Report of the State Entomologist. 



265 



occurring in the peacli, were emerging- in my office June sixth, from 

 sections of the trunk of a young peach tree, received from Mr. G. W. 

 Duvall, from near Annapolis, Md. The tree had, it was believed, been 

 killed by the insect the preceding year. 



The main galleries of the beetles, are usually run transversely 

 across the trunk, but at times are inclined at various angles up to 

 forty-five degrees. The longest are about one inch and a half in length, 

 by one-twentieth of an inch broad, and show plainly the row of niches 

 on each side excavated for the reception of the eggs, and from which 

 the galleries of the young larvee proceed. These galleries are an inch 

 and a half, or more, in length. Those central on the main gallery, extend 

 at right angles to it, while those on each side thereof S^iverge at such 

 angles as their greater breadth, consequent on the increasing size of 

 the larvse, necessitate. The galleries are not strictly rectilinear, but 

 are somewhat waved. 



Dr. Harris, Dr. Fitch, and subsequent writers mention this beetle as 

 occurring under elm bark. I have never found it in such a situation. 

 Mr. Schwarz gives as his experience, which in the Scolytidce has been 

 so extensive as to deserve being accepted as authoritative, that it does 

 not occu.r under elm bark. He thinks that it has been confounded 

 with Hylesmus opaculus, which is rather common under such conditions 

 and which resembles it so closely that without examination of the anten- 

 nal structure the two can hardly be separated {Proceed. Entomolog. 

 Soc. of Washington; i 1888, p. 113). 



Belostoma Ameeicana Leidy. — Mr. B. D. Skinner, 

 N. T., in sending a living specimen of this " water- 

 bug " for name, on February twenty-second, states 

 that he only knows the insect as seen during the 

 winter under the ice of a certain fresh- water pond 

 near Greenport, on the Long Island coast. On a 

 pleasant day when the ice is free from snow and 

 clear, a dozen or two could be noticed in a short 

 time, moving slowly along under the ice. Boys 

 sometimes amuse themselves by lining their 

 course, and cutting out a block of ice a little 

 distance in front of them, upon reaching which, 

 they rise up to the surface and are taken by hand. 



The insect is shown in Figure 60, reduced about 

 one-fourth in size, from the example from which it 

 was drawn. Large examples measure about one inch and one-half 

 in length. 



From the frequency with which this insect is attracted to electric 

 34 



Greenport, 



Fig. 60. — Belostoma 

 Ameeicanum. 



