Beetles 
285 
July or August in the bark, the young borer (a footless, flattened, whitish 
grub) burrowing first into the sap-wood, where it passes the winter. Dur¬ 
ing the next year it bores vigorously around under the bark, and when about 
sixteen months old makes a final deep burrow into the heart-wood, in the 
end of which it pupates. Fig. 394 shows all the stages of this insect. The 
maple-tree pruner, Elaphidion villosum (Fig. 395), } inch long, slender 
grayish brown, lays its eggs on small twigs in maple-trees in July; the larvae 
bore into the center of the twig, eat out a large portion of the woody fiber, 
plug the end of the burrow with castings, and wait for a strong wind to break 
off the nearly severed branch; In the fallen twigs thus broken off the 
larvae pupates, and the beetles issue, the life-history taking just about a year 
for completion. This pest also “prunes” oaks, and apple, pear, plum, and 
other fruit trees. The sawyers, various species of the genus Monohammus, 
are beautiful brown and grayish beetles with extremely long delicate antennae; 
the larvae bore in sound pines and firs and do great injury to evergreen 
forests. 
One of the worst and most familiar orchard pests is the round-headed 
apple-tree borer, Saperda Candida (Fig. 396). 
narrow, and sub cylindrical, pale brown with 
two broad creamy-white longitudinal stripes. 
The eggs are laid on the bark at the base of 
the tree in June and July. The larva works 
at first in the sap-wood, making a flat shallow 
cavity filled with sawdust and castings; later 
it burrows deeper and works upward. When 
nearly three years old it bores a tunnel from 
the heart-wood out nearly to the bark, partly 
filling the outer part with sawdust and then 
retires to the inner end and pupates. Two 
or three weeks after pupation the adult beetle 
issues from the pupal skin, works outward along the tunnel and cuts a 
smooth circular hole in the bark through which it escapes. When several 
larvae are working in a tree they may completely girdle it, so that it dies. 
The most effective remedy is to apply a repellent wash of lime or soft soap 
from the base of the trunk up to the first branches several times during the 
egg-laying time, i.e., June and July. 
A small family, Spondylidae, called the aberrant long-horned beetles, is 
represented in North America by four species, of which the most common 
is Parandra brunnea (PI. II, Fig. 14), a beautiful polished mahogany- 
brown beetle found under the bark of pine-trees. 
The beetle is f inch long, 
Fig. 396. — The round-headed 
apple-tree borer, Saperda Can¬ 
dida, larva and adult beetle. 
(After Saunders; natural size.) 
