35 



tion from the " Archivo Rural"] the beetles and larva* of Vedalia which have spread 

 out upon the orange trees, upon the indian com, upon grass, and upon the ground 

 must he reckoned hy the millions. It excels all I could expect and reasonably 

 desire or hope for. The colonies of Vedalia are now being distributed profusely 

 every day to many farmers and gardeners who ask for them, and you may believe 

 that we justly consider how great has been the invaluable service and benefit you 

 did to Portuguese agriculture and horticulture. 



Later information has come to us in the columns of O Jornal de Lis- 

 boa of September 7, 1898, in a quotation from Novidades of the day 

 before, from which we extract the following: "Colonies or stocks of 

 Yedalias were established on not less than 487 estates, whence naturally 

 many others were formed by radiation. Gardens and orchards that 

 were completely infested and nearly ruined are to-day entirely clean, or 

 well on the way toward becoming so." 



It would thus seem as though the wonderful little Novius cardinalis 

 has fully sustained in Portugal the great reputation which it had pre- 

 viously gained in the United States. The writer would not have been 

 able to assist the Portuguese Government to this admirable result had 

 it not been for the enlightened policy of the State Board of Horticul- 

 ture of California in continuing the breeding in confinement of these 

 predaceous beetles long after the apparent great necessity for such 

 work had disappeared in California, and had it not been for the cour- 

 tesy of the board in promptly placing material at the disposal of this 

 office, 



TWIG PRUNERS AND ALLIED SPECIES. 



By F. H. Chittenden. 

 THE OAK PRUNER. 



The attention of the curious is often attracted by numbers of twigs 

 and small branches which sometimes strew the ground under trees of 

 various kinds, particularly oak and hickory, and the observer is usually 

 at a loss to account for their presence. The severed limbs vary in length 

 from a few inches to two or three feet, and one cut limb is mentioned 

 by Dr. Fitch in his article on this species (5th X. Y. Eept., pp. 797-804) 

 that measured ten feet, and another that was 1J inches in thickness. 

 He farther remarks that young trees are sometimes felled by this 

 insect. An examination of one, and sometimes of both ends of a sev- 

 ered limb will show a smoothly cut surface, near the center of which will 

 be seen a more or less oval opening plugged up with a wad of a material 

 composed of fine shavings and sawdust (see fig. 11, e, f). If one of 

 these limbs be split open, a soft-bodied larva or pupa will be found 

 resembling that shown in fig. 11, a. This is the larva of a Ceram- 

 bycid or long-horned beetle, JElaphidion villosiun Fab., generally known 

 in literature as the oak primer. This larva is subcylindrical, soft and 

 lleshy, and of a whitish or light-yellowish color. It is provided with 



