No. 133.] 423 



upon <"ables, roprs, nets, masts of ships, tables, mathematical in- 

 struments, or rarities of anj* kind, Avill tinge them with a pleasing 

 color, which no art can wash out, and preserve them from decay 

 and worms, either in water above or under the earth, in the snow 

 and ice of winter, or heat and rains of summer. 



The Secretary said the subject of the locust tree and i(s enemy, 

 the borer, proposed for this meeting, was of great and well known 

 importance, and lie had the great pleasure now to read from the 

 work of Dr. Harris, the Librarian of Harvard College, Cambridge 

 Massachusetts, on insects injurious to vegetation — the volume re- 

 cently presented to this Institute by the Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, 

 of Boston — the following excellent instructions given by the dis- 

 tinguished author, as to the great destroyer of locust trees. 



Extract from the volume. 



During the mf)nrh of September the Painted Clytus, (Clytus 

 Pictus.) Leptura picta of Drury , the Clytus flexuosus of Fabricius, 

 is often seen in abundance, feeding by day upon the blossoms of 

 the Golden Rod. 



If the trunks of our common locust tree, the Robinia Pseudaca- 

 cia, are examined at this time, a still greater number of these 

 beetle^ will be found upon tliem, and most often paired. The 

 habits of this insect seem to have been known as long ago as 1773 

 to Dr. Foster, who then described it under the name of Leptura, 

 (Greek for slender,) the latter being derived from the tree which 

 it inhabits. 



Drury, however, had previously described and figured it under 

 the specific name here adopted, which, having the priority in 

 point of time over all others that have been subsequently imposed, 

 must be retained. This Capricorn beetle has the form of the 

 beautiful Maple Clytus It is velvet black, and ornamented with 

 transverse yellow bands, of which there are three on the head, 

 four on the thorax, and six o > the wing covers, the tips of which 

 are also edged with yellow. The first and fecond bands on each 

 wing cover are nearly straight ; the third band forms the letter 

 V, or united with the opposite one the letter W, as in the specio- 



