Grape Insects. 



119 



boring larva. Before another year 

 shall have passed awaj^, I hope to 

 definitely determine this point, but 

 meanwhile, I have every confidence 

 that it will produce the Cj^lindiical 

 Orthosoma (Orthosoma cylindricum, 

 Fabr.), a large, flattened_, long- 

 horned, light, bay-colored beetle, 

 which is common throughout the 

 country, and es- 

 ])ecially in the 

 Mississijipi val- 

 lej', and which 

 is rejjresented of 

 the natural size 

 at Figure 6 9.- 

 True, according 

 to West wood, 

 the larva? of the 

 Prionid.e have 

 the second seg- 

 ment enlarged 

 and broadened, 

 while the closely allied family Ceram- 

 BYciD.E, has the first segment thus en- 

 larged as in our insect; but from a larva 

 resembling oui's in every respect, so fiir 

 as his description goes, and which he 

 found in September, 1867, in decay- 

 ing pine wood, Mr. Walsh actually 

 i)red, about the last of June, 1868, the 

 Cylindrical Orthosoma, The only ac- 

 counts on record which pretend to 

 give the natural history of this 1>eetle, 

 are by Dr. Fitch and 8. 8. Eathvon, 

 that of the former in his 4th Report, 

 § 239, and that of the latter in the 

 Agricultural Reporter, 1861, pp. 611- 

 612. Dr. Fitch describes the larva, 

 Avhich he supposed belonged to this 

 beetle, but which he did not breed, as 

 occurring in \nnQ trees, and as having 

 the first ring longest and the second 



broadest ; while Mr. Rathvon figures 

 it with the first ring infinitely shorter 

 than the second, but confesses that 

 the drawing was made front memory, 

 and he doubtless trusted to the author- 

 ity of Westwood. Furthermore, Mon- 

 sieur E. Ferris has figured at Plate 6, 

 Figure 362, of the "Annales de la 

 Society Entomologique de France," 

 for 1856, the lavwi of Frionus obscurus, 

 Oliv., which bores into the pine, and 

 which very closely resembles our larva, 

 the first and not the second segment 

 being enlarged. 



Until the past summer nothing had 

 been published about the attacks of 

 this insect on grape roots, and yet, 

 upon inquiry, I find that it has been 

 known for several years. Mr. Spauld- 

 ing informs me that the first that was 

 seen of it in his neighborhood was in 

 1866, when his man found an enormous 

 one in a wild vine which he was about 

 to graft; but Mr. Geo. Husmann, of 

 Hermann, has been acquainted with it 

 since 1850, and has known it to occur 

 around Hermann since 1854. Indeed,, 

 Mr. Husmann informs me that he ha& 

 never observed the old grape vine 

 borer, which had sixteen legs, and 

 which produces a moth (^^geria polis- 

 tiformis, Harris), but that in speaking 

 of the grape root borer he has always 

 referred to this species. Mr. J. H, 

 Tice found it in apple roots in 1860 

 on the place of James Sappington, of 

 St. Louis, while the following item, bj^ 

 A. J. H., of Vineland, N. J., which 

 appeared in the January (1869) num- 

 ber of the Gardener's Monthly, would 

 indicate that it has tlie same habit all 

 over the country : 



'' On page 354, October number of 



