THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



233 



vineyard of Dr. C. W. Spanlding, of Kirkwood, 

 Mo., and wc have since received specimens 

 from several Grape-growers, and have fre- 

 quently met with it ourselves. In Jnne, 1867, 

 Mr. O. B. Galusha, of Kendall county. Ills., 

 sent a worm in all respects similar to it, which 

 was found boring- into llie root of an apple tree. 

 In June, 1866 — as recorded in'the Practical IfJn- 

 tomoloyist, Vol. I., p. iK) — a single specimen of 

 what, judgingfrom our description, was probably 

 the same larva, was received from Dr. Trimble, 

 of New Jersey, with a statement that it was 

 destroying many dwarf pear-trees near Hara- 

 monton, N. J., by boring them close to tlie 

 ground. Unfortunately this larva died before 

 completing its transformations. We have 

 also received Osage orange roots from Kan- 

 sas which were being bored by the same 

 insect, and it is apparently partial to rotten oak 

 stumps, for not only have several persons who 

 are well able to judge, assured us that they have 

 found it in such stumps, but Mr. A. Bolter of 

 Chicago, also found it in such stumps in Ken- 

 tucky, and sent us the specimens for identifica- 

 tion. At the meeting of the Missouri State 

 Horticultural Society at Columbia last fall, Mr. 

 I. N. Stuart even avowed that he had found it 

 partly grown, not only in seedling apple trees 

 but in the roots of corn stalks. 



Last March we received a long letter from 

 Mr. Robert S. Munford, of Munfordsville, Ky., 

 minutely describing this borer, and the manner 

 in which it destroyed three hundred dollars' 

 worth of his apple trees ; while Mr. C. R. Ed- 

 wards, of Bowling Green, Ky., writes that they 

 have been quite injurious to his grape-vines of 

 all varieties, though his lonas suffered most 

 from their attacks. The following paragraph 

 by A. J. H., of Vineland, N. J., which appeared 

 in the Gardener's Monthly of January last, 

 would indicate that it has the same pernicious 

 habit in the East as well as in the West : 



" On page 3.54 October number of Agricultu- 

 rist, reference is made to a ' vine borer ' in 

 Missouri that cuts oft' vines below the surface. 

 It is also meutioned and partially described in 

 the \aiit Gardener's 3Ionthli/. This 'borer' is an 

 old friend (?) of mine. It is found principally 

 iu old rotten oak stumps; I hardly ever dig one 

 out without finding several of these worms. 

 They are about two inches long, tapering from 

 head to tail, white bodies and black heads. I 

 lose on an average about fifty vines and dwarf 

 pear trees annually by these little villains; 

 probably twice as many pears as vines. I have 

 had several apple trees 'cut ofl" by them, and one 

 standard pear. The tree roots seem ofteu to be 

 eaten entirely up, but the vine roots are only 

 ' cut through as if they had obstructed the line 

 . of travel. This is no new insect, but will I 



think be found troublesome whenever dwarf 

 pear and vines are planted among decayed oak 

 stumps." 



As already stated, we have proved that the 

 Apiile boring specimens are identical with those 

 found in the Grape, and there can be little doubt 

 but the various accounts given above, refer to 

 the same species, or at all events to one of the 

 two allied species mentioned at the beginning 

 of this paper; and when we consider that 

 Dr. Harris gives the Lombardy poplar and the 

 Balm of Gilead as the food-plants of the Broad- 

 necked Prionus, we may justly conclude that 

 this species is not at all particular in its 

 choice of diet. In view of this fact it may 

 be known as the Gigantic Boot Borer, by 

 which name it will at once be distinguished 

 from the old Grape-root Borer {^JSgerirt jmlis- 

 tiformis, Harris,) which has long been known 

 to attack the roots of the Grape in the more 

 Southern States, and which is a 16-footed worm, 

 of almost the exact appearance of the common 

 Peach Borer. 



In all the instances that have come under our 

 notice, this Gigantic Root Borer had cut for it- 

 self a perfectly cylindrical hole straight up 

 through the heart of the root, and iu those in- 

 stances where the root was barely large enough 

 to contain the worm, nothing was left but a thin 

 shell of bark, which however was always en- 

 tire, so that the culprit could not easily be seen. 

 In one instance we found that a vine had been 

 entirely severed at the surface of the ground 

 after the leaves had fallen, and that the borer 

 had afterwards descended some six inches fur- 

 ther down and entered the main root, where he 

 formed for himself very comfortable winter 

 quarters. The specimen which we bred from 

 the apple was found on the place of Mrs. Dr. 

 J. B. H. Beall, near Eureka, Mo., and it had en- 

 tirely hollowed out every root of a young tree, 

 and had finished by severing it at the butt. Speci- 

 mens which we have had feeding in a large 

 earthen jar have invariably burrowed into the 

 roots of both Delaware and Concord grape roots 

 with which they were furnished, and never 

 touched them from the outside. 



In all probability it lives nearly three years in 

 the larva state, for three distinct sizes may be 

 fouiul. Those we have bred left the roots they 

 were inhabiting when about to become pupte, 

 and formed for themselves smooth oval cham- 

 bers in the earth, wherein they eventually cast 

 their larval skins and assumed the form repre- 

 sented at Figure 178, but in all probability they 

 transform within the root, when in more natu- 

 ral conditions. This change takes place towards 





