ACORN-BORERS. 215 



ground-laying species. The young commence hatching about the middle of March, 

 and continue to appear until into April. After molting the first time and becoming 

 a little hardened they immediately climb up the trunks of the trees and bushes of all 

 kinds and commence feeding upon the new and tender foliage. They molt at least 

 five or six times, if we may take the variation in size and difi'erence in the develop- 

 ment of the rudiments of wings as a criterion. The imago or mature stage is reached 

 by the last of May or during the first part of June. 



The species is very active and shy in all its stages of growth after leaving the egg. 

 The larva and pupa run up the trunks and along the limbs of trees with considerable 

 speed, and in this respect differ considerably from all other species of locusts with 

 which I am acquainted. I am informed that the mature insects are also equally wild 

 and fly like birds. They feed both by day and night; and I am told by those who 

 have passed through the woods after night when all else was quiet, that the noise 

 produced by the grinding of their jaws was not unlike the greedy feeding of swine. 



Aside from its arboreal nature there is but a single instance mentioned of its prefer- 

 ence for growing crops. This was a small field of either cotton or corn, or perhaps 

 both. If the nature of the crop was told me at the time I have forgotten. At any 

 rate the crop of one or the othei of these two staples grew in a small clearing in the 

 very midst of the most thickly visited area. The mature insects alone were the 

 otfenders in this instance. During the day-time they would leave the trees in swarms 

 and alight upon the growing crop and feed until evening, when they would return to 

 the trees. If during the day they were disturbed, they immediately took wing and 

 left for the tops of the surrounding trees, to return shortly afterwards. 



The exact classification of this locust has not yet been fully ascertained, since no 

 mature specimens were to be obtained, or, to my knowledge, are contained in any of 

 our American collections. The larvte and pupa? collected, however, would indicate a 

 relationship to both the genera Melanoplus aud Acridium. It appears to be congeneric 

 with an undescribed short-winged form, thus far only taken in Missouri, which lives 

 among aud feeds upon the oaks only of that region. The present species is also 

 evidently undescribed, unless the mature insect should differ widely from the prepar- 

 atory stages herewith presented. It is popularly known in that region as the " Red- 

 legged hopper" of the post oaks. 



The larvae and pupae are of rather bright color, giving them a gaudy appearance. 

 The ground color of the body is dark wood brown deepening into black along the 

 sides of the pronotum and the apex of the posterior femora. The head for the most 

 part is of a bright lemon yellow, while the pronotum is of the same, varied by streaks 

 and blotches of the brown. The antennae and posterior femora are red internally, 

 dimly banded with yellow and brown on the external face, through which the red 

 color of the inner side can be plainly seen. The feet and tarsi are also dark. The 

 pupae average almost an inch in length and are rather robust in form, with short» 

 broad heads and powerful jaws. 



INJURING THE SEED (ACORNS). 



305. The acorn worm. 



Balaninus rectus Say. 



Order Coleoptera; family Curculionid^. 



The grub is like the chestnut borer, boring into the acorns and trans- 

 forming into a similar beetle, which is " easily distinguished from B. 

 nasicus by the finer, more rectilinear rostrum, and it always differs 

 from B. nasicus in having no bands or vittce, the elytra being uniformly 



