]!^o. 104.] 105 



veloped later with the darkening of the wing-covers. la a few min- 

 utes' time, about one hundred and fifty of the beetles were collected 

 from the leaves and branches of a pine — most of them from the 

 branches, where they were fouud quietly resting. 



An examination of the scales upon the more badly infested trees 

 showed that most of them had been eaten into and their contents 

 destroyed. From pupre collected and taken to my office, the beetles 

 continued to emerge for about ten days thereafter. 



OviPOSITION OF SaPEEDA CANDIDA Fobv. 



The following notes, condensed from a communication made by 

 E. W. Junkins, of Carroll Co.^ N. H., to the Nevy England 

 Homestead^ of January 3, 1S85, are of value as an addition to our 

 knowledge of the habits and life-history of the destructive round- 

 headed apple-tree borer, SaiKrda Candida: 



A part of a trunk of an apple-tree that had been killed by the 

 borers and taken within doors in the early spring, showed, through a 

 crack opened by drying, a pupa of the beetle, on May 20th. On June 

 8th it had changed to the beetle [indicating a pupal period of at least 

 nineteen days]. Four other specimens that afterward emerged were 

 inclosed in a large glass jar containing wet sand at the bottom, into 

 which were thrust some shoots of an apple-tree. The beetles fed 

 upon the tender bark. On June loth one of the four females was 

 seen depositmg an c^^,. "She first made an incision in the bark 

 close to the sand ; then turning head upward, with her ovipositor she 

 placed the egg under the bark nearly a quarter of an inch from the 

 incision, the bark having been started from the wood. Jul}' 7th a 

 young borer, three-sixteenths of an inch long, made its appearance. 

 July 11th, the sticks near the sand were full of eggs, and the beetles 

 were depositing their eggs higher up on the sticks. July 18th, one of 

 the borer^;, three-eighths of an inch long, had worked an inch and a 

 half downward. August 7th, the last beetle died, but would have 

 lived longer with better care." 



On the 26th of August a beetle was captured among the branches of 

 an apj)le-tree, in the trunk of which eight young borers were found. 

 The beetle was kept alive for several days and deposited an ^^^,' 



The above observations of Mr. Junkins are of considerable import- 

 ance, as they extend the period of oviposition of the beetle much 

 beyond the period heretofore assigned to it, and consequently the 

 time during which the application of soap to the trunk of the apple- 

 tree to protect it from the egg-deposit is to be made will also 

 require the same extension. 



Prof. Riley has stated : 



The female deposits her egg during the month of June, and the young worms 

 hatch and commence boring into the bark -within a fortnight afterward. * * * 

 Keep the base of every tree in the orchard free from weeds and trash, and apply 

 soap to them during the month of May, and they will not likely be troubled with 

 borers. {First Report on, the Insects of Missouri, pp. 43, 45.) 



[Assem. Doe. No. 104.] 14 



