360 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Yol. 13 
An important office which field demonstrations should serve is that 
of showing the beekeepers what kind of assistance the Extension 
Department of their State College can render them. The extension 
work in bee culture is somewhat new for most of the states, so that the 
beekeepers have not yet learned to look to the Extension Service for 
help along this line. This makes it important, I think, that the ex¬ 
tension specialist make the field demonstration an important part of 
his work, especially during the summer. 
In our fight to eliminate poor equipment, especially the old box hive, 
the field demonstration has one of its greatest values. The specialist 
can easily show why beekeeping under such conditions is unprofitable; 
how inspection of bees in box hives is impossible and that disease will 
run riot unchecked; how the hives cannot be manipulated to secure the 
highest production of honey; and how swarm control methods can¬ 
not be used successfully, consequently, colonies often swarm them¬ 
selves to death. 
For these reasons I believe the field demonstration as a means for 
extension work in bee culture has a great future, and that its possibil¬ 
ities have, as yet, been but lightly touched. 
WESTERN TWIG PRUNERS 
By Frank B. Herbert, Scientific Assistant, 1 Los Gatos, Calif. 
There are several beetles in the West which prune twigs and small 
branches from a number of trees. Apparently all are native species, 
but work upon exotic as well as indigenous plants. They bore into 
twigs, varying from one-eighth to a quarter inch or more in diameter, 
often entering where two branches fork and following down the center 
for a short distance. This weakens the twigs, generally causing them 
to break down from their own weight or during a windstorm. The 
small branches usually die back beyond the point of attack, offering 
excellent entrances for fungi and other insects. 
This peculiar habit is not for the purpose of forming a brood gallery 
nor a breeding place in any sense, but seems to be done in order to 
obtain food, particularly when a considerable lapse of time occurs 
between emergence and egg laying. 
Single individuals only are found in each burrow. These remain 
but a short time and then abandon them, presumably to mate and lay 
their eggs. 
Polycaon confertus Leconte (family Bostrichidae), often called the 
olive twig borer, is the one most commonly met with. It is a rather 
1 Branch of Forest Entomology, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Department of 
Agriculture. 
