226 Forty-first Report on the State Museum, 



A correspondent from Philadelphia, Pa., has well described its opera- 

 tions in the following note : 



A beetle about one-eighth of an inch long, scarcely thick enough 

 to stick a pin through, divided in the middle into two sections [it has 

 an unusually long thorax compared with the length of its abdomen], 

 has killed cherry and peach trees on my place, and now two plum 

 trees, that I had moved last autumn into the chicken-yard to get rid 

 of the curculio, have been destroyed by them. They puncture the 

 trunk and limbs through to the hard wood, here and there, with a 

 bore about the size of a small pin's head. From these wounds the 

 saps exudes and the trees die. Quite large trees are killed by them. 



Another correspondent, from near Annapolis, Md., has written of 

 the insect injuries as follows: 



I find that they are more abundant than I at first supposed; attack- 

 ing cherry, plum, apple, and peach. I was going through a peach 

 orchard about two miles distant from my j^lace, where I found that 

 they had killed about a dozen trees and as many more were in a dying 

 condition. I noticed a fine cherry tree failing — leaves beginning to* 

 turn yellow and withering, and upon a close examination, I found 

 gum running down the bark in great quantities from the tunnels of 

 these borers. If they increase in numbers as Colorado beetles and 

 many other pests, they will prove the worst enemies that the fruit- 

 growers have to contend with. G. W. D. 



Its Introduction and Spread in the United States. 

 The beetle has probably been brought from Europe within the past 

 fifteen years. It was first discovered at Elmira, N. Y., in an attack 

 upon peach trees, according to Dr. LeConte, who has written of it 

 in 1878 {loc. cit. sup.), as follows: "This is a suitable opportunity to 

 notice the introduction of this European species into the United 

 States. I have received specimens from Elmira, N. Y., where it attacks 

 peach trees. According to Eatzeburg, it is rare in Germany, but is 

 found upon plum and apple trees." In 1880, it was reported from 

 Fair Haven, N. J.., as destroying all the cherry, peach, and jalum trees 

 that had been set out in a particular lot, by boring innumerable holes 

 through the bark, which filled with gum — the death of the trees soon 

 following. A similar attack on cherry trees was reported from 

 Coopersburg, Pa. It had been previously known to infest peach trees 

 in localities as remote as Missouri and Maryland. In 1882, Dr. 

 Hagen found this beetle inhabiting densely large branches of young 

 pear trees that were killed by pear-blight. Although a coccid insect 

 was associated with the beetle it was thought that the branches 

 had been killed by the scolytus and not by the coccid, or by 

 bacteria, believed by some to be the cause of pear-blight. 

 In 1885, Mr. John Hamilton, of Allegheny, Pa., announced his 



