STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
795 
OAK. THUNK. 
eggs mine their burrows mostly lengthwise of the grain or fibres of the 
hark, and the channels which they excavate are so numerous and so filled 
with worm-dust of the same color with the bark, that it is difficult to trace 
them. The eggs are deposited the latter part of June, and the worms 
grow to their full size by the close of the season, and will be found during 
the winter and spring, lying in the inner layers of the bark, in a small oval 
flattened cavity about an inch in length, which is usually at the larger end 
of the track they have travelled. 
This LARVA is divided by transverse constrictions into twelve rings, the last one being 
doubly. The head is small and retracted more or less into the neck, its base white and 
shining, and its anterior part deep tawny yellow, and ulong each side black. The neck or 
first ring is much longer as well as thicker than any of tho others, the two rings next to 
it being shortest. From the neck the body of tho worm is slightly tapered backwards to tho 
middle, from whence it has nearly the same diameter to the tip, where it is bluntly rounded. 
Upon tho upper side of tho neck, occupying tho basal half of this ring, is a large transverse 
tawny yellow spot, rounded upon its forward side, but no corresponding spot appears on 
the under side of this ring. On the middle of all the other rings except the two last, both 
above and below, is an elevated, rough, transverse, oval spot, of a tawny yellow color. 
The BEETLE, like othor species of the family to which it pertains, vanes greatly in its sue, 
specimens before me being of all lengths, from 0.35 to 0.58. It is of an ash-gray color from 
short incumbent hairs or scales, which have a faint tinge of tawny yellow except along the 
suture of tho wing-covers. It is also bearded with fine erect blackish hairs which arise from 
coarsish black punctures which are sprinkled over tho thorax and wing-covers, several of 
which punctures are in tho centre of small black dots, which in places are confluent into 
small irregular spots. Tho head is of tho same width ns tho anterior end of the thorax, and 
has a deep narrow furrow along its middle its whole length, and on the crown is an oval black¬ 
ish spot on each side of this furrow. The face is dark gray, and the anlennm are black with 
an ash-gray band occupying tho basal half of each of the joints. The thorax is narrower 
than the wing-eovers, more broad than long, and thickest across its middle. Upon each sido 
slightly back of tho middle is an angular projection or short broad spine, blunt at its tip. On 
the middle of the back between tho centre and the base is a short impressed line, and on each 
side of this, extending tho whole length of tho thorax is a wavy blackish stripe, which is sud¬ 
denly widened towards its hind end, and is sometimes interrupted in its nuddlo. Often, also, 
there is a blackish spot between tho anterior ends of these stripes, extending from the centre 
of tho thorax to its forward end. The scutcl is ash-gray in its middle and black upon each 
sido. The wing-covers almost always show a largo oblique and irregular triangular spot of 
black on their outer sido forward of the middle, and always behind tho middlo is an irregular 
black oblique band, which seldom reaches to the suture, and which has a notch in the middle 
of its anterior side and opposite to this on its hind side a large angular projection extending 
backward. Immediately back of this band is an irregular spot of a paler black color, which 
is sometimes confluent with the band; and there is also a small blackish spot on the outer side 
of tho tips. The tips aro cut off, sometimes transversely in a straight line, hut usually con- 
cavcly, and sometimes presenting a slight tooth-like projection on each side. The legs are 
ash-gray, the thighs with two black spots on their upper side, and tho shanks with a black 
bund at their base and another at their tip, these bands being more broad on the hind pair. 
On elevating the loose hark of fallen trees the fore part of June, these 
insects will be found therein, lying in the cavities already mentioned, some 
of them being still in their pupa state, whilst others arc changed to their 
perfect form, ready with the stout jaws and sharp teeth with which they 
are furnished, to guaw their way through the bark and come abroad. 
This species occurs throughout the United States and Canada. Different 
specimens of it, however, vary greatly in their aspect. Even when newly 
