98 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO GARDEN AND ORCHARD CROPS. 



THE GRAPE CANE-BORER. 

 (AmpMcerus bicaudatus Say.) 



This well-known species, which is also called the apple twig-borer, 

 has recently come to the front as an enemy of stored lumber, and, 

 although only a single instance of injury appears to be known, the 

 character of the damage, owing to ihe large size of the insect and the 

 length of its burrows, is most striking, and sufficient to stigmatize this 

 beetle as one of the foremost of troublesome species when once it 

 obtains access to a lumber.yard. 



August 27, 1897, Mr. W. A. Wimsatt, of Washington City, brought to 

 this office specimens of the beetles, with the report that they were injur- 

 ing ash wood in his lumber yard. He later brought, by request, a small 

 board in which the beetles were boring. In a space in this board 3f 

 inches long by five-eighths of an inch wide no less than 11 burrows of 

 this beetle appeared. In two instances a beetle had excavated a 

 burrow partly within one board and partly in another, injuring both. 

 One beetle was still alive and active in one piece as late as November 

 15, and the followiug spring half a dozen more beetles issued. Neither 

 larva? nor pupa? were found,- and it is uncertain as to whether or not 

 the beetles which issued from the wood bred therefrom. 



Mr. Thomas A. Williams, of the Division of Agrostology of this 

 Department, and an entomologist of some experience, informs me that 

 in the winter of 1892-93 he received from a farmer in the northern part 

 of South Dakota some twigs of apple and green ash (Fra.vinus viridis) 

 showing the characteristic borings of ^his insect, and also some of the 

 mature beetles which had been taken in the holes. To be positive that 

 the same insect was working in both plants Mr. Williams wrote for 

 more material, to be sent in separate packages, as well as for data 

 regarding the extent of injury in each case. In the second lot of mate- 

 rial which he received, an abundance of borers were found, and he satis- 

 fied himself as to the identity of the insect in each case. The borers 

 worked in the ash in exactly the same manner as in the apple. Accord- 

 ing to the farmer the insects first appeared in a small apple orchard, 

 and after practically ruining the trees transferred their attention to 

 the green ash on his tree claim, and did a great deal of damage. The 

 twigs sent were very badly infested, showing evidence of the presence 

 of great numbers of the insect. During the years mentioned, as also 

 in 1891 and to a less extent in 1895, borers of the same kind did a great 

 deal of damage in the Northwest, the conditions being evidently favor- 

 able for their increase, drought lessening the vitality of the trees and 

 rendering them more susceptible to the ravages of the insect. 



THE EYE-SPOTTED APPLE-TWIG BORER. 



(Oberea ocellata Hald.) 



Since the first recorded injury by this species to fruit trees, in an 

 article by Miss M. E. Murtfeldt, in the report of this Department for 

 the year 1888 (pp. 137, 138), the insect has attracted more or less atten- 

 tion by its occurrence on fruit trees, aud has been the subject of cor- 



