26 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



no difference between these maggots and the ones collected in 

 April, and an examination of a breeding jar July 21st showed a 

 continuation of the larval existence. September 13th maggots 

 were again found on the farm of Mr Weaver and adults of P r o - 

 machus fitchii O. S. were reared in April 1914, indicating a 

 three year life cycle. 



Larva. Length 2.5 cm, diameter 5 to 6 mm, whitish or pale 

 yellowish white, slightly thickened near the middle and tapering 

 somewhat toward both extremities, especially posteriorly, the seg- 

 mentation distinct. Head small, partly retracted, brown to dark 

 brown, approximately conical, the prominent mouth parts forming 

 the anterior half ; mandibles stout, slightly decurved, tapering to 

 an obtuse extremity and practically inclosing the slender, minutely 

 and retrosely barbed, lancetlike maxillae ; antennae inserted at the 

 base of the mandibles, short, stout, biarticulate, the basal segment 

 disk-shaped, the apical one narrowly oval ; a slender seta above and 

 near the base of the antennae ; clypeus V-shaped ; the epicranium 

 with an irregular series of stout, proclinate setae. Body walls firm, 

 slightly wrinkled, shining. A well-developed circular spiracle with 

 two slitlike orifices occurs near the posterior fourth on the first body 

 segment, and larger spiracles near the middle and subdorsally on 

 the penultimate segment, the latter circular and with but one orifice ; 

 terminal segment tapering, broadly rounded, with two pairs of 

 sublateral slender setae near the anterior third and two pairs of sub- 

 median setae at the posterior extremity, one pair being just above 

 the lateral line, the other just below ; ventral surface of the last 

 tw^o segments excavated to form a median elongate rounded de- 

 pression, margined laterally and posteriorly by broadly rounded 

 ridges. 



SPOTTED HEMLOCK BORER 

 MelanopliUa fulz'ogiittata Harr. 



Early last spring our attention was called to dying hemlocks in 

 the New York Botanical Garden, and an investigation show^ed a 

 serious infestation by the spotted hemlock borer. Dr W. A. Murrill, 

 acting director, stated that five hundred dead trees had been cut 

 out during the past tw^o years, most of them probably having 

 been killed by this insect. Dying hemlocks were also noted in 

 adjacent territory and at Tarry town, the trouble in some instances, 

 at least, being due to the operations of this insect. The severity of 

 the attack was such that one hundred and twenty-seven beetles and 

 seventy-two parasites w^ere reared from a section of a log about 

 2^ feet long and 12 inches in diameter. The tree from which this 

 was cut was infested from the very base of the trunk nearly to 

 the top, the inner bark of the lower portion -being badly riddled 

 by the galleries. 



