44 



A DESTRUCTIVE BORER ENEMY OF BIRCH TREES, WITH NOTES 

 ON RELATED SPECIES. 



By F. H. Chittenden. 



INJURY AT BUFFALO, N. Y. 



Serious injury to birch trees in the city of Buffalo, X. Y., has been 

 reported the past fall, due to the ravages of the larvae of a buprestid 

 beetle hitherto practically unknown as a destructive enemy to this 

 genus of trees. 



In a letter dated October 13, 1898, Mr. XL F. Adams, of Buffalo, 

 wrote that an insect, which was afterwards identified as Agrilus auxins 

 Gory, was doing great damage to birch trees in that city. Specimens 

 of infested European white birch, Betula alba, showing the mines of the 

 larva? under the bark, were received, and later specimens of the beetles 

 and larva*. A few years ago our correspondent noticed this same 

 borer destroying a common white birch, Betula papyri/era. At that 

 time the cut-leaf weeping birches, with the exception of a few trees in 

 close proximity to the infested ones, were not infested, and he was of 

 opinion that these trees had not been attacked until recently. White 

 birches of every description in the city have since been destroyed, and 

 not many trees that remain standing are entirely free from infestation. 



Through the medium of the daily press of Buffalo the matter has 

 aroused widespread attention in that city. 



So much of value was obtained from Mr. Adams, through constant 

 correspondence during the months of October and November, that it was 

 not considered necessary at this time for anyone connected with this 

 Division to make a personal inspection of the premises, particularly 

 since little of value is to be accomplished in the line of an investigation 

 of the life history of the species until the springtime, when the larvae 

 complete their growth and their transformation to pupae and adult 

 beetles. 



Our correspondent has expressed the belief that if radical measures 

 are not adopted the loss of every birch in the city of Buffalo in the near 

 future is imminent. This insect has already destroyed the common 

 white birch and. as previously remarked, many of the cut-leaf and 

 European white birches. It even attacks trees planted but a year 

 before. 



That this opinion is justified we have only to cite similar instances of 

 recent injury by This same insect at Detroit, Mich., which will be men- 

 tioned farther on, and by the related species. Agrilus biliueatus. the 

 two-lined chestnut borer, to chestnut and oak in various parts of our 

 country, and by the sinuate pear borer to pear in Xew Jersey. 



That injury was due to a species of Agrilus could readily be made 

 out from the larvae and from the appearance of the burrows under 

 the birch bark. At our request Mr. Adams made diligent search for 

 the parent beetles, which often die in their burrows in the wood, with 



