THE AMERICAN EN TOiMOLOCilS T 



51 



riddled by borers eating out the pith. Last sum- 

 mer the vines were not cared for but made im- 

 mense growth of new canes. The management 

 of this vineyard (2,200 vines) has just come into 

 my hands, and in trimming I often find in the 

 axils where buds start out, a perforation which 

 leads to a hollowed channel extending a short 

 distance both above and below the bud — the pith 

 of the vine being eaten out. 



In one of these chambers I found this beetle, 

 alive but dormant. The same axillary perfora- 

 tions are abundant in young orchard trees set out 

 last spring. 



Please give me the name of 

 the specimen sent and informa- 

 tion whether the perforations 

 are the work of this beetle in 

 some of its forms, or of some 

 other insect. Also best approv- 

 ed remedies or preventatives. 



Amph.cerus b.cau- H. G. WOLCOTT. 



DATas;rt, female; Fremont, Neb. 



b, male. 



The beetle sent by our correspondent is the 

 common Apple-twig Borer {Aiiiphicerus bicauda- 

 tus Saj'). It is extremely common throughout the 

 Western States, and is more often received for 

 identification during the winter and spring months 



[Fig. 12.1 



.\pple twigs bored by A iiiphicerus bicaudatus : c, entrance ; 

 ■/, burrow cut open. 



than any other beetle. Its habits being well de- 

 scribed by our correspondent it suffices to say 

 that it works not only in grape canes but in the 

 more tender twigs of apple, pear, and peach trees. 

 Both sexes of the beetle bore these holes and may 

 then be found in them head downward at any 

 time during the winter and spring months, the 

 holes being made both for protection and for food 

 and not for breeding purposes. Indeed the breed- 

 ing habits of the insect are not yet known with 

 certainty ; for while Dr. Henry Shimer found cer- 

 tain larvje in grape canes which he conjectured to 

 be of this species (see Trans. Am. Ent. Soc. 1868, 

 vol. II, p 9), yet they were doubtless those of an 

 allied beetle (Stnoxy/on bast /are Say) which I sub- 

 sequently reared from larvae thus inhabiting grape 

 canes — (4th Missouri Ent. Report, p. 53). Both 

 sexes of the Apple-twig Borer have been found 

 in the sap wood of forest trees, and species of the 

 allied genus Bosirychtis to which the insect un- 

 der consideration used to be referred are ordina- 

 rily found with their larvae in dry oak logs that 

 are rotting. As I have already stated elsewhere : 

 ' ' the probabilities are that our Twig-borer breeds 

 under the bark of oak trees and that it is in such 

 situations that we must search for its larva. That 

 it so breeds in the forest and not in the orchard, 



is rendered still more probable when we consider 

 that its larval habits have so long evaded detec- 

 tion. We may furthermore infer that it comes to 

 maturity late in the summer, and flying into our 

 orchards and vineyards, the beetles bore into 

 twigs during the Fall. Here winter overtakes 

 them, and they hibernate in the holes, some of 

 them dying ; but most of them surviving until 

 spring, when they continue feeding for awhile, 

 and afterward repair to the forest again to propo- 

 gate their kind. I have caught both sexes flying 

 as early as the middle of March, during genial, 

 sunny weather. 



" The bored twigs most always break off" by the 

 wind, or else the hole catches the water in spring 

 and causes an unsound place in the tree. If the 

 twig does not break off, it withers and the leaves 

 turn brown. The only way to counteract the in- 

 juries committed by this beetle is to prune the 

 infested twigs, whenever found, and take great 

 care to burn them with their contents. It is in 

 the nursery that most injury is done, as the in- 

 sect is seldom numerous enough in an orchard 

 of large trees to more than cause what the philo- 

 sophic orchardist has been wont to term ' a 

 good summer pruning.'" — C. V. R. in New-York 

 Tributie. 



Stinging Caterpillar — You will probably re- 

 member that some time last summer I took the 

 liberty of making some inquiries of j'ou concern- 

 ing insects, and particularly one by which I had 

 been stung. You gave the supposed name and 

 class, but said I had best send you a specimen to 

 examine, which I do now, having obtained it 

 from the limb of a pear tree. I have found it most 

 frequently on this tree. In the summer it is 

 found (as a hairy caterpillar about half-inch long, 

 and quite thick, covered with a short, velvet-like 

 down, rather coarse) on the leaves of corn, and 

 the negroes call it "Corn-nettle." Harris de- 

 scribes an insect belonging to the Lepidoptera, 

 named Fithecieum, which resembles the Corn- 

 nettle, but does not answer the description fully. 

 By giving me the name of this insect, you will 

 much oblige. Th. Pollard, Richmond, Va. 



The cocoon enclosed by Mr. Pollard, though 

 somewhat badly smashed, was recognizable as that 

 of Lagoa opercularis, the larva being covered with 

 soft hairs, but having urticating spines beneath 

 them. This species feeds upon a number of 

 different trees, and produces a moth remarkable 

 for the woolliness of its body and wings. The 

 color is cream-yellow, with some of the denser 

 tufts of the front wings brownish, inclined to 

 black. The antennae of the male are very broadly 

 pectinate, while those of the female are simple. 

 The species is subject to the attacks of a par- 

 ticular Tachina-fly. 



G. W. S., iW7t' Smyrna, Fla.—The tough co- 

 coon with a hump on the back and which you 

 find on orange trees, the larva doing considerable 

 damage and stinging so severly that it is dreaded 

 by the fruit pickers, is the same species. 



