68 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and rather serious injury to hickory foliage by this insect. From 

 25 to 50 per cent of the leaves were dropping or nearly ready to fall 

 as a consequence, though there were comparatively few signs of the 

 beetles actually having entered the trees. Some of the hickories 

 were in an unhealthy condition though not markedly more so than 

 the oaks and other trees. 



The forested area upon which the above observations were made 

 was typical of many of the thin-soiled ridges of southern Rensselaer 

 county, and it is very probable that the numerous dead branches 

 on some of the trees at least were an outcome of the severe droughts 

 of earlier years, since there were no signs of general injury by one 

 or more borers. 



Red-shouldered limb borer (Sinoxylon basilare Say) . 

 Large numbers of this borer were reared from limbs of dying hickory 

 trees which, had succumbed to attacks by the hickory bark beetle or 

 other causes. The borer is rather uncommon in New York State 

 though it has been recorded as breeding in the limbs and twigs of a 

 considerable variety of trees, such as persimmon, mulberry, apple, 

 peach and also grapevine. Doctor Hopkins states that it infests 

 most deciduous trees. 



This borer appears to confine itself, so far as hickory is concerned, 

 to the smaller, dead, apparently fungous-infected branches, rarely 

 occurring in those with a diameter greater than 4 inches. It runs 

 longitudinal galleries in the inner wood about one-twelfth of an inch 

 in diameter and may nearly riddle the interior of the branch with a 

 series of frequently contiguous, sawdust-filled galleries. The borings 

 produced by this species are very fine, uniform and firmly packed 

 in the galleries. The longitudinal workings evidently originate from 

 a transverse gallery made by the adult, which is very apt to encircle 

 the limb at an approximate depth of three-eighths of an inch below 

 the surface. This gallery is enlarged here and there into a series 

 of irregular chambers. Emergence is through circular galleries 

 penetrating the wood at. right angles to the surface. 



The larvae of Sinoxylon resemble those of Eccoptogaster 

 quadrispinosa Say superficially, the Sinoxylon larvae being 

 almost invariably in deeper galleries than those made by the hickory 

 bark beetle. There is also a more marked ventral flexing of. the 

 posterior abdominal segments, while the thoracic legs are long, 

 slender and with the. apical segment bearing a rather thick tuft of 

 long, conspicuous setae, a marked difference from the rudimentary 

 or absent thoracic legs of Eccoptogaster. 



