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The Standard Natural History — Article, Heterocera, by C. H. Fernald. 



We are indebted to the author for a copy of this interesting popular article on 

 Moths, covering forty-five pages small quarto, illustrated with thirty-four figures and one 

 plate of silkworm moths. 



Elephant Pipes in the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Davenport, Iowa, by 

 Charles E. Putnam ; 8vo., pp. 40, with one figure. 



THE OAK PEUNER. 



ELAPHIDION VILLOSUM, FABR. 



By Frederick Clarkson, New York City. 



There is in the study of Entomology a fascination and delight that captivates the 

 imagination, and renders the enthusiast liable to construct theories based upon such 

 slender foundations that they fail to reach the dignity of assured facts. This, I think, 

 may be said of much that has been written concerning the habits of this beetle. The 

 record which I have thought proper to make relates to veritable facts, but whether in the 

 particular instance referred to they are to be regarded as extraordinary and not of common 

 occurrence, may be a problem yet to be solved. 1 trust that in offering this paper I may 

 not be thought presumptuous in differing with so distinguised Entomologists as Drs. 

 Harris and Fitch, yet as my observations do not bear out the conclusions which they have 

 reached, and apprehending that the best interests of the science are served by that record 

 or enquiry which relates to the discovery of facts, I make no apology to these fathers in 

 the science for transcribing in relation to this subject views somewhat dissimilar to theirs. 



Dr. Harris says that if a burrow be split open in winter, it will be found to contain 

 larva, which in the spring assumes the pupa form, and in June or July is changed into a 

 beetle. He is in accord with Dr. Fitch concerning the periods of transformation, and 

 holds similar views with him as to the habit of pruning. Dr. Fitch, I think, unduly 

 exalts the instincts of these beetles as illustrated in their larval habit of pruning thetwigg 

 and branches of the oak, contending, as he does, that the twig or branch is eaten away by 

 the young larva for a small space, and left supported only by the bark, that the autumn 

 winds may fell it to the ground, and that the environment of its new condition is necessary 

 to the transformation of the included larva. This is substantially what each writer has to 

 say upon the subject, though Dr. Fitch's report is very lengthened and rather extravagant 

 in imaginative conclusions. 



These oak pruners were very abundant in Columbia County, this State, in the season 

 of 187S. The September winds brought showers of twigs and branches to the ground. 

 I examined many of them, and found each to contain the larva, nearly full grown, in 

 tunnels measuring from ten to fifteen inches long. I gathered five goodly sized branche* 

 just after they had fallen, for the purpose of illustrating the burrows in my cabinet of nest 

 architecture. The branches remained on a table in a room having very nearly the condi- 

 tion, thermometrically, of the temperature without, until the early part of November, 

 when I opened them for the purposes already stated. I was astonished to find that every 

 burrow contained the beetle ; the transformation, therefore, from the larva to the imago 

 was completed in less than eight weeks — how much less I know not — and without the 

 surroundings as narrated by Drs. Harris and Fitch. I am therefore inclined to the 

 opinion, born of these facts, that the transformation, barring strong winds, is as likely to 

 occur in the tree as on the ground, and that the branch is eaten away by the young larvn 



