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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Peach bark beetle 



Phloeotribus liminaris Harr. 



A minute, brownish, rather stout beetle about '/„, inch long, runs transverse galleries 

 in the inner hark of peach, plum and cherry. 



This little species is better known as a pest of fruit trees than a depre- 

 dator on ornamental or forest trees, though it occasionally attacks wild 

 cherry, probably plum and related trees. Its method of work is very char- 

 acteristic. The galleries of the adult beetles run transversely or nearly so 

 to the grain of the wood, two diverging from a common entrance cham- 

 ber. Each is the work of a single female which deposits 

 a great many eggs at close intervals on each side. These 

 hatch and the young grubs proceed to make channels at 

 approximately right angles to those of the parent insect. 

 a l '\ The larval cralleries are easily recognized because of their 



Fig. 107 Middle tibiae : & J O 



«=phioeotri-bu S eX panding somewhat sinuous character. Infested areas are 



liminaris; 0= A «-> ' 



s. oiytus mgu- badly riddled bv this species, and in many instances the tree 



1 o s u s, enlarged J J 1 * 



(o»ginai) soon girdled. The work of this borer is more frequently met 



with in early spring, though occasionally beetles are taken in the fall. The 

 easiest way to identify the adults is by their work. Occasionally this is 

 impossible and then recourse must be had to structural characters, the 

 peculiar antennae [pi. 66, tig. i] being the most striking. This little beetle 

 is rather sparsely clothed with a short, yellowish pubescence, and the elytra 

 are coarsely striate with series of almost confluent punctures. 



Remedial measures. There is no practical method of checking this 

 pest, beyond cutting and burning infested trees before the insects have had 

 an opportunity to escape and enter others. Ordinarily its attacks are 

 confined to unhealthy trees. 



