226 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION 
arrested by general action. The ouly remedy available is unquestionably the de- 
struction of effected trees in autumn and winter before the beetles have a chance to 
emerge from the trunks. In towns this measure should usually be taken by the au- 
thorities, since individual action could not be depended on to more than paUiate the 
difficulty. It every elm which is in the unhealthy condition above described, and 
which, upon examination, is found to harbor these borers beneath the bark, were cut 
down in autumn and burned before spring, the multiplication of the borer might be 
effectually checked ; but if the destruction of the trees be postponed until as late as 
May. a part of all of the beetles maturing each year would escape to carry the mis- 
chief elsewhere. (Forbes).* 
The larva. — White, subcyliudrical, a little flattened, with the lateral fold of the 
body rather prominent; end of the body flattened, obtuse, and nearly as wide at the 
end as at the first abdominal ring. The head is one- 
half as wide as the prothoracic ring, being rather 
large. The prothoracic segment, or that next to the 
head, is transversely oblong, being about twice as 
broad as long; there is a pale dorsal corneous trans- 
versely oblong shield, being about two-thirds as long 
as wide, and nearly as long as the four succeeding 
segments; this plate is smooth, except on the pos- 
terior half, which is rough, with the front edge irregu- 
lar, and not extending far down the sides. Fine 
hairs arise from the front edge and side of the plate, 
and similar hairs are scattered over the body and 
especially around the end. On the upper side of each 
segment is a transversely oblong ovate roughened 
area, with the front edge slightly convex, and behind slightly arcuate. On the 
under side of each segment are similar rough horny plates, but arcuate in front, with 
the hinder edge straight. 
It differs from the larva of Saperda vestita Say in the shorter body, which is broader, 
more hairy, with the tip of the abdomen flatter and more hairy. The prothoracic 
segment is broader and flatter, and the rough portion of the dorsal plates is larger 
and less transversely ovate. The structure of the head shows that its generic dis- 
tinctness from Saperda, originally insisted on by Mnlsant, may be well founded, as 
the head is smaller and flatter, the clypeus being twice as large, and the labrum broad 
and short, while in Saperda vestita it is longer than broad. The mandibles are much 
longer and slenderer, aud the antenna; are much smaller than in Saperda vestita. 
Beetle.— A rather flat-bodied, dark-brown beetle, with a rusty-red curved line be- 
hind the eyes, two stripes on the thorax, and with a long red stripe on the outer 
edge of each wing-cover, with three long points projecting inwards; 0.50 inch m 
length. 
2. The red-edged saperda. 
Fig. 71. Larva (from life) and adult 
of the elm-tree borer.— Fro m 
Packard. 
Saperda lateralis Fabricius. 
Order Colboptera; family Cerambycid.e. 
Mining the inner bark of dead trees and logs of the common elm, a grub very sim- 
ilar to the foregoing, and about the 1st of June producing a similar beetle, but differ- 
ing in wanting the transverse teeth or points arising from the marginal stripe on the 
wing-covers. (Fitch.) 
3. Saperda vestita. 
Fouuil oil the elm. This borer is destroyed by the larva of Bracon 
(■harm Riley, a specimen of which was taken from a larva found on the 
above-named tree. (Riley's unpublished notes.) See linden insects. 
