86 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



valued trees, and consist in cutting out the borers or else in recourse to 

 protective bandages or offensive washes, the former making it impossible to 

 deposit eggs where the parent insect desires, and the latter rendering the 

 base of the trunk unattractive to the insects. 



Bibliography 



1904 Felt, E. P. & Joutel, L. H. N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 74, p. 23-39 



Common flat-headed borer 



Clirysohotliris fi/iiorata Fabr. 



A somewhat inconspicuous, metallic, grayish, flattened beetle about ^ to f^ inch 

 long, occurs on various trees, and its legless, flat-headed grub makes shallow galleries in 

 the wood. 



This, the common flat-headed borer of the appletree, infests a number 

 of forest trees, and the term apple borer is hardly characteristic. 



Description. The beetle ranges from yi to about S/g inch in length, 

 and is of an obscure metallic color. It may be recognized, according to 

 Dr LeConte, by the serrulate margin of the last ventral segment, the 

 irregular surface of the thorax, the acute median notch of the clypeus and 

 its somewhat circular outline on each side. The anterior tibiae of the male 

 are slightly dilated at the tip and with the inner side denticulate. 



The grub is a slender-bodied, legless creature, with an enormously 

 dilated, flattened head. 



Life history. The beetles appear from the end to the middle of May, 

 and may often be seen resting on the trunks of trees or flying around them 

 during the daytime. The eggs are deposited on the bark, probably in a 

 crevice. The young grub makes its way under the bark, and during its 

 early stages feeds on the sapwood immediately beneath. As it increases 

 in size, it gnaws into the more solid heartwood, forming somewhat dilated, 

 irregular flattened burrows quite distinct from the nearly cylindric ones 

 made by some of the long-horned borers. The winter is passed at some 

 depth within the wood. The larvae work toward the surface in the spring, 



