MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS SAPERDA 45 



and the finest in the- city. A more recent outbreak at Berlin 

 Mass. was brought to the writer's attention in 1898. Two long 

 rows of rather young elms were seriously injured by this insect 

 and the associated Magdalis armicollis Say and M. 

 b a r b i t a Say, and a number of the trees were killed. 



Signs of attack. The presence of this insect is not easy to 

 detect till it has become well established, and the first signs 

 are usually seen in the lighter, thinner foliage followed by a 

 dead limb here and there. Indications of boring soon appear, 

 and the dark sawdust collects in crevices of the bark, and, after 

 the attack has progressed for some time, large portions of the 

 bark may be easily pulled from the tree, revealing a condition 

 beneath very much like that represented on plate 11, figure 2. The 

 inner portion of the bark may be literally a mass of mines or 

 burrows, and, if the work has not gone too far, numerous whitish, 

 flattened, legless grubs may be found in the channels they have 

 excavated. The junior author is of the opinion that this species 

 normally feeds on dead or badly diseased tissues, and that from 

 them it may invade living bark. A small portion of the work 

 of this insect is shown on plate 3, figure 1, where it is seen that 

 the grubs have made incursions into the living bark, working back 

 to that which is dead. It is also able to live in the thick bark 

 of older trees for a portion of its life. This is undoubtedly 

 true in some cases at least, and in others it certainly appears as 

 though this species was the initial cause of the trouble. The 

 observations of Mr M. F. Adams on a large number of injured 

 trees in the vicinity of Buffalo led him to attribute the primary 

 injury to this species. 



Life history. The time necessary for this insect to complete 

 its life cycle is unknown, but from our breeding experiments it 

 seems that probably only one and possibly two years are neces- 

 sary. The larvae commence transforming to pupae in New York 

 State about the middle of May or earlier, and the beetles begin 

 to appear the latter part of that month and continue to emerge 

 for some time, examples having been taken as late as Aug. 24. 

 The eggs are deposited on the bark in June, according to the 



