; the female has the 

 abdomen dark ash-brown, constricted at the base, with a mass of hairs 

 each side at this point, which are white at the base and dusky at the 

 extremity ; thorax dark brown, thickly covered with ash-colored, 

 scaly down, leaving a narrow dark line each side, and some naked 

 spaces on the disk ; anterior wings hoary, with irregular darker re- 

 ticulations, with some larger irregular discal spots of the same color : 

 hind wings dusky with black veins, covered with paler hair toward 

 the anterior margin : tongue or proboscis wanting. 



The female is furnished with a serrated ovipositor; she is about 

 1.25 Inches long to tip of the abdomen, and expands 2 to 2.75 inches; 

 male expands 1.50 to 1.75 inches. 



The larva of this species is a true caterpiller, possessing sixteen 

 legs, and bores into the trunks of the Locust (Robinia /mud acacia) and 

 red oak | Qvbercus rubra), especially full grown and old trees of the for- 

 mer. They perforate the tree in various directions, but mostly ob- 

 liquely upwards ami downwards through the solid wood, enlarging 

 their burrows as they increase in size, and continuing them through 

 the bark to the outside. When fully grown they measure two inches 



