44 



FARMERS BULLETIN 843. 



cies is accountable for the wholesale cutting off or pinning of pecan 

 twigs, this injury being often conspicuous during the late summer and 

 early fall. This beetle is found over a wide range of territory, occur- 

 ring in most of the Eastern, Central, and Southern States, but in its 

 more northern distribution the extent of its depredations is not very 

 great. In the pecan-growing sections of the South it ranks as a first- 

 class pest because of the excessive severing of branches from pecan or- 

 chard and nursery trees by the adult beetles. Besides attacking the 

 pecan, this species has been reported as damaging the hickory, persim- 

 mon, oak, walnut, elm, 

 maple, locust, linden, 

 and various pome and 

 stone fruits, including 

 the apple, pear, quince, 

 cherry, peach, and plum, 

 as well as orange trees 

 and rosebushes. In the 

 South, however, it seems 

 to confine its attacks, for 

 the most part, to the 

 pecan, hickory, and per- 

 simmon. 



When the beetles oc- 

 cur in abundance they 

 are capable of doing 

 much damage by sever- 

 ing branches for the pur- 

 pose of egg-laying. It is 

 not uncommon to see the 

 ground under pecan or 

 hickory trees literally 

 covered with twigs that 

 have been cut off by the 

 beetles, and twigs often 

 accumulate in the tree 

 tops in conspicuous bunches (fig. 53). By the severance of the tips 

 of the branches the fruiting area of the tree is greatly lessened or re- 

 duced and the nut crop indirectly affected for the following year, and 

 perhaps for a longer period. This type of injury, besides affecting 

 the nut production, causes the development of many offshoots, which 

 destroy to some extent the symmetry of the tree. Pecan nurseries 

 growing adjacent to a badly infested territory often suffer great loss 

 from the girdling of the terminal branches of the nursery trees. 



DESCRIPTION, SEASONAL HISTORY, AND HABITS. 



The beetles (fig. 54; fig. 55, a) range in length from one-half to 

 five-eighths of an inch, the female being larger and more robust than 



FlG. 53. The hickory twig-girdlor (Oncidercs cinqulatus) : Bunches 

 of cut-off twigs caught in branches of hickory tree. 



