61 



The mature insect (fig. 41) is a slender elongated, dark brown, long horned beetle, the 

 wing-covers more or less marked with grey spots. Dr. Hamilton states that they vary in 

 length from 8 to 18 m. m. ; in pubescence some being nearly naked and uncolored, others 

 having it longer and condensed into spots or almost vittate, some being quite slender and 

 •elongate, while others are short and broad ; the surface of the elytra is mostly uni- 

 form, but in some, especially such as are narrow and elongated, one or two costse are 

 more or less evident. Dr. Fitch states that " The larva (fig. 42) grows to a length of 



Fig. 41. 



Fig. 42. 



Fig. 43. 



0.60, and is then 0.15 across its neck where it is broadest. It tapers slightly from its 

 neck backwards, the hind part of its body being nearly cylindrical. It is a soft or 

 fleshy grub, somewhat shining and of a white color, often slightly tinged with yellow, 

 its head which is small and retracted into the neck, being black in front." The earlier 

 writers on this insect state that the parent beetle deposits an egg close to the axil of 

 a leaf stock, or of a small twig near the extremity of a branch, and that the grub 

 tunnels its way downwards into the branch, when half grown gnawing away the wood 

 so that it breaks off with the wind. 



Dr. Hamilton who has bred numbers of this species states that " The normal 

 period of metamorphosis is three years, but in individuals it may be retarded to 

 four or more years. How the larva got under the bark could not be ascertained. 

 When first examined in April, they were from 4 to 5 m. m. long. They ate the 

 wood under the bark, following its grain, and packed their burrows solidly with their 

 dust. Their growth and progress were both slow, for by the next April they had 

 scarcely more than doubled in length, and had not travelled more than from four to six 

 inches during the year ; but after July they developed an enormous appetite, and con- 

 sumed the wood for at least one inch in length, and often entirely around the limb, 

 -ejecting their castings through holes made in the bark. When full fed they bore 

 obliquely an oval hole into the wood, penetrating it from four to ten inches. The 

 larva then packs the opening with fine castings, and enlarges a couple of inches of 

 the interior of the burrow by gnawing off its sides a quantity of coarse fibre, in 

 which it lies after turning its head to the entrance (as shown in fig. 43). The time 

 spent in the pupal state is indefinite, and does not seem to concern greatly the time 

 of the appearance of the beetle. Sticks split open at different periods from December 

 till March, contained larva and pupa about equally, but no developed beetles. A larva 

 that I observed to go into the wood in April appeared as a beetle among first of 

 such as had presumably pupated in the fall. The most of the beetles appeared during 

 the first two weeks of June, though individuals occurred occasionally till September." 



Mr. T. C. Olarkson who has bred this beetle from oak, speaks of it as follows : 

 " These oak pruners were very abundant in Columbia County, this state (New York), 

 in the season of 1878. The September winds brought showers of twigs and branches 

 to the ground. I examined many of them, and found such to contain the larva 

 nearly full grown, in tunnels measuring from ten to fifteen inches long. I gathered 



