A number of practices have been suggested for the prevention 
or reduction of damage by the locust borer. These include the 
planting of superior varieties of black locust, the use of mixed 
species in planting, the removal of old stag-headed brood trees, 
selection of good sites for planting, thinning and mulching of 
stands, and protection of young trees from fire or livestock graz- 
ing (318, 511, 189). 
The painted hickory borer, Megacyllene caryae (Gahan), is 
widely distributed in the eastern United States. Freshly-cut, hick- 
ory logs are normally preferred for breeding, but dead trees of 
several other hardwoods such as black and honey locust, oak, 
hackberry, mulberry, walnut, butternut, and ash are also occa- 
sionally attacked. Hickory wood cut during the winter may be 
completely riddled by mid-summer. The adult closely resembles 
the adult of the locust borer, but is slightly larger on the aver- 
age. The elytra also are more tapering, the prosternum is wider 
than long, and the antennae of the male are longer than the body. 
Adults emerge in early spring and deposit their eggs beneath 
bark scales on logs cut the previous winter. The larvae feed for 
several weeks under the bark and then bore into the sapwood and 
later the heartwood. Pupation occurs in the fall at the end of 
the larval mine behind a wad of fibrous frass. The adult, like the 
adult of the locust borer, emerges through the larval gallery and 
entrance hole. Winter is spent in the pupal stage and there is 
one generation per year. 
Megacyllene antennata (White), commonly known as the 
mesquite borer, breeds in mesquite and acacia in Texas and other 
Southwestern States. The adult is robust, brownish-black, and 
from 12 to 30 mm. long. It is marked with fine white or gray 
hairs and a dark spot in the center of the thorax. Eggs are de- 
posited in crevices of the bark of recently cut wood. The larvae 
feed first beneath the bark and then in the wood, excavating ex- 
tensive mines and pushing quantities of frass to the outside 
through a hole in the bark. This species is especially injurious to 
mesquite cordwood. Fence posts also are greatly weakened or 
destroyed. Craighead and Hofer (168) discussed methods of 
control. 
The banded hickory borer, Anulliana cincta (Drury), occurs 
throughout much of eastern United States where it breeds in the 
dead branches and trunks of a wide variety of hardwoods, such 
as hickory, walnut, oak, American hornbeam, plum, and apple. 
Hickory appears to be preferred. The adult (fig. 54) is dark 
brown and about 22 mm. long. The body is clothed with grayish 
fine hairs, and there is a short sharp spine on each lateral mar- 
gin of the thorax. Each elytron has an oblique yellow spot near 
the base and two slender spines at the tip. 
Eggs are deposited during the summer beneath the bark or 
directly on the wood of recently felled, dying, or dead trees. The 
larvae feed beneath the bark during the remainder of the sum- 
mer, deeply scarring the wood and pushing out huge quantities 
of granular frass through small openings in the bark. During 
the fall and following summer they bore into the wood and mine 
it extensively. Pupation occurs in the fall or spring between wads 
of fibrous frass at the end of the tunnel. The life cycle probably 
178 
