THE COATED SAPERDA. 
109 
soon after which, the beetle gnaws through the hark that 
covers the end of its burrow, and comes out of its place of 
confinement in the night. 
Notwithstanding the pains that have been taken by some 
persons to destroy and exterminate these pernicious borers, 
they continue to reappear in our orchards and nurseries every 
season. The reasons of this are to be found in the habits of 
the insects, and in individual carelessness. Many orchards 
suffer deplorably from the want of proper attention; the 
trees are permitted to remain, year after year, without any 
pains being taken to destroy the numerous and various 
insects that infest them; old orchards, especially, are neg¬ 
lected, and not only the rugged tmnks of the trees, but 
even a forest of unpruned suckers around them, are left to 
the undisturbed possession and perpetual inheritance of the 
Saperda. 
On the means that have been used to destroy this borer, a 
few remarks only need to be made; for it is evident that they 
can be fully successful only when generally adopted. Killing 
it by a wire thrust into the holes it has made, is one of the 
oldest, safest, and most successful methods. Cutting out the 
gi'ub, with a knife or gouge, is the most common practice ; 
but it is feared that these tools have sometimes been used 
without sufficient caution. A third method, which has more 
than once been suggested, consists in plugging the holes 
with soft wood. If a little camphor be previously inserted, 
this practice promises to be more effectual; but experiments 
are wanting to confinn its expediency. 
The coated Saperda, or Saperda vestita (Plate II. Fig. 19), 
described by Mr. Say in the Appendix to Keating’s Narrative 
of Major Long’s Expedition, resembles the foregoing species 
in form. It measures from six to eiffiit tenths of an inch in 
o 
length ; it is entirely covered Avith a close greenish-yellow 
doAvn or nap, and has two or three small black dots near the 
middle of each Aving-cover. Mr. Say discovered it near the 
southern extremity of Lake Michigan, and states that it is 
