THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



27 



state Entomologist for New York, and have regularly 

 followed it up every succeeding year. The result is, that 

 I have never since had a single borer in any of my ten 

 trees. Dr. Fitch states that he soaped a certain number 

 of young trees in an orchard and left the rest untouched; 

 and that the next year all the soaped trees were free from 

 borers, and all the unsoaped trees were swarming with 

 them. The borer that troubled him was the "two-striped" 

 one exclusively. The borer that troubled me was the 

 "Buprestis" exclusively, the other species not occurring 

 within many miles of Rock Island, 111. Consequently, it 

 seems to follow that the "soap-remedy" is equally effec- 

 tual against either insect. 



The mode in wliich the soap operates is easily explained. 

 The mother-beetle, perceiving the soap, is apprehensive 

 that the tree is not a suitable home for her future progeny, 

 and therefore refuses to lay her eggs upon it, and flies oiT 

 elsewhere. If all two-legged bugs, that wear coats and 

 pantaloons, took as much care of their future families as 

 the six-legged bugs invariably do, there would not be 

 near so much misery and distress in the world. 



In the Valley of the Mississippi this insect is more ge- 

 nerally troublesome to apple-trees than the preceding. 

 In the Atlantic States, although it exists there, it is not 

 recorded as being injurious to apple-trees. In a few in- 

 stances it has been known to attack the Peach-tree, but 

 this appears to be the exception and not the rule. 



The Apple-twig Borer. {Bostrichus bicaudatus. Say.) 



We have now to deal with a Beetle that is remarkable 



for boring our Apple-trees, not in the larva, but in the 



perfect state. During the month of June particular twigs. 



Fig. 3. generally such as are about the sizeof a goosc- 



quill,will often be found to be bored just above 



one of the buds, and on cutting into them it 



will be noticed that a cylindrical hole, about 



the si^e of a common knitting needle, extends 



downwards from the perforation above the 

 Color — very ^ 



dark brown, bud, through the very heart of the twig, for the 



length of an inch or an inch and a half. In this hole will 

 very frequently be found the insect figured in the an- 

 nexed wood-cut, (the hair-line to the left showing its 

 real length.) not with his head up%vards, as he would lie 

 if he had lived there in his larva state and had changed 

 there to the perfect beetle, but with his head downwards 

 and busily engaged in lengthening the hole. The males 

 are distinguished by having two little thorns projecting 

 backwards from their tail, and males as well as females 

 are found in these holes, which proves that they bore 

 them for food for themselves, and not as a nest for their 

 future families. For almost invariably with insects, it is 

 the female only that labors to provide for her future off- 

 spring, the males, like the men among the Red Indians, 

 being too chivalrous to work. Where the larva of this 

 particular insect breeds, we have at present no informa- 

 tion ; but from the analogy of allied species, it may be 

 inferred that it breeds in the sapwood of forest trees. I 

 have captured the perfect insect in the woods in Septem- 

 ber; and as I once found a single specimen, in the usual 

 situation in an apple-twig, so early in the spring that it 

 must have been there all winter, I infer from these facts 

 that they often pass the winter in the perfect state. The 

 great bulk of them, however, bore the apple-twigs in 

 June, and not in the preceding autumn, and I have taken 

 several in June when they were only just commencing 

 their holes, so that half their bodies stuck out in the open 

 air. Frequently a single twig will contain two or three 



of their holes ; but in no instance did I ever find that one 

 interfered with or ran into another. Though these des- 

 pised little creatures have no pre-emption laws, and no 

 magistrates to enforce them if they had any, yet they 

 know enough not to "jump" one another's "claims;" 

 which is more than can always be said of certain animals 

 that are higher in the scale of creation. 



This insect occurs in Pennsylvania and in the Valley 

 of the iMississippi, but not in New York or the New. Eng- 

 land States. It is chiefly in the Valley of the Mississippi 

 that it has been found to work upon apple-trees in the 

 manner described above; and the only damage it occa- 

 sions is, that the bored twig generally breaks off at the 

 bored part with the first high wind. So long as the in- 

 sect occurs only in moderate numbers, this would proba- 

 bly be a benefit, rather than an injury to the tree, being 

 in the nature of a summer pruning. I am not aware that 

 they have ever yet been found anywhere in such exces- 

 sive numbers, as to do material damage ; but if this should 

 ever prove to be the case, the only remedy that I can 

 suggest would be to search for the bored twigs in June, 

 and cut them off and burn them. 



The Peach-tree Borer, male and female. 

 (^gcria exiliosa, Say.) 



The three preceding Borers are all Beetles, belonging 

 to three very distinct families of the Order Coleoptera 

 (Sheathed-wings.) The annexed engraving represents 

 the two sexes of a Borer belonging to an entirely dif- 

 ferent Order — Lepidoptera (Scaly- wings) — which com- 

 prises the Butterflies and the Moths or " Millers " as they 

 are popularly called. The one to the right hand is the 

 male, the one to the left hand the female. As will be 



Colors— ateel-blue and yellow, 

 noticed the male is very different from the female, so 

 different indeed that it was formerly mistaken for a dis- 

 tinct species. The larva on a cursory view might be 

 readily confounded with that of the "Two-striped Borer." 

 being about the same size, shape and color; but a close in- 

 spection will show that it has got six minute legs, whereas 

 the other larva is absolutely legless. In one point, however, 

 it resembles the other larva closely, viz: in being pecu- 

 liarly fond of the butt of the tree it inhabits, though, as 

 wiib the other insect, specimens are occasionally found 

 in the crotch. Moreover, the Peach-tree borer generally 

 works a little below the surface of the earth, instead of a 

 little above, which is the favorite part with the "Two- 

 striped" borer. Like the "Buprestis" borer, it lives only 

 one year in the larva state, but the perfect insect comes 

 out later in the year, viz: in July and August, instead of 

 June. In their general habits, they resemble other boring 

 insects, but they never burrow into the heartwood, and 

 wherever they occur in the Peach-tree — whether under 

 ground in the collar of the tree, or above ground in the 

 crotch — there a copious mass of thick gum exudes, which 

 serves the useful purpose of directing us to the place of 

 their retreat. This same insect is occasionally, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Fitch, found on the Plum-tree; and he notices 

 the remarkable fact, that although the Plum -tree it; ge- 



