172 



THE APPLE 



[nsects affecting the Woody Paris of the Tree 



Flat-headed borer (Chrysobothris femorata, Fab.). The adult 

 flat-headed borer is smaller than the adult of the round-headed 

 species, being only about half an inch in length. It is a beautiful, 



burnished beetle, reflect- 

 ing bright metallic colors 

 in which green, black, 

 and bronze predominate. 

 The body is flattened and 

 tapers at the posterior 

 end. It makes an early 

 appearance in the spring, 

 lays its eggs, and larvae 

 are hatched which mature 

 in one year and issue 

 as adults the following 

 spring. The larva tunnels 

 first into the sapwood, 

 but later bores into the 

 heartwood, working back 

 to the bark in the spring 

 and pupating. Sometimes 

 the winter is passed in the 

 pupa state. In making its 

 escape from the tree the 

 borer cuts an elliptical 

 hole, thus differentiating 

 this species from the 

 round-headed borer, which 

 cuts a circular emergence 

 hole. 



Fig. 77. Adult round-headed apple-tree borer 

 (natural size). (Photograph by W. E. Rumsey) 



Nature of the injury. The flat-headed borer is more injurious 

 to young apple trees than to old bearing trees. The larva gener- 

 ally works in the trunk, and gets higher up in the young trees, 

 often to the first lateral limbs. It is not unusual, however, to find 

 it working in the roots of young trees some inches below the sur- 

 face of the ground. Infestations are detected by the patches of 



