176 FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 



or no serious damage is done by the insects 

 through eating in this stage of existence. 

 The devastation produced in the woods and 

 among the scattered trees is caused by the 

 destruction of innumerable twigs and small 

 branches by the boring for the deposit of 

 eggs, this resulting shortly in the death of 

 these twigs. I think it is not improbable 

 that some active poison is inserted at the 

 time the egg is laid. At all events, in most 

 cases the twig quickly dies and becomes 

 brittle, and is broken off by the wind, and 

 then falling to the ground, the new genera 

 tion is permitted, as soon as released from 

 the egg, to sink below the surface and begin 

 the period of seventeen years of subterra 

 nean existence, from which these which I 

 have been observing have just emerged. 



JULY 2, 1894. 



