4 BULLETIN 262. U. S. DEPABTMENT OF AGBICULTUBE. 



wood. These beetles work their way out through the larval galleries 

 or gnaw through the dead wood to the surface and escape. They 

 return frequently to the dead wood, however, and spend much time 

 hiding in secluded spaces, such as old galleries, within the injured 

 tree. Eggs are now inserted into the wood that forms the walls of 

 the old burrows (PL III, figs, a, b), and the borers of the new brood 

 penetrate still farther into the wood. Other insects and fungi soon 

 appear to accelerate decay, and within a few years that particular 

 part of the tree will consist merely of a thin shell of sound wood sur- 

 rounding a decomposed heart. A tree so affected may continue to 

 live but will be in danger of falling under a load of fruit or during a 

 storm at any time. The period of usefulness and the lives of many 

 old trees too often terminate in this way. 



The work of the Parandra borer is sometimes confused with that 

 of the roundheaded apple-tree borer, but a little knowledge of the 

 habits of the two species will enable anyone to distinguish quite 

 readily between them. The two borers bear a general superficial 

 resemblance to each other, but the differences in their methods of 

 attacking trees are distinct. The Parandra borer enters at a dead 

 spot or cavity and throws no castings to the surface, whereas the 

 roundheaded apple-tree borer enters living wood and freely extrudes 

 reddish-yellow castings, which form in small heaps at the base of the 

 infested tree. The different positions habitually occupied in the 

 tree by the two borers will serve as a better means of identification 

 than any characters possessed by either while in the larval stage. 

 The Parandra borer is slightly more slender and has three pairs of 

 small but rather distinct thoracic legs, while the roundheaded apple- 

 tree borer is legless. The adults of the two species are totally unlike 

 in appearance. 



LIFE HISTORY. 



The adult Parandra borer (PL IV, fig. a) is a somewhat flattened, 

 glossy, chestnut-brown beetle which is rather variable in size but 

 averages slightly less than three-fourths of an inch in length. The 

 beetles appear on the wing in July and August, the time depending 

 considerably on the latitude. At French Creek, W. Va., the writer 

 found that pupation took place during the last days of June and first 

 days of July in the years 1913 and 1914, and that the adult stage was 

 reached before the 1st of August by each of about 50 individuals 

 kept under observation during that period. The adults remain in 

 the pupal chamber for a week or 10 days and may then continue to 

 stay within the decaying wood of the host tree for a further period 

 before takhig flight. 



Egg laying begins soon after the beetles quit the pupal chamber. 

 In placing her eggs the female makes small punctures in the wood, 

 probably by the use of both her mandibles and ovipositor. These 



