Chapter XIII. 
INSECTS PREYING UPON THE ALDER. 
Alnas semdata and A. incana. 
Although the alder is a useless shrub, it harbors a number of borers 
and other insects which prey on other forest and fruit trees. The fol- 
lowing* list is by no means a perfect oue, aud will doubtless be greatly 
extended by future observations. Alder insects are numerous in Eu- 
rope: Kaltenbach enumerating 120 species, comprising 33 species of 
Coleoptera; 63 Lepidoptera; 11 Hymeuoptera (Tenthredinidse), and 
13 Eemiptera. 
BOEING IN THE TRUNK. 
1. Fatua denudata (Harris.) 
Order Lepidoptera ; family Se>iid.e. 
Mr. Devereaux writes me that in New York the alder is very badly 
infested by this borer, giving as an instauce 
"as many as four holes in a tree 5 inches in 
diameter." He adds: 
I thmk the alder must be considered as the favorite 
host of JEgeria denudatum, as ash trees in swamps not 
containing alders are almost exempt from their attacks, 
while no clump of alders is without evidence of their 
work. 
2. Saj)erda obliqua Say. 
This beetle has been taken from the alder. 
3. Hepialus argenteomaculatus Harris. 
(Cossus alni Kellicott.) 
Order Lepidoptera : familv Hepialid.e. 
Fig. 204.— Saperda obliqua. 
Smith del. 
Dr. Kellicott* has described the prepara- 
tory stages of this borer, which he at first sup- 
posed to be an undetermined Cossus. See Ent. Amer., IY, p. 153, 1888: 
also p. 346. 
* On the preparatory stages of an undetermined Cossus, Eutomologica Americana, 
i, 18d5, p. 173. 
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