196 



THE NUT CULTURIST. 



depredators are scarcely known, except to a few profes- 

 sional entomologists, and unless they become more de- 

 structive in the future than they are at present, or have 

 been in years past, nut culturists have little to fear from 

 their depredations. Among the most common species 

 of insects injurious to the hickory, the following may 

 prove most annoying to the cultivator. 



THE HICKORY-TWIG GIRDLER (Oncideres cingula- 

 tus. Say). A small yellowish-gray beetle, a little less 

 than an inch long, usually appearing in this latitude 

 during August, the females depositing their eggs in the 

 twigs of from a quarter to a half-inch in diameter. 

 On old large trees the loss of a few or 

 many of these is scarcely noticed ; but on 

 young seedlings or grafted stock it is quite 

 a different affair, for on such plants the 

 females usually select the leader in prefer- 

 ence to the lateral twigs in which to de- 

 posit their eggs. The female girdles the 

 twigs for the purpose of providing proper 

 and acceptable food for her progeny ; that 

 is, first the green, then the slowly drying, 

 then the perfectly hard, seasoned hickory 

 or whatever kind she may have attacked. 

 Selecting a suitable twig, she rests upon 

 it, usually with head downward (Fig. 70), and with her 

 mandibles cuts out a ring of bark about one-twelfth of 

 an inch wide, and deep enough to reach the firm wood 

 ^nderneath. The place selected for this annular inci- 

 c^n may be only a few inches from the terminal bud, or 

 ;* foot below it, and in some instances she will cut two 

 incisions on the same twig some distance apart, but 

 usually there is only one on a twig. While cutting this 

 incision she will sometimes rest long enough from her 

 labors to deposit an egg in the bark above. The num- 

 ber of egs she deposits in the twig is probably variable, 



FIG. 70. 



