ROUND-HEADED APPLE BORER. 333 



THE ROUND-FIEADED APPLE BORER. 

 Saperda Candida Fabr. 



Young apple trees are often attacked at the base and seriously 

 injured by borers. Even large trees are attacked, but do not 

 become devitalized and show the effects of the work of the 

 borer like the younger and smaller trees. Especially if the 

 young orchard be isolated and surrounded by woodland is the 

 attack liable to be severe. 



Two kinds of borers are responsible for this kind of injury 

 to trees, — ^the round-headed borer, Saperda Candida Fabr., 

 belonging to the family Cerambycidae, and the flat-headed borer, 

 Chrysobothris femorata Fabr., which belongs to the family 

 Buprestidae. The former is much more common in Connecti- 

 cut, and we believe is the chief species attacking fruit trees. 

 Neither species is confined to orchard trees, but lives in various 

 native trees of the fields and woodlands, the round-headed borer 

 being especially fond of the wild thorn, mountain ash, shad 

 bush and chokeberry, and the flat-headed species attacking many 

 of the larger shade and forest trees. 



The round-headed apple borer is found throughout the 

 United States ^nd Canada, at least east of the Rocky Mountains. 

 The adult is a long-horned beetle about three-fourths of an inch 

 long, dark grey or brownish, with two straight white stripes or 

 bands on the back running lengthwise of the body. These bands 

 are not quite parallel, but join on the head and are furthest apart 

 at the base of the wing covers, coming near together again at the 

 apex. The antennae, legs and front of the head are white. 

 The antennae are long and slender, as is characteristic with this 

 family of beetles. This insect, with its characteristic injury, is 

 shown on Plate XVI. 



The eggs are yellow or pale brown, three times as long as 

 broad and three times as broad as thick, and about one-eighth 

 of an inch long. They are laid in incisions in the bark made by 

 the ovipositor of the adult female, the eggs being placed length- 

 wise the trunk. The adults appear in June, July and August, 

 most of the specimens in the station collection being taken in 

 June. In Connecticut, therefore, the eggs are laid during these 

 three months. The young borer tunnels just under the bark, 



