32 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE APPLE. 



FIG. 18. 



FIG. 19. 



woody interior the branch might break during the process, 

 an accident which would probably crush the workman to 

 death ; but the insect rarely miscalculates : it leaves the 

 bark and just enough of the woody fibre untouched to sustain 

 the branch until it has time to make good its retreat into 

 the burrow, the opening of which it carefully stops up with 

 gnawed fragments of wood. If the limb be short, it severs 

 all the woody fibres, leaving it fastened only by the bark ; 

 if longer, a few of the woody fibres on the tipper side are 

 left ; and if very long and heavy, not more than three-fourths 

 of the wood will be cut through. Having performed the 

 operation and closed its hole so that the jarring of the branch 

 when it falls may not shake out the occupant, the larva 

 retreats to the spot at which it first entered the limb. After 

 the branch has fallen it eats its way gradually through the 

 centre of the limb for a distance of from six to twelve inches, 

 when, having completed its growth, 

 it is transformed to a pupa with- 

 in the enclosure. Sometimes this 

 change takes place in the autumn, 

 but more frequently it is deferred 

 until the spring, and from the pupa 

 the beetle escapes during the month 

 of June. 



The larva (Fig. 18) when full 

 grown is a little more than half 

 an inch long, thickest towards the 

 head, tapering gradually backwards. 

 The head is small and black, the 



body yellowish white, with a few indistinct darker markings. 

 It has six very minute legs attached to the anterior segments. 

 In the figure the larva is shown magnified. The pupa is 

 about the same size as the larva, of a whitish color, and is 

 shown in Fig. 19, also magnified, in its burrow. 



Remedies. Birds are active agents in the destruction of 

 these larvae ; they seek them out in their places of retreat and 



