ENTOMOLOGY 305 



ent in them, or the leaves containing the hibernating pupae may be 

 collected and destroyed during the winter. 



The Sugar Maple Borer. The adult or perfect insect of this 

 maple borer is a large and handsome beetle, of the following char- 

 acteristics: It is about an inch long, with a rounded body and 

 rather long feelers or antennae. The head is yellow with the an- 

 tennae and the eyes reddish-black; the thorax is black, with two 

 transverse yellow spots on each side ; the wing covers for about two- 

 thirds of their length are black ; the remaining third is yellow, and 

 they are ornamented with bands and spots arranged in the following 

 manner: A yellow spot on each shoulder, a broad, yellow, curved 

 band or arch, of the yellow scutella, forms the keystone on the base 

 of the wing-covers ; behind this is a zig-zag yellow band, forming the 

 letter W, across the middle another yellow band arching backwards, 

 and on the yellow tip a black, curved band and spot; the legs are 

 yellow ; and the under side of the body is reddish-yellow, variegated 

 with brown. 



These beetles come forth from their burrows in the tree during 

 July and August. During the latter month they lay eggs in the 

 bark of sugar maples, selecting almost any part of the trunk for 

 this purpose. In a short time perhaps a week these eggs hatch 

 into small larvse or grubs that burrow obliquely upward through 

 the bark; their progress is slow, and more or less frass or castings 

 are thrown out of the outer hole as they proceed. On this account 

 the location of the little borers can generally be determined by look- 

 ing the trees over carefully. The larvae do not get beyond the bark 

 the first autumn, and remain in their shallow burrows until the fol- 

 lowing spring. Then they burrow deeper into the solid wood of the 

 tree, which thereafter they mine in all directions, the burrows grow- 

 ing larger as the insect increases in size. Finally the grub becomes 

 full grown in this larval stage; it is now a large, white, legless crea- 

 ture, with the body composed of many distinct rings or segments. It 

 makes a cell near the outer part of the tree in which it changes to 

 the pupa or chrysalis state; and finally again changes into an adult 

 beetle, which comes forth in July and August to continue the propa- 

 gation of the species. This insect appears to confine its injuries to 

 the sugar maple apparently, seldom, if ever, attacking the red 

 maple. 



As already indicated, the entrance of these borers is generally 

 shown by the brownish, saw-dust like castings thrown out of the 

 hole, and the larvse remain in the shallow bark from September until 

 the following spring. Consequently they can easily be cut out with 

 a sharp knife, during autumn, winter, or spring, with little or no 

 injury to the tree. This appears to be the most practical method of 

 destroying them. Of course the beetles and older larva? should be 

 killed when found, and maple trees so seriously injured by this in- 

 sect or from other causes as to show evident signs of dying should bo 

 cut down and converted into firewood the wood to be burned befoiv 

 summer so that the larvse present shall not mature rather than bo 



