Report of the State Entomologist 351 



about the first of June. [Probably lie did not look for them earlier.] 

 The eggs were quite small, of a whitish color, standing on end side 

 by side to the number of six to eight, in a side chamber. A magnify- 

 ing glass was used in their discovery. As near as he could determine 

 by the aid of the glass at his command, the grubs were feeding and 

 living on the white substance lining the chambers. 



A New Depredator on Quince Blossoms. 



From Mr. A. H. Briggs, of Macedon, examples of a species of 

 snapping-beetle were received on the 20th of May, 1889, which, during 

 the preceding four years, had been so abundant and injurious to the 

 blossoms of his quince trees that he had been obliged to go over the 

 trees daily and knock the beetles into a pan of kerosene and water. 

 " From three small bushes frequently a hundred would be taken, and 

 often five or six would be working into the heart of one bud, and 

 apparently fighting one another in their eagerness to enter it. 

 Their attack usually began before the blossom-bud had opened, or 

 immediately thereafter, and continued until it was destroyed." Until 

 the present year, when the insect was less numerous than heretofore, 

 he had been able to save but few buds from its attack. The same 

 insect had made its demonstrations on the trees of Bev. Dr. Jacques, 

 while four years previously residing at Macedon Center, and had 

 been fought by him with Paris green mixed with flour. 



My identification of the beetle as Limonius confusus LeConte, was 



subsequently confirmed by Dr. Horn; but the injury to the blossoms 



reported of it was questioned, and further examination asked for. 



Upon submitting the doubt to Mr. Briggs, answer was returned that 



there was no possibility of a mistake, as he had often watched their 



feeding, and that those sent me had been taken by him from the 



blossoms while eating the petals. Dr. Horn entertained the opinion 



that many of the Elaters (snapping beetles), were predaceous in their 



final winged stage, although vegetarians as larvae. While he had 



recorded Limonius 4t-maculatus from the blossoms of JEsculus, he was 



not aware that they fed on the flowers — possibly on insects within 



them. [*J 



The Peach-bark Borer. 



Some small bark-boring beetles were received October nineteenth 

 from David Huntington, of Somerset, Niagara county, N. Y., taken 

 from the bark of a peach tree affected with " the yellows," accom- 

 panied with the inquiry of name — if they caused the yellows, and 



[* Prof. P. M. Webster has observed Limonius auripilis Say feeding upon ripe raspber- 

 ries in the month of July. Insect Life, ii. 1889, p. 258.] 



