730 [Assembly 
previously dwelt. On laying open one of these burrows I find 
it is more than an inch in length and all its lower part is filled 
and blocked up with the fine sawdust-like castings 
of the worm. Thus when the worm is destined to lay 
torpid and inactive during the long months of winter, 
it has the forethought, so to speak, to place itself in a 
safe and secure retreat, within the solid wood of the 
tree, with the hole leading to its cell plugged up, so 
as effectually to prevent any enemy from gaining 
admission to it. 
Still, this worm is not able to secure itself entirely 
from those parisitic insects which are the destroyers of so many 
other species of its race, and which, as is currently remarked, 
appear to have been created for the express purpose of preying 
upon those species, iu order to prevent their becoming excefsively 
muliiplied. We should expect that this and other borers, lying 
as they do beneath the bark or within the wmod of trees, were so 
securely shielded, that it would be impossible for any insect 
enemy to discover and gain access to them, to molest or destroy 
them. But among the specimens sent me by Mr. Barry, is one, 
where the worm has been entirely devoured, nothing but its 
shrivelled skin remaining, within and upon which are several 
minute maggots or footless little grubs, soft, dull w'hi'e, shining, 
of a long egg-shaped form, pointed at the tip and blunt in front, 
their bodies divided into segments by very fine transverse im¬ 
pressed lines or sutures. They are about one-tenth of an inch 
long and 0.035 broad at the widest part. These are evidently 
the larvae of some small Hymenopterous or Bee-like insect, per¬ 
taining, there can be little doubt, to the family Ciialcjdid.® —the 
female of which has the instinct to discover these borers, probably 
in the earlier periods of their life when they are lying directly 
beneath the bark, and piercing through the bark with her ovipo¬ 
sitor, and puncturing the skin of the borer, drops her eggs 
therein, which subsequently hatch and subsist upon the boier, 
eventually destroying it. These minute larva} were forwarded to 
me under the supposition that they were injurious to the Apple 
tree, whereas, by destroying these pernicious borers, it is evident 
they must be regarded as our best friends. This fact illustrates 
