Beetles 



285 



July or August in the bark, the young borer (a footless, flattened, whitish 

 grub) burrowing first into the sap-wood, where it passes the winter. Dur- 

 ing the next year it bores vigorously around under the bark, and when about 

 sixteen months old makes a final deep burrow into the heart-wood, in the 

 end of which it pupates. Fig. 394 shows all the stages of this insect. The 

 maple-tree pruner, Elaphidion villosum (Fig. 395), f inch long, slender 

 grayish brown, lays its eggs on small twigs in maple-trees in July; the larvae 

 bore into the center of the twig, eat out a large portion of the woody fiber, 

 plug the end of the burrow with castings, and wait for a strong wind to break 

 off the nearly severed branch. In the fallen twigs thus broken off the 

 larvae pupates, and the beetles issue, the life-history taking just about a year 

 for completion. This pest also "prunes" oaks, and apple, pear, plum, and 

 other fruit trees. The sawyers, various species of the genus Monohammus, 

 are beautiful brown and grayish beetles with extremely long delicate antennae; 

 the larvae bore in sound pines and firs and do great injury to evergreen 

 forests. 



One of the worst and most familiar orchard pests is the round-headed 

 apple-tree borer, Saperda Candida (Fig. 396). The beetle is f inch long, 

 narrow, and subcylindrical, pale brown with 

 two broad creamy-white longitudinal stripes. 

 The eggs are laid on the bark at the base of 

 the tree in June and July. The larva works 

 at first in the sap-wood, making a flat shallow 

 cavity filled with sawdust and castings; later 

 it burrows deeper and works upward. When 

 nearly three years old it bores a tunnel from 

 the heart-wood out nearly to the bark, partly FlG . 39 6. The round-headed 

 filling the outer part with sawdust and then apple-tree borer, Saperda can- 

 .1 i j rr dida, larva and adult beetle, 



retires to the inner end and pupates. Two (AfterSaunders; natural size.) 



or three weeks after pupation the adult beetle 



issues from the pupal skin, works outward along the tunnel and cuts a 

 smooth circular hole in the bark through which it escapes. When several 

 larvae are working in a tree they may completely girdle it, so that it dies. 

 The most effective remedy is to apply a repellent wash of lime or soft soap 

 from the base of the trunk up to the first branches several times during the 

 egg-laying time, i.e., June and July. 



A small family, Spondylidae, called the aberrant long-horned beetles, is 

 represented in North America by four species, of which the most common 

 is Parandra brunnea (PI. II, Fig. 14), a beautiful polished mahogany- 

 brown beetle found under the bark of pine-trees. 



