ASH-TREE BORERS. 541 
I think the alder must be considered the favorite host of the JEgeria (Fatua) denu- 
data, as ash trees in swamps not containing alder are almost exempt from their at- 
tacks, while no clump of alder is without evidence of their work. 
2. Eburia quadrigeminata Say. 
Order Coleoptera ; family Cerambycid^e. 
Under the heading "A remarkable case of longevity in a longicorn 
beetle, Eburia quadrigeminata (American Naturalist, xx, p. 1055), Mr. J. 
McNeil writes as follows : 
On the 11th of July, 1886, I caught at sugar, which had been placed upon apple 
trees for the purpose of attracting moths, a light brown long-horned beetle, marked 
with ivory -yellow spots on the elytra. My attention was particularly attracted at 
this time to the insect on account of a peculiar creaking sound which it began as soon 
as I picked it up. I had no difficulty in finding that the sound was produced by the 
rubbing of the posterior margin of the prothorax upon the anterior margin of the 
mesothorax. The same sound could be made after the insect was dead, by working 
backward and forward its head and prothorax. Several days after this occurrence 
I captured a specimen, similar to the first, upon the clothes of a friend, but it disap- 
peared before I reached home. On the 17th of July I found a third specimen on a 
tree but a few feet distant from that upon which I discovered the first specimen ; 
this individual was also evidently attracted by the sugar. Five days later, July 22, 
1886, another specimen came into my possession under much more remarkable cir- 
cumstances. Dr. Boyd, of Dublin, Wayne County, Ind., called my attention as I was 
walking along the street, and at once proceeded to remove two small corks with 
which he had closed two openings in the door-sill of his office. He then requested 
me to explain what had made the tunnels that evidently extended some distance into 
the sill. In reply to my questions, he stated that his attention had been called to 
the freshly made openings early in the morning; at that time the holes were much 
smaller, and were ragged around the edges. These rough edges he had smoothed 
with a knife so he could stop them tightly with corks. A short time after he 
made the discovery mentioned, his attention was attracted by a buzzing noise which 
came from one of the tunnels. This he put an end to by pouring chloroform into the 
opening, and then plugging it up with a cork. There had been no sound of life from 
the other tunnel, but he had closed it in the same manner. Upon hearing this I re- 
moved the cork from the tunnel where the sound had been heard, and in a moment 
dragged out by its antennae a beetle, similar to those whose capture I have already 
described. This beetle is Eburia quadrigeminata Say. 
A closer examination of the tunnels in Dr. Boyd's door-step showed that the exter- 
nal openings were in the middle of the length and breadth of an ash door-sill and 
about 4 inches distant from each other. The size of the tunnels increased rapidly 
within until the diameter was three or more times as great as at the exit. They ex- 
tended downward and backward, respectively, 3 and 4 inches. The sill was of 
painted ash and it as well as the whole building rested directly upon a solid brick 
foundation. After having completed the above observations, I did not hesitate long 
in coming to the conclusion that the eggs which had produced this beetle and its 
fellow that had made good its escape were laid in the green wood in the tree. In 
response to my questions, Dr. Boyd made the statement that the building was erected 
in the spring of 1867. This would make these insects not less than nineteen, and 
probably twenty or more, years old, since the timber was dry when put into the 
house. 
Professor Thomas states that its larva lives and bores in the honey-locust (Gledit- 
schia triacanthus Linn.), and from this fact it gets its name of irhe honey-locust borer. 
The beetle. — Body entirely pale yellowish brown ; antennae hardly more obviously 
hairy on the basal joints than on the others ; thorax with two black tubercles above, 
