MAPLE BORERS. 385 
shield the tree from the other borer, it will indirectly shield it from this 
one. Mr. Genuadius recommends whitewashing the trunks, and tilling 
up all holes and fissures with mortar, so as to render the bark as smooth 
as possible." 
Mr. W. Saunders remarks that the female deposits her eggs on the 
bark of the soft and sugar maple trees, chiefly on the former, and when 
hatched the young larvae burrow through the bark and feed upon the 
inner portion and sap wood, never penetrating into the solid heart- wood. 
The excavations made by the larva are filled with its brown castings. 
When it is fully grown it eats its way nearly through the bark, leaving 
but a very thin layer unbroken ; it then retires within its burrow, and 
having inclosed itself within a loose, silky cocoon, changes to a brown 
chrysalis. A short time before the moth escapes the chrysalis wriggles 
itself forward and pushing itself against the thin papery-like layer of 
bark, ruptures it and protrudes as shown in Fig. 142, d. Soon afterward 
the imprisoned moth in its struggles ruptures the chrysalis and escapes. 
"This insect appears to be increasing in numbers every year, and is 
very destructive, especially to young maple trees. Many of the shade 
trees in London are much injured by it, and when very numerous it is 
liable to completely girdle the tree and kill it. It is also found through- 
out the Middle States. To prevent the moths from laying their eggs 
the trunks of the trees should be painted about the first of June with a 
mixture of soft-soap and lye about the thickness of paint, or with a mixt- 
ure of lime and soap. When once the larvae obtain an entrance it is 
very difficult to discover them, and they will then carry on their de- 
structive work all through the summer." (Can. Ent., xiii, p. 69.) (See 
also Insect Life, ii, 1890, 251.) 
The moth. — Head and palpi deep reddish orange, thorax ocherous yellow; abdomen 
bluish black varied with yellow, with a deep reddish terminal tuft. Fore- wings with 
the edges and median vein bluish black dusted with yellowish; a large discal bluish 
black patch ; end of the wing ocherous yellow with a blackish subterminal band 
and the veins blackish. Hind wings with a blackish discal patch. Body 
beneath ocherous yellow, with a bluish black patch on each side of the second ab- 
dominal segment. Middle and posterior tibire ringed with bluish black ; the fore- 
legs blackish, with the coxae (or hip joints) touched with reddish orange ; expanse 
of wings about 0.80 inch. 
The larva is a little over half an inch long, livid white, the head small and yellow, 
cervical shield paler ; with sixteen legs, all of which are reddish. (Clemens.) 
7. The flat-headed apple-tree borer. 
Chrysobothris femorata Fabricius. 
In the Mississippi Valley, sometimes riddling soft maples through and througb, 
sometimes confining itself mostly to the inner bark, causing peculiar black scars and 
' holes in the trunk ; a flat-headed grub, transforming to a flat, hard-shelled beetle.' 
(Riley.) 
While this beetle more commonly infests the oak (p. 64) and the 
apple, it threatens in the Western States, according to Riley, to impair 
the value of the soft maple for shade and ornamental purposes. 
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