The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1885-05-14
Atlanta Southern Cultivator for Mayl Z
THE HICKORY PRUNkSR.

Having read with much pleasatre the
admirable sketch in your columns sn the
Beauties of Nature" by youst;; flistln.
guished correspondent, Bill AS3n, also
copied in the Times Democrat, IL beg
leave to touch upon one or two Eslnts Of
special interest which he there rsSk kss.
He says: 81 stood under q peIsimmon
tree the other day and observedsA mum.
ber of small limbs lying on background
that had been cut off Of the tree srsdI fallen.
Every one had the same cut gbt ring
where it was severed. 1t LOOKED just
like the limb been turned off in affirming
lathe with sharp tool held eosgeways,
not exactly square down, but verE nearly
so. Nobody could tell me what kind of
an insect cuts these limbs off or h'iw they
do it. | have fonnd the same li9ts5s un-
der the hickory trees cut off pr-cttely the
same way; some of the limbs are ~ large
as thimble. There is some exploration
for this The locust splits limb uad de-
posits her eggs in the crack, aRf when
the eggs hatch into q worm, thS worm
swings down to the ground on T:s own
web, which is fastened to the lim,, Well,
l looked all over these little brush l{y limbs.
| to End some cocoon or some siSn Of a;
living animal or insect, but there; was
none. 1t may be that the insect took to
the ground for preservation as so.on as
the limb came down. Maybe GONE of
your readers can tell us more abt9t it,"
Bill Arp's graphic words so fHly and
clearly describe the curious worE' Of cne
of our Z" Capricorn beetles" that ;his sug
gestions tempt one of your reAdsrs to
tell what Natural History teaf;hes US
about this pruning process of a H:nall in
sect, which is done to reproduce Jss kind.
The insect responsible for this m ssterious
"lathe" work belongs to that GLASS Of
beetles whose grubs or LarUoe arc Ffamil-
iarly known as borers, as they gnp bore
wonderfully well, not only in sor'e of our
hardest woods, but even into had. In
its perfect state, it is slim Erownish
beetle, about half an inch long, speck-
led with gray spots of short ht.irs. Ii
curved like goats horn, and hahde the
family name Of "Capricorn beetlasp In
midsummer it lays it's eggs near tpe axis
where leaves or twigs join the Branches
of the trees its frequents, and towirds the
ends of these branches. Its grub sir worm
pierces the branch where it is sooT batch
ed from the egg, and enters tIie pith.
1t then bores out and eats the pish, thus
forcing its way through a long ihcle it
makes in the heart of the limb, moving
towards the trunk. Late in the yummer
the grub is fully grown, about a aalf an
inch in length and has bored ous, sax or
eight inches of pith. With its 'souder-
fully strong, sharp jaws, it now oats out
to the bark a section of the limb
at the point its tunnel has reached Then
it withdraws from this cut into it's sburrow
and stops up the end of this tnntel with
it's wood-dust. Here it rests in state
of torpor till some strong wind sbe next
winter breaks off the branch, now held
on only by the dry and weak batk; and
the branch falls to the groud. fIeee in
its burrow in the fallen limb it ye,nains
in its pupa, or masked state thros gh win
ter and spring, and in June it issfes forth
as the perfect beetle, ready tt repeat
this process. This Capricorn beetle and
its grub frequent not only the petAimmon
and common hickory, but the peeYn tree,
and, in some localities, the oaks, ESPECIALLY
the white and black oaks. =
Its familiar name in works on insects is
the oak pruner." Throughout tie South
we can more appropriately casl it the
'.hickory pruner." The systematic Bame
by which it is classed in science is steno-
corxs ui1os,ts, meaning merely Jhe slen-
der beetle with hairy spots.
To find the worm that does Rhis mis-
chief, split the fallen branches at the cut
ends, and there, soon after they fall, you
will see the grub or later the pipe here
described These grubs sometimes cut
off limbs an inch in diameter. Burn
these limbs when they fall each winter,
and you will materially diminishlths raw
ages of these borers.
Bill Arp also states the useful fact that
if gluts or wedges are cut from areeu per-
simmon wood and then seasoned, they
make the best of wooden wedges that
{" will split timber like IRON" a fact
worthy of record in this connection is
that our common persimmon wood is
closely allied to the noted ebony Of COM
merce. For ebony is the wood from
species of persimmon trees in Caylon,
Hindostan and Madagascar. Our per-
simmon and the ebony tree are each bo-
tanically Diospyros, meaning Stoves
found in our persimmon wood reminds us
of ebony. With reference to this inter-
esting genus of trees, it is worthy of
record here that while our persimmon is
Diospyros Virginiana, and the ,Japanes.
persimmon is Diospyros Kaki, the two
species of persimmon from which ebony
is obtained are ID. ebenuna, and d. z,selan-
orylon, the two latter names merely
meaning, in plain words, the ebony per-
simmon and the black wood persinimon.
Greensboro, Ala. J. w. A. WaIGnT.