222 GEOlvOGICAI. SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 



bronzed. Their larvae are similar to those alread}' described, but 

 attack healthy plants, and, instead of excavating chambers, make 

 long winding burrows, often completely girdling small branches 

 and causing injury altogether out of proportion to their size. 

 This reference to size also brings to mind the further fact that 

 the larva in this case is excessively large in proportion to the 

 size of the adult, an inch and a-half borer making a one-quarter- 

 inch beetle. They are called sinuate borers, from the character 

 of their burrows, and chestnuts are frequent victims, some forms 

 also attacking orchard and small fruits. 



Besides the Coleopterous borers just described, there are several 

 boring caterpillars that may be always distinguished by having 

 eight pairs of more or less developed legs. They bore in the 

 solid wood as a rule, and rarely in sufficient numbers to cause 

 actual injury. Their chief danger lies in the fact that they open 

 the way for the other species that endanger the tree itself. 



The goat moth, coming of the largest of these caterpillars, has 

 been already mentioned. The others belong chiefly to the clear- 

 winged moths of the family Sesiidce. The caterpillars are more 

 cylindrical than those of the larger species, and the head is usu- 

 ally black ; otherwise they are very similar. The pupa is quite 

 generally provided with a more or less developed chisel-like pro- 

 cess to the head, by means of which it cuts its way through the 

 bark. It wriggles through the opening so made until it projects 

 half its length beyond the tree, being held in place by the rings 

 of spinules and pointed processes with which the segments are 

 set. The moths are usually black, marked with yellow, more or 

 less resembling a wasp or hornet, and the wings are also narrow 

 and transparent, to heighten the illusion. These borers are in 

 many of the forest trees and occur in all parts — quite as often in 

 the roots as elsewhere. In some cases city shade trees become 

 the victims and the maple is particularly susceptible to attack. 



Heretofore I have spoken of the species that attack the 

 healthy, sickly or injured tree to cause its death, and this is one 

 important way in which injury is caused to forests. Another 

 kind of injury comes in when for any reason timber is killed 

 purposely or dies standing, before being made into lumber. A 

 dead tree is a carcass to be removed, and dozens of species and 

 thousands of specimens begin work at once, the borers of course 



