MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS SAPERDA 55 



to this species, but, as the workings are very different from any 

 we have met with, we question the identity of the depredator. 

 The trouble was so serious that 47 trees were cut down by order 

 of the authorities. The nature of the injury may be judged by 

 the following. One of the infested lindens was very large, the 

 trunk measuring 8 feet, 5 inches in circumference 5 feet from the 

 ground. A strip of bark 2 feet wide at the bottom and extend- 

 ing to the top of the trunk was destroyed, and the exposed sur- 

 face of the wood pierced and grooved with countless numbers of 

 holes where borers had bred and where swarms of the beetles 

 were supposed to have issued in past times. Some of the larger 

 limbs and a portion of the tree broke off, apparently the conse- 

 quence of the ravages of this insect. This pest has been very 

 injurious to the European linden at Cambridge Mass., and Pro- 

 fessor Webster has recorded it as damaging young lindens in 

 nursery rows. 



Life history. The beetles appear toward the end of the sum- 

 mer (we have taken them in August) and feed on the bark and 

 the leaf petioles and also the larger veins on the under side of 

 the leaves and on the green bark of the growing shoots, often 

 killing the tips of the branches. When the beetles are very 

 abundant, the injury caused by them is quite noticeable. Pro- 

 fessor Smith has observed this beetle abroad in New Jersey 

 during July, and Dr Packard states that one female may contain 

 as many as 90 eggs. A female is said to deposit her eggs, two 

 or three in a place, on the trunk and branches, specially about 

 the forks, making slight incisions and punctures for their recep- 

 tion with her strong jaws. The larvae undermine the bark for a 

 distance of 6 or 8 inches from the place where they hatch and 

 often penetrate the wood to an equal extent, as stated by Dr 

 Packard, who adds that this insect works at the base of young 

 lindens, gouging two parallel rings around the trunk and form- 

 ing annular swellings. We have observed the work of this 

 species and seldom found it more than 12 inches above the 

 ground ; and in our experience it occurs very largely in exposed 

 roots and subterranean parts, though Mr D. B. Young states that 

 he has taken this beetle from galleries in the lower limbs of a large 



