AMERICAN ELM. 511 
and more or less shaded with black. The length of his body varies from thi 
quarters of an inch to one inch and a quarter; and Ins wings expand from one 
inch and a quarter to two inches, or more. ***** The female, when 
about to lay her eggs, draws her borer out of its sheath, till it stands perpendicu- 
larly under the middle of the body, when she plunges it. by repeated wriggling 
motions, through the bark into the wood. When the hole is made deep enough, 
she then drops an egg therein, conducting it to the place by means of the two fur- 
rowed pieces of the sheath. The borer often pierces the bark and wood to the depth 
of half an inch, or more, and is sometimes driven in so tightly, that the insect 
cannot draw it out again, but remains fastened to the tree till she dies. Th< 
are oblong-oval, pointed at each end, and rather less than one-twentieth of an 
inch in length. The larva or grub, is yellowish-white, of a cylindrical shape, 
rounded behind, with a conical, horny joint, on the upper part of the hinder 
extremity, and it grows to the length of about an inch and a half. It is often 
destroyed by the maggots of two kinds of ichneumon-flies (Pimpla atrata, and 
lunator, of Fabricius.) These flies may frequently be seen thrusting their slen- 
der borers, measuring from three to four inches in length, into the trunks of tn 
inhabited by the grubs of the tremex, and by other wood-eating insects: and 
like the female tremex, they sometimes become fastened to the trees, and die. 
without being able to draw their borers out again."* Among the lepidopterous 
larvae that attack the elm, are those of the four-horned ceratomia, (Ceratomia <//<tt<l- 
ricomis, of Harris,) and those of several species of Geometridte. such as span- 
worms, loopers, measurers, etc., including those of the lime-tree winter-moth, 
(Hybemia tiliaria, of Harris,) and the common canker-worm {Phdlana vernata, 
of Peck.) The leaves of this tree are also preyed upon by a coleopterous beetle 
and its larvae, (Chrysomela scalaris, of Le Conte,) and likewise by the Ian-;" of 
' Junbex 
)r. Har 
.. period . 
which come to their growth in August, measure from an inch to an inch ami a 
half in length, are rather thick and cylindrical in their form, and have twenty- 
two legs, or a pair to every ring, except the fourth. They have a firm, r 
skin, of a pale, greenish-yellow colour, covered with numerous transverse wrin- 
kles, with a black stripe, consisting of two narrow black lines, along the top ot 
the back, from the head to the tail; and their spiracles, or breathing-holes, are 
also black. When at rest, they lie on their sides, curled up in a spiral form, and. 
in this position, look not much unlike some kinds ol cockle or snail shells. I M 
all the false caterpillars of the genus cimbex, this insect, when handled or dis- 
turbed, betrays its fears or its displeasure by spirting out a watery fluid from cer- 
tain little pores, situated on the sides of its body, just above its spiracles. Uter 
its feeding state is over, it crawls down from the tree to the ground, and conceals 
itself under fallen leaves or other rubbish, and there makes an oblong-oval, bro 
not 
cocoon, very closely woven, as tough as parchment, and about an men ,n ength 
In this the false caterpillar remains unchanged throughout the winter and is no 
transformed to a chrysalis till the following spring. At length toeinsect burst 
its chrvsalis skin and, by pushing against the end of its cocoon, fort es oil a Utth 
SStoR" M, through the opening thus mad. ,t comes forth >n a 
Wl pfot f r^s\nd Uses The wood of the Ulmus americana, like that of the 
Eiuouean dm s of a dark-brown colour, and is liable to decay when erDOsed to 
to the longitudinal fibres, it exhibits the same numerous and flne unduh 
ation- 
Report on the Insects of Massachusetts, pp. 389, 390, ct 391. t Ibidem, p. 
