THE OAK-PRUNER. 87 
be of little service. It has three pairs ot soft, conical-jointed feet, resembling its an- 
tennie in their size and shape. The first pair is placed on an elevated wrinkle of the 
akin in the suture between the first and second segments of the thorax, more distant 
from each other than are those of the second and third pairs, which are situated on 
the middle of the elevation of the second and third segments. 
Some of the worms enter their pupa state the last of autumn, and others not till 
the following spring. Hence in examining the fallen limbs in the winter, a larva 
may be found in one, a pupa in another. Preparatory to entering its pupa state, the 
larva places a small wad of woody fibers, sometimes intermingled with worm-dust, 
below it, in its burrow, and sometimes another wad above it if the burrow runs far 
up the limb, thus partitioning off a room one or two inches in length in which to lie 
during its pupa state. The shriveled cast skin of the larva will be found at the upper 
end of this cell, after it has changed to a pupa. 
Usually those insects which undergo a complete metamorphosis remain at rest, 
lying dormant and motionless during their pupa state. The oak primer, however, is 
a remarkable exception to this. Whenever its cell is opened it will be seen moving 
from one end of it to the other with quite as much agility as it shows in its larva 
state. The sutures of its abdomen have the same deep transverse grooves as in the 
larvae, admitting the same amount of motion to this part of its body that it previously 
had. And, lying on its back, it uses the tip of its abdomen as though it were furnished 
with a proleg, the little sharp points with which it is covered being pressed against 
the rough walls of the cell and the body pushed forward or drawn backward hereby, 
step after step, at the will of the animal. 
The pupa is of much the same size with the larva and of a yellowish-white color. 
Its eyes are sometimes white, sometimes blackish-brown. The antenna-sheaths arise 
in the notch upon the inner side of the eyes and, passing directly across the surface 
of these organs, extend down along each side of the back above the sheath of the 
fore and middle pairs of legs, then curving inward they pass back to the eye along 
the inner side of the same legs, their ends being placed upon the eye slightly inside 
of their origin. The knees of the hind legs protrude far out from under the upper 
sides of the wing-sheaths forward of their tips, whilst the feet of these legs occupy 
the space between the tips of the wing-sheaths. The back of the abdomen shows a 
distinct, pale-brown stripe along the middle, on each side of which the surface of the 
segments is furnished with numerous small, erect, sharp points of a dark brown color, 
those on the apical segment being double the length of the others. 
The beetle. — They are usually from 0.50 to 0.55 in length and 0.12 broad, of a slender, 
cylindrical form, of a dull black color, tinged more or less with brown on the wing- 
covers, more evidently so towards their tips, whilst the antennae are paler brown, and 
the under side and legs chestnut colored, sometimes bright, sometimes dark and- 
blackish. The surface is everywhere clothed with shortish, prostrate gray hairs, and 
•on the wing-covers these are in places more dense, forming small gray spots, and on 
each side of the thorax, in the middle, is a whitish dot, formed in the same manner. 
Sometimes also on the base of the thorax, on each side of its middle, a short gray 
stripe formed by these hairs is very obvious, whilst in other individuals no traces of 
these stripes can be discerned. 
The scutel also is densely covered and gray from these hairs. The surface, above, 
is occupied by numerous coarse, round punctures, those on the thorax being of the 
same size with those on the wing-covers, but more crowded, many of them running 
into each other. Towards the tips of the wing-covers these punctures become per- 
ceptibly smaller. 
In at least three-fourths of the fallen limbs no worm is to be found; and an exam- 
ination of them shows that the insect perished at the time the limb was severed, and 
before it had excavated any burrow upward in its center, no perforation being present, 
except that leading into the lateral twig. It is probable that in many of these in- 
stances the limb broke when the worm was in the act of gnawing it asunder, either 
from its own weight or from a wind arising whilst the work was in progress. And 
