SECRETARY'S REPORT. 149 



extracted. It is supposed to continue in its young or larva state 

 from two to three years after the egg is deposited, nearly all of 

 this time being employed in gnawing away the wood of the tree, 

 and enlarging its residence. In this stage, it is a pale-yellow, 

 cylindrical grub, less than an inch in length, and a quarter of an 

 inch in diameter, at the broadest part, just behind the head. 

 This is of a polished brown, furnished with black jaws or man- 

 dibles, and with a few scattered hairs. On each side of the 

 body, nine spiracles or breathing pores, of a brown color, are 

 distinctly visible. It is sought with eager avidity by the wood- 

 peckers, who, by tapping on the tree, discover the hidden bur- 

 row by the hollow sound, and with their powerful beaks soon dig 

 it out and devour it. We can greatly assist the woodpecker in 

 relieving our apple-tree of the borers, if we rub the bark with 

 soap in early spring, not once, but repeatedly, especially after a 

 rain. And we should not confine this operation to the lower 

 part of the trunk, but make a faithful application also to the 

 axils of the lower limbs, for this borer, if eggs have been laid 

 thickly near the ground will not risk the danger of starvmg its 

 progeny by adding other mouths to the superabundance of 

 eaters at this spot, but seeks other places higher upon the tree. 

 These corners or notches, also, are the favorite haunts of other 

 species of harmful insects, and the simple application of soft-soap, 

 rubbed well into the bark, will not only destroy such eggs and 

 larvee as may be already there, but will also deter others from 

 depositing their young in a place which their instinct shows 

 them to be unsafe. 



Another borer of different appearance, the Buprestis femorata ; 

 a flattened oval metallic beetle, with much shorter antennas and 

 feet than the preceding is frequently found in the same locali- 

 ties. Its habits are so similar to those of the saperda that the 

 same remedies prescribed for that will be found available also 

 for this. The larva is much more flattened than that of the 

 other, and its outline bears a striking resemblance to that of a 

 battle-door or round-headed gimblet-screw, rapidly tapering as 

 it does from a broad, flat segment back of the head to a narrow 

 and rounded tip. It is of the same yellowish color and fleshy 

 character as the last described. These two borers belonging, 

 the one to a group nearly related to the snapping beetles, the 

 parents of the destructive wireworm, and the other, a type of 



