42 



they again retire for the winter, and in the spring, after opening up communication with 

 the outside world, feed for a short time, and when full grown measure in length about 

 three-fourths of an inch. The larvae now return to their burrows for final transformation. 

 Some of them bore for at least six inches, while others scarcely go from the entrance more 

 than twice their own lengths ; the outer ends are closely packed with borings without and 

 soft fibre within, which also fills the inner ends. The head of the larva may be either 

 toward or away from the opening — seemingly a matter of indifference ; in the former 

 case the beetle emerges from the place of entrance, in the latter from a round hole at 

 right angles to the burrow, probably cut by the beetle itself, as no such hole has been 

 detected in the many limbs I have examined containing pupae with their heads turned 

 from the opening. Pupation occurs after the middle of April, and the perfected beetle 

 will be found in the limbs about the first of May, though few of them emerge till the 

 time stated at the beginning of this paper. 



The above is the result of three years' careful observation of the habits of this beetle? 

 and imperfect as the history is, the amount of time and labor expended in developing it 

 can only be understood by those who have attempted similar things. How widely this 

 beetle is distributed is uncertain, as till recently its habitat was unknown. The typical 

 insects were taken in Ohio ; it is in Mr. Reinecke's Buffalo Catalogue, and occurs at 

 Hamilton, Ontario (Moffat). Any one can readily ascertain whether it occurs in his 

 fauna by examining the limbs of the Crataegus for the unmistakable swellings it 

 occasions. 



Saperda concolor Lee. appears about the same time as S. Fayi, and like it, is short 

 lived, few individuals occurring after the middle of June. Its larvae infest the canes of 

 a small willow growing along watercourses and in swampy places — Salix longifolia. The 

 smaller canes are usually selected for breeding purposes, these varying from one-fourth to 

 three-fourth inches in diameter. The beetle makes a longitudinal incision through the 

 bark with her jaws about three-fourths of an inch in length, and in each end deposits an 

 egg. Usually several incisions are made in the same cane some distance apart, which 

 often cause its death the following year. The young larvae follow the same course as 

 those of S. Fayi, only they burrow deeper into the wood, and there are no supernumeraries, 

 as there is no need for them, the wood of the willow dying much more quickly than that 

 of Crataegus, and a warty, gnarly swelling occurring around each incisure. 



The beetle, however, does not always select the smaller canes, sometimes choosing 

 ones from one and one-half to two inches thick, in which case the larvae pursue a different 

 course, for instead of boring up and down, they take a transverse direction and girdle the 

 stem one-third to one-half its circumference, causing a rough, annular swelling and 

 frequently the death of the cane. Two years is the time usually required to complete 

 the transformation, but some individuals probably pass through all the stages in a single 

 year. The head of the pupa is toward the opening, from which the perfect insect emerges. 

 The willow named seems to be the natural food tree of the larvae of S. concolor, and, did 

 it confine itself to this insignificant shrub, could scarcely be classed with injurious insects ; 

 but it appears to have likewise either a natural or an acquired taste for poplar* and 

 might become very destructive, a fact first brought to notice in Bui. No. 7, 118, U. S. 

 Ent. Com., where the compiler writes : " Girdling the trunks of sapling poplars, by 

 carrying a mine around the trunk, which causes a swelling often nearly twice the 

 diameter of the tree. We have found numerous saplings of the common poplar in the 

 woods about Providence with the unsightly swellings around the trunk." In case this 

 taste is perpetuated, this beetle will no doubt prove a formidable enemy to this species of 

 shade or forest tree. But in what State this Providence is, or what kind of a tree 

 " common poplar " is, we are not informed. Here the common poplar is the Liriodendron 

 tidipifera, but at that Providence it may be a tree of some other genus. This beetle 

 seems to have an extended distribution, occurring in Texas, Michigan, Canada, and New- 

 York, as well as here. 



