A LONG-LIVED WOOD-BORER 
93 
A Long-lived Woodborer. 
From its burrow in the top piece of 
an old birch book-case at Mt. Pleasant, 
Iowa, a soft white wood-boring grub 
was shaken recently, when the owner 
discovered the newly made opening and 
conical pile of wood chewings that had 
been thrust out. There is nothing un- 
usual about finding grubs in wood, but 
this particular wood-boring larva has 
a strange history. 
The matured larva was given to the 
writer and placed in a box to complete 
its development. It pupated in about 
two weeks and in a few days the adult 
beetle emerged. It was Ebur'ia quadri- 
geminate Say, a longicorn commonly 
known as the honey-locust borer, and 
is recorded as developing in hickory, 
ash and honey locust. 
Mrs. Doe, who owns the book-case, 
is certain that the board in which the 
grub fed and grew from egg to a ma- 
tured larva is no less than forty years 
old, as the book-case has been in the 
possession of the Does for at least that 
many years. 
Just how and why this creature 
should have spent so many years in 
this humdrum life between the narrow 
walls of a thoroughly seasoned birch 
board only five-eighths of an inch thick, 
and never once coming out for air or 
water seems remarkable indeed. 
Mr. J. McNeil, writing in the “Ameri- 
can Naturalist,” tells of two longicorns 
of this same species emerging from an 
ash door-sill that had been in place 
nineteen years. In that case the rela- 
tion of the tunnels to the solid brick 
wall on which the door-sill rested seems 
to have made it certain that the eggs 
were laid in the wood before the house 
was built. This case seems to outstrip 
any known insect record in point of 
longevity. 
H. E. Jaques. 
Iowa Wesleyan College, 
Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. 
— Science. 
’Tis a dear little magazine and al- 
ways a welcome visitor. — Miss Roberta 
F. Moore, Shreveport, Louisiana. 
To American Beauties. 
American beauties, divine of breath, 
And dyed with sunset hues, 
You, 'mong the fairest of the fair, 
For roses I would choose. 
—Emma Peirce. 
Mouse Gymnastics. 
BY G. HENRY HALE, TAKOMA PARK, n. C. 
Imprisoned squirrels and white rats 
and mice exercise themselves turning 
wheels, but who would expect it of an 
unconfined mouse? 
At the head of the attic stairs, just 
outside of my room, was a large empty 
squirrel cage with a wheel perhaps six- 
teen inches in diameter. 
I was wakened one night by a 
squeaking, such as would be made by 
the turning of the wheel, proceeding 
from the direction of the cage. After 
listening quietly for a while, I lighted a 
match and saw the wheel slow down 
to a stop. 
After this I heard the little fellow 
nearly every night. He seemed to have 
adopted the wheel as part of his regu- 
lar routine. One night I determined to 
see him and, making my way very 
softly to the vicinity of the cage, I 
lighted a match and succeeded in see- 
ing him escape. Perhaps it was a week 
before he returned. Then came the old 
program about the same time every 
night. 
One night I was particularly restless, 
and the little fellow kept it up for some 
time till finally I crept across the floor 
and jammed my heel viciously against 
the cage. I suppose that was too much 
of a fright for the little fellow, for he 
never came back after that. 
Pear Growing in Bird’s Nest. 
Mr. K. B. Mathes of Batavia, New 
York, reports an interesting observa- 
tion of a chipping sparrow’s nest on 
the bough of a pear tree. Over the nest 
hung a ripened pear so low that it 
just fitted the cup of the nest. Under 
the pear he found three eggs uninjured. 
Upon blowing them he discovered that 
they were slightly decayed from age, 
but were not incubated, thus showing 
that they had been abandoned while 
fresh. 
The trees, with complement of leaves, 
That made a verdant screen. 
Are now but slender silhouettes. 
That frame the views between. 
— Emma Peirce. 
It is a wonderful little magazine, and 
I always look forward to its arrival. — 
Kenneth F. Cooper, Owego, New York. 
