two species ; but there are other characteristics 
which are not only conspicuous but so constant, 
that by noticing them the beetles can be readily 
separated, even when mixed up in collection bot¬ 
tles or a cabinet. 
The genus Clytus, in which these borers have 
long been classed, is a very extensive one, and 
for the 6ake of convenience, it has lately been 
better to show the peculiar ornamentation of this 
insect. The principal color is a dull, yellowish 
white, ornamented with large, glossy patches 
and spots of black, as shown. All the white 
portions are oovered with fine, silky hairH, as 
may bo seen with a good Iense, but the black 
parts are smooth and Bbining. The antenme 
are also black, with a slight, grayish pubescence 
at the base of the second joint. The legs are 
black, with more or less pubescence, which gives 
them a grayish tinge. 
quite destructive to maple-trees from Maine to 
Wisconsin, especially to frees standing alone in 
fields or small groves. The borers enter the 
wood to the depth of two inches or more, and 
from near the ground to the bight of fifteen 
feet or more, consequently no application of 
protectors, as in the caeo of the apple-tree borer, 
would be of any use. This maple-tree borer is 
kept in check by one of our largest species of 
Ichneumon-flics (Pimpla lunator ), which works 
its long ovipositor through two or more inches 
of solid, green maple wood and deposits an egg 
in the borer. How this fly is enabled to know 
just the exact spot where the grub is located in 
the tree has often been considered a mystery, 
but it need not bo, for the Pimpla can determine 
this by hearing the grub gnawing tho wood, and 
the needle-like ovipositor iB tipped with a deli¬ 
cate, two-bladed hack-saw (we can liken tho in¬ 
strument to nothing more familiar), with which 
it works into and through tho hard wood, until 
it reaches the borer, when the lower edges of 
the two saws can be opened sufficiently to admit 
of tho minute egg passing between them and 
into the victim, apparently so securely hidden 
beneath two or more inches of hard maple. 
CEDAR BORER. 
This is a familiar arid common little insect 
found plentifully in ship or lumber-yards where 
cedar timber is stored or used. It is represent¬ 
ed, natural size, in Fig. 8. The head and thorax 
are black, with wing-covcrs (elytra) reddish- 
brown, ornamented with black, as shown. The 
insect is too common and well-known to require 
further description. Timber Infested with this 
borer can bo soon cleared of It by immersing it 
in water, as generally practiced in ship-yards. 
HICKORY AND LOCUST BORERS. 
We have two or three species of borers so near 
alike in size, color and markings, that very many 
entomologists have experienced considerable dif¬ 
ficulty ii: distinguishing them, although their 
habits are widely different, even to infesting 
trees not belonging to the same family. The 
most noted instance of this kind, which we now 
call to mind, is that of the Hickory and Locust 
borers. 
Tho first appears in spring and seems to prefer 
hickory cord-wood or a fallen tree, which may 
have been out or blown down the preceding win¬ 
ter. Upon these the female deposits her eggs, 
and the lor van or grubs soon enter the solid wood, 
boring several inches deep into it, throwing out 
their sawdust, like excrement, in immense quan¬ 
tities. We have seen cord-w'ood literally honey¬ 
combed in a single soason by this borer, render¬ 
ing it useless for any other purpose but firewood, 
and its value for this purpose is thereby much 
lessened. 
The second species attacks the locust ( Robina 
DOYENNE D’ALENCON PEAR 
This is one of the many foreign varieties of 
pears long and favorably known in Ibis country, 
and a few trees may he safely admitted into 
every good collection. The fruit is of medium 
size, as shown in tho accompanying outline, and 
of a slightly irregular obovuto or pyri- 
form shape. The skin is somewhat 
rough, shaded with dull red. sprinkled 
with patches of russet-brown. The 
flesh is somewhat granular, but the 
juice is sweet and sprightly and highly 
perfumed. Tt is a good winter variety, 
its season, in our Northern States, 
extending from December to April. 
The tree is only moderately vigorous, 
but quite productive. 
PEARS FOR HOME USE AND 
MARKET. 
A good pear is certainly good any- / 
where, whether obtained in the mar- / 
kel or from one’s own trees in the / 
garden, still in selecting varieties there / 
is room for considerable discrimination / 
between those to be cultivated for 
px'ofit or pleasure. The markets are 
usually more particular in regard to 
appearance than quality, for compara¬ 
tively few persons in cities know the 
names of varieties and consequently 
they are guided more by tho eye than \ 
the palate. Honco showy sorts gener- \ 
ally command the best prices, although, \ 
in time, quality Chinos to he known, as \. 
in the case of the little Necklo which is N 
neither large nor showy, yet through 
long acquaintance its lino flavor has 
hocome pretty generally known. 
Then, again, in selecting varieties 
for certain markets, it is well to have them come 
to maturity at a season when they will not come 
into competition with other popular fruits, such 
as peaches or even melons, for, at such times, 
pears will usually meet with slow sale, however 
good they may be. Very early sorts generally 
command a good price and so do those coming In 
late, or after the berries and peaches are gone. 
ThiB is ono reason why such sorts ns the 1 HtehessO 
d'Angouleme. Beurre d'Anjoii and Sheldon have, 
of iate years, become very popular in the market, 
although they are, in addition, largo and showy. 
But when wo come to soled sorts for home use, 
it is w r ell to look, not only for those which are 
adapted to our climate, but which ripen in suc¬ 
cession, in order to prolong tho season as much 
as possible by commencing with the earliest and 
finishing with tho winter sorts. It is not neces¬ 
sary to plant many trees of each kind, for a 
single specimen, woll cared for, is hotter than a 
dozen neglected in the way that in far too common 
in farmers’ gardens. Wo will not attempt to 
give a list of tho best varieties, because those 
which succeed in one locality may not answer 
for another. We would, however, refer those 
desiring this fruit to some of the many standard 
pomological works or the catalogue of the 
American Bornological Society, in which the 
local value of the various varieties of pears, as 
well as of other fruits, is given. 
divided into several, and the species to which we 
shall have, occasion to refer, are now arranged 
under the generic name of Cyllene, and the hick¬ 
ory borer is now known under the scientific name 
of Cyllritt pictua , or Baluted Cyllene, instead of 
Clytus pictua, in tho older entomological works. 
We mention this, as some of our readers may 
look for tho insect in “ Harris' Insects Injurious 
to Vegetation," or some other contemporary 
work, under the head of Cyllene and not find it, 
while it is mentioned as a Clytus. 
Now, the Painted Clytus, or hickory borer is 
shown in Fig. 10, nfttutal size. The general color 
is a glossy black, with bands across tho thorax 
and other markings—as shown—of pale yellow 
or yellowish white. The locust borer (Fig. 12) 
(Cyllene robinui ) is of the samo color, and the 
markings are the same with this difference that 
the bunds and lines of yellow’ are deeper in color 
and broader, and the center of the W mark on 
the back does not touch the cross band above it 
in the hickory borer, but always does in tho lo¬ 
cust borer. 
At the loft of Figs. 10 and 12. an enlarged 
sketch of the W, and baud above it will show 
the point more conspicuously than when seen in 
the figure of tho insects themselves. Wo have 
examined many hundred specimens of both spe¬ 
cies without finding any variation whatever in 
these characteristics, and believe they could be 
considered trustworthy in separating the two in 
cabinets or elsewhere. 
In Fig. 11 is shown a closely-allied species of 
tho hickory borer, the Cyllene erythropus, which 
attacks the Pecan (a species of hickory) in Texas 
and other Southwestern States and Territo¬ 
ries. It will be seen that there ia no W-sbaped 
mark on the elytra, and that the second and 
third bands are broken up into irregular spots. 
This may be a distinct species, but we are in¬ 
clined to think it is only a local variety of the C. 
pictus. 
For the purpose of showing how colors may be 
reversed in closely-allied species, we give a fig¬ 
ure (13) of Cyllene in/auslu*, Le< found in 
Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado, and probably in 
other Western States and Territories. The ground 
color of this bettle is yellow and the markings 
black, or just the reverse of the three species 
named above. The legs are also black, while 
those of tho others are red, or light-reddish 
brown. 
We would be pleased to receive specimens or 
notes upon the habits, or occurrence of any spe¬ 
cies of Longicorn or other insects from our read¬ 
ers in all parts of the country, and especially in 
the far West, w’here new and rare species may 
usually be found. 
Doyenne d’Alencon Pear. 
This Willow-tree borer is probably not suffi¬ 
ciently abundant to do much harm, and more¬ 
over the species of willow which it is known to 
infest is of no great value. Hence little or no 
attention has been paid to its work. 
TWO STRIPEO APPtE-TREE BORER. 
This is one of the great pests of the apple 
orchard almost, in every locality where apple- 
trees are cultivated. It was described by Tugs. 
Say, some fifty years sgo, under the name of 
Sapcrda livUtata, or Two-striped Saperdci, but 
our ontomologists have since ascertained that 
this samo insect had previously been described 
by Fajjhicics, a European entomologist, under 
the name of 8. Candida. According to the laws 
of priority, therefore, adopted by scientists, the 
latter mime must stand, although the name 
given it by Mr. Nay, bieilttita, appears to be the 
most appropriate. The beetle is slightly less 
than one inch long, as shown in Fig. 7. The 
body is white; thorax and wing-covers light- 
brown. with two white linos extending from the 
head the entire length of both, ns shown. Tho 
female Saperda deposits her eggs near the base 
of the stems of tho tree, where the bark is thin 
and soft. These eggs hatch, uud the young 
borers penetrate the solid wood and, if not dis¬ 
turbed, will sometimes entirely girdle tho tree 
and cause its death. It is supposed that the 
grubs or borers remain in the tree three years 
before reaching maturity, passing the while 
through their metamorphoses, and then again 
emerging as beetles. This pest does not confine 
itself to the apple-tree, but infests the white 
thorns (Cratayua), quince, and mountain ash. 
Both nurserymen and orchardists must he on 
their guard, therefore, lest this pest should be¬ 
come too numerous. Trees standing in an or¬ 
chard cau be protected by keeping the lower 
part of the stem encased in tar-paper or some 
similar protector. 
SUGAR MAPLE-TREE BORER. 
In many of our Northern States the sugar- 
maple is infested with a borer formerly known 
as tho Clytus speoiosus of Bay, but under recent 
classification of this family it is called Glycobius 
speciosus, A very slight idea of the beauty of 
this insect can be obtained from our very excel¬ 
lent portrait (Fig- 8). Its body ia black, orna¬ 
mented with golden-colored spots. The legs are 
yellow and the antenna- black, while the thorax 
and wing-covers (elytra) are ornamented with 
golden bands, as shown in the accompanying il¬ 
lustration. When alive and crawling up and 
down the bark of a tree, or basking in the sun, 
it resembles, in some reBpects, some of our gi¬ 
gantic golden-colored wasps, and few persons, 
without knowing the insect, would dare to take 
it in tlieir hands for fear ol being stung. It is 
perfectly harmless, however, and may be han¬ 
dled with impunity, and we might add, with 
profit, for they are always in demand for ento¬ 
mological oabinets, never having been found in 
sufficient abundance to glut the entomological 
markets of the world. 
The gr ub or larva of this beetle is, however, 
THE LONGICORNS. 
Pseudacacia ) wherever this tree is found grow¬ 
ing wild or cultivated in the United States; and 
over a vast extent of country it has become so 
abundant that the cultivation of locust has had 
to be abandoned. But, unlike the hickory borer, 
this locust pest appears late in summer or early 
in the fall. In this latitude, the first week in 
September is the usual time for their appearance 
and ovipositing soon follows, the young grubs 
penetrating the wood only a short distance be¬ 
fore cold weather sets in. 
The above is the principal difference in the 
habits of these two insects, and this is certainly 
enough to show that they are quite distinct in 
their tastes, in addition to appearing at different 
seasons, for wo could scarcely find two kinds of 
trees more widely separated than the common 
locust and the hickories, yet these two species 
of borers are. as we have said, so near alike in 
appearance that they have been confounded, 
hundreds of times, and w-e presume they are to 
this day in many good collections of coleoptera. 
Even so excellent an entomologist as the late 
Benjamin D. Walsh, declared that males could 
be distinguished by the difference in the length 
of the antenna? hut, said he, “Females are not 
distinguishable at all." Now, after breeding hun¬ 
dreds of specimens of each, at different times, 
we are ready to assert that the length of the *n- 
tennoe is not a distinguishing difference in the 
[Continued from last week.] 
WILLOW-TREE BORER. 
From Texas northw ard to Missouri the willows 
growing along the margins of streams are often 
infested with a very large borer, which works 
FANCY MEADOWS, TENN. 
Some among the numerous readers of the 
Rural New-Yorker, may be interested in learn¬ 
ing something about East Teimessee. Our prin¬ 
cipal agricultural productions are corn, wheat, 
oats and tobacco, with fruits of all kinds to a 
limited extent; but. California excepted, a finer 
fruit country cannot be found in the United 
States. This is an exccllei.. section for the pear, 
the peach and the apple, especially the peach ; 
while with regard to the melon, unless you lia\ e 
eaten those grown here, you have yet to learn 
how delicious this fruit can be. The soil is as 
Fig. 6. 
mainly in tho lower portion of the stems and in 
the exposed roots. Very little is known of the 
habits of this borer beyond the fact that it lives 
in the willows and is tbc larva of a largo and 
handsome beetle, the Plectro<Ura acalator. This 
handsome longicorn is shown in Fig. G, natural 
size, although an occasional specimen will be 
found somewhat smaller and others larger. Back 
and side views are given of the same in order the 
