February, ’14] 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES 
159 
advocating plowing in Ohio. In Ontario we believe that we must not 
only cut the stubble low—just as low as the binder can cut it—but also 
plough it down and keep it under, otherwise we could not make any 
progress in controlling the borer. To emphasize this I may say that 
in stubble cut not higher than 6 inches we have found over 24,000 
borers per acre. So you can see what would happen if this stubble 
were not ploughed under. 
Mr. T. H. Parks : Perhaps I can clear up our situation in a way. We 
believe that if the farmers in northern Ohio burn the surface and plough, 
they will kill most of the larvae. 
[End of corn borer discussion. Editor] 
Scientific Notes 
The Oak Girdler, Oncideres quercus Skinner. On September 28, 1923, while 
collecting in Oak Creek canyon near Sedona, Arizona, we found oak limbs girdled by 
Oncideres quercus. After a diligent search we discovered the beetles, one of which 
was in the act of depositing eggs in an already girdled shoot. One bush noted was 
suffering with twenty-six girdled limbs. 
While building a fence, oak bushes had been cut off a few feet above the ground, 
causing them to put out numerous succulent shoots from the base the following season. 
The insects evidently preferred this sappy wood on which to feed and deposit eggs, 
as they selected it in preference to the normal growth. For food the adults climb 
to the extremity of the limbs and feed on the tender bark at the tips of the shoots, 
and particularly around the leaf buds. The girdled limbs are from one to three feet 
long and average one half inch in diameter. They have about one egg puncture to 
every one and one-fourth inches, but no egg is deposited in over half of these. The 
insect inserts the egg between the bark and the wood and by a secretion causes the 
bark to raise in a blister so that when the wood dries the egg is relieved from bark 
pressure. 
On September 19, 1923 in Skull Valley, Arizona, and again on October 26, 1923 
near Prescott, Arizona, we found the oak girdled, though at that time there were no 
insects, as the season was probably too late for them at these higher altitudes. 
The stock on the open range is almost wholly dependent on the tender shoots of 
oak for feed during several winter months. If this insect should multiply as has the 
mesquite girdler, Oncideres putator Thomas, the winter range would be seriously 
impaired. 
Harold R. Brisley, Plant pathologist, and R. A. Channel, 
United Verde Extension Mining Co., Clemenceau, Arizona 
Notoxus anchora Hentz apparently feeding on a blister-beetle. —An interesting 
observation was made by the writer while collecting live blister-beetles, Macrobasis 
unicolor Kirby, on July 18, 1923, near East Lansing, Mich. Most of the adults were 
very active and flew readily. One of them, however, was quite inactive and made 
little or no attempt to get away. When the insect was taken a number of adults of 
Notoxus anchora Hentz rushed out from under the elytra. Five of these were cap- 
