332 Remarks upon Saperda vestita. 



been found necessary to cut down forty-seven European 

 lindens in the former Square alone, where there now re- 

 main only a iew American Undens, and .these a good deal 

 eaten. Two rows of these beautiful trees, in front of the 

 State-house and city offices, in Chestnut street, were the 

 ornament and comfort of this broad pave ; and, though the 

 branches were full of foliage and flowers in their season, 

 the trunks and larger limbs are perforated in many places, 

 and a little winrow of litter, thrown out by the insects, 

 surrounds the foot of each tree in the latter part of summer. 

 One or two stately trees have already fallen a sacrifice, and 

 no person expects that any will be left two years hence. 

 No other kind of tree, except a mountain ash or two, ap- 

 pears to have been attacked by these borers. Many of the 

 beetles were found upon the small branches and leaves on 

 the twenty-eighth day of May, and it is said that they 

 come out as early as the first of the month, and continue to 

 make their way through the bark of the trunk and large 

 branches during the whole of the warm season. They 

 immediately fly into the top of the tree, and there feed upon 

 the epidermis of the tender twigs and the petioles of the 

 leaves, often wholly denuding the latter, and causing the 

 leaves to fall. They deposit their eggs, two or three in a 

 place, upon the trunk and branches, especially about the 

 forks, at their junction, making slight incisions or punc- 

 tures, for their reception, with their strong jaws. As many 

 as ninety eggs have been taken from a single beetle. The 

 grubs, hatched from these eggs, undermine the bark to the 

 extent of six or eight inches, in sinuous channels, or pene- 

 trate the solid wood, an equal distance. It is supposed 

 that three years are required to mature the insect. Various 

 expedients have been tried to arrest their course, but with- 

 out effect. A stream, thrown into the tops of the trees 

 from the hydrant, is often used with good success to dis- 

 lodge other insects; but the borer-beetles, when thus dis- 

 turbed, take wing and hover over the trees till all is quiet, 

 and then alight and go to work again. The trunks and 

 branches of some of the trees have been washed over with 

 various preparations without benefit. Boring the trunk 

 near the ground, and putting in sulphur and other drugs, 

 and plugging, have been tried with as little effect." 



This beetle is found, in Massachusetts, only in the month 



