9 
away with a loud buzzing noise from the trees approached, and, as it 
is a very shy insect, there is some difficulty in coming close enough to 
see it at work and observe its methods. Once well engaged in oviposi- 
tion, however, it becomes for the time being fearless and may be closely 
watched, even under a hand lens. 
The Department has received rather frequent reports of damage by 
this insect of late, in such states as Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. 
The smaller limbs of trees are often completely scarified over their 
upper and lateral surfaces, so that the trees become dwarfed or bark- 
bound, make a sickly growth, and are rendered more liable to the 
attacks of wood-boring insects. This latter source of injury was first 
Fig. i.—Ceresabubalus Fab. : a, female; b, enlargement of anterior foot of same; c, do. of antenna ; d, 
do. of wing; e, last ventral segment of female; /, ventral view of tip of abdomen of female, showing 
terminal segments and ovipositor; g, do. lateral view; h, penultimate ventral segment of male; i 
ventral view of tip of abdomen of male — all enlarged (original). 
prominently brought to our notice in a communication from Mr. J. A. 
Pettigrew, superintendent of Lincoln Park, Chicago, who described 
the attacks of a borer in the smaller branches of the cottonwood (Pop- 
ulus momlifera), which caused the limbs to break off and fall to the 
ground in great numbers. Examination of the twigs submitted by 
him showed at once that they had been oviposited in very abundantly 
by the buffalo tree-hopper a year or two before, and that the old scars 
from the egg-punctures of this insect had furnished favorable condi- 
tions for the attacks of a wood-boring beetle, Oberea scliaumii Lec. This 
beetle had deposited its eggs in the diseased points left by the Ceresa. 
and the larvre of the beetle had burrowed up and down the twigs, weak- 
ening them and causing them to break off and fall as described. Healthy 
twigs would be distasteful or unsatisfactory to this insect, but the 
diseased condition, and particularly the dead spots left by the Ceresa, 
