ee ee ate knee are oee pe eS : | Perec hana Pc : ‘ 2 ee ee Cen aaa: ee ag ee ee ia 5 Me - cat acth Ohi POT a Ss ate ft aL i" rae | oy F y | ¢ eo 7 | 3 a i REPORT ON THE INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS, INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. a Vv PUBLISHED AGREEABLY TO AN ORDER OF “ THE LEGISLATURE, Fd BY THE COMMISSIONERS ON THE ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL SURVEY OF THE STATE, CAMBRIDGE: FOLSOM, WELLS, AND THURSTON, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 1841. mS eR TeUUOAZA AY SN EOC oat 1 itor a r ithe : ot 9 ay ie if ; ne | rue es. st YOURE DAY OT RROMLET ee J : ' ny i } a a ae mie . ; Mw) HAGE FA OF VYARASO) TN UPR Oh j ‘ x * ie. | META TERE MA ot 3 y “y " -d ” Ligne a tt PARAL GHA. Soma? 32 po) sated y ede Rann | . AW OO ; = ‘' . — * Pace ‘f ay ay P ; 43 WPA Ge RBA BOLD ae ee SERCH Be coli alt \. at 4 r ah ptr d Sct Ty Bie ay P "7s “1p he ‘ . Bs 1 ; ew 4 D To Gerorce B. Emerson, Esaq., Chairman of the Commissioners On the Zoological and Botanical Survey of Massachusetts. Dear Sir, © Upon forwarding to me my commission, in the year 1837, you were pleased to request me to prepare a Report on the Insects of Massachusetts. The magnitude of the task, and various other motives deterred me from attempting to describe all the insects which might have been discovered by a careful and thorough survey of the whole State. A work of this kind, — much as it might promote the cause of science, if well done, — could not be expected to prove either interesting or particularly useful to the great body of the people. Some idea of the extent of such an undertaking may be formed from an onaaeadon of the Catalogues of the Insects of Massachusetts, drawn up ) by me for the first and second editions of Professor Hitchcock’s ‘* Report on the Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology,”’ of this State. Believing that agriculture and horticulture, when aided by science, tend greatly to improve the condition of any people, and that these pursuits form the basis of our prosperity, and are the safeguards of our liberty and independence, I have felt it my duty, in treating the subject assigned to me, to endeavour to make it useful and acceptable to those persons whose honorable employment is the cultivation of the soil. Some knowledge of the classification of insects and of the scien- tifie details of entomology seems to be necessary to the farmer, to enable him to distinguish his friends from his enemies of the insect race. He ought to be acquainted with the transformations and habits of the latter, in all their states, so that he Te eho how and when most sycpeestully to ereploy the means for preventing thely wavages. This kind efskndwledg¢ will ofier guige pi am the sagcptiog at of the proper remedies, &nd may prevent him from falling into many ‘mis- tak@.° Not oilyethe farmer, however, but thase who,are engaged in | other employments, would find some profit and Ree in the study vi INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. of the natural history of insects, were the means for obtaining infor- mation on this branch of science more generally diffused. The plan of this Report, which I have now the honor of submitting, through you, to the people of this Commonwealth, was suggested by the foregoing considerations, by the want of a work on our native in- sects, combining scientific with practical details, and by the letter of instructions that accompanied my commission, wherein the economi- cal advantages to be derived from an investigation of the natural his- tory of this State, were particularly pointed out as objects of attention. A large amount of the materials, made use of in this work, was collected many years ago, at comparatively little cost; but, after en- tering on my official duties, I was obliged to procure, at an expense far exceeding the compensation allowed me, a great number of books, in order to make myself acquainted with the discoveries and improve- ments in entomology therein set forth. In some cases I have had to rely on the recorded observations of others, for the want of an oppor- tunity to make the necessary investigations myself. ‘The many ap- plications, which I have made to various persons, for information respecting our destructive insects, have rarely brought me any satis- factory replies. The greater part of my first report, which was pre- sented to the Legislature, in the year 1838, has been embodied in this, in order to afford a connected view of the whole subject. From among the numerous insects which are injurious to plants, I have se- lected for description chiefly those which are remarkable for their size, for the peculiarity of their structure and habits, or for the extent of their ravages; and these, alone, will be seen to constitute a for- midable host. You have already looked over a considerable part of the manu- script, and have been pleased to express a favorable opinion of it. Should it prove as satisfactory to you and to the public, in its present form, the time and labor, bestowed upop it, will not have been spent in vain, By your friend and servant, THADDEUS WILLIAM HARRIS. Cambridge, December 1, 1841. WMO) xin tt ea CON TiN rs’. INTRODUCTION. The word Insect defined, — Brain and nerves, — Air-pipes and Breathing- holes, — Heart and Blood, 4.— Insects are produced from Eggs, — Meta- morphoses, — Examples of Complete Transformation, 5.— Partial Trans- formation, 6. — Larva or Infant State, Pupa or Intermediate State, Adult, or Winged State, 7.— Head, Eyes, Antenne, and Mouth, 8. — Thorax or Chest, Wings and Legs,— Abdomen or Hind-body, 9.— Piercer, and Sting, — Number of Insects compared with Plants, — Classification, Or- ders, Coleoptera, 10. — Orthoptera, Hemiptera, 11.— Neuroptera, Lepi- doptera, 12.— Hymenoptera, 13.— Diptera, 14.— Other Orders and Groups, 17. — Remarks on Scientific Names, 19. COLEOPTERA. Beetles, —Scarabeians, 21.— Ground-Beetles, Tree-Beetles, 22.— Cock- chafers or May-Beetles, 23. — Flower-Beetles, 35. — Stag-Beetles, 38. — Buprestians, or Saw-horned Borers, 40. — Spring-Beetles, 46. — Timber- Beetles, 51.— Weevils, 53. — Cylindrical Bark-Beetles, 71. — Capricorn- Beetles, or Long-horned Borers, 77.— Leaf-Beetles, 94. — Criocerians, 95 — Leaf-mining Beetles, 97. — Tortoise-Beetles, 98. — Chrysomelians, 99. — Cantharides, 109. ORTHOPTERA. Structure and Transformations, 114. — Earwigs, 116. — Cockroaches, 118. — Mantes, or Soothsayers, 118.— Walking-leaves, Spectres, — Crick- ets, 119. — Mole-Cricket, 120.— Field-Crickets, 121.— Climbing-Crick- et, 123. — Cucumber Skippers, 125.— Grasshoppers, 125. — Awl-Bearer, or wingless Cricket, 126. — Katy-did, 127. — Locusts, or flying Grass- hoppers, 1382. HEMIPTERA. Bugs, 156.— Squash-Bug, 158. — Plant-Bugs, 160. — Harvest-Flies, 164. — Cicadas, 165.— Tree-Hoppers, 177. — Leaf-Hoppers, 182. — Vine-Hop- per, 183. — Bean-Hopper, 185.— A phidians, 186.— Thrips, Plant-Lice, 187. — American Blight, 193.— Enemies of Plant-Lice, 196. — Bark-Lice, 198. viil CONTENTS. LEPIDOPTERA. Caterpillars, 206.— Butterflies, 209. — Skippers, 222. — Hawk-Moths, 225. £gerians, or Boring Caterpillars, 230.—Glaucopidians, 236.— Moths, 237. — Spinners, 239. — Lithosians, 240. — Tiger-Moths, and Ermine-Moths, 242, — Tussock-Moths, 258. — Lackey-Moths, 265.— Lappet-Moths, 272. — Saturnians, 276.— Ceratocampians, 287. — Carpenter-Moths, 295. — —Psychians, 297.— Notodontians, 301.— Owl-Moths, 315.— Spindle- Worms, 318. — Cut-Worms, 321. — Geometers or Span-Worms, 330. — Canker-Worms, 332.— Delta-Moths, 343. — Leaf Rollers, 346. — Bud- Moths, 348.— Fruit-Moths, 351. — Tinew, 355.— Bee-Moths, 357.— Clothes-Moths, 360. — Grain- Moths, 363. — Feather-winged Moths, 368. HYMENOPTERA. Stingers and Piercers, 369.— Habits of some of the Hymenopterous In- sects, 370. — Saw-Flies, 371. — False Caterpillars and Slugs, 373. — Elm Saw-F ly, 374.— Fir Saw-Fly, 375. — Vine Saw-F ly, 378. — Rose-bush Slug, 380. —Pear-tree Slug, 382. — Horn-tailed Wood-Wasps, 386.— Four-winged Gall-Flies, 395. DIPTERA. Gnats and Flies, 401.— Maggots, and their Transformations, 402. — Club- footed Gnat, 404. — Snow-Gnat, 404, — Black Fly, Midges, 405. — Horse- Flies, 405.— Bee-Flies, 406.— Asilians, 407.— Soldier-Flies, 408. — Syrphians, 409. — Conopians, 410. — Parasitical Flies, Viviparous Flesh- Flies, 411.— Piercing Stable-Flies, Meat-Flies, and House-Flies, 412, — Flower-Flies, 414. — Two-winged Gall-Flies, and Fruit-Flies, 416. — Oscinians, 417.— Bot-Flies, 418. — Bird-Flies, and Spider-Flies, 420. — Flea, 421. — Gall-Gnats, 421. — Hessian Fly, 422. — Barley-Fly, 433. — Wheat-Fly, 437.— Wheat-Thrips, 444. — Wheat-Worm, Grain-Worm, or Wheat-Caterpillar, 445. INDEX) (3). - 6 Sil «oun yd CORRECTIONS. Page 18, line 16, for Phryanead@ read Phryganeade (Cera Med, “© pailstul ‘© pailfuls « AB @« 4, ¢ ostates « state 6 92, SS 29) ** ~Democerus «¢ Desmocerus 66. ade 88 HS, Ke its “their goa) fe as Fs of: “and “ 240, 11, “ Glaucopsis ‘¢ Glaucopis SN PLIS) eal Niortai IS ree "04 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. one family called MeLoLonTHADA, or Melolonthians. The fol- lowing are the general characters of these insects. ‘The body is oblong oval, convex, and generally of a brownish color ; the antenne are nine or more commonly ten jointed, the knob 1s much longer in the males than in the females, and consists gener- ally of three leaf-like pieces, sometimes of a greater number, which open and shut like the leaves of a book ; the visor is short and wide ; the upper jaws are furnished at base on the inner side with an oval space, crossed by ridges, like a millstone, for grind- ing ; the thorax is transversely square, or nearly so; the wing- cases do not cover the whole of the body, the hinder extremity of which is exposed ; the legs are rather long, the first pair armed externally with two or three teeth ; and the claws are notched be- neath, or are split at the end like the nib ofa pen. ‘The powerful and horny jaws are admirably fitted for cutting and grinding the leaves of plants, upon which these beetles subsist ; their notched or double claws support them securely on the foliage ; and their strong and jagged fore-legs, being formed for digging in the ground, point out the place of their transformations. The general habits and transformations of the common cock- chafer of Europe have been carefully observed, and will serve to exemplify those of the other insects of this family, which, as far as they are known, seem to be nearly the same. This insect de- vours the leaves of trees and shrubs. Its duration in the perfect state is very short, each individual living only about a week, and the species entirely disappearing in the course of a month. After the sexes have paired, the males perish, and the females enter the earth to the depth of six inches or more, making their way by means of the strong teeth which arm the fore-legs ; here they de- posit their eggs, amounting, according to some writers, to nearly one hundred, or, as others assert, to two hundred from each female, which are abandoned by the parent, who generally as- cends again to the surface, and perishes in a short time. From the eggs are hatched, in the space of fourteen days, little whitish grubs, each provided with six legs near the head, and a mouth furnished with strong jaws. When in a state of rest, these grubs usually curl themselves in the shape of a crescent. They subsist on the tender roots of various plants, committing ravages COLEOPTERA. 25 among these vegetable substances, on some occasions of the most deplorable kind, so as totally to disappoint the best founded hopes of the husbandman. During the summer they live under the thin coat of vegetable mould near the surface, but, as winter approaches, they descend below the reach of frost, and kemain torpid until the succeeding spring, at which time they change their skins, and reascend to the surface for food. At the close of their third summer, (or, as some say, of the fourth or fifth,) they cease eating, and penetrate about two feet deep into the earth ; there, by its motions from side to side, each grub forms an oval cavity, which is lined by some glutinous substance thrown from its mouth. In this cavity it is changed to a pupa by casting off its skin. In this state, the legs, antenne, and wing-cases of the future beetle are visible through the transparent skin which en- velopes them, but appear of a yellowish white color; and thus it remains until the month of February, when the thin film which encloses the body is rent, and three months afterwards the per- fected beetle digs its way to the surface, from which it finally emerges during the night. According to Kirby and Spence, the grubs of the cock-chafer sometimes destroy whole acres of grass by feeding on its roots. They undermine the richest meadows, and so loosen the turf that it will roll up as if cut by a turfing spade. 'l'hey do not confine themselves to grass, but eat the roots of wheat, of other grains, and also those of young trees. About seventy years ago, a farmer near Norwich, in England, suffered much by them, and, with his man, gathered eighty bushels of the beetles. In the year 1785 many provinces in France were so ravaged by them, that a premium was offered by government for the best mode of destroying them. ‘The Society of Arts in London, during many years, held forth a premium for the best account of this insect, and the means of checking its ravages, but without having produced one successful claimant. In their winged state, these beetles, with several other species, act as conspicuous a part in injuring the trees, as the grubs do in destroying the herbage. During the month of May they come forth from the ground, whence they have received the name of May- bugs, or May-beetles. They pass the greater part of the day upon trees, clinging to the under-sides of the leaves, in a state of 4 4 A a ae 26 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. repose. As soon as evening approaches, they begin to buzz about among the branches, and continue on the wing till towards midnight. In their droning flight, they move very irregu- larly, darting hither and thither with an uncertain aim, hitting against objects in their way with a force that often causes them to fall to the ground. ‘They frequently enter houses in the night, apparently attracted, as well as dazzled and bewildered, by the lights. Their vagaries, in which, without having the power to harm, they seem to threaten an attack, have caused them to be called dors, that is darers ; while their seeming blindness and stupidity have become proverbial, in the expressions, ‘‘ blind as a beetle,”’ and ‘‘ beetle-headed”’. Besides the leaves of fruit-trees, they devour those of various forest-trees and shrubs, with an avidity not much less than that of the locust, so that, in certain seasons, and in particular districts, they become an oppressive scourge, and the source of much misery to the inhabitants. Mouffet relates that, in the year 1574, such a number of them fell into the river Severn, as to stop the wheels of the water-mills ; and, in the Philosophical Transactions, it is stated, that in the year 1688 they filled the hedges and trees of Galway, in such in- finite numbers as to cling to each other like bees when swarming ; and, when on the wing, darkened the air, annoyed travellers, and produted a sound like distant drums. In a short time, the leaves of all the trees, for some miles round, were so totally consumed by them, that at midsummer the country wore the aspect of the depth of winter. Another chafer, Anomala vitis Ef. is sometimes exceedingly injurious to the vine. It prevails in certain provinces of France, where it strips the vines of their leaves, and also devours those of the willow, poplar, and fruit-trees. The animals and birds appointed to check the ravages of these insects, are, according to Latreille, the badger, weasel, martin, bats, rats, the common dung-hill fowl, and the goat-sucker or night-hawk. ‘T'o this list may be added the common crow, which devours not only the perfect insects, but their larve, for which purpose it is often observed to follow the plough. In ‘ Ander- son’sRecreations,”’ it is stated that ‘‘a cautious observer, having found a nest of five young jays, remarked, that each of these birds, Coo eee eee COLEOPTERA. 27 while yet very young, consumed at least fifteen of these full-sized grubs in one day, and of course would require many more of a smaller size. Say that, on an average of sizes, they consumed twenty a-piece, these for the five make one hundred. Each of the parents consume say “fifty ; so that the pair and family devour two hundred every day. ‘This, in three months, amounts to twenty thousand in one season. But as the grub continues in that state four seasons, this single pair, with their family alone, without reck- oning their descendants after the first year, would destroy eighty thousand grubs. Let us suppose that the half, namely forty thous- and, are females, and it is known that they usually lay about two hundred eggs each ; it will appear, that no less than eight millions have been destroyed, or prevented from being hatched, by the la- bors of a single family of jays. It is by reasoning in this way, that we learn to know of what importance it is to attend to the economy of nature, and to be cautious how we derange it by our short- sighted and futile operations.”” Our own country abounds with insect-eating beasts and birds, and without doubt the more than abun ‘ant Melolonthe form a portion of their nourishment. In the year 1817, the Fabrician genus MELOLONTHA contained three hundred and f.ve known species, two hundred and twenty- six of which still retained that name, and seventy-nine were sep- arated into five distinct genera. A great number of new species have since | een added to this list, which it has become necessary still further to subdivide. Ina prize essay on the noxious insects of this genus, written by me in 1826, and published in the tenth volume of the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal, several new genera were proposed, and the principal insects they were designed to include were pointed out. Several years after- wards it became known to me, that similar genera, founded on a consideration of the same insects, had been made by European naturalists, some of whom published the result of their investiga- tions before, and others after mine had appeared. Those of my names, therefore, that had been anticipated in point of time, must be dropped ; the others, I have thought proper to retain in the present essay. We have several Melolonthians whose injuries in the perfect and grub state approach to those of the European cock-chafer. le) | ec 28 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. Phyllophaga* quercina of Knoch, the May-beetle, as it is gener- ally called here, is our common species. It is of a chestnut- brown color, smooth, but finely punctured, that is, covered with little impressed dots, as if pricked with the point of a needle ; each wing-case has two or three slightly elevated longitudinal lines ; the breast is clothed with yellowish down. The knob of its antenne contains only three leaf-like joints. Its average length is nine tenths of an inch. In its perfect state it feeds on the leaves of trees, particularly on those of the cherry-tree. It flies with a humming noise in the night, from the middle of May to the end of June, and frequently enters houses, attracted by the light. In the course of the spring, these beetles are often thrown from the earth by the spade and plough, in various states of maturity, some being soft and nearly white, their superabundant juices not having evap- orated, while others exhibit the true color and texture of the per- fect insect. ‘The grubs devour the roots of grass and of other plants, and in many places the turf may be turned up like a carpet in consequence of the destruction of the roots. ‘The gruby is a white worm with a brownish head, and, when fully grown, is nearly as thick as the little finger. It is eaten greedily by crows and fowls. ‘The beetles are devoured by the skunk, whose bene- ficial foraging is detected in our gardens by its abundant excrement filled with the wing-cases of these insects. A writer in the ‘¢New York Evening Post” says, that the beetles, which fre- quently commit serious ravages on fruit-trees, may be effectually exterminated by shaking them from the trees every evening. In this way two pailsful of beetles were collected on the first experi- ment ; the number caught regularly decreased until the fifth even- ing, when only two beetles were to be found. The best time, however, for shaking trees on which the May-beetles are lodged, is in the morning, when the insects do not attempt to fly. They are most easily collected in a cloth spread under the trees to * A genus proposed by me in 1826. It signifies leaf-eater. Dejean subsequently called this genus 4Ancylonycha. t There is a grub, somewhat resembling this, which is frequently found under old manure heaps, and is commonly called muck-worm. It differs, however, in some respects, from that of the May-beetle, or dor-bug, and is transformed to a dung-beetle called Scarabeus relictus by Mr. Say. ape tar COLEOPTERA. 29 receive them when they fall, after which, they should be thrown into boiling water, to kill them, and may then be given as food to swine. There is an undescribed kind of Phyllophaga, or leaf-eater, called, in my Catalogue of the Insects of Massachusetts,* fraterna, because it is nearly akin to the quercina, in general appearance. It differs from the latter, however, in being smaller, and more slender, the punctures on its thorax and wing-covers are not so distinct, and the three elevated lines on the latter are hardly visi- ble. It measures thirteen twentieths of an inch in length. This beetle may be seen in the latter part of June and the beginning of July. Its habits are similar to those of the more abundant May- beetle or dor-bug. Another common Phyllophaga has been described by Knoch and Say, under the name of hirvicula, meaning a little hairy. It is of a bay-brown color, the punctures on the thorax are larger and more distinct than in the quercina, and on each wing-cover are three longitudinal rows of short yellowish hairs. It measures about seven tenths of an inch in length. Its time of appearance is in June and July. In some parts of Massachusetts the Phyllophaga Georgicana of Gyllenhal, or Georgian leaf-eater, takes the place of the quercina. It is extremely common, during May and June, in Cambridge, where the other species is rarely seen. It is of a bay-brown color, entirely covered on the upper side with very short yellow- ish gray hairs, and measures seven tenths of an inch, or more, in length. Phyllophaga pilosicolits of Knoch, or the hairy necked leaf- eater, is a small chafer, of an ochre yellow color, with a very hairy thorax. It is often thrown out of the ground by the spade, early in the spring ; but it does not voluntarily come forth till the middle of May. It measures half an inch in length. * In order to save unnecessary repetitions, it may be well to state, that the Cata- logue, above named, to which frequent reference will be made in the course of this essay, was drawn up by me, and was published in Professor Hitchcock’s Report on the Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology of Massachusetts, and that two editions of it appeared with the Report, the first in 1833, and the second, with numerous additions, in 1835. 30 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. Hentz’s Melolontha* variolosa, or scarred Melolontha, differs essentially from the foregoing beetles in the structure of its an- tenne, tie knob of which consists of seven narrow strap-shaped ochre-yellow leaves, which are excessively long in the males. This fine insect is of a light-brown color, with irregular whitish blotches, like scars, on the thorax and wing-covers. It measures nine tenths of an inch, or more, in length. It occurs abundantly, in the month of July, at Martha’s Vineyard, and in some other places near the coast ; but is rare in other parts of Massachusetts. The foregoing Melolonthians are found in gardens, nurseries, and orc ards, where they are more or less injurious to the fruit- trees, in proportion to their numbers in different seasons. ‘They also devour the leaves of various forest-trees, such as the elm, maple, and oak. Omaloplia vespertina of Gyllenhal, and serzcea of Illiger, attack the leaves of the sweetbriar, or sweet-leaved rose, on which they may be found in profusion in the evening, about the last of June. They somewhat resemble the May-beetles in form, but are pro- portionally shorter and thicker, and much smaller in size. The first.of them, the vespertine or evening Omaloplia, is bay-brown ; the wing-covers are marked with many longitudinal shallow fur- rows, which, with the thorax, are thickly punctured. This beetle varies in length from three to four tenths of an inch. Onmaloplia * In my prize essay, before alluded to, I proposed to restrict the genus Melolon- tha to those species that have more than three leaves in the knob of the antenne, asin the variolosa,and the European Scarabeus Melolentha of Linneus. This has actually been done by Latreille, but probably without being aware of my sugges- tion. It would have been better, however, to have given this genus some other name, instead of Melolontha, because this was first used by Linneus as a specific name, which, according tothe well known rule of priority, cannot be discontinued in its original application, without manifest injustice to the first describer. To continue the comparison made, on another page, between the names used in nat- ural history and those of persons, — insects, like ladies, may and do, frequently and repeatedly, change their generical or family names; but there is no good or commendable authority for depriving either of them of their specific or baptismal names. I therefore propose to restore to the Melolontha of the ancients and of Linneus, its original distinctive or specific appellation, by calling it Polyphylla Melolontha, literally the many-leaved Melolontha, in allusion to the unusual num- ber of leaves in the knob of the antenne. Mr. Hentz’s species will then become Polyphylla variolosa. ro... * COLEOPTERA. 31 sericea, the silky Omaloplia, closely resembles the preceding in every thing but its color, which is a very deep chestnut-brown, iridescent or changeable like satin, and reflecting the colors of the rainbow. All these Melolonthians are nocturnal insects, never appearing, except by accident, in the day, during which they remain under shelter of the foliage of trees and shrubs, or concealed in the grass. Others are truly day-fliers, committing their ravages by the light of the sun, and are consequently exposed to observa- tion. One of our diurnal Melolonthians is supposed by many natural- ists to be the Anomala varians of Fabricius ; and it agrees very well with this writer’s description of the ducicola ; but Professor Germar thinks it to be an undescribed species, and proposes to name it celebs. It resembles the vine-chafer of Europe in its habits, and is found in the months of June and July on the culti- vated and wild grape-vines, the leaves of which it devours. Dur- ing the same period, these chafers may be seen in still greater numbers on various kinds of sumach, which they often completely despoil of their leaves. They are of a broad oval shape, and very variable in color. ‘The head and thorax of the male are greenish- black, margined with dull ochre or tile-red, and thickly punc- tured ; the wing-covers are clay-yellow, irregularly furrowed, and punctured in the furrows ; the legs are pale red, brown, or black. The thorax of the female is clay-yellow, or tile-red, sometimes with two oblique blackish spots on the top, and sometimes almost entirely black; the wing-covers resemble those of the male; the legs are clay-yellow, or light red. ‘The males are sometimes en- tirely black, and this variety seems to be the beetle called atrata, by Fabricius. ‘The males measure nearly, and the females rather more than seven twentieths of an inch in length. In the year 1825, these insects appeared on the grape-vines in a garden in this vicinity ; they have since established themselves on the spot, and have so much multiplied in subsequent years as to prove ex- ceedingly hurtful to the vines. In many other gardens they have also appeared, having probably found the leaves of the cultivated grape-vine more to their taste than their natural food. Should these beetles increase in numbers, they will be found as difficult 32 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. to check and extirpate as the destructive vine-chafers of Eu- rope. The rose-chafer, or rose-bug, as it is more commonly and incorrectly called, is also a diurnal insect. It is the Melolontha subspinosa of Fabricius, by whom it was first described, and be- longs to the modern genus* Macrodactylus of Latreille. Common as this insect is in the vicinity of Boston, it is, or was a few years ago, unknown in the northern and western parts of Massachusetts, in New Hampshire, and in Maine. It may, therefore, be well to give a brief description of it. ‘This beetle measures seven twen- tieths of an inch in length. Its body is slender, tapers before and behind, and is entirely covered with very short and close ashen- yellow down; the thorax is long and narrow, angularly widened in the middle of each side, which suggested the name subspinosa, or somewhat spined ; the legs are slender, and of a pale red color; the joints of the feet are tipped with black, and are very long, which caused Latreille to call the genus Macrodactylus, that is long toe, or long foot. The natural history of the rose-chafer, one of the greatest scourges with which our gardens and nurseries have been afflicted, was for a long time involved in mystery, but is at last fully cleared up.t The prevalence of this insect on the rose, and its annual appearance coinciding with the blossoming of that flower, have gained for it the popular name by which it is here known. For some time after they were first noticed, rose- bugs appeared to be confined to their favorite, the blossoms of the rose ; but within thirty years they have prodigiously increased in number, have attacked at random various kinds of plants in swarms, and have become notorious for their extensive and de- plorable ravages. ‘The grape-vine in particular, the cherry, plum, and apple trees, have annually suffered by their depreda- tions ; many other fruit-trees and shrubs, garden vegetables and * Stenothorax, in my prize essay. 1 See my essay in the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal, Vol. X. p. 8; reprinted in the New England Farmer, Vol. VI. p. 18, &c.; my Discourse before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, p. 31, 8vo. Cambridge, 1832. Dr. Greene’s communication on this insect in the New England Farmer, Vol. VI. pp. 41, 49, &c., and my Report on Insects injurious to Vegetation, in Massachusetts, House Document, No, 72, April, 1838, p. 70. COLEOPTERA. 33 corn, and even the trees of the forest and the grass of the fields, have been laid under contribution by these indiscriminate feeders, by whom leaves, flowers, and fruits are alike consumed. The unexpected arrival of these insects in swarms, at their first com- ing, and their sudden disappearance, at the close of their career, are remarkable facts in their history. They come forth from the ground during the second week in June, or about the time of the blossoming of the damask rose, and remain from thirty to forty days. At the end of this period the males become exhausted, fall to the ground, and perish, while the females enter the earth, lay their eggs, return to the surface, and, after lingering a few days, die also. The eggs laid by each female are about thirty in number, and are deposited from one to four inches beneath the surface of the soil ; they are nearly globular, whitish, and about one thirtieth of an inch in diameter, and are hatched twenty days after they are laid. The young larve begin to feed on such ten- der roots as are within their reach. Like other grubs of the Scarabeians, when not eating, they lie upon the side, with the body curved so that the head and tail are nearly in contact ; they move with difficulty on a level surface, and are continually falling over on one side or the other. ‘They attain their full size in the autumn, being then nearly three quarters of an inch long, and about an eighth of an inch in diameter. ‘They are of a yellowish white color, with a tinge of blue towards the hinder extremity, which is thick and ob- tuse or rounded ; a few short hairs are scattered on the surface of the body ; there are six short legs, namely a pair to each of the first three rings behind the head ; and the latter is covered with a horny shell of a pale rust color. In October they des@€nd below the reach of frost, and pass the winter in a torpid state. In the spring they approach towards the surface, and each one forms for itself a little cell of an oval shape, by turning round a great many times, so as to compress the earth and render the inside of the cavity hard and smooth. Within this cell the grub is trans- formed to a pupa, during the month of May, by casting off its skin, which is pushed downwards in folds from the head to the tail. The pupa has somewhat the form of the perfected beetle ; but it is of a yellowish white color, and its short stump-like wings, its antenne, and its legs are folded upon the breast, and its whole 34 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. body is enclosed ina thin film, that wraps each part separately.. During the month of June this filmy skin is rent, the included beetle withdraws from it its body and its limbs, bursts open its earthen cell, and digs its way to the surface of the ground. Thus the various changes, from the egg to the full development of the perfected beetle, are completed within the space of one year. Such being the metamorphoses and habits of these insects, it is evident that we cannot attack them in the egg, the grub, or the pupa state ; the enemy, in these stages, is beyond our reach, and is subject to the control only of the natural but unknown means appointed by the Author of Nature to keep the insect tribes in check. When they have issued from their subterranean retreats, and have congregated upon our vines, trees, and other vegetable productions, in the complete enjoyment of their propensities, we must unite our efforts to seize and crush the invaders. ‘They must indeed be crushed, scalded, or burned, to deprive them of life, for they are not affected by any of the applications usually found destructive to other insects. Experience has proved the utility of gathering them by hand, or of shaking them or brushing them from the plants into tin vessels containing a little water. They should be collected daily during the period of their visita- tion, and should be committed to the flames, or killed by scalding water. The late John Lowell, Esq. states,* that in 1823, he dis- covered, on a solitary apple-tree, the rose-bugs ‘‘ in vast numbers, such as could not be described, and would not be believed if they were described, or, at least, none but an ocular witness could con- ceive of their numbers. Destruction by hand was out of the ques- tion’”’, inthis @ase. He put sheets under the tree, and shook them down, and burned them. Dr. Green, of Mansfield, whose investiga- tions have thrown much light on the history of this insect, proposes protecting plants with millinet, and says that in this way only did he succeed in securing his grape-vines from depredation. His remarks also show the utility of gathering them. ‘‘ Eighty-six of these spoilers”, says he, ‘‘ were known to infest a single rose- bud, and were crushed with one grasp of the hand.” Suppose, as was probably the case, that one half of them were females ; by * Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, Vol. IX. p. 145. COLEOPTERA. 35 this destruction, eight hundred eggs, at least, were prevented from becoming matured. During the time of their prevalence, rose- bugs are sometimes found in immense numbers on the flowers of the common white-weed, or ox-eye daisy, (Chrysanthemum leu- canthemum), a worthless plant, which has come to us from Europe, and has been suffered to overrun our pastures, and encroach on our mowing lands. In certain cases it may become expedient rapidly to mow down the infested white-weed in dry pastures, and consume it, with the sluggish rose-bugs, on the spot. Our insect-eating birds undoubtedly devour many of these insects, and deserve to be cherished and protected for their ser- vices. Rose-bugs are also eaten greedily by domesticated fowls ; and when they become exhausted and fall to the ground, or when they are about to lay their eggs, they are destroyed by moles, insects, and other animals, which lie in wait to seize them. Dr. Green informs us, that a species of dragon-fly, or devil’s needle devours them. He also says that an insect which he calls the enemy of the cut-worm, probably the larva of a Carabus or pre- daceous ground-beetle, preys on the grubs of the common dor- bug. In France the golden ground-beetle (Carabus auratus) devours the female dor or chafer at the moment when she is about to deposit her eggs. Ihave taken one specimen of this fine ground-beetle in Massachusetts, and we have several other kinds, equally predaceous, which probably contribute to check the increase of our native Melolonthians. There are several more tree-beetles in Massachusetts, which are injurious to vegetation ; but a mere description of them, with- out an account of their previous history, which 1s not yet fully known, would be of little use to the cultivator of the soil. Very few of the flower-beetles are decidedly injurious to vege- tation. Some of them are said to eat leaves ; but the greater number live on the pollen and the honey of flowers, or upon the sap that oozes from the wounds of plants. In the infant or grub state most of them eat only the crumbled substance of decayed roots and stumps ; a few live in the wounds of trees, and by their depredations prevent them from healing, and accelerate the decay of the trunk. ‘The flower-beetles belong chiefly to a group called CrToniAD®, or Cetonians. ‘They are easily distinguished from 36 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. the other Scarabeians by their lower jaws, which are gener- ally soft on the inside, and are often provided with a flat brush of hairs, that serves to collect the pollen and juices on which they subsist. Their upper jaws have no grinding plate on the inside. Their antenne consist of ten joints, the last three of which form a three-leaved oval knob. The head is often square, with a large and wide visor, overhanging and entirely concealing the upper- lip. The thorax is either rounded, somewhat square, or trian- gular. The wing-cases do not cover the end of the body. The fore-legs are deeply notched on the outer edge ; and the claws are equal and entire. ‘These beetles are generally of an oblong oval form, somewhat flattened above, and often brilliantly colored and highly polished, sometimes also covered with hairs. Most of the bright-colored kinds are day-fliers ; those of dark and plain tints are generally nocturnal beetles. Some of them are of im- mense size, and have been styled the princes of the beetle tribes ; such are the Incas of South America, and the Goliah beetle (Hegemon Goliatus) of Guinea, the latter being more than four inches long, two inches broad, and thick and heavy in propor- tion. Two American Cetonians must suffice as examples in this group. The first is the Indian Cetonia, Cetonta Inda*, one of our earliest visitors in the spring, making its appearance towards the end of April or the beginning of May, when it may sometimes be seen in considerable numbers around the borders of woods, and in dry open fields, flying just above the grass with a loud humming sound, like a “Sata for which perhaps it might at first sight be mistaken. “Like other insects of the same genus, it has a broad body, very obtuse behind, with a triangular thorax, and a little wedge-shaped piece on each side between the hinder angles of the thorax and the shoulders of the wing-covers ; the latter, taken together, form an oblong square, but are somewhat notched or widely scalloped on the middle of the outer edges. The head and thorax of this beetle are dark copper- brown, or almost black, and thickly covered with short greenish yellow hairs ; the wing- eases are light yellowish brown, but changeable, with pearly and * Scarabeus Indus of Linneus, Cetonia barbata of Say. COLEOPTERA. 37 metallic tints, and spattered with numerous irregular black spots ; the under-side of the body, which is very hairy, is of a black color, with the edges of the rings and the legs dull red. It meas- ures about six tenths of an inch in length. During the summer months the Indian Cetonia is not seen; but about the middle of September a new brood comes forth, the beetles appearing fresh and bright, as though they had just completed their last transfor- mation. At this time they may be found on the flowers of the golden-rod, eating the pollen, and also in great numbers on corn- stalks, and on the trunks of the locust-tree, feeding upon the sweet sap of these plants. On the approach of cold weather they disappear, but I have not been able to ascertain what becomes of them at this time, and only conjecture that they get into some warm and sheltered spot, where they pass the winter in a torpid state, and in the spring issue from their. retreats, and finish their career by depositing their eggs for another brood. ‘Those that are seen in the spring want the freshness of the autumnal beetles, «+ a circumstance that favors my conjecture. ‘Their hovering over __ and occasionally dropping upon the surface of the ground is probably for the purpose of selecting a suitable place to enter the earth and lay their eggs. Hence I suppose that their larve or grubs may live on the roots of herbaceous plants. The other Cetonian beetle to be described is the Osmoderma scaber*, or rough Osmoderma. It is a large insect, with a broad oval and flattened body ; the thorax is nearly round, but wider than long ; there are no wedge-shaped pieces between the cor- ners of the thorax, and the shoulders of the wing-cases, and the outer edges of the latter are entire. It is of a purplish-black color, with a coppery lustre ; the head is punctured, concave or hollowed on the top, with the edge of the broad visor turned up in the males, nearly flat, and with the edge of the visor not raised in the females ; the wing-cases are so thickly and deeply and irregularly punctured as to appear almost as rough as shagreen ; the under-side of the body is smooth and without hairs ; and the legs are short and stout. In addition to the differences between the sexes above described, it may be mentioned that the females * Trichius scaber, Palisot de Beauvois ; Gymnodus scaber, Kirby. 38 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. are generally much larger than the males, and often want the cop- pery polish of the latter. They measure from eight tenths of an inch to one inch and one tenth in length. ‘They are nocturnal insects, and conceal themselves during the day in the crevices and hollows of trees, where they feed upon the sap that flows from the bark. They have the odor of Russia leather, and give this out so powerfully, that their presence can be detected, by the scent alone, at the distance of two or three yards from the place of their retreat. This strong smell suggested the name Osmoder- ma, that is scented skin, given to these beetles by the French naturalists. They seem particularly fond of the juices of cherry and apple trees; in the hollows of which I have often discovered them. Their larve live in the hollows of these same trees, feed- ing upon the diseased wood, and causing it more rapidly to decay. ‘They are whitish fleshy grubs, with a reddish hard-shelled head, and closely resemble the grubs of the common dor-beetle. In ~~ the autumn each one makes an oval cell or pod, of fragments of _ wood, strongly cemented with a kind of glue ; it goes through its transformation within this cell, and comes forth in the beetle form in the month of July. We have another scented beetle, equal in size to the preced- ing, of a deep mahogany-brown color, perfectly smooth, and highly polished, and the male has a deep pit before the middle of the thorax. ‘T'his species of Osmoderma is called eremicola*, a name that cannot be rendered literally into English by any single word ; it signifies wilderness-inhabitant, for which might be sub- stituted hermit. I believe that this insect lives in forest-trees, but the larva is unknown to me. The family Lucanip#, or Lucanians, so named from the Lin- nean genus Lucanvs, must be placed next to the Scarabzians in a natural arrangement. ‘T'his family includes the insects called stag- beetles, horn-bugs, and flying-bulls, names that they have obtained from the great size and peculiar form of their upper jaws, which are sometimes curved like the horns of cattle, and sometimes branched like the antlers of a stag. In these beetles the body is hard, oblong, rounded behind, and slightly convex ; the head is * Cetonia eremicola of Knoch. COLEOPTERA. 39 large and broad, especially in the males ; the thorax is short, and as wide as the abdomen ; the antennz are rather long, elbowed or bent in the middle, and composed of ten joints, the last three or four of which are broad, leaf-like, and project on the inside, giv- ing to this part of the antenne a resemblance to the end of a key ; the upper jaws are usually much longer in the males than in the females, but even those of the latter extend considerably beyond » the mouth ; each of the under-jaws is provided with a long hairy pencil or brush, which can be seen projecting beyond the mouth between the feelers ; and the under-lip has two shorter pencils of the same kind; the fore-legs are oftentimes longer than the others, with the outer edge of the shanks notched into teeth ; the feet are five-jointed, and the nails are entire and equal. These beetles fly abroad during the night, and frequently enter houses at that time, somewhat to the alarm of the occupants ; but they are not venomous, and never attempt to bite without provocation. They pass the day on the trunks of trees, and live upon the sap, ith for procuring which the brushes of their jaws and lip seem to be designed. ‘They are said also occasionally to bite and seize cater- pillars and other soft-bodied insects, for the purpose of sucking out their juices. ‘They lay their eggs in crevices of the bark of trees, especially near the roots, where they may sometimes be seen thus employed. ‘The larve hatched from these eggs resem- ble the grubs of the Scarabzians in color and form, but they are smoother, or not so much wrinkled. The grubs of the large kinds are said to be six years in coming to their growth, living all this time in the trunks and roots of trees, boring into the solid wood, and reducing it to a substance resembling very coarse saw- dust ; and the injury thus caused by them is frequently very con- siderable. When they have arrived at their full size, they enclose themselves in egg-shaped pods, composed of gnawed particles of wood and bark stuck together and lined with a kind of glue ; within these pods they are transformed to pupe, of a yellowish- white color, having the body and all the limbs of the future beetle encased in a whitish film, which being thrown off in due time, the insects appear in the beetle form, burst the walls of their prison, crawl through the passages the larve had gnawed, and come forth on the outside of the trees. 40 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. The largest of these beetles in the New England States, was first described by Linneus under the name of Lucanus Capreolus*, signifying the young roe-buck ; but here it is called the horn-bug. Its color is a deep mahogany-brown ; the surface is smooth and polished ; the upper jaws of the male are long, curved like a sickle, and furnished internally beyond the middle with a little tooth ; those of the female are much shorter, and also toothed ; the head of the male is broad and smooth, that of the other sex narrower and rough with punctures. The body of this beetle measures from one inch to one inch and a quarter, exclusive of the jaws. The time of its appearance is in July and the beginning of August. The grubs live in the trunks and roots of various kinds of trees, but particularly in those of old apple-trees, willows, and oaks. Several other and smaller kinds of stag-beetles are found in New England, but their habits are much the same as those of the more common horn-bug. All the foregoing beetles have, by some naturalists, been gath- ered into a single tribe, called lamellicorn or leaf-horned beetles, on account of the leaf-like joints wherewith the end of their an- tenne is provided. In like manner, the beetles, next to be-de- scribed, have been brought together into one great tribe, named serricorn or saw-horned beetles, because the tips of the joints of their antenne usually project more or less on the inside, some- what like the teeth of asaw. The beetles belonging to the family Buprestip®, or the Buprestians, have antenne of this kind. The Buprestis of the ancients, as its name signifies in Greek, was a poisonous insect, which, being swallowed with grass by grazing cattle, produced a violent inflammation, and such a degree of swelling, as to cause the cattle to burst. Linneus, however, un- fortunately applied this name to the insects of the abovemen- tioned family, none of which are poisonous to animals, and are rarely, if ever, found upon the grass. It is in allusion to the ori- ginal signification of the word Buprestis, that popular English writers on natural history, sometimes give the name of burncow to the harmless Buprestians ; while the French, with greater * Lucanus Dama of Fabricius. COLEOPTERA. 41 propriety call them richards, on account of the rich and brilliant colors wherewith many of them are adorned. ‘The Buprestians, then, according to the Linnean application or rather misapplica- tion of the name, are. hard-shelled beetles, often brilliantly col- ored, of an elliptical or oblong oval form, obtuse before, tapering behind, and broader than thick, so that, when cut in two trans- versely, the section is oval. ‘The head is sunk to the eyes in the forepart of the thorax ; and the antenne are rather short, and _ notched on one side like the teeth of a saw. The thorax is broadest behind, and usually fits very closely to the shoulders of the wing-covers. The legs are rather short, and the feet are formed for standing firmly, rather than for rapid motion ; the soles being composed of four rather wide joints, covered with lit- tle spongy cushions beneath, and terminated by a fifth joint, which is armed with two claws. Most beetles, as already stated, have a little triangular piece, called the scutel, wedged between the bases of the wing-covers and the hinder part of the thorax, commonly of a triangular or semicircular form, and in the greater number of coleopterous insects quite conspicuous ; in the Bupres- tians, however, the scutel is generally very small, and sometimes hardly perceptible. These beetles are frequently seen on the trunks and limbs of trees basking in the sun. They walk slowly, and, at the approach of danger, fold up their legs and antenne and fall tothe ground. Being furnished with ample wings, their flight is swift and attended with a whizzing noise. They keep con- cealed in the night, and are in motion only during the day. The larve are wood-eaters or borers. Our forests and orchards are more or less subject to their attacks, especially after the trees have passed their prime. ‘The transformations of these insects take place in the trunks and limbs of trees. ‘The larve that are known to me have a close resemblance to each other ; a general idea of them can be formed from a description of that which attacks the pig-nut hickory. It is of a yellowish white color, very long, narrow, and depressed in form, but abruptly widened near the anterior extremity. The head is brownish, small, and sunk in the forepart of the first segment ; the upper jaws are provided with three teeth, and are of a black color ; and the antenne are very short. ‘The segment which receives the head is short and trans- 6 42 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. verse ; next to it is a large, oval segment, broader than long, and depressed or flattened above and beneath. Behind this, the segs ments are very much narrowed, and become gradually longer ; but are still flattened, to the last, which is terminated by a round- ed tubercle or wart. ‘There are no legs, nor any apparatus which can serve as such, except two small warts on the under-side of the second segment from the thorax. The motion of the grub appears to be effected by the alternate contractions and elonga- tions of the segments, aided, perhaps, by the tubercular extremity of the body, and by its jaws, with which it takes hold of the sides of its burrow, and thus draws itself along. These grubs are found under the bark and in the solid wood of trees, and sometimes in great numbers. ‘They frequently rest with the body bent side- wise, so that the head and tail approach each other. This pos- ture those found under bark usually assume. ‘They appear to pass several years in the larva state. ‘The pupa bears a near re- semblance to the perfect insect, but is entirely white, until near the time of its last transformation. Its situation is immediately under the bark, the head being directed outwards, so that when the pupa-coat is cast off, the beetle has merely a thin covering of bark to perforate, before making its escape from the tree. The form of this perforation is oval, as is also a transverse section of the burrow, that shape being best adapted to the form, motions, and egress of the insect. Some of these beetles are known to eat leaves and flowers, and of this nature is probably the food of all of them. The injury they may thus commit is not very apparent, and cannot bear any comparison with the extensive ravages of their larve. The solid trunks and limbs of sound and vigorous trees are often bored through in various directions by these insects, which, during a long-continued life, derive their only nourishment from the woody fragments they devour. Pines and firs seem particularly subject to their attacks, but other forest-trees do not escape, and even fruit-trees are frequently injured by these borers. -The means to be used for destroying them are similar to those employ- ed against other borers, and will be explained in a subsequent part of this essay. It may not be amiss, however, here to remark, that wood-peckers are much more successful in discover- COLEOPTERA. 43 ing the retreats of these borers, and in dragging out the defence- less culprits from their burrows, than the most skilful gardener or nurseryman. | Until within a few years the Buprestians were all included in three or four genera. A great number of kinds have now become known, probably six hundred or more. In a paper on these insects, published by me in 1829, in the beginning of the eighth volume of the ‘‘ New England Farmer,” the characters of several groups were pointed out; these have since been made into genera, and many more new generical groups have been proposed and described by European naturalists. As the insects belonging to the greater number of these new genera do not differ essen- tially from each other in their habits and transformations, I have retained most of them in the old genus Buprestis, but have indi- cated the new groups by enclosing the names given to them within parentheses. The largest of these beetles in this part of the United States is the Buprestis (Chalcophora) Virginica of Drury, or Virginian Buprestis. It is of an oblong oval form, brassy, or copper-colored ; sometimes almost black, with hardly any metallic reflections. The upper side of the body is roughly punctured ; the top of the head is deeply indented ; on the thorax there are three polished black elevated lines ; on each wing-cover are two small square impressed spots, a long elevated smooth black line near the outer, and another near the inner margin, with several short lines of the same kind between them ; the under-side of the body is sparingly covered with short whitish down. It measures from eight tenths of an inch to one inch or more in length. ‘This beetle appears towards the end of May, and through the month of June, on pine- trees and on fences. In the larva state it bores into the trunks of the different kinds of pines, and is oftentimes very injurious to these trees. The wild cherry-tree (Prunus serotina), and also the gar- den cherry and peach trees suffer severely from the attacks of borers, which are transformed to the beetles called Buprestis ( Di- cerca) dwaricata by Mr. Say, because the wing-covers divaricate or spread apart a little at the tips. These beetles are copper- colored, sometimes brassy above, and thickly covered with little 44 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. punctures ; the thorax is slightly furrowed in the middle; the wing-covers are marked with numerous fine irregular impressed lines and small oblong square elevated black spots ; they taper very much behind, and the long and narrow tips are blunt-pointed : the middle of the breast is furrowed; and the males have a little tooth on the under-side of the shanks of the intermediate legs. They measure from seven to nine tenths of aninch. These beetles may be found sunning themselves upon the limbs of cherry and peach trees during the months of June, July, and August. The borer of the hickory has already been described. It is transformed to a beetle which appears to be the Buprestis (Di- cerca) lurida* of Fabricius. It is of a lurid or dull brassy-color above, bright copper beneath, and thickly punctured all over ; there are numerous irregular impressed lines, and several narrow elevated black spots on the wing-covers, the tip of each of which ends with two little points. It measures from about six to eight tenths of an inch in length. ‘This kind of Buprestis appears dur- ing the greater part of the summer on the trunks and limbs of the hickory. Buprestis (Chrysobothris) dentipest of Germar, so named from the little tooth on the under-side of the thick fore-legs, inhabits the trunks of oak-trees. It completes its transformations and comes out of the trees between the end of May and the first of July. It is oblong oval and flattened, of a bronzed brownish or purplish black color above, copper-colored beneath, and rough like shagreen*with numerous punctures ; the thorax is not so wide as the hinder part of the body, its hinder margin is hollowed on both sides to receive the rounded base of each wing-cover, and there are two smooth elevated lines on the middle ; on each wing- cover there are three irregular smooth elevated lines, which are divided and interrupted by large thickly punctured impressed spots, two of which are oblique ; the tips are rounded. Length from one half to six tenths of an inch. Buprestis (Chrysobothris) femorata of Fabricius has the first pair of thighs toothed beneath, like the preceding, which it resem- * Buprestis obscura, F., found in the Middle and Southern States, closely resem- bles the lurida. + Buprestis characteristica, Harris. N. E. Farmer, Vol. viii. p. 2. COLEOPTERA. 45 bles also in its form and general appearance. It is of a greenish black color above, with a brassy polish, which is very distinct in the two large transverse impressed spots on each wing-cover ; and the thorax has no smooth elevated lines on it. It measures from four tenths to above half of an inch in length. Its time of appearance is from the end of May to the middle of July, during which it may often be seen, inthe middle of the day, resting upon or flying round the trunks of white oak trees, and recently cut timber of the same kind of wood. I have repeatedly taken it upon and under the bark of peach-trees also. ‘The grubs or larve bore into the trunks of these trees. The Buprestis (Chrysobothris) fulvoguttata,* or tawny spotted Buprestis, first described by me in the eighth volume of the ‘* New England Farmer,” is proportionally shorter and more convex than the two foregoing species. It is black and bronzed above, and brassy beneath ; the thorax is covered with very fine wavy trans- verse lines, and is sometimes copper-colored ; the wing-covers are thickly punctured, and on each there are three small tawny yellow spots, with sometimes an additional one by the side of the first spot ; the tips are rounded, and the fore-legs are not toothed. It varies very much in size, measuring from about three to four tenths of an inch in length. I have taken this insect from the trunks of the white pine in the month of June, and have seen others that were found in the Oregon Territory. Professor Hentz has described a small and broad beetle having the form of the above, under the name of Buprestis (Chryseboth- ris) Harrisit. It is entirely of a brilliant blue-green color, except the sides of the thorax, and the thighs, which, in the male, are copper-colored. It measures a little more than three tenths of an inch in length. ‘The larve of this species inhabit the small limbs of the white pine, and young sapling trees of the same kind, upon which I have repeatedly captured the beetles about the middle of June. These seven species form but a very small part of the Bupres- tians inhabiting Massachusetts and the other New England States. m.: * Mr. Kirby has redescribed and figured this insect under the name of Buprestis (Trachypteris) Drummondi, in the fourth volume of the “ Fauna Boreali-Ameri- cana.” ee ee ee _ 46 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. My knowledge of the habits of the others is not sufficiently per- fect to render it worth while to insert descriptions of them here. The concealed situation of the grubs of these beetles, in the trunks and limbs of trees, renders it very difficult to discover and dislodge them. When trees are found to be very much infested by them, and are going to decay in consequence of the ravages of these borers, it will be better to cut them down, and burn them immediately, rather than to suffer them to stand until the borers have completed their transformations and made their escape. Closely related to the Buprestians are the Elaters, or spring- beetles (ELATERID2), which are well known by the faculty they have of throwing themselves upwards with a jerk, when laid on their backs. On the under-side of the breast, between the bases of the first pair of legs, there is a short blunt spine, the point of which is usually concealed in a corresponding cavity behind it. When the insect, by any accident, falls upon its back, its legs are so short, and its back is so convex, that it is unable to turn itself over. It then folds its legs close to its body, bends back the head and thorax, and thus unsheaths its breast-spine; then by suddenly straightening its body, the point of the spine is made to strike with force upon the edge of the sheath, which gives it the power of a spring, and reacts on the body of the insect, so as to throw it perpendicularly into the air. When it again falls, if it does not come down upon its feet, it repeats its exertions until its object is effected. In these beetles the body is of a hard con- sistence, and is usually rather narrow and tapering behind. The head is sunk to the eyes in the forepart of the thorax ; the an- tenne are of moderate length, and more or less notched on the inside like a saw. ‘I'he thorax is as broad at base as the wing- covers, it is usually rounded before, and the hinder angles are sharp and prominent. ‘The scutel is of moderate size. ‘The legs are rather short and slender, and the feet are five-jointed. The larve or grubs of the Elaters live upon wood and roots, and are often very injurious to vegetation. Some are confined to old or decaying trees, others devour the roots of herbaceous plants. In England they are called wire-worms, from their slen- derness and uncommon hardness. They are not to be confounded with the American wire-worm, a species of Julus, which is not a COLEOPTERA. 47 true insect, but belongs to the class Myriapopa, a name derived from the great number of feet with which most of the animals included in it are furnished ; whereas the English wire-worm has only six feet. ‘The European wire-worm is said to live, in its feeding or larva state, not less than five years ; during the greater part of which time it is supported by devouring the roots of wheat, rye, oats, and grass, annually causing a large diminution of the produce, and sometimes destroying whole crops. It is said to be particularly injurious in gardens recently converted from pas- ture lands. We have several grubs allied to this destructive insect, which are quite common in land newly broken up ; but fortunately, as yet, their ravages are inconsiderable. We may expect these to increase in proportion as we disturb them and de- prive them of their usual articles of food, while we continue also to persecute and destroy their natural enemies, the birds, and may then be obliged to resort to the ingenious method adopted by European farmers and gardeners for alluring and capturing these grubs. ‘This method consists in strewing sliced potatoes or tur- nips in rows through the garden or field ; women and boys are employed to examine the slices every morning, and collect the insects which readily come to feed upon the bait. Some of these destructive insects, which I have found in the ground among the roots of plants, were long, slender, worm-like grubs, closely re- sembling the common meal-worm ; they were nearly cylindrical, with a hard and smooth skin, of a buff or brownish yellow color, the head and tail only being a little darker ; each of the first three rings was provided with a pair of short legs ; the hindmost ring was longer than the preceding one, was pointed at the end, and had a little pit on each side of the extremity ; beneath this part there was a short retractile wart, or prop-leg, serving to support the extremity of the body, and prevent it from trailing on the ground. Other grubs of Elaters differ from the foregoing in being proportionally broader, not cylindrical, but somewhat flattened, with a deep notch at the extremity of the last ring, the sides of which are beset with little teeth. Such grubs are mostly wood- eaters, devouring the woody parts of roots, or living under the bark and in the trunks of old trees. After their last transformation, Elaters or spring-beetles make 48 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. their appearance upon trees and fences, and some are found on flowers. They creep slowly, and generally fall to the ground on being touched. They fly both by day and night. Their food, in the beetle states, appears to be chiefly derived from flowers ; but some devour the tender leaves of plants. Most of the insects of this family were included in the genus Elater, which has recently been subdivided into many smaller groups. ‘These, in the few species which I propose to describe, will be indicated by having their names enclosed within parentheses. The largest of our spring-beetles is the Elater (Mlaus) ocula- tus, of Linneus. It is of a black color; the thorax is oblong square, and nearly one third the length of the whole body, cov- ered above with a whitish powder, and with a large oval velvet- black spot, like an eye, on each side of the middle, from which the insect derives its name oculatus, or eyed ; the wing-covers are marked with slender longitudinal impressed lines, and are sprinkled with numerous white dots ; the under-side of the body, and the legs, are covered with a white mealy powder. ‘This large beetle measures from one inch and a quarter to one inch and three quar- ters in length. It is found on trees, fences, and the sides of buildings, in June and July. It undergoes its transformations in the trunks of trees. I have found many of them in old apple- trees, together with their larve, which eat the wood, and from which I subsequently obtained the insects in the beetle state. These larve are reddish yellow grubs, proportionally much broader than the other kinds, and very much flattened. One of them, which was found fully grown early in April, measured two inches and a half in length, and nearly four tenths of an inch across the middle of the body, and was not much narrowed at either extremity. ‘The head was broad, brownish, and rough above ; the upper jaws or nippers were very strong, curved, and pointed ; the eyes were small and two in number, one being placed at the base of each of the short antenne ; ‘the last segment of the body was blackish, rough with little sharp-pointed warts, with a dee semicircular notch at the end, and furnished around the sides with little teeth, the two hindmost of which were long, forked, and curved upwards like hooks ; under this segment was a large retractile fleshy _prop- -foot, armed behind with little claws, COLEOPTERA. 49 and around the sidés with short spines; the true legs were six, a pair to each of the first three rings ; and were tipped with a single claw. Soon after this grub was found it cast its skin and became a pupa, and in due time the latter was transformed to a beetle. Elater (Pyrophorus) noctilucus, the night-shining Elater, is the celebrated cucuio or fire-beetle of the West Indies, from whence it is frequently brought alive to this country. It resembles the preceding insect somewhat in form, and is an inch or more in length. It gives out a strong light from two transparent eye-like spots on the thorax, and from the segments of its body beneath. It eats the pulpy substance of the sugar-cane, and its grub is said to be very injurious to this plant, by devouring its roots. The next two common Elaters, together with several other species, are distinguished by their claws, which resemble little combs, being furnished with a row of fine teeth along the under- side. ‘The thorax is short and rounded before, and the body tapers behind. They are found under the bark of trees, where they pass the winter, having completed their transformations in the previous autumn. ‘Their grubs live in wood. The first of these beetles is the ash-colored Elater, Elater (Melanotus) cinereus of Weber. It is about six tenths of an inch long, and is dark brown, but covered with short gray hairs, which give it an ashen hue; the thorax is convex; and the wing-covers are marked with lines of punctures, resembling stitches. It is found on fen- ces, the trunks of trees, and in paths, in April and May. Elater (Melanotus) communis of Schénherr, is, as its name im- plies, an exceedingly common and abundant species. It closely resembles the preceding, but is smaller, seldom exceeding half an inch in length; it is also rather hghter colored ; the thorax is proportionally a little longer, not so convex, and has a slender longitudinal furrow in the middle. This Elater appears in the same places as the cinereus in April, May, and June; and the recently transformed beetles can also be found in the autumn un- der the bark of trees, where they pass the winter. Another kind of spring-beetle, which absolutely swarms in paths and among the grass during the warmest and brightest days in April and May, is the Elater (Ludius) appressifrons of Say. Its specific name probably refers to the front of the head or visor 7 ‘ . 50 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. being pressed downwards over the lip. The body is slender and almost cylindrical, of a deep chestnut-brown color, rendered gray, however, by the numerous short yellowish hairs with which it is covered ; the thorax is of moderate length, not much narrowed before, convex above, with very long and sharp-pointed hinder angles, and in certain lights has a brassy hue; the wing-covers are finely punctured, and have very slender impressed longitudinal lines upon them; the claws are not toothed beneath. ‘This beetle usually measures from four to five tenths of an inch in length ; but the females frequently greatly exceed these dimen- sions, and, being much more robust, with a more convex thorax, were supposed by Mr. Say to belong to a different species, named by him brevicornis, the short-horned. ‘The larve are not yet known to me; but I have strong reasons for thinking that they live in the ground upon the roots of the perennial grasses and other herbaceous plants. Although above sixty different kinds of spring-beetles are now known to inhabit Massachusetts, I shall add to the foregoing a description of only one more species. This is the Elater (Agri- otes) obesus of Say. It isa short and thick beetle, as the specific name implies ; its real color is a dark brown, but it is covered with dirty yellowish gray hairs, which on the wing-covers are arranged in longitudinal stripes ; the head and thorax are thickly punctured, and the wing-covers are punctured in rows. Its length is about three tenths of an inch. ‘This beetle closely re- sembles one of the kinds, which, in the grub state, is called the wire-worm in Europe, and possibly it may be the same. This circumstance should put us on our guard against its depredations. It is found in April, May, and June, among the roots of grass, on the under-side of boards and rails on the ground, and sometimes also on fences. The utility of a knowledge of the natural history of insects in the practical arts of life was never more strikingly and triumphantly proved than by Linneus himself, who, while giving to natural science its language and its laws, neglected no opportunity to point out its economical advantages.* On one occasion this great * See the preface toSmith’s ‘“‘ Introduction to Botany,” and Pulteney’s ‘‘ View of the Writings of Linneus” for several examples, one of which it may not be amiss 4 a COLEOPTERA. — 51 naturalist was consulted by the King of Sweden upon the cause of the decay and destruction of the ship-timber in the royal dock- yards, and, having traced it to the depredations of insects, and ascertained the history of the depredators, by directing the timber to be sunk under water during the season when these insects made their appearance in (the winged state, and were busied in laying their eggs, he effectually secured it from future attacks. The name of these insects is Lymexylon navale, the naval timber- destroyer. ‘They have since increased to an alarming extent in some of the dockyards of France, and in one of them, at least, have become very injurious, wholly in consequence of the neglect of seasonable advice given by a naval ofticer, who was also an entomologist, and pointed out the source of the injury, together with the remedy to be applied. These destructive insects belong to a family called LymExyt- 1p#, which may be rendered timber-beetles. They cannot be far removed from the Buprestians and the spring-beetles in a natural arrangement.* From the latter, however, the insects of this small group are distinguished by having the head broad before, narrowed behind, and not sunk into the thorax ; they have not the breast-spine of the Elaters, and their legs are close together, and not separated from each other by a broad breast-bone as in the Baprestians ; and the hip-joints are long, and not sunk into the breast. In the principal insects of this family the antenne are short, and, from the third joint, flattened, widened, and saw- toothed on the inside ; and the jaw-feelers of the males have a singular fringed piece attached to them. ‘The body is long, nar- to mention here. Linnzus was the first to point out the advantages to be derived from employing the Arundo arenaria, or beach-grass, in fixing the sands of the shore, and thereby preventing the encroachments of the sea. The Dutch have long availed themselves of his suggestion, and its utility has been tested to some extent in Massachusetts. * Immediately after the Elateride are arranged the Cebrionide, by common cone sent. Next to these I put the Lymerylide, which resemble Sandalus, one of the Cebrionide, in their antenne. The sericeum, above described, probably not a true Lymexylon, was included among the Cebrionide in my Catalogue. According to my present views the Ptinide and Cleride should follow the Lymezxylide ; Eno- plium and Tillus among the latter having some resemblance to Lymexylon, &c., and agreeing therewith in habits also. 52 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. row, nearly cylindrical, and not so firm and hard as in the Ela- ters. The feet are five-jointed, long, and slender. The larve of Lymeaylon and Hylecetus are very odd-looking, long, and slender grubs. The head is small; the first ring is very much hunched ; and on the top of the last ring there is a fleshy appendage, resembling a leaf in Lymexylon, and like a straight horn in Hylecetus. ‘They have six short legs near the head. These grubs inhabit oak-trees, and make long cylindrical burrows in the solid wood. ‘They are also found in some other kinds of trees. Only a few native insects of this family are known to me, and these fortunately seem to be rare in New England. L shall de- scribe only two of them. ‘The first was obtained by beating the limbs of some forest-tree. It may be called Lymexylon sericeum, the silky timber-beetle. It is of a chestnut-brown color above, and covered with very short shining yellowish hairs, which give it a silky lustre. ‘The head is bowed down beneath the forepart of the thorax ; the eyes are very large, and almost meet above and below ; the antenne are brownish red, widened and compressed from the fourth to the last joimt inclusive ; the thorax is longer than wide, rounded before, convex above, and deeply indented on each side of the base; the wing-covers are convex, gradually taper behind, and do not cover the tip of the abdomen ; the under- side of the body, and the legs, are brownish red. Its length is from four to six tenths of an inch. ‘This insect was unknown to Mr. Say, and does not seem to have been described before. The generical name Hylecetus, given to some insects of this family, means a sleeper in the woods, or one who makes his bed in the forest. We have one hitherto undescribed species, which may be called Hylecetus Americanus, the American timber-bee- tle. Its head, thorax, abdomen, and legs are light brownish red ; the wing-covers, except at the base where they are also red, and the breast, between the middle and hindmost legs, are black. The head is not bowed down under the forepart of the thorax ; the eyes are small and black, and on the middle of the forehead there is one small reddish eyelet, a character unusual among beetles, very few of which have eyelets; the angenne resemble those of Lymexylon sericeum, but are shorter ; the thorax is nearly square, COLEOPTERA. 53 but wider than long; and on each wing-cover there are three slightly elevated longitudinal lines or ribs. This beetle is about four tenths of an inch long. It appears on the wing in July. The foregoing beetles, though differing much in form and habits, possess one character in common; namely, their feet are five- jointed. Those that follow have four-jointed feet. In this great section of Coleopterous insects are arranged the Weevil tribe, the Capricorn beetles or long-horned borers, and various kinds of leaf- eating beetles, all of which are exceedingly injurious to vegetation. So great is the extent of the Weevil tribe,* and so imperfectly known is the history of a large part of our native species, that I shall be obliged to confine myself to an account of a few only of the most remarkable weevils, and principally those that have be- come most known for their depredations. Mr. Kollar’s excellent ‘¢ Treatise on Insects injurious to Gardeners, Foresters, and Farm- ers,’’ contains an account of several kinds of weevils that are un- known in this country ; and indeed but few resembling them have hitherto been discovered here. Should future observations lead to the detection in our gardens and orchards of any like those which in Europe attack the vine, the plum, the apple, the pear, and the leaves and stems of fruit-trees, the work of Mr. Kollar may be consulted with great advantage. Weevils, in the winged state, are hard-shelled beetles, and are distinguished from other insects by having the forepart of the head prolonged into a broad muzzle or a longer and more slender snout, in the end of which the opening of the mouth and the small horny jaws are placed. ‘The flies and moths produced from certain young insects, called weevils by mistake, do not possess these characters, and their larve or young differ essentially from those of the true weevils. The latter belong to a group called RuyYNCHOPHORID®, literally, snout-bearers. These beetles are mostly of small size. ‘Their antenne are usually knobbed at the end, and are situated on the muzzle or snout, on each side of which there is generally a short groove to receive the base of the antenne * See page 19. 54 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. when the latter are turned backwards. ‘Their feelers are very small, and, ‘in most kinds, are concealed within the mouth. The abdomen is often of an oval form, and wider than the thorax. The legs are short, not fitted for running or digging, and the soles of the feet are short and flattened. These beetles are often very hurtful to plants, by boring into the leaves, bark, buds, fruit, and seeds, and feeding upon the soft substance therein contained. They are diurnal insects, and love to come out of their retreats and enjoy the sunshine. Some of them fly well; but others have no wings, or only very short ones, under the wing-cases, and are therefore unable to fly. They walk slowly, and being of a timid nature, and without the means of defence, when alarmed they turn back their antenne under the snout, fold up their legs, and fall from the plants on which they live. They make use of their snouts not only in feeding, but in boring holes, into which they afterwards drop their eggs. The young of these snout-beetles are mostly short fleshy grubs, of a whitish color, and without legs. The covering of their heads is ahard shell, and the rings of their bodies are very convex or hunched, by both of which characters they are easily distin- guished from the maggots of flies. ‘Their jaws are strong and horny, and with them they gnaw those parts of plants which serve for their food. It is in the grub-state that weevils are most injurious to vegetation. Some of them bore into and spoil fruits, grain, and seeds; some attack the leaves and stems of plants, causing them to swell and become cankered; while others pene- trate into the solid wood, interrupt the course of the sap, and oc- casion the branch above the seat of attack to wither and die. Most of these grubs are transformed within the vegetable substan- ces upon which they have lived ;gsome, however, when fully grown, go into the ground, where they are changed to pupe, and afterwards to beetles. In the spring of the year we often find, among seed-pease, many that have holes in them ; and, if the pease have not been exposed to the light and air, we see a little insect peeping out of each of these holes, and waiting apparently for an opportunity to come forth and make its escape. If we turn out the creature from its cell, we perceive it to be a small oval beetle, rather more than COLEOPTERA. 55 one tenth of an inch long, of arusty black color, with a white spot on the hinder part of the thorax, four or five white dots behind the middle of each wing-cover, and a white spot, shaped like the letter T’, on the exposed extremity of the body. This little insect is the Bruchus Pist of Linneus, the pea-Bruchus, or pea-weevil, but is better known in America by the incorrect name of pea-bug. The original meaning of the word Bruchus is a devourer, and the insects to which it is applied well deserve this name, for, in the larva state, they devour the interior of seeds, often leaving but little more than the hull untouched. They belong to a family of the great weevil tribe called Brucuip#, and are distinguished from other weevils by the following characters. ‘The body is oval, and slightly convex ; the head is bent downwards, so that the broad muzzle, when the insects are not eating, rests upon the breast ; the antenne are short, straight, and saw-toothed within, and are inserted close to a deep notch in each of the eyes; the feelers, though very small, are visible ; the wing-cases do not cover the end of the abdomen ; and the hindmost thighs are very thick, and often notched or toothed on the under-side, as is the case in the pea-weevil. The habits of the Bruchians and their larve are similar to those of the pea-weevil, which remain to be de- scribed. It may be well, however, to state here that these beetles frequent the leguminous or pod-bearing plants, such as the pea, Gleditsia, Robinia, Mimosa, Cassia, &c., during and immediately after the flowering season ; they pierce the tender pods of these plants, and commonly lay only one egg in each seed, the pulp of which suffices for the food of the little maggot-like grub hatched therein. Few persons while indulging in the luxury of early green pease are aware how many insects ‘hey unconsciously swallow. When the pods are carefully examined, small, discolored spots may be seen within them, each one corresponding to a similar spot on the opposite pea. If this spot in the pea be opened, a minute whitish grub, destitute of feet, will be found therein. It is the weevil in its larva form, which lives upon the marrow of the pea, and arrives at its full size by the time that the pea becomes dry. This larva or grub then bores a round hole from the hollow in the centre of the pea quite to the hull, but leaves the latter and generally the 56 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. ‘germ of the future sprout untouched. Hence these buggy pease, as they are called by seedsmen and gardeners, will frequently sprout and grow when planted. ‘The grub is changed to a pupa within its hole in the pea in the autumn, and before the spring casts its skin again, becomes a beetle, and gnaws a hole through the thin hull in order to make its escape into the air, which fre- quently does not happen before the pease are planted for an early crop. After the pea-vines have flowered, and while the pods are young and tender, and the pease within them are just beginning to swell, the beetles gather upon them, pierce the pods, and deposit. their tiny eggs in the punctures. ‘This is done only during the night, or in cloudy weather. Each egg is always placed opposite to a pea; the grubs, as soon as they are hatched, penetrate the pod and bury themselves in the pease; and the holes through which they pass are so fine as hardly to be perceived, and are soon closed. Sometimes every pea in a pod will be found to con- tain a weevil-grub ; and so great has been the injury to the crop in some parts of the country that the inhabitants have been obliged to give up the cultivation of this vegetable.* ‘These insects, as Mr. Deane has observed, diminish the weight of the pease in which they lodge, nearly one half, and their leavings are fit only for the food of swine. This occasions a great loss, where pease are raised for feeding stock or for family use, as they are in many places. Those persons, who eat whole pease in the winter after they are raised, run the risk of eating the weevils also ; but if the pease are kept till they are a year old, the insects will entirely leave them. The pea-weevil is supposed to bea native of the United States. It seems to have been first noticed in Pennsylvania, many years ago ; and has gradually spread from thence to New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. It is yet rare in New Hampshire, and I believe has not appeared in the eastern parts of Maine. It is unknown in the North of Europe, as we learn from the interesting account given of it by Kalm, the Swedish traveller, who tells us of the fear with which he was filled, on finding some of these weevils in a parcel of pease which he had _ * See Kalm’s Travels. 8vo. Warrington. 1770. Vol. I. p. 173. COLEOPTERA. 57 carried home from America, having in view the whole damage which his beloved country would have suffered, if only two or three of these noxious insects had escaped him. They are now common in the South of Europe and in England, whither they may have been carried from this country. As the cultivated pea was not originally a native of America, it would be interesting to ascertain what plants the pea-weevil formerly inhabited. ‘That it should have preferred the prolific exotic pea to any of our indi- genous and less productive pulse, is not a matter of surprise, anal- ogous facts being of common occurrence ; but that, for so many years, a rational method for checking its ravages should not have been practised, is somewhat remarkable. An exceedingly simple one is recommended by Deane, but to be successful it should be universally adopted. It consists merely in keeping seed-pease in tight vessels over one year before planting them. Latreille and others recommend putting them, just before they are to be planted, into hot water for a minute or two, by which means the weevils will be killed, and the sprouting of the pease will be quickened. ‘The insect is limited to a certain period for deposit- ing its eggs ; late sown pease therefore escape its attacks. The late Colonel Pickering observed that those sown in Pennsylvania as late as the twentieth of May, were entirely free from weevils ; and Colonel Worthington, of Rensselaer county, New York, who sowed his pease on the tenth of June, six years in succession, never found an insect in them during that period. The crow black-bird is said to devour great numbers of the beetles in the spring; and the Baltimore oriole or hang-bird splits open the green pods for the sake of the grubs contained in the pease, thereby contributing greatly to prevent the increase of these noxious insects. ‘The instinct that enables this beautiful bird to detect the lurking grub, concealed, as the latter is, within the pod and the hull of the pea, is worthy our highest admiration ; and the goodness of Providence, which has endowed it with this faculty, is still further shown in the economy of the insects also, which, through His prospective care, are not only limited in the season of their depredations, but are instinctively taught to spare the germs of the pease, thereby securing a succession of crops for our benefit and that of their own progeny. 8 58 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. The Attelabians (ATTELABIDZ) are distinguished from the Bruchians by the form and greater length of the head, which is a little inclined, and ends with a snout, sometimes short and thick, and sometimes long, slender, and curved. ‘The eyes also are round and entire ; and the antennze are usually implanted near the middle of the snout. The larve resemble those of most of the snout-beetles, being short, thick, whitish grubs, with horny heads, the rings of the body very much hunched, and deprived of legs, the place of which is supplied by fleshy warts along the under-side of the body. Some of the European insects of this family are known to be very injurious to the leaves, fruits, and seeds of plants. The different kinds of Attelabus are said to roll up the edges of leaves, thereby forming little nests, of the shape and size of thimbles, to contain their eggs, and to shelter their young, which afterwards devour the leaves. ‘The larve and habits of our native species are unknown to me. ‘The most common one here is the Attelabus analis of Weber, or the red-tailed Attelabus. It is one quarter of an inch long from the tip of the thick snout to the end of the body. ‘The head, which is nearly cylindrical, the antenne, legs, and middle of the breast are deep blue-black ; the thorax, wing-covers, and abdomen are dull red ; the wing-covers taken together, are nearly square, and are punctured in rows. This beetle is found on the leaves of oak-trees in June and July. The two-spotted Attelabus, Attelabus bipustulatus of Fabricius, is also found on oak-leaves during the same season as the preced- ing. Itis of a deep blue-black color, with a square dull red spot on the shoulders of each wing-cover. It measures rather more than one eighth of an inch in length. Two or three beetles of this family are very hurtful to the vine, in Europe, by nibbling the midrib of the leaves, so that the latter may be rolled up to form a retreat for their young. ‘They also puncture the buds and the tender fruit of this and of other plants. In consequence of the damage, caused by them and by their larve, whole vineyards are sometimes stripped of their leaves, and fruit-trees are despoiled of their foliage and fruits. These insects belong to the genus Rhynchites, a name given to them in allusion to their snouts. I have not seen any of them on vines or fruit- COLEOPTERA. 59 trees in this country. The largest one found here is the Rhyn- chites bicolor of Fabricius, or two-colored Rhynchites. This insect is met with in June, July, and August, on cultivated and wild rose-bushes, sometimes in considerable numbers. ‘That they injure these plants is highly probable, but the nature and extent of the injury is not certainly known. The whole of the upper side of this beetle is red, except the rather long and slender snout, which, together with the antenne, legs, and under-side of the body, is black; it is thickly covered with small punctures, and is slightly downy, and there are rows of larger punctures on the wing-covers. It measures one fifth of an inch from the eyes to the tip of the abdomen. The grubs of many kinds of Apion destroy the seeds of plants. In Europe they do much mischief to clover in this way. They receive the above name from the shape of the beetles, which resembles that of a pear. Say’s Apion, Apion Sayz * of Schén- herr, is a minute black species, not more than one tenth of an inch long, exclusive of the slender sharp-pointed snout. Its grubs live in the pods of the common wild indigo bush, Baptista tinctoria, devouring the seeds. A smaller kind, somewhat like it, inhabits the pods and eats the seeds of the locust-tree, or Robinia pseud- acacia. Naturalists place here a little group of snout-beetles, called Brenruip#, or Brenthians, which differ entirely in their forms from the other weevils, both in the beetle and grub state. They have a long, narrow, and cylindrical body. The snout pro- jects from the head in a straight line with the body, and varies in shape according to the sex of the insect, and even in individuals of the same sex. In the males it is broad and flat, sometimes as long as the thorax, sometimes much shorter, and it is widened at the tip, where are situated two strong nippers or upper jaws 3 in the females it is long, very slender, and not enlarged at the ex- tremity, and the nippers are not visible to the naked eye. The feelers are too small to be seen. The antenne are short, straight, slightly thickened towards the tip, and implanted before the prom- inent eyes, on the middle of the snout in the males, and at the * Apion rostrum, Say. 60 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. base of it in the females. The legs are short, the first pair being the largest, and the hindmost unusually distant from the middle pair. These insects live under the bark and in the trunks of trees, but very little has been published respecting their habits ; and the only description of their larve that has hitherto appeared is contained in my first Report on the Insects of Massachusetts, printed in the year 1838, in the seventy-second number of the Documents of the House of Representatives. The only beetle of this family known in the New England States is the Brenthus (Arrhenodes) septemtrionis* of Herbst, the northern Brenthus, so named because most of the other spe- cies are tropical insects. It is of a mahogany-brown color ; the wing-cases are somewhat darker, ornamented with narrow tawny yellow spots, and marked with deep furrows, the sides of which are punctured ; the thorax is nearly egg-shaped, broadest behind the middle, and highly polished. The common length of this insect, including the snout, is six tenths of an inch ; but much larger as well as smaller specimens frequently occur. The north- ern Brenthus inhabits the white oak, on the trunks and under the bark of which it may be found in June and July, having then completed its transformations. ‘The female, when about to lay her eggs, punctures the bark with her slender snout, and drops an egg in each hole thus made. The grub, as soon as it is hatched, bores into the solid wood, forming a cylindrical passage, which it. keeps clear by pushing its castings out of the orifice of the hole, as fast as they accumulate. ‘These castings or chips are like very fine saw-dust ; and the holes made by the insects are easily dis- covered by the dust around them. When fully grown, the grub measures rather more than an inch in length, and not quite one tenth of an inch in thickness. It is nearly cylindrical, being only a little flattened on the under-side, and is of a whitish color, ex- cept the last segment, which is dark chestnut-brown. Each of the first three segments is provided with a pair of legs, and there is a fleshy prop-leg under the hinder extremity of the body. The last segment is of a horny consistence, and is obliquely hollowed * A mistake undoubtedly for septemtrionalis. It is the Brenthus mazillosus of Olivier and Schonherr. COLEOPTERA. 61 at the end, so as to form a kind of gouge or scoop, the edges of which are furnished with little notches or teeth. It is by means of this singular scoop that the grub shovels the minute grains of wood out of its burrow. The pupa is met with in the burrow formed by the larva. It is of a yellowish white color ; the head is bent under the thorax, and the snout rests on the breast be- tween the folded legs and wings; the back is furnished with transverse rows of little thorns or sharp teeth, and there are two larger thorns at the extremity of the body. ‘These minute thorns probably enable the pupa to move towards the mouth of its bur- row when it is about to be transformed, and may serve also to keep its body steady during its exertions in casting off its pupa- skin. ‘These insects are most abundant in trees that have been cut down for timber or fuel, which are generally attacked during the first summer after they are felled ; it has also been ascertained that living trees do not always escape, but those that are in full vigor are rarely perforated by grubs of this kind. The credit of discovering the habits and transformations of the northern Bren- thus is due to the Rev. L. W. Leonard, of Dublin, New Hamp- shire, who has favored me with specimens in all their forms. This insect is now known to inhabit nearly all the States in the Union. Iam inclined to think that the Brenthians ought to be placed at the end of the weevil tribe ; but I have not ventured to alter the arrangement generally adopted. The rest of the weevils are short and thick beetles, differing from all the preceding in their antenne, which are bent or elbowed near the middle, the first joint being much longer than the rest. Their feelers are not perceptible. They belong to the family CURCULIONID#, so called from the principal genus Curculio, a name given by the Romans to the corn-weevil. The Curculio- nians vary in the form, length, and direction of their snouts. Those belonging to the old genus Curculio have short and thick snouts, at the extremity of which, and near to the sides of the mouth, the antenne are implanted ; those to which the name of Rthynchenus was formerly applied have longer and more slender snouts, usually bearing the antenne on or just behind the middle ; and the third great genus, called Calandra, contains long-snouted beetles, whose antennz are fixed just before the eyes at the base of 62 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. the snout. These weevils, being very numerous, and differing also. greatly in their forms and habits, have latterly been divided into a great number of genera, distinguished from each other by more or less striking peculiarities. The convenience and simplicity of the former arrangement has induced me to retain the old names Cur- culio, Rhynchenus, and Calandra, for the few species to be here described, while the names of the new genera, to which they have been referred, will be included within parentheses. Curculio (Pandeleteius) hilaris of Herbst, which we may call the gray-sided Curculio, is a little pale brown beetle, variegated with gray upon the sides. Its snout is short, broad, and slightly furrowed in the middle ; there are three blackish stripes on the thorax, between which are two of a light gray color; the wing- covers have a broad stripe of light gray on the outer side, edged within by a slender blackish line, and sending two short oblique branches almost across each wing-cover ; and the fore-legs are much larger than the others. The length of this beetle varies from one eighth to one fifth of an inch. The larva lives in the trunks of the white oak, on which the beetles may be found about the last of May and the beginning of June. The Pales weevil, Curculio (Hylobius) Pales of Herbst, is a beetle of a deep chestnut-brown color, having a line and a few dots of a yellowish white color on the thorax, and many small yellowish white spots sprinkled over the wing-covers. All the thighs are toothed beneath, and the snout is slender, cylindrical, inclined, and nearly as long as the thorax. On account of the length of the snout this insect has been placed in the genus Rhyn- chenus by some naturalists ; but the antenne are implanted before the middle of the snout, and not far from the sides of the mouth. This beetle measures from two to three eighths of an inch in length, exclusive of the snout. It may be found in great abun- dance, in May and June, on board-fences, the sides of new wooden buildings, and on the trunks of pine-trees. I have discovered them, in considerable numbers, under the bark of the pitch-pine. The larve, which do not materially differ from those of other weevils, inhabit these and probably other kinds of pines, doing sometimes immense injury to them. Wilson, the ornithologist, COLEOPTERA. 63 describes the depredations of these insects, in his account * of the ivory-billed wood-pecker, in the following words. ‘* Would it be believed that the larve of an insect, or fly, not larger than a grain of rice, should silently, and in one season, destroy some thousand acres of pine trees, many of them from two to three feet in diam- eter, and a hundred and fifty feet high ! Yet whoever passes along the high road from Georgetown to Charleston, in South Carolina, about twenty miles from the former place, can have striking and melancholy proofs of the fact. In some places the whole woods, as far as you can see around you, are dead, stripped of the bark, their wintry-looking arms and bare trunks bleaching in the sun, and tumbling to ruins before every blast, presenting a frightful picture of desolation. Until some effectual preventive or more complete remedy can be devised against these insects and their larve, I would humbly suggest the propriety of protecting and receiving with proper feelings of gratitude the services of this and the whole tribe of wood-peckers, letting the odium of guilt fall to its proper owners.”? Some years ago Mr. Nuttall kindly procured for me, near the place above mentioned, specimens of the destruc- tive insects referred to by Wilson. ‘They were of three kinds. Those in greatest abundance were the Pales weevil. One of the others was a larger, darker-colored weevil, without white spots on it, and named Hylobius picivorus, by Germar and Schénherr, or the pitch-eating weevil; it is seldom found in Massachusetts. The third was the white pine weevil to be next described. It is said that these beetles puncture the buds and the tender bark of the small branches, and feed upon the juice, and that the young shoots are often so much injured by them as to die and break off at the wounded part. But it is in the larva state that they are found to be most hurtful to the pines. ‘The larve live under the bark, devouring its soft inner surface, and The tender newly formed wood. When they abound, as they do in some of our pine forests, they separate large pieces of bark from the wood be- neath, im consequence of which the part perishes, and the tree itself.soon languishes and dies. The white pine weevil, Rhynchenus (Pissodes) Strobi+, of * American Ornithology. Vol. IV. p. 21. t Pissodes nemorensis of Germar. 64 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. Professor Peck, unites with the two preceding insects in destroy- ing the pines of this country, as above described. But it employs also another mode of attack on the white pine, of which an inter- esting account is given by the late Professor Peck, the first de- scriber of the insect, in the fourth volume of the ‘‘ Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal,’”? accompanied by figures of the insect. The lofty stature of the white pine, and the straight- ness of its trunk depend, as Professor Peck has remarked, upon the constant health of its leading shoot, for a long succession of years; and if this shoot be destroyed, the tree becomes stunted and deformed in its subsequent growth. This accident is not un- common, and is caused by the ravages of the white pine wee- vil. This beetle is oblong oval, rather slender, of a brownish color, thickly punctured, and variegated with small brown, rust- colored, and whitish scales. ‘There are two white dots on the thorax ; the scutel is white ; and on the wing-covers, which are punctured in rows, there is a whitish transverse band behind the middle. The snout is longer than the thorax, slender, and a vegy little inclined. The length of this insect, exclusive of its snout, varies from one fifth to three tenths of an inch. Its eggs are de- posited on the leading shoot of the pine, probably immediately under the outer bark. The larve, hatched therefrom, bore into the shoot in various directions, and probably remain in the wood more than one year. When the feeding state is passed, but before the insect is changed to a pupa, it gnaws a passage from the inside quite to the bark, which, however, remaining untouched, serves to shelter the little borers from the weather. After they have changed to beetles, they have only to cut away the outer bark to make their escape. They begin to come out early in September, and continue to leave the wood through that month and a part of October. The shoot at this time will be found pierced with small round holes on all sides ; sometimes thirty or forty may be counted on one shoot. Professor Peck has observed that an un- limited increase is not permitted to this destructive insect ; and that if it were, our forests would not produce a single mast. One of the means appointed to restrain the increase of the white pine weevil is a species of ichneumon-fly, endued with sagacity to dis- cover the retreat of the larva, the body of which it stings, and COLEOPTERA. 65 therein deposits an egg. From the latter a grub is hatched, which devours the larva of the weevil, and is subsequently trans- formed to a four-winged fly, in the habitation prepared for it. The most effectual remedy against the increase of these weevils is to cut off the shoot in August, or as soon as it is perceived to be dead, and commit it, with its inhabitants, to the fire. Such is the substance of Professor Peck’s history of this insect ; to which may be added, that the beetles are found in great numbers, in April and~ May, on fences, buildings, and pine-trees ; that they probably secrete themselves during the winter in the crevices of the bark, or about the roots of the trees, and deposit their eggs in the spring ; or they may not usually leave the trees before spring. Perhaps the method used for decoying the pine-eating beetles in Europe may be practised here with advantage. It consists in sticking some newly cut branches of pine-trees in the ground, in an open place, during the season when the insects are about to lay their eggs. In a few hours these branches will be covered with the beetles, which may be shaken into a cloth and burned. There are some of the long-snouted weevils which inhabit nuts of various kinds. Hence they are called nut-weevils, and belong chiefly to the modern genus Balaninus, a name that signifies liv- ing or being in a nut. The common nut-weevil of Europe lays her-eggs in the hazel-nut and filbert, having previously bored a hole for that purpose with her long and slender snout, while the fruit is young and tender, and dropping only one egg in each nut thus pricked. A little grub is soon hatched from the egg, and begins immediately to devour the soft kernel. Notwithstanding this, the nut continues to increase in size, and, by the time that it is ripe and ready to fall, its little inhabitant also comes to its growth, gnaws a round hole in the shell, through which it after- wards makes its escape, and burrows in the ground. Here it remains unchanged through the winter, and in the following sum- mer, having completed its transformations, it comes out of the ground a beetle. In this country weevil-grubs are very common in hazel-nuts, chestnuts, and acorns ; but I have not hitherto been able to rear any of them to the beetle state. The most common of the nut- weevils known to me appears to be the Rhynchenus (Balaninus) ~ 66 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. nasicus of Say; the long-snouted nut-weevil. Its form is oval, and its ground color dark brown; but it is clothed with very short rust-yellow flattened hairs, which more or less conceal its original color, and are disposed in spots on its wing-covers. ‘The snout is brown and polished, longer than the whole body, as slen- der as a bristle, of equal thickness from one end to the other, and slightly curved ; it bears the long elbowed antenne, which are as fine as a hair, just behind the middle. ‘This beetle measures nearly three tenths of an inch in length, exclusive of the snout. It is found in September and October, and more rarely in July, at which time it probably lays its eggs. As it does not come out till the autumn, it must pass the winter concealed in some secure place. From its size and resemblance to the nut-weevil of Eu- rope, it may be the species which attacks the hazel-nut here. It is now well known that the falling of unripe plums, apricots, peaches, and cherries is caused by little whitish grubs, which bore into these fruits. The loss of fruit, occasioned by inse f this kind, is frequently very great ; and, in some of our gardens and orchards, the crop of plums is often entirely ruined by the depre- dations of grubs, which have been ascertained to be the larve or young of a small beetle of the weevil tribe, called Rhynchenus (Conotrachelus) Nenuphar*, the Nenuphar or plum-weevil. I have found these beetles as early as the thirtieth of March, and as late as the tenth of June, and at various intermediate times, accordingtwith the forwardness or backwardness of vegetation in the spring, and have frequently caught them flying in the middle of the day. They are from three twentieths to one fifth of an inch long, exclusive of the curved snout, which is rather longer than the thorax, and is bent under the breast, between the fore- legs, when at rest. Their color is a dark brown, variegated with spots of white, ochre-yellow, and black. The thorax is uneven ; the wing-covers have several short ridges upon them, those on the middle of the back forming two considerable humps, of a black color, behind which there is a wide band of ochre-yellow and white. Each of the thighs has two little teeth on the under-side. * First described by Herbst, in 1797, under the name of Curculio Nenuphar ; Fabricius redescribed it under that of Rhynchenus Argula; and Dejean has named it Conotrachelus variegatus. COLEOPTERA. 67 They begin to sting the plums as soon as the fruit is set, and, as some say, continue their operations till the first of August. After making a suitable puncture with their snouts, they lay one egg in each plum thus stung, and go over the fruit on the tree in this way till their store is exhausted; so that, where these beetles abound, not a plum will escape being punctured. The irritation arising from these punctures, and from the gnawings of the grubs after they are hatched, causes the young fruit to become gummy, diseased, and finally to drop before it is ripe. Meanwhile the grub comes to its growth, and, immediately after the fruit falls, burrows into the ground. ‘This may occur at various times be- tween the middle of June and of August ; and, in the space of a little more than three weeks afterwards, the insect completes its transformations, and comes out of the ground in the beetle form. The history of the insect thus far is the result of my own observa- tions ;_ the remainder rests on the testimony of other persons. I account of the plum-weevil, by Dr. James Tilton of Wilmington, Delaware, published in Mease’s ‘¢ Domestic Ency- clopedia,”’ under the article Fruzt, and since republished in the “¢ Georgical Papers for 1809” of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, and in other works, it is stated, that peaches, nectarines, apples, pears, quinces, and cherries are also attacked by this insect, and that it remains in the earth, in the form of a grub, dur- ing the winter, ready to be matured into a beetle as the spring advances. ‘These statements I have not yet been able’ to con- firm. It seems, however, to have been fully ascertained by Professor Peck, Mr. Say, and others, in whose accuracy full confidence may be placed, that this same weevil attacks all- our common stone-fruits, such as plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and cherries ; Dr. Burnett has recently assured me that he has seen this beetle puncturing apples ; and it is not at all improbable that the transformations of some of the grubs may be retarded till: the winter has passed, analogous cases being of frequent occurrence. Those that are sometimes found in apples must not be mistaken for the more common apple-worms, which are not the larve of a weevil. The Rev. F. V. Melsheimer remarks in his Catalogue, that this insect lives under the bark of the peach-tree. Professor Peck raised the same beetle from a grub found in the warty ex- % 68 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. crescence of a cherry-tree, and from this circumstance named it Rhynchenus Cerasi, the cherry-weevil. The plum, still more than the cherry tree, is subject to a disease of the small limbs, which shows itself in the form of large irregular warts, of a black color, as if charred. Grubs, apparently the same as those that are found in plums, have often been detected in these warts, which are now gen- erally supposed to be produced by the punctures of the beetles, and the residence of the grubs. Professor Peck says that ‘‘ the seat of the disease is in the bark. The sap is diverted from its regular course, and is absorbed entirely by the bark, which is very much increased in thickness ; the cuticle bursts, the swelling becomes irregular, and is formed into black lumps, with a cracked, uneven, granulated surface. ‘The wood, besides being deprived of its nutriment, is very much compressed, and the branch above the tumor perishes.””* The grubs found by Professor Peck in the tumors of the cherry-tree, went into the ground on the sixth of July, and on the thirtieth of the same month, or twenty ys , and from their leaving the bark, the perfect insects began to were soon ready to deposit their eggs in healthy branches. In order to account for the occurrence of these insects both in the fruit and in the branches of the trees, I have ventured, on an- other occasion, to give the following explanation, although it rests only upon conjecture. ‘The final transformation of the grubs, liv- ing in the fruit, appears to take place at various times during the lat- ter part of summer and the beginning of autumn, when the weevil, finding no young fruit, is probably obliged to lay its eggs in the small branches. ‘The larve or grubs from these eggs live in the branches during the winter, and are not perfected till near the last of the following June. Should the fall of the fruit occur late in the autumn, the development of the beetles will be retarded till the next spring ; and this I suppose to be the origin of the brood which stings the fruit. These suggestions seem to receive somé confirmation from the known habits of the copper-colored plum- weevils of Europe, which, ‘‘ in default of plums, make use of the soft spring shoots of the plum and apricot trees.’? + In cases like * See Professor Peck’s account of Insects which affect Oaks and Cherry trees; with a plate ; in the ‘‘ Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal.” Vol, v. p. 312. | Kollar’s Treatise, p. 238. COLEOPTERA. 69 these, we see the care of the Creator for some of the least of his creatures, which He has wisely provided with variable instincts, enabling them to accommodate themselves to the difficulties of the situation in which they may happen to be placed, and thus, even in unfruitful seasons, to provide for a succession of their kind. The following, among other remedies that have been suggested, may be found useful in checking the ravages of the plum-weevil. Let the treea#be briskly shaken or suddenly jarred every morning and’ evening during the time that the insects appear in the beetle form, and are engaged in laying their eggs. When thus disturbed they contract their legs and fall ; and, as they do not immediately attempt to fly or crawl away, they may be caught in a sheet spread under the tree, from which they should be gathered into a large wide-mouthed bottle or other tight vessel, and be thrown into the fire. All the fallen wormy plums should be immediately gathered, an er they are boiled or steamed, to kill the enclosed grubs, t be given as food to swine. The diseased excrescences sh cut out and burned every year before the last of June. The moose plum-tree (Prunus Americana), which grows wild in Maine, seems to escape the attacks of insects, for no warts are found upon it, even when growing in the immediate vicinity of diseased foreign trees. It would, therefore, be the best of stocks for budding or engrafting upon. It can easily be raised from the stone, and grows rapidly, but does not attain a great size. For further suggestions and remarks, the. account of this insect by Dr. Joel Burnett, in the eighteenth volume of the ‘* New England Farmer,’’ may be consulted. The most pernicious of the Rhynchophorians, or snout-beetles, are the insects properly called grain-weevils, belonging to the old genus Calandra. These insects must not be confounded with the still more destructive larve of the corn-moth (Tinea granella), which also attacks stored grain, nor with the orange-colored mag- gots of the wheat-fly (Cecidomyia Tritict), which are found in the ears of growing wheat. Although the grain-weevils are not actually injurious to vegetation, yet as the name properly belong- ing to them has often been misapplied in this country, thereby creating no little confusion, some remarks upon them may tend to prevent future mistakes. The true grain-weevil or wheat-weevil of Europe, Calandra 70 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. (Sitophilus) granaria, or Curculio granarius of Linneus, in its perfected state is a slender beetle of a pitchy red color, about one eighth of an inch long, with a slender snout slightly bent down- wards, a coarsely punctured and very long thorax, constituting almost one half the length of the whole body, and wing-covers that are furrowed, and do not entirely cover the tip of the abdo- men. This little insect, both in the beetle and grub state, devours stored wheat and other grains, and often commits fitch havoc in granaries and brew-houses. Its powers of multiplication are Very great, for it is stated that a single pair of these destroyers may produce above six thousand descendants in one year. ‘The female deposits her eggs upon the wheat after it is housed, and the young grubs hatched therefrom immediately burrow into the wheat, each individual occupying alone a single grain, the substance of which it devours, so as often to leave nothing but the hull ; and this destruction goes on within, while no external appearance to its discovery, and the loss of weight is the only evide e mischief that has been done to the grain. In due time bs undergo their transformations, and come out of the hulls, in the beetle state, to lay their eggs for another brood. ‘These insects are effectually destroyed by kiln-drying the wheat ; and grain, that is kept cool, well ventilated, and is frequently moved, is said to be exempt from attack. Another grain-weevil, hardly differing from the foregoing except in its color, which is black, is found in New York. It is the Calandra (Sitophilus) remotepunctata of Schénherr. Whether wheat, and other grain, suffers to any extent in this country from either of these weevils, I have not been able to ascertain, as the accounts given of the ravages of the insects supposed to be weevils are rarely accompanied by any descriptions of them in their different states. Rice is attacked by an insect closely resembling the wheat- weevil, from which, however, it is distinguished, by having two large red spots on each wing-cover ; it is also somewhat smaller, measuring only about one tenth of an inch in length, exclusive of the snout. This beetle, the Calandra (Sttophilus) Oryze,* or rice-weevil, is not entirely confined to rice, but depredates upon * Curculio Oryze of Linneus. COLEOPTERA. al maize or Indian corn also. I have seen stored Southern corn swarming with them ; and, should they multiply and extend in this section of the country, they will become a source of serious injury to one of the most valuable of our staple productions. It is said that this weevil lays its eggs on the rice in the fields, as soon as the grain begins to swell. If this indeed be true, we have very little to fear from it here, our Indian corn being so well pro- tected by the fusks that it would probably escape from any injury, if attacked. On the contrary, if the insects multiply in stored grain, then our utmost care will be necessary to prevent them from infesting our own garners. ‘The parent beetle bores a hole into the grain, and drops therein a single egg, going from one grain to another till all her eggs are laid. She then dies, leaving, how- ever, the rice well seeded for a future harvest of weevil-grubs. In due time the eggs are hatched, the grubs live securely and un- seen in the centre of the rice, devouring a considerable portion of its ce, and when fully grown they gnaw a little hole through the the grain, artfully stopping it up again with particles of rice-flour, and then are changed to pupe. ‘This usually occurs during the winter ; and in the following spring the insects are transformed to beetles, and come out of the grain. By winnowing and sifting the rice in the spring, the beetles can be separated, and should then be gathered immediately and destroyed. The sudden change of the temperature that generally occurs in the early part of May, brings out great numbers of insects, from their winter-quarters, to enjoy the sunshine and the ardent heat which are congenial to their natures. While a continued hum is heard, among the branches of the trees, from thousands of bees and flies, drawn thither by the fragrance of the bursting buds and the tender foliage, and the very ground beneath our feet seems teeming with insect life, swarms of little beetles of various kinds come forth to try their wings, and, with an uncertain and heavy flight, launch into the air. Among these beetles there are many of a dull red or fox color, nearly cylindrical in form, tapering a very little before, obtusely rounded at both extremities, and about one quarter of an inch in length. They are seen slowly creeping upon the sides of wooden buildings, resting on the tops of fences, or wheeling about in the air, and every now and then suddenly 72 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. alighting on some tree or wall, or dropping to the ground. If we go to an old pine-tree we may discover from whence they have come, and what they have been about during the past period of their lives. Here they will be found creeping out of thousands of small round holes which they have made through the bark for their escape. Upon raising a piece of the bark, already loosened by the undermining of these insects, we find it pierced with holes in every direction, and even the surface of the wood will be seen to have been gnawed by these little miners. After enjoying themselves abroad for a few days, they pair, and begin to lay their eggs. The pitch-pine is most generally chosen by them for this purpose, but they also attack other kinds of pines. ‘They gnaw little holes here and there through the rough bark of the trunk and limbs, drop their eggs therein, and, after this labor is finished, they become exhausted and die. In the autumn the grubs hatched from these eggs will be found fully grown. es hey have a short, thick, nearly cylindrical body, wrinkled on ck, are somewhat curved, and of a yellowish white color, wi orny darker colored head, and are destitute of feet. They devour the soft inner substance of the bark, boring through it in various directions for this purpose,and, when they have come to their full size, they gnawa passage to the surface, for their escape after they have completed their transformations. These take place deep in their burrows late in the autumn, at which time the insects may be found in various states of maturity, within the bark. ‘Their depre- dations interrupt the descent of the sap, and prevent the formation of new wood ; the bark becomes loosened from the wood, to a greater or less extent, and the tree languishes and prematurely decays. The name of this insect is Hylurgus terebrans*, the boring Hylurgus ; the generical name signifying a carpenter, or worker in wood. It belongs to the family Scotyrip2, including various kinds of destructive insects, which may be called cylindri- cal bark-beetles. The insects of this family may be recognised by the following characters. The body is nearly cylindrical, ob- tuse before and behind, and generally of some shade of brown. The head is rounded, sunk pretty deeply in the forepart of the thorax, and does not end with a snout; the antenne are short, * Scolytus terebrans of Olivier. COLEOPTERA. 73 more or less crooked or curved in the middle, and end with an oval knob ; the feelers are very short. The thorax is rather long, and as broad as the following part of the body. The wing-covers are frequently cut off obliquely or hollowed at the hinder ex- tremity. ‘The legs are short and strong, with little teeth on the outer edge or extremity of the shanks, and the feet are not wide and spongy beneath. Though these cylindrical bark-beetles are of small size, they multiply very fast, and where they abound are productive of much mischief, particularly in forests, which are often greatly injured by their larve, and the wood is rendered unfit for the purposes of art. In the year 1780, an insect of this family made its appear- ance in the pine-trees of one of the mining districts of Germany, where it increased so rapidly that in three years afterwards whole forests had disappeared beneath its ravages, and an end was nearly put to the working of the extensive mines in this range of cnn the want of fuel to carry on the operations. Pines and firs are the most subject to their attacks, but there are some kinds which infest other trees. The premature decay of the elm in some parts of Europe is occasioned by the ravages of the Scolytus destructor, of which an interesting account was written in 1824, by Mr. Macleay. An abstract of his paper may be found in the fifth volume of the ‘‘ New England Farmer.” * The larve- or grubs of these bark-beetles resemble those of the Hylurgus terebrans or pine bark-beetle already described. Like the grubs of the weevils, they are short and thick, and destitute of legs. The red cedar is inhabited by a very small bark-beetle, named by Mr. Say Hylurgus dentatus, the toothed Hylurgus. It is nearly one tenth of an inch in length, and of a dark brown color ; the wing-cases are rough with little grains, which become more elevated towards the hinder part, and are arranged in longitudinal rows, with little furrows between them. The tooth-like appear- ance of these little elevations suggested the name given to this species. ‘The female bores a cylindrical passage beneath the bark of the cedar, dropping her eggs at short intervals as she goes along, and dies at the end of her burrow when her eggs are all * Page 169. 10 74 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. laid. The grubs hatched from these proceed in feeding nearly at right angles, forming on each side numerous parallel furrows, smaller than the central tube of the female. ‘They complete their transformations in October, and eat their way through the bark, which will then be seen to be perforated with thousands of little round holes, through which the beetles have escaped. Under the bark of the pitch-pine I have found, in company with the pine bark-beetle, a more slender bark-beetle, of a dark chestnut-brown color, clothed with a few short yellowish hairs, with a long, almost egg-shaped thorax, which is very rough before, and short wing-covers, deeply punctured in rows, hol- lowed out at the tip like a gouge, and beset around the outer edge of the hollow with six little teeth on each side. This beetle measures one fifth of an inch, or rather more, in length. It arrives at maturity in the autumn, but does not come out of the bark till the following spring, at which time it lays its eggs. It is the Tomicus exesus, or excavated Tomicus ; the speci ame, r. Say on account of the hollowed and bitten appearance of the end of its signifying eaten out or excavated, was given to it by wing-covers. Its grubs eat zigzag and wavy passages, parallel to each other, between the bark and the wood. ‘They are much less common in the New England than in the Middle and Southern States, where they abound in the yellow pines. Another bark-beetle is found here, closely resembling the pre- ceding, from which it differs chiefly in the inferiority of its size, being but three twentieths of an inch in length, and in having only three or four teeth at the outer extremity of each wing-cover. It is the Tomicus Pini of Mr. Say. The grubs of this insect are very injurious to pine-trees. I have found them under the bark of the white and pitch pine, and they have also been discovered in the larch. ‘The beetles appear during the month of August. For many years past the pear-tree has been found to be subject © to a peculiar malady, which shows itself during midsummer by the sudden withering of the leaves and fruit, and the discoloration of - the bark of one or more of the limbs, followed by the immediate death of the part affected. In June, 1816, the Hon. John Lowell, of Roxbury, discovered a minute insect in one of the affected limbs of a pear-tree ; afterwards he repeatedly detected COLEOPTERA. 75 the same insects in blasted limbs, and his discoveries have been confirmed by Mr. Henry Wheeler and the late Dr. Oliver Fiske, of Worcester. Mr. Lowell submitted the limb and the insect contained therein to the examination of Professor Peck, who gave an account and figure of the latter, in the fourth volume of the ‘* Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal.”? From this account, and from the subsequent communication by Mr. Lowell, in the fifth volume of the ‘‘ New England Farmer,”’ it appears that the grub or larva of the insect eats its way inward through the alburnum or sap-wood into the hardest part of the wood, beginning at the root of a bud, behind which probably the egg was deposited, following the course of the eye of the bud towards the pith, around which it passes, and part of which it also consumes ; thus forming, after penetrating through the alburnum, a circular burrow or passage in the heart-wood, contiguous to the pith which it surrounds. By this means the central vessels, or those w ich convey the ascending sap, are divided, and the circu- lation is cut off. This takes place when the increasing heat of the atmosphere, producing a greater transpiration from the leaves, ren- ders a large and continued flow of sap necessary to supply the evaporation. For the want of this, or from some other unexplain- ed cause, the whole of the limb above the seat of the insect’s operations suddenly withers, and perishes during the intense heat of midsummer. ‘The larva is changed to a pupa, and subse- quently to a little beetle, in the bottom of its burrow, makes its escape from the tree in the latter part of June, or beginning of July, and probably deposits its eggs before August has passed. This little beetle, which is only one tenth of an inch in length, was named Scolytus Pyri, the pear-tree Scolytus, by Professor Peck ; it is of a deep brown color, with the antenne and legs rather paler, or of the color of iron-rust. The thorax is short, very convex, rounded and rough before ; the wing-covers are minutely punctured in rows, and slope off yery suddenly and obliquely be- hind; the shanks are widened and flattened towards the end, beset with a few little teeth externally, and end with a short hook ; and the joints of the feet are slender and entire. It is evident that this insect cannot be retained in the genus Scolytus, as defined by modern naturalists ; but the condition of my specimens will 76 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. not enable me to determine with certainty to which of the modern genera they are to be referred. ‘The minuteness of the insect, the difficulty attending the discovery of the precise seat of its operations before it has left the tree, and the small size of the aperture through which it makes its escape from the limb, are probably the reasons why it has eluded the researches of those persons who disbelieve in its existence as the cause of the blasting of the limbs of the pear-tree. It is to be scught for at or near the lowest part of the diseased limbs, and in the immediate vicinity of the buds situated about that part. ‘The remedy, suggested by Mr. Lowell and Professor Peck, to prevent other limbs and trees from being subsequently attacked in the same way, consists in cutting off the blasted limb below the seat of injury, and burning it before the perfect insect has made its escape. It will therefore be necessary, carefully to examine our pear-trees daily, durmg the month of June, and watch for the first indication of disease, or the remedy may be applied too late to prevent the dispersion of the insects among other trees. t There are some other beetles, much like the preceding in form, whose grubs bore into the solid wood of trees. ‘They were for- merly included among the cylindrical bark-beetles, but have been separated from them recently, and now form the family Bosrri- cHID&, or Bostrichians. Some of these beetles are of large size, measuring more than an inch in length, and, in the tropical regions where they are found, must prove very injurious to the trees they inhabit. The body ,in these beetles is hard and cylindrical, and generally of a black color. The thorax is bulging before, and the head is sunk and almost concealed under the projecting forepart of it. The antenne are of moderate length, and end with three large joints, which are saw-toothed internally. The larve are mostly wood-eaters, and are whitish fleshy grubs, wrinkled on the back, furnished with six legs, and resemble in form the grubs of some of the small Scarabeians. The skagbark or walnut tree is sometimes infested by the grubs of the red-shouldered A pate, or Apate basil- laris of Say, an insect of this family. The grubs bore diametri- cally through the trunks of the walnut to the very heart, and un- dergo their transformations in the bottom of their burrows. Sev- eral trees have fallen under my observation which have been COLEOPTERA. 77 entirely killed by these insects. ‘The beetles are of a deep black color, and are punctured all over. The thorax is very convex and rough before ; the wing-covers are not excavated at the tip, but they slope downwards very suddenly behind, as if obliquely cut off, the outer edge of the cut portion is armed with three little teeth on each wing-cover, and on the base or shoulders there is a large red spot. ‘This insect measures one fifth of an inch or more in length. The most powerful and destructive af the wood-eating insects are the grubs of the long-horned or Capricorn-beetles, (CERAMBY- cip&), called borers by way of distinction. There are many kinds of borers which do not belong to this tribe. Some of them have already been described, and others will be mentioned under the orders to which they belong. Those now under considera- tion differ much from each other in their habits. Some live alto- gether in the trunks of trees, others in the limbs ; some devour the wood, others the pith ; some are found only in shrubs, some in the stems of herbaceous plants, and others are confined to roots. Certain kinds are limited to plants of one species, others live indiscriminately upon several plants of one natural family ; but the same kind of borer is not known to inhabit plants differing essentially from each other in their natural characters. As might be expected from these circumstances, the beetles produced from these borers are of many different kinds. Nearly one hundred species have been found in Massachusetts, and probably many more remain to be discovered. ‘The Capricorn-beetles agree in the following respects. ‘he antenne are long and tapering, and generally curved like the horns of a goat, which is the origin of the name above given to these beetles. The body is oblong, ap- proaching to a cylindrical form, a little flattened above, and taper- ing somewhat behind. ‘The head is short, and armed with powerful jaws. ‘The thorax is either square, barrel-shaped, or narrowed before ; and is not so wide behind as the wing-covers. The legs are long; the thighs thickened in the middle; the feet four- jointed, not formed for rapid motion, but for standing securely, being broad and cushioned beneath, with the third joint deeply notched. Most of these beetles remain upon trees and shrubs during the daytime, but fly abroad at night. Some of them, 78 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. however, fly by day, and may be found on flowers, feeding on the pollen and the blossoms. When annoyed or taken into the hands, they make a squeaking sound by rubbing the joints of the thorax and abdomen together. ‘The females are generally larger and more robust than the males, and have rather shorter antenne. Moreover they are provided with a jointed tube at the end of the body, capable of being extended or drawn in like the joints of a telescope, by means of which they convey their eggs into the holes and chinks of the bark of plants. The larve hatched from these eggs are long, whitish, fleshy grubs, with the transverse incisions of the body very deeply marked, so that the rings are very convex or hunched both above and below. The body tapers a little behind, and is blunt-pointed. The head is much smaller than the first ring, slightly bent down- wards, of a horny consistence, and is provided with short but very powerful jaws, by means whereof the insect can bore, as with a centre-bit, a cylindrical passage through the most solid wood. Some of these borers have six very small legs, namely, one pair under each of the first three rings ; but most of them want even these short and imperfect limbs, and move through their burrows by the alternate extension and contraction of their bodies, on each or on most of the rings of which, both above and below, there is an oval space covered with little elevations, somewhat like the teeth of a fine rasp; and these little oval rasps, which are de- signed to aid the grubs in their motions, fully make up to them the want of proper feet. Some of these borers always keep one end of their burrows open, out of which, from time to time, they cast their chips, resembling coarse saw-dust ; others, as fast as they proceed, fill up the passages behind them with their castings, well known here by the name of powder-post. ‘These borers live from one year to three, or perhaps more years before they come to their growth. ‘They undergo their transformations at the furthest extremity of their burrows, many of them previously gnawing a passage through the wood to the inside of the bark, for their future escape. ‘The pupa is at first soft and whitish, and it exhibits all the parts of the future beetle under a filmy veil which inwraps every limb. The wings and legs are folded upon the breast, the long antenne are turned back against the sides of the body, and COLEOPTERA. 79 then bent forwards between the legs. When the beetle has thrown off its pupa-skin, it gnaws away the thin coat of bark that covers the mouth of its burrow, and comes out of its dark and confined retreat, to breathe the fresh air, and to enjoy for the first time the pleasure of sight, and the use of the legs and wings with which it is provided. The Capricorn-beetles have been divided into three families, corresponding with the genera Prionus, Cerambyx, and Leptura of Linneus. ‘Those belonging to the first family are generally of a brown color, have flattened and saw-toothed or beaded antenne of a moderate length, projecting jaws, and kidney-shaped eyes. Those in the second, have eyes of the same shape, more slender or much longer antenne, and smaller jaws ; and are often variegat- ed in their colors. ‘The beetles belonging to the third family are readily distinguished by their eyes, which are round and promi- nent. ‘These three families are divided into many smaller groups and genera, the peculiarities of which cannot be particularly point- ed out in a work of this kind. The Prionians, or Prionrp#, derive their name from a Greek word signifying a saw, which has been applied to them either be- cause the antenne, in most of these beetles, consist of flattened joints, projecting internally somewhat like the teeth of a saw, or on account of their upper jaws, which sometimes are very long and toothed within. It is said that some of the beetles thus armed can saw off large limbs by seizing them between their jaws, and flying or whirling sidewise round the enclosed limb, till it is completely divided. ‘The largest insects of the Capricorn tribe belong to this family, some of the tropical species measuring five or six inches in length, and one inch and a half or two inches in breadth. ‘Their larve are broader and more flattened than the grubs of the other Capricorn-beetles, and are provided with six very short legs. When about to be transformed, they collect a quantity of their chips around them, and make therewith an oval pod or cocoon, to enclose themselves. Our largest species is the broad-necked Prionus, Prionus lati- collis* of Drury, its first describer. It is of along oval shape * Prionus brevicornis of Fabricius. ° 80 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. and of a pitchy black color. The jaws, though short, are very thick and strong ; the antenne are stout and saw-toothed in the male, and more slender in the other sex; the thorax is short and wide, and armed on the lateral edges with three teeth; the wing- covers have three slightly elevated lines on each of them, and are rough with a multitude of large punctures, which run together irregularly. It measures from one inch and one eighth, to one inch and three quarters in length; the females being always much larger than the males. The grubs of this beetle, when fully grown, are as thick as a man’s thumb. ‘They live in the trunks and roots of the balm of gilead, Lombardy poplar, and probably in those of other kinds of poplar also. The beetles may fre- quently be seen upon, or flying round the trunks of these trees in the month of July, even in the daytime, though the other kinds of Prionus generally fly only by night. The one-colored Prionus, Prionus unicolor* of Drury, inhabits pine-trees. Its body is long, narrow, and flattened, of a light bay- brown color, with the head and antenne darker. ‘The thorax is very short, and armed on each side with three sharp teeth ; the wing-covers are nearly of equal breadth throughout, and have three slightly elevated ribs on each of them. ‘This beetle meas- ures from one inch and one quarter, to one inch and a half in length, and about three or four tenths of an inch in breadth. It flies by night, and frequently enters houses in the evening, from the middle of July to September. The second family of the Capricorn-beetles may be allowed to retain the scientific name, CERAMBYCID2, of the tribe to which it belongs. ‘The Cerambycians have not the very prominent jaws of the Prionians ; their eyes are always kidney-shaped or notched for the reception of the first joint of the antenne, which are not saw-toothed, but generally slender and tapering, sometimes of moderate length, sometimes excessively long, especially in the males ; the thorax is longer and more convex than in the preced- ing family, not thin-edged, but often rounded at the sides. Some of these beetles, distinguished by their narrow wing- covers, which are notched or armed with two little thorns at the « * P. cylindricus of Fabricius. COLEOPTERA. 81 tip, and by the great length of their antenne, belong to the genus Stenocorus, a name signifying narrow or straitened. One of them, which is rare here, inhabits the hickory, in its larva state forming long galleries in the trunk of this tree in the direction of the fibres of the wood. ‘This beetle is the Stenocorus (Ceras- phorus) cinctus*, or banded Stenocorus. It is of a hazel color, with a tint of gray, arising from the short hairs with which it is covered ; there is an oblique ochre-yellow band across each wing- cover ; and a short spine or thorn on the middle of each side of the thorax. ‘The antenne of the males are more than twice the length of the body, which measures from three quarters of an inch to one inch,and one quarter in length. The ground beneath black and white oaks is often observed to be strewn with small branches, neatly severed from these trees as if cut off with a saw. Upon splitting open the cut end of a branch, in the autumn or winter after it has fallen, it will be found to be perforated to the extent of six or eight inches in the course of the pith, and a slender grub, the author of the mischief, will be dis- covered therein. In the spring this grub is transformed to a pupa, and in June or July it is changed toa beetle, and comes out of the branch. ‘The history of this insect was first made public by Pro- fessor Peck}, who called it the oak-pruner, or Stenocorus (Ela- phidion) putator. In its adult state it is a slender long-horned beetle, of a dull brown color, sprinkled with gray spots, composed of very short close hairs ; the antenne are longer than the body, in the males, and equal to it in Jength in the other sex, and the third and fourth joints are tipped with a small spine or thorn; the thorax is barrel-shaped, and not spined at the sides; and the soutel® yellowish white. It varies in Jength from four and a half to six tenths of an inch. It lays its eggsin July. Each egg is placed close to the axilla or joint of a leaf-stalk or of a small twig, near the extremity of a branch. The grub hatched from it pene- trates at that spot to the pith, and then continues its course towards the body of the tree, devouring the pith, and theteby forming a cylindrical burrow, several inches in length, in the centre * Cerambyz cinctus, Drury ; Stenocorus garganicus, Fabricius. t Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal. Vol. V., with a plate. ii 82 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. of the branch. Having reached its full size, which it does towards the end of the summer, it divides the branch at the lower end of its burrow, by gnawing away the wood transversely from within, leaving only the ring of bark untouched. It then retires backwards, stops up the end of its hole, near the transverse section, with fibres of the wood, and awaits the fall of the branch, which is usually broken off and precipitated to the ground by the autumnal winds. ‘The leaves of the oak are rarely shed before the branch falls, and thus serve to break the shock. Branches of five or six feet in length and an inch in diameter are thus severed by these insects, a kind of pruning that must be injurious to the trees, and should be guarded against if possible. By collecting the fallen branches in the autumn, and burning them before the spring, we prevent the development of the beetles, while we derive some benefit from the branches as fuel. 3 It is somewhat remarkable that, while the pine and fir tribes rarely suffer to any extent from the depredations of caterpillars and other leaf-eating insects, the resinous odor of these trees, offensive as it is to such insects, does not prevent many kinds of borers from burrowing into and destroying their trunks. Several of the Capricorn-beetles, while in the grub state, live only in pine and fir trees, or in timber of these kinds of wood. ‘They belong chiefly to the genus Callzidium, a name of unknown or obscure origin. Their antenne are of moderate length; they have a somewhat flattened body ; the head nods forwards, as in Stenoco- rus ; the thorax is broad, nearly circular, and somewhat flattened or indented above ; and the thighs are very slender next to the body, but remarkably thick beyond the middle. The larve are of moderate length, more flattened than the grubs of the other Capri- corn-beetles, have a very broad and horny head, small but power- ful jaws, and are provided with six extremely small legs. ‘They undermine the bark, and perforate the wood in various directions, often doing immense injury to the trees, and to new buildings, in the lumber composing which they may happen to be concealed. Their burrows are wide and not cylindrical, are very winding, and are filled up with a kind of compact saw-dust as fast as the insects advance. ‘The larva state is said to continue two years, during which period the insects cast their skins several times. COLEOPTERA. 83 The sides of the body in the pupa are thin-edged, and finely notched, and the tail is forked. One of the most common kinds of Callidium found here is a flattish, rusty black beetle, with some downy whitish spots across the middle of the wing-covers; the thorax is nearly circular, is covered with fine whitish down, and has two elevated polished black points upon it ; and the wing-covers are very coarsely punc- tured. It measures from four tenths to three quarters of an inch in length. This insect is the Callidium bajulus ; the second name, meaning a porter, was given to it by Linneus on account of the whitish patch which it bears on its back. It inhabits fir, spruce, and hemlock wood and lumber, and may often be seen on wooden buildings and fences in July and August. We are inform- ed by Kirby and Spence that the grubs sometimes greatly injure the wood-work of houses in London, piercing the rafters of the roofs in every direction, and, when arrived at maturity, even pene- trating through sheets of lead which covered the place of their exit. One piece of lead, only eight inches long and four broad, contained twelve oval holes made by these insects, and fragments of the lead were found in their stomachs. As this insect is now common in the maritime parts of the United States, it was prob- ably first brought to this country by vessels from Europe. The violet Callidium, Callidium viclaceum*, is of a Prussian blue or violet color ; the thorax is transversely oval, and downy, and sometimes has a greenish tinge ; and the wing-covers are rough with thick irregular punctures. Its length varies from four to six tenths of an inch. It may be found in great abundance on piles of pine wood, from the middle of May to the first of June ; and the larve and pup are often met with in splitting the wood. They live mostly just under the bark, where their broad and wind- ing tracks may be traced by the hardened saw-dust with which they are crowded. Just before they are about to be transformed, they bore into the solid wood to the depth of several inches. They are said to be very injurious to the sapling pines in Maine. Professor Peck supposed this species of Callidium to have been introduced into Europe in timber exported from this country, as it * Cerambyx violaceus of Linneus. 84 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. is found in most parts of that continent that have been much con- nected with North America by navigation. It is somewhat re- markable that Europe and America should have thus interchanged the porter and violet Callidium, which, by means of shipping, have now become common to the two continents. From the regularity of its form, and the noble size it attains, the sugar maple is accounted one of the most beautiful of our forest-trees, and is esteemed as one of the most valuable, on ac- count of its many useful properties. ‘T’his fine tree suffers much from the attacks of borers, which in some cases produce its entire destruction. We are indebted to the Rev. L. W. Leonard, of Dublin, N. H., for the first account of the habits and transforma- tions of these borers. In the summer of 1828, his attention was called to some young maples, in Keene, which were in a lan- guishing condition. He discovered the insect in its beetle state under the loosened bark of one of the trees, and traced the recent track of the larva three inches into the solid wood. In the course of a few years, these trees, upon the cultivation of which much care had been bestowed, were nearly destroyed by the borers. The failure, from the same cause, of several other attempts to raise the sugar maple, has since come to my knowledge. The insects are changed to beetles and come out of the trunks of the trees in July. In the vicinity of Boston, specimens have been repeatedly taken, which were undoubtedly brought here in maple logs from Maine. I regret that I have not been able to obtain a larva of this insect for examination. ‘The beetle was first de- scribed in 1824, in the Appendix to Keating’s ‘‘ Narrative of Long’s Expedition”, by Mr. Say, who called it Clytus speciosus, that is, the beautiful Clytus. It was afterwards inserted, and ac- curately represented by the pencil of Lesueur, in Say’s ‘* Amer- ican Entomology ”’, and, more recently, a description and figure of it has appeared. in Griffith’s translation of Cuvier’s ‘¢ Animal Kingdom”, under the name of Clytus Hayti. The beautiful Clytus, like the other beetles of the genus to which it belongs, is distinguished from a Callidium by its more convex form, its more nearly globular thorax, which is neither flattened nor indented, and by its more slender thighs. The head is yellow, with the antenne and the eyes reddish black ; the thorax is black, with two COLEOPTERA. 85 transverse yellow spots on each side ; the wing-covers, for about two-thirds of their length, are black, the remaining third is yellow, and they are ornamented with bands and spots arranged in the following manner ; a yellow spot on each shoulder, a broad yel- low curved band or arch, of which the yellow scutel forms the key-stone, on the base of the wing-covers, behind this a zigzag yellow band forming the letter W, across the middle another yel- low band arching backwards, and on the yellow tip a curved band and a spot of a black color ; the legs are yellow ; and the under- side of the body is reddish yellow, variegated with brown. It is the largest known species of Clytus, being from nine to eleven tenths of an inch in length, and three or four tenths in breadth. It lays its eggs on the trunk of the maple in July and August. The grubs burrow into the bark as soon as they are hatched, and are thus protected during the winter. In the spring they penetrate deeper, and form, in the course of the summer, long and winding galleries in the wood, up and down the trunk. In order to check their devastations, they should be sought for in the spring, when they will readily be detected by the saw-dust that they cast out of their burrows ; and, by a judicious use of a knife and stiff wire, they may be cut out or destroyed before they have gone deeply into the wood. Many kinds of Clytus frequent flowers, for the sake of the pol- len, which they devour. During the month of September, the painted Clytus, Clytus pictus,* is often seen in abundance, feed- ing by day upon the blossoms of the golden-rod. If the trunks of our common locust-tree, Robinia pseudacacia, are examined at this time, a still greater number of these beetles will be found upon them, and most often paired. The habits of this insect seem to have been known, as long ago as the year 1771, to Dr. John Reinhold Forster, who then described it under the name of Leptura Robinia, the latter being derived from the tree which it inhabits. Drury, however, had previously described and figured it, under the specific name here adopted, which, having the prior- ity, in point of time, over all the others that have been subse- quently imposed, must be retained. ‘This Capricorn-beetle has * Leptura picta, Drury ; Clytus flecuosus, Fabricius. 86 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. the form of the beautiful maple Clytus. It is velvet-black, and ornamented with transverse yellow bands, of which there are three on the head, four on the thorax, and six on the wing-covers, the tips of which are also edged with yellow. The first and second bands on each wing-cover are nearly straight ; the third band forms a V, or, united with the opposite one, a W, as in the spectosus ; the fourth is also angled, and runs upwards on the inner margin of the wing-cover towards the scutel; the fifth is broken or interrupted by a longitudinal elevated line; and the sixth is arched, and consists of three little spots. The antenne are dark brown; and the legs are rust-red. These insects vary from six tenths to three quarters of an inch in length. In the month of September these beetles gather on the locust- trees, where they may be seen glittering in the sun-beams with their gorgeous livery of black velvet and gold, coursing up and down the trunks in pursuit of their mates, or to drive away their rivals, and stopping every now and then to salute those they meet with a rapid bowing of the shoulders, accompanied by a creaking sound, indicative of recognition or defiance. Having paired, the female, attended by her partner, creeps over the bark, searching the crevices with her antenna, and dropping therein her snow- white eggs, in clusters of seven or eight together, and at intervals of five or six minutes, till her whole stock is safely stored. The eggs are soon hatched, and the grubs immediately burrow into the bark, devouring the soft inner substance that suffices for their nourishment till the approach of winter, during which they remain at rest in a torpid state. In the spring they bore through the sap- wood, more or less deeply into the trunk, the general course of their winding and irregular passages, being in an upward direction from the place of their entrance. Fora time they cast their chips out of their holes as fast as they are made, but after a while the passage becomes clogged and the burrow more or less filled with the coarse and fibrous fragments of wood, to get rid of which the grubs are often obliged to open new holes through the bark. The seat of their operations is known by the oozing of the sap and the dropping of the saw-dust from the holes. ‘The bark around the part attacked begins to swell, and in a few years the trunks and limbs will become disfigured and weakened by large porous % COLEOPTERA. 87 tumors, caused by the efforts of the trees to repair the injuries they have suffered. According to the observations of General H. A. S. Dearborn, who has given an excellent account * of this insect, the grubs attain their full size by the twentieth of July, soon become pupe, and are changed to beetles and leave the trees early in September. ‘Thus the existence of this species is limited to one year. White-washing, and covering the trunks of the trees with graft- ing composition, may prevent the female from depositing her eggs upon them ; but this practice cannot be carried to any great ex- tent in plantations or large nurseries of the trees. Perhaps it will be useful to head down young trees to the ground, with the view of destroying the grubs contained in them, as well as to promote a more vigorous growth. Much evil might be prevented by em- ploying children to collect the beetles while in the act of providing for the continuation of their kind. A common black bottle, con- taining a little water, would be a suitable vessel to receive the beetles as fast as they were gathered, and should be emptied into the fire in order to destroy the insects. The gathering should be begun as soon as the beetles first appear, and should be continued as long as any are found on the trees, and furthermore should be made a general business for several years in succession. I have no doubt, should this be done, that, by devoting one hour every day to this object, we may, in the course of a few years, rid our- selves of this destructive insect. The largest Capricorn-beetle, of the Cerambycian family, found in New England, is the Lamia (Monohammus) titillator of Fabri- cius, or the tickler, so named probably on account of the habit which it has, in common with most of the Capricorn-beetles, of gently touching now and then the surface on which it walks with the tips of its long antenne. ‘Three or four of these beetles may sometimes be seen together in June and July, on logs or on the trunks of trees in the woods, the males paying their court to the females, or contending with their rivals, waving their antenne, and showing the eagerness of the contest or pursuit by their rapid creaking sounds. * Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal, Vol. VI. p. 272. 88 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. The head of the Lamias is vertical or perpendicular; the an- tenne of the males are much longer than the body, and taper to the end ; the thorax is cylindrical before and behind, and is armed on the middle of each side with a very large pointed wart or tubercle ; the tips of the wing-covers are rounded ; and the fore- legs are longer than the rest, with broad hairy soles in the males. The titillator is of a brownish color, variegated or mottled with spots, of gray, and the wing-covers, which are coarsely punctured, have also several small tufted black spots upon them ; the middle legs are armed with a small tooth on the upper edge ; the antenne of the male are twice as long as the body, and those of the other sex equal the body in length, which measures from one inch and one eighth to one inch and one quarter. What kind of tree the grub of this insect inhabits is unknown to me. Trees of the poplar tribe, both in Kurope and America, are subject to the attacks of certain kinds of borers, differing essen- tially from all the foregoing when arrived at maturity. They be- long to the genus Saperda. In the beetle state the head is ver- tical, the antenne are about the length of the body in both sexes, the thorax is cylindrical, smooth, and unarmed at the sides, and the fore-legs are shorter than the others. Our largest kind is the ‘ Saperda calcarata of Say, or the spurred Saperda, so named be- cause the tips of the wing-covers end with a little sharp point or spur. It is covered all over with a short and close nap, which gives it a fine blue-gray color, it is finely punctured with brown, there are four ochre-yellow lines on the head, and three on the top of the thorax, the scutel is also ochre-yellow, and there are several irregular lines and spots of the same color on the wing- covers. It is from one inch to an inch and a quarter in length. This beetle closely resembles the European Saperda carcharias, which inhabits the poplar ; and the grubs of our native species, with those of the broad-necked Prionus, have almost entirely de- stroyed the Lombardy poplar in this vicinity. They live also in the trunks of our American poplars. They are of a yellowish white color, except the upper part of the first segment, which is dark buff. When fully grown they measure nearly two inches in length. ‘The body is very thick, rather larger before than behind, and consists of twelve segments separated from each other by COLEOPTERA. 89 deep transverse furrows. ‘The first segment is broad, and slopes obliquely downwards to the head ; the second is very narrow ; on the upper and under sides of each of the following segments, from the third to the tenth inclusive, there is a transverse oval space, rendered rough like a rasp by minute projections. ‘These rasps serve instead of legs, which are entirely wanting. ‘The beetles may be found on the trunks and branches of the various kinds of poplars, in August and September; they fly by night, and some- times enter the open windows of houses in the evening. The borers of the apple-tree have become notorious, throughout the New England and Middle States, for their extensive ravages. They are the larve of a beetle called Saperda bivittata by Mr. Say, the two-striped, or the brown and white striped Saperda ; the upper side of its body being marked with two longitudinal white stripes between three of a light brown color, while the face, the antenne, the under-side of the body, and the legs, are white. This beetle varies in length from a little more than one half to three quarters of an inch. It comes forth from the trunks of the trees, in its perfected state, early in June, making its escape in the night, during which time only it uses its ample wings in going from tree to tree in search of companions and food. In the day- time it keeps at rest among the leaves of the plants which it de# vours. ‘The trees and shrubs principally attacked by this borer, are the apple-tree, the quince, mountain ash, hawthorn and other thorn bushes, the June-berry or shad-bush, and other kinds of Amelanchier and Aronia. Our native thorns and Aronias are its natural food ; for I have discovered the larve in the stems of these shrubs, and have repeatedly found the beetles upon them, eating the leaves, in June and July. It is in these months that the eggs are deposited, being laid upon the bark near the root, during the night. The larve hatched therefrom are fleshy whitish grubs, nearly cylindrical, and tapering a little from the first ring to the end of the body. ‘The head is small, horny, and brown; the first ring is much larger than the others, the next two are very short, and, with the first, are covered with punctures and very minute hairs ; the following rings, to the tenth inclusive, are each furnished, on the upper and under side, with two fleshy warts situated close together, and destitute of the little rasp-like teeth, 12 90 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. that are usually found on the grubs of the other Capricorn-beetles ; the eleventh and twelfth rings are very short ; no appearance of legs can be seen, even with a magnifying glass of high power. The grub, with its strong jaws, cuts a cylindrical passage through the bark, and pushes its castings backwards out of the hole from time to time, while it bores upwards into the wood. The larva state continues two or three years, during which the borer will be found to have penetrated eight or ten inches upwards in the trunk of the tree, its burrow at the end approaching to, and being cov- ered only by, the bark. Here its transformation takes place. The pupa does not differ much from other pupe of beetles ; but it has a transverse row of minute prickles on each of the rings of the back, and several at the tip of the abdomen. These probably assist the insect in its movements, when casting off its pupa-skin. The final change occurs about the first of June, soon after which, the beetle gnaws through the bark that covers the end of its bur- row, and comes out of its place of confinement in the night. Notwithstanding the pains that have been taken by some per- sons to destroy and exterminate these pernicious borers, they continue to reappear in our orchards and nurseries every season. The reasons of this are to be found in the habits of the insects, and in individual carelessness. Many orchards suffer deplorably from the want of proper attention; the trees are permitted to remain, year after year, without any pains being taken to destroy the numerous and various insects that infest them ; old orchards, especially, are neglected, and not only the rugged trunks of the trees, but even a forest of unpruned suckers around them, are left to the undisturbed possession and perpetual inheritance of the Sa- perda. On the means that have been used to destroy this borer, a few remarks only need to be made ; for it is evident that they can be fully successful only when generally adopted. Killing it by a wire thrust into the holes it has made, is one of the oldest, safest, and most successful methods. Cutting out the grub, with a knife or gouge, is the most common practice ; but it is feared that these tools have sometimes been used without sufficient caution.