JSfiNTH Report of the State Entomolooi^t 359 



corns putator, the oak-pruiier, by Prof. Feck, in the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural Repository and Journal, vol. v, 1819, is the species that 

 so frequently comes under observation as the pruner of the red and 

 black oaks — occasionally of the scarlet oak. It also, according to Dr. 

 Fitch, occurs in the beech, birch, chestnut, apple, and peach; in the 

 spruce, on the authority of Dr. Haldeman, and in the hickory, accord- 

 ing to many writers and my own observations. K parallelum has 

 been bred from some of the above food-plants, and also from plum; in 

 the latter, not as a pruner, it is stated {American Entomologist, i, p. 

 187); also from apple {id., ii, p. 60). It also bores the branches of the 

 orange, according to Mr. Hubbard. 



An Elaphidion attack upon maples is not of common occurrence. 

 Dr. LeBaron, former State Entomologist of Illinois, mentions Ela- 

 phidion larvae as well-known pruners of oaks, maples, and other trees 

 (4th Report, p. 154), but I find no record of the particular species bred 

 from the maple. They are not included among maple insects in Dr, 

 Packard's " Insects Injurious to Forest and Shade Trees." The severe 

 attack brought to our noti e in the above communication, is, therefore, 

 of considerable interest, and it is to be hoped that the additional twigs 

 containing the larva? which I have requested of the writer may be sent 

 to me and will give me the beetles for identification some time during, 

 the winter or the coming spring. [They subsequently gave E, 

 parallelum.'\ 



The observation of Mr. Thomas of the entering of the larva at the 

 junction of a twig or limb with its larger parent stem, may need some 

 correction. The burrows will, it is true, be found passing from the 

 twig into the branch, but Dr. Fitch is probably correct when he states 

 that the beetle deposits her ^^^ near the tip of a twig of the same 

 year's growth in the angle where a leaf- stalk branches from it. The 

 ^%g hatching, the young larva burrows into the center of the twig, and 

 consumes all the soft pulpy tissue until only the bark remains, which in 

 its thin and tender condition, withers and dries. By this time the 

 larva has eaten downward in the center of the twig, through the pith, 

 to its base, and onward into the main branch from which the twig 

 grows, passing to the center, an inch or less below the twig. Here, 

 when about half-grown, it proceeds to cut off the branch, in the 

 manner stated in the above communication, and as more fully narrated 

 by Dr. Fitch, of Elaphidion villosum. 



The account given by Dr. Fitch is quite interesting, and will amply 

 repay for its perusal. It is to be found in his Fifth Report on the Insects 

 of New York, pp. 17-24, and also in the Transactions of the New 

 York State Agricultural Society for 1858, vol. xvii, pp. 797-812, under 



