1899] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. §9. 



feet up aud down the trunk following the grain and without 

 diminishing sensibly in diameter. Then think of the yards and 

 yards of smaller galleries made by the larva while still young. 

 Such extensive and prodigious borings cannot be made in one 

 or two years, and certainly not in any tree trunk of moderate 

 size. There is certainly no other plant here than this Washing- 

 tonia palm that is capable of supporting a brood of these huge 

 and voracious grubs. Therefore, I do not hesitate to assert 

 that they exist only in the Washingtonia^ and that they are 

 very certain soon to become extinct. I regard the discovery of 

 a colony as one of the most interesting entomological events of 

 my life and I can assure jou that if we breed the imagos 

 this year from this trunk, they will not soon be duplicated by 

 othei"s. 



There are some thoussinds of the trees left, but they are in 

 small groups scattered miles apart in a few of the most inac- 

 cessible caiious of the San Jacinto range. Here the beetles are 

 nearly extinct, but it is possible that in Baja California they 

 may survive a few centuries longer. In times past they were 

 al)uudaut here, as evideuce<l by the numerous old trunks rid- 

 dled with their burrows. But the trunks that have fallen in 

 recent years are all free from their attacks, and as the Indians 

 have burned all the trees that are accessible, so that their 

 trunks are now bare of fronds, it must be now quite difficult 

 for the female beetle to find a fit receptacle for her eggs. 1 

 am sure now that they do not oviposit in bare trunks or in 

 healthy trees, although it is possible that the l)eetles kill the 

 tree in which they ovipost their eggs.^= 



* [Subsequently, in june, Mr. Hubbard forwarded to Washington tlie pieces of 

 palm wood ; and, after some unforeseen act-ident.sand misfortunes, a small num- 

 ber of imago beetles were bred from the wood at the Department of Agriculture 

 during the latter part of August. In October, 1897, Mr. Hubbard received a letter 

 fmm Dr. .Murray, of P.ilm Springs, stating that, owing to the excessive heat in 

 .\ugust, he had been unable to visit Palm cafion, and that, for the same reason, 

 none of his Indians had been willing to undertake the trip. The imago and larva 

 n{ Dinapale have been described and figured bv the late Dr G. H. Horn (Trans. 

 Amer. Ent. Soc., i3. 188(), pp 1-J, plate I). WhileatSan Diego, Cala., Mr. Hubbard 

 ascertained that the type locality of iMt>apnie wrtehtit is Palm Springs, Cala., 

 and not the Mojave Desert, as stated by Dr. Horn The full-grown larvse col- 

 lected by .\[r Hubbard are fully twice larger than that figured by Dr. Horn. 

 Mr. W. G. Wright, therii.scoverer of Dinapate, has, as far a.s known "to me, never 

 published anything on the food-plant or habits of this remarkable species — 

 E* A. S.] 



