BORER. 



BORERS. 



rows two feet and a half apart each way; the 

 last plantations may be six inches closer. 

 They must be watered and weeded, as directed 

 for the other crops; as they are of large 

 spreading growth, the earth can only be drawn 

 about their stems during their early growth. 

 If, during stormy weather, any of those which 

 acquire a tall growth are blown down, they 

 must be supported in their erect posture by 

 stakes, when they will soon firmly re-establish 

 themselves. For the production of seed, such 

 plants of each variety as are of the finest 

 growth, and are true to the characteristics 

 primarily given, must be selected, and either 

 left where grown, or removed during open 

 weather in November, or before the close of 

 February, the earlier the better, into rows three 

 feet apart each way, and buried down to their 

 heads. The seed ripens about the beginning 

 of August. (G. W. Johnson's Kitchen Garden.} 

 BORER. See AUGER. 

 BORERS. The wood-eating worms called 

 borers, are grubs of various species of the 

 beetle tribe, several of which have been 

 already referred to. Some live altogether in 

 the trunks of trees, boring into the most solid 

 wood; others take up their residence in the 

 limbs. Some devour the wood, others the 

 pith ; some are found only in shrubs, some in 

 stems of herbaceous plants, and others confine 

 themselves to the roots. Certain kinds restrict 

 themselves to plants of one species, others live 

 indiscriminately upon several plants, provided 

 these belong to the same natural family ; for 

 the same borer is not known to inhabit plants 

 differing essentially from each other in their 

 natural characters. The beetles produced 

 from these worm-borers are of very many 

 kinds, nearly one hundred species having been 

 already found by Dr. Harris in Massachusetts, 

 belonging to the Capricorn fam ily alone. This 

 family of beetles derive their name from their 

 long and tapering antennae, which are curved 

 like the horns of a goat. The head is short 

 and armed with powerful jaws. Most of this 

 family remain upon trees and shrubs during 

 the daytime, and fly abroad at night. Some, 

 however, fly by day, and may be found on 

 flowers feeding on the pollen and even the 

 blossoms. When annoyed or taken into the 

 hands, they make a squeaking sound by rub- 

 bing the joints of the thorax and abdomen 

 together. " The females are generally larger and 

 more robust than the males, and have rather 

 shorter antennas. Moreover they are provided 

 with a jointed tube at the end of the body, ca- 

 pable of being extended or drawn in like the 

 joints of a telescope, by means of which they 

 convey their eggs into the holes and chinks of 

 the bark of plants. 



"The larvae hatched from these eggs are 

 long, whitish, fleshy grubs, with the trans- 

 verse incisions of the body very deeply marked, 

 so that the rings are very convex or hunched 

 both above and below. The body tapers a 

 little behind, and is blunt-pointed. The head 

 .is much smaller than the first ring, slightly 

 Bbent downwards, of a horny consistence, and 

 is provided with short but very powerful jaws, 

 by means whereof the insect can bore, as with 

 a centre-bit, a cylindrical passage through the 

 204 



[ most solid wood. Some of these borers have 

 ! six very small legs, namely, one pair under 

 each of the first three rings ; but most of them 

 want even these short and imperfect limbs, 

 and move through their burrows by the alter- 

 nate extension and contraction of their bodies, 

 on each or on most of the rings of which, both 

 above and below, there is an oval space co- 

 vered with little elevations, somewhat like the 

 teeth of a fine rasp ; and these little oval rasps, 

 which are designed to aid the grubs in their 

 motions, fully make up to them the want of 

 proper feet. Some of these borers always 

 keep one end of their burrows open, out of 

 which, from time to time, they cast their chips, 

 resembling coarse saw-dust ; others, as fast as 

 they proceed, fill up the passages behind them 

 with their castings, well known here by the 

 name of powder-post. These borers live from 

 one year to three, or perhaps more years 

 before they come to their growth. They un- 

 dergo their transformations at the furthest 

 extremity of their burrows, many of them pre- 

 viously gnawing a passage through the wood 

 to the inside of the bark, for their future 

 escape. The pupa is at first soft and whitish, 

 and it exhibits all the parts of the future beetle 

 under a filmy veil which inwraps every limb. 

 The wings and legs are folded upon the breast, 

 the long antennae are turned back against the 

 sides of the body, and then bent forwards be- 

 tween the legs. When the beetle has thrown j 

 off its pupa-skin, it gnaws away the thin coat 

 of bark that covers the mouth of its burrow, I 

 and comes out of its dark and confined retreat, 

 to breathe the fresh air, and to enjoy for the 

 first time the pleasure of sight, and the use of 

 the legs and wings with which it is provided. 

 (Harris's Treatise on Insects.} 



One family of the Capricorn or goat-horned ' 

 beetles, derives its name of Prionidse from a 

 Greek word signifying saw. It is said that I 

 some of these saw-beetles can saw off large j 

 limbs by seizing them between their jaws, and 

 flying or whirling sidewise round the enclosed 

 branch, till it is completely divided. One of 

 the largest species is the broad-necked prio- 

 nus. It is from one inch and a quarter, to an 

 inch and three-quarters in length, of an oval 

 form and pitchy black colour. The grubs of 

 this beetle, when fully grown, are as thick as a' 

 man's thumb. They live in the trunks and 

 roots of the balm of Gilead, Lombardy poplar, 

 and probably in other kinds of poplar. 



In the second family of the Capricorn beetles, 

 called the Cerambycians, there is one which 

 inhabits the hickory, in its larva state forming 

 long galleries in the trunk of this tree in the 

 direction of the. fibres of the wood. 



" The ground beneath black and white oaks," 

 says Dr. Harris, "is often observed to be 

 strewn with small branches, neatly severed 

 from these trees as if cut off with a saw. Upon 

 splitting open the cut end of a branch, in the 

 autumn or winter after it has fallen, it will be 

 found to be perforated to the extent of six or 

 eight inches in the course of the pith, and a * 

 slender grub, the author of the mischief, willi 

 be discovered therein. In the spring this grube 

 is transformed to a pupa, and in June or July 

 it is changed to a beetle, and comes out of the 



