448 RHYNCEOPIIORA. [Xylelorus. 



finely punctured ; elytra simply reflexed at apex and armed with a few 

 very small tubercles. L. 2|-3f mm. 



Male smaller with the thorax almost round, disciform, and depressed 

 and more finely scabrous in front ; elytra subglobose, but depressed on 

 middle of disc towards base ; tibiae scarcely dilated. L. 2f mm. 



Female larger, oblong, subparallel, with the sides of thorax subparallel be- 

 hind, and the disc very convex ; the front part also is much more strongly 

 scabrous ; elytra oblong ; tibiae more strongly dilated. L. 3-3| mm. 



" In decaying oaks, &c. ; female very rare, male extremely rare ; Chobham, Surrey, 

 one specimen (Saunders) ; New Forest (Turner) ; the single male in Dr. Power's 

 collection was taken by Turner in tbe New Forest, on October 10th, 1867 ; very few 

 13ritish examples of this sex are known." 



I have not altered the above record, which was correct when I 

 wrote it, but within the last two years the insect has been found 

 so plentifully in the orchards at Toddington, near Cheltenham, that 

 it has done very serious damage to young plum trees ; Miss Ormerod, 

 who investigated the injury, records that in September, 1889, the 

 females were very largely in excess of the males ; among fifty or sixty 

 females there was only one of the opposite sex ; in December, however, 

 she found a large proportion of males, and, on or about January 10th, 

 1890, from a piece of plum stem two inches and a quarter across she 

 took seventeen males to six females ; Herr Eichhoff has before noticed 

 this gathering of the males ; for full particulars as to the method of 

 attack of the beetle the student is referred to Miss Ormerod's "Keport 

 of Observations on Injurious Insects during 1889/' pp. 92 98, and 

 Appendix, pp. 125 127 ; the injury begins with a shot-like hole being 

 bored in the side of the attacked stem, from which a tunnel runs to the 

 pith, and a branch about the eighth of an inch runs across horizontally 

 about half or two-thirds round the stem ; from these horizontal borings 

 other borings were made up and down the stem, and the injury caused 

 by these borings fully accounted for the death of the stem ; the only 

 real remedy in the case of young trees, appears to be to cut down all 

 those that are infested and burn them, as if once attacked they are 

 doomed, and the injury will spread from them ; for older trees some wash 

 or mixture, which will not hurt the bark, but will prevent the beetle get- 

 ting in or out, may be serviceable ; a thick coat of whitewash with 

 some Paris green in it, or a thick soft-soap wash, with a little carbolic 

 acid added to it, has been recommended ; the spread of the beetle may 

 be more or less prevented (Miss Ormerod, I.e. p. 126), by removing all 

 fallen or injured wood, which, by reason of the sluggish movement of 

 the sap, is particularly acceptable to the beetles for breeding purposes, 

 and also by placing poles ("trap- wood") to attract the beetles, and then 

 destroying the poles that are infested. In England the beetle has only 

 damaged the Plum, but in Europe and America it has done groat injury 

 to the Apple and the Pear, as shown by its names " Apple-bark Beetle," 

 " Apple-twig Borer," and " Pear-blight." 



