37 



subject in detail, since it has been ably treated by Mr. Frederick Clark- 

 sou and the late Dr. John Hamilton, and the reader is therefore referred 

 to their articles in the Canadian Entomologist (Vol. XVIII, pp. 188-190 

 and 141-144) and to the Fifth Report of the U. S. Entomological Com- 

 mission (pp. 83-90), where the major portion of the accounts of Fitch 

 and Hamilton are reproduced. 



FOOD PLANTS AND INJURY. 



The list of known food plants of this species, as recorded by the 

 writer and others, includes: Oak, hickory, chestnut, maple, Abies 

 (Haldeman, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc, Vol. X, p. 34), apple, plum, peach, 

 grape, quince, locust, redbud (Cercis canadensis), sumach, orange, and 

 Osage orange (Madura aurantiaca). In past years the writer has seen 

 pear trees very extensively pruned by this insect; also the climbing 

 bitter-sweet (Celastrus scandens). More recently this or allied species 

 have been ascertained to attack almost every woody plant that grows. 

 In the vicinity of Washington the genus Elaphidionis not so abundant 

 as in many northern localities, but pruned twigs of various trees and 

 shrubs are of frequent occurrence, among which have been noted 

 spicebush (Lindera benzoin), sassafras, sumach [Rhus glabra and 

 typhina). Walsh mentions the occurrence of pruned twigs on English 

 or white walnut and Fitch mentions beech* and birch. 



An unpublished divisional note which adds a new food plant to this 

 species should be inserted. In October of 1882 we received from Mr. 

 M. C. Eead, of Hudson, Ohio, specimens of twigs of Chinese Wistaria, 

 which had been pruned by the larva? which they contained. Adult 

 beetles began issuing (in confinement) January 6, 1883. 



Of reported injuries by this species Prof. A. J. Cook says (Entom. 

 Anier., Vol. Ill, p. 59) that in 1886 "peach trees in portions of Michigan 

 were seriously injured. The twigs were cut off so as to nearly destroy 

 some of the trees." In Volume V of Insect Life (p. 50) mention is made 

 of the extraordinary abundance of this pruner in Bucks County, Pa., 

 and it is there stated, on the authority of Mr. J. B. Watson, that car- 

 loads of the branches could be gathered up from the ground through 

 the oak forests. 



In the writer's experience the oak pruner was extremely abundant in 

 the early 80's in the neighborhood of Ithaca, Tompkins County, N. Y., 

 and later near South Woodstock, Windham County, Conn., on the 

 shagbark hickory, the severed twigs and branches occurring by the 

 barrel-full under a single tree. In one instance pear trees in an orchard 

 at Ithaca, N. Y., had been very extensively pruned by it. It had appar- 

 ently attacked healthy living twigs, and several trees had every appear- 

 ance of having been killed outright. 



* The beech species is evidently, judging by Fitch's description of its work, the 

 twig girdler, Oncideres cingulata Say. 



