2 
HISTORY IN ILLINOIS. 
The fruit bark beetle was first observed in this State by mj 
assistant, Mr. John Marten, June 15, 1888, while on an ento 
mological trip from the office through Southern Illinois. Sped 
mens of damaged plum twigs were handed him by a gentleman 
at Albion, Edwards county, who had noticed an apparenl 
blight of the trees in his village door-yard, which, upon exam 
ination, seemed to be due to insect injury. The twigs wer<j 
dried and shriveled for six or more inches from the tops, anc 
most of the leaves had fallen, the remainder being withered anc 
yellow. Close examination showed minute holes like pin pricks 
at the bases of several of the buds, these leading iiito longi 
tudinal burrows about the diameter of a pin, running mostly 
lengthwise under the bark. Dead beetles found in the burrows 
somewhat cursorily examined by Mr. Marten, were identified b^ 
him as the so-called “pear blight beetle,” Xyleborus pyri, anc 
so published in the “Prairie Farmer” for December 15, 188£ 
(p. 818), but a later examination, made at the office the fol 
lowing spring, showed that the beetle was Scolytus rugulosus 
It was next brought to my attention by a letter from Mr 
George W. Endicott, of Villa Ridge, Pulaski county, written ir 
response to a circular request to horticulturists, issued Feb 
16, 1889, for information on any subject in horticultural ent-o 
mology which seemed to require fresh investigation. In this 
letter the beetle was said to work on the trunks of wild goosi 
and other plums of the Chickasaw family, boring numerous 
round holes, and laying eggs which hatched small white worms 
that completely girdled the tree in a single year. Later in this 
month specimens were received from Mr. Endicott; two pieces 
of affected plum-trees, one a section of a trunk four inches ir 
diameter, and the other a branch one and a fourth inches 
through, the latter dead, and the bark everywhere perforatec 
with numerous circular holes 1 to 1 % mm. in diameter. Thesi 
were most numerous in the old leaf scars, as many as six to e 
single scar, but were elsewhere uniformly but irregularly dis 
tributed, averaging perhaps five or six to the square inch. Tin 
bark was thoroughly undermined by burrows of about tin 
same size as the openings, made in the deeper portion of tin 
bark and the outer part of the sap wood, so as to give the sur 
face when the bark was removed a grooved appearance, most o 
the grooves running irregularly lengthwise. On carefully cutting 
the bark from about three square inches, fragments of a deac 
beetle were discovered, together with eight living full-growi 
larvae and a single pupa,—this last a point of special interes' 
as bearing upon the life history of the species. 
Next, at Fairfield, Ill., May 10,1890, adult beetles were found aliv< 
in the bark of apple-trees. Others were seen flying in the or 
chard and alighting on the trees, as shown by specimens caugh 
in the fingers. They were flying swiftly and freely, as if capabl 
of protracted flights. 
