222 



THE AMEEICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



but we last year ascertained that it breeds in the 

 twigs and tSnder branches of the Bur Oak, and 

 we have good reason to believe that it also breeds 

 in those of the Pignut hickory. The female, in 

 depositing, first makes a longitudinal excavation 

 with her jaws (Fig. 157 «) eating upwards under 

 the bark towards the end of the branch, and 

 afterwards turns round to thrust her egg in 

 the excavation. The larva (Fig. 157 b) hatching 

 from the egg is of the usual pale yellow color 

 with a tawny head. We have watched the 

 whole operation of depositing, and, returning 

 to the punctured twig a few days after the ope- 

 ration was performed, have cut out the young 

 larva ; but we do not yet know how long a time 

 the larva needs to come to its growth, nor 

 whether it undergoes its transformations within 

 the branch, or leaves it for this purpose, to enter 

 the ground ; though the former hypothesis is the 

 more likely. 



This beetle is a real " hard-shell," and there is 

 no other way of diminishing its numbers than 

 by catching and killing; but as it has the same 

 habit as the "Little Turk," of falling to the 

 ground when alarmed, the same methods of 

 catching may be employed in the one case as in 

 the olher. 



MOUNDIUG PEACH-TREES AGAIN. 



J 



EMtors Ameriean Entomologist: 



Mr. E. L. Wells, in the Entomologist for 

 June, recommends mounding the peach-tree as 

 a remedy against the Borer. While I agree 

 with liim as to the benefits of that system, I 

 have found by experience that there is danger 

 in it if practiced as he recommends. 



In 1856 I began peach-growing as a business. 

 On setting my first lot of trees I was advised to 

 cover the stock no deeper than it stood in the 

 nursery, as trees had often been killed, it was 

 said, for want of this precaution. So I had the 

 trees set in that way. During the lore part of 

 the summer I set a boy to hoeing the crop among 

 the trees, and much to my annoyance I found 

 that he had heaped the dirt up several inches 

 around each tree. I immediately removed the 

 earth from around a portion of the trees, intend- 

 ing to do so with all, but neglected to have it 

 done. So, from ignorance in the first place, 

 and neglect afterwards, the experiment was tried 

 of mounding a portion and leaving the balance 

 unmounded, in the absence of any thought 

 of the effect it would have on the Borer. On 

 worming the trees the next spring, to my sur- 



prise there was scarcely a worm to be found in 

 the mounded trees, while the others were badly 

 affected. 



We are slow to learn, and slow to put in 

 practice what we do know, for before I made 

 this, to me accidental discovery, it had been 

 recommended by Downing and others, but to 

 this day it is practiced to but a very limited 

 extent. 



The danger from this system will be found in 

 where 5'our correspondent sa5's: "I shall con- 

 tinue to mound my trees in the spring and hoe 

 away the mound in the fall." For the same 

 reason that he gives I did the same thing, until a 

 cold winter killed or badly injured all the trees 

 so treated. The bark that had been covered up 

 through the growing season for several years, 

 had become as tender to the cold of winter as 

 the real root bark, and furthermore it suited the 

 instinct of the fly just as well, and the egg 

 would be deposited accordingly, as near Ihe 

 tender thick bark as the earth would admit. So 

 it has been my practice, since that second but 

 more unpleasant discovery, to remove the earth 

 and destroy the woi'ms in the sj)ring, leaving 

 the bark exposed as long as it was safe to do so ; 

 that is, to heap it up again before the appear- 

 ance of the moth, near midsummer. About 

 two inches should be added to the mound each 

 year, treading the earth well down close to the 

 tree, for it suits the winged insect when a 

 crevice can be found, to go below the surface, 

 in search of the soft bark of the root. I have 

 watched them going from tree to tree, seeking 

 such an opportunity, which is often found in 

 small trees that have been swayed about by the 

 the wind. But when she is compelled to use 

 the wood-bark the worm works in a w.ay the 

 least injurious, not so as to girdle the tree, but 

 in a narrow channel towards the root. 



The advantages of this system are, first, that 

 a less number of eggs are deposited; second, a 

 greater proportion perish, the Avood-bark not 

 being congenial to them; third, what do sur- 

 vive do less damage, and are more easily 

 reached by the knife than when down among 

 the roots. 



I think Mr. Wells is mistaken in supposing 

 that the small worms found in such large num- 

 bers "on the exterior bark," are the Peach- 

 borer. The natural food of the Peach-borer is 

 the inner bark of the root, but the worms he 

 describes seem to subsist on the gum that ex- 

 udes from the wound in the bark, and are the 

 effect and not the cause of the wound. Accord- 

 ing to my experience, the Peach-borer, like the 

 Curculio, never deposits but one egg near the 



