NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 9 1 



This borer was exceedingly abundant in hickory limbs I to 3 

 inches or so in diameter and was reared in large numbers from the 

 latter part of March and throughout the summer of 191 5, and in 

 February 19 16 some larvae were still active in limbs cut the year 

 before. The probabilities are that by far the greater number of 

 the insects had emerged, indicating an annual life cycle normally 

 with a tendency on the part of a few to carry over to a second 

 season. This species runs galleries in hickory in the inner wood. 

 They are about one-twelfth of an inch in diameter and nearly riddle 

 the branches from a depth of about one-eighth of an inch to the 

 center. The galleries of this borer are tightly packed with a very 

 fine mealy sawdust. Many of them are longitudinal, almost con- 

 tiguous, frequently branched and occasionally one may find trans- 

 verse galleries following around the branch at an approximate 

 depth of one-eighth of an inch. The exit holes are circular, at 

 right angles to the surface and one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter 

 or a little larger. 



The larvae of this twig borer resemble those of the hickory bark 

 beetle superficially, though they are easily distinguished by the 

 different location, the Sinoxylon larvae being almost invariably in 

 galleries at some depth in the wood while the hickory bark beetle 

 larvae rarely penetrate to a depth equal to the diameter of the 

 gallery. There is also a more marked ventral flexing of the pos- 

 terior abdominal segments while the thoracic legs are long, slender 

 and with the apical segment or segments bearing rather thick 

 tufts of long, conspicuous setae, a strong contrast to the rudimen- 

 tary or wanting thoracic legs of the hickory bark beetle. 



GARDEN INSECTS 

 Asparagus beetles. The common asparagus beetle, C r i o c e r i s 

 asparagi Linn., and the twelve-spotted asparagus beetle, C. 12- 

 punctata Linn., were unusually abundant and injurious in the 

 vicinity of Albany in 1920. An examination of the asparagus bed 

 of George Curran at West Albany in company with the assistant 

 farm bureau manager, H. W. Fitch, disclosed a very interesting 

 condition. The owner had allowed one row to grow and this was 

 very badly infested, eggs of the two species being so numerous 

 upon a number of stalks as to occur in thick rows. In some places 

 they gave a decidedly black or sooty appearance to the asparagus. 

 The owner stated that the insects were so numerous as to cause 

 serious loss because it was necessary to wash the eggs from the 

 asparagus prior to marketing it. 



