Packard.] THE POPULATION OF AN APPLE TREE. 1G5 
and lives in a cylindrical hole; it then ceases to eject its 
castings, simply pushing them behind it. According to 
Riley, it is within a few days of three j T ears old before it is 
ready to change to a pupa, instead of two, as generally 
stated. Before it becomes fully grown it leaves the heart 
of the tree and makes its way to the bark, just beneath 
which it transforms, making a rude cocoon of chips eight or 
ten inches from its starting point. It pupates late in the 
spring in May, and appears in June and early in July. The 
beetle (Fig. 129, c) is a brown beetle with long antennae, 
with two distinct white stripes. Its primitive home is the 
June berry and mountain ash, while it also infests the haw- 
thorne, wild apple, the quince and sometimes the pear. 
Having become acquainted with the habits of the insect, 
we are prepared to deal in an intelligent way with it. When 
the tree is found to be badly infested the readiest way is to 
cut the worms out, or pour in boiling water. In the autumn 
the bark should be carefully examined and the young worms 
be dug out. The best preventive measure is to apply soap 
to the trunks of young trees in June, or in May in the 
western states, and surround the trunks with tarred paper. 
This will baffle the beetle in laying her eggs. 
The Buprestid Borers .— Two beetles of this family infest 
the trunk of the apple in their larval stage. They have 
hard bodies with a rough exterior, fig. 130 . 
and have the power of snapping up 
in the air when placed on their backs. 
The most common is Chrysobothris 
femorata (Fig. 130, natural size; a, 
larva). The grub is much flattened 
behind the head, forming a rounded a 
expansion, behind which the body is Chrysobothris. 
slender and cylindrical. This is the characteristic form of 
the larvae of this extensive group of borers. The grub lives 
a year under the bark of the apple and oak. The beetle is 
5 
