UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



| BULLETIN No. 262 



Contribution from the Bureau of Entomology 

 L. O. HOWARD, Chief. 



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Washington, D. C. 



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July 19, 1915. 



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THE PARANl^RA BORER AS AN ORCHARD ENEMY, 



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95 



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By Fred E. Brooks, 



■Entemllogical Assistant, Deciduous- Fruit Insect Investigations. 

 & sfl I INTRODUCTION. 



*^*=**tQuring t&Q past few years the larva of a medium-sized brown beetle, 

 Parandra, brunnea Fab., has attracted considerable attention as an 

 enemy of trees of several widely separated species and of chestnut 

 telephone and telegraph poles. The characteristic injury of the 

 insect to trees is in the form of a multitude of tortuous larval galleries 

 extending through a more or less restricted portion of the trunk or 

 larger branches. The most destructive attacks usually occur in the 

 trunk within a few feet from the ground, the work of the borers 

 being followed quickly by the decay of the affected wood and fre- 

 quently by the breaking down of the tree (PL I, fig. a) at the point 

 of greatest injury. (PI. I, fig. o.) 



Cultivated fruit trees are often injured by this borer, old apple, 

 pear, and cherry trees being especially liable to attack. Hollow 

 bases and decaying areas and cavities in the trunk and the conse- 

 quent breaking and falling of weakened trees under the pressure of 

 wind and snow are conditions quite commonly due in a large measure 

 to the w T ork of this insect. Injury is especially noticeable to trees 

 grow T ing in sunny, exposed positions, and the insect seems to be 

 rather more abundant about villages and cities than in country 

 districts, although both the larvae and adults are found in many 

 dissimilar locations and under a variety of conditions. 



Tree surgeons and other persons who attempt to save and rejuve- 

 nate fruit trees suffering from diseased and decaying trunks quite 

 often encounter the Parandra borer and its work. In cleaning out 



Note.— This bulletin describes the Parandra borer as an enemy of fruit trees, gives its history and dis- 

 tribution, and suggests methods of combating it. It will be of interest throughout the greater portion of 

 I the United States. 



Note.— In Mr. Snyder's interesting article on this species as an enemy to chestnut telephone and tele- 

 graph poles (Bui. 94, Pt. I, Bur. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr., 1910), the beetles are illustrated in Plate I, figure 

 1, and the male is shown as the larger of the two sexes. Mr. Snyder has discovered that this is an error 

 and wishes us to add that the female is almost always larger, or at least as large as the male. 

 94412°— Bull. 262 15 



