LOCUST BEETLES. 



367 



ment, in front of which ia a narrow black dorsal line. Anal legs uplifted. Three 

 lateral black lines close to each other and forming a broad dark wavy band. Base 

 of all the legs black, but the legs themselves pale; ground color of body deep pink 

 flesh color. Length, 30 to SS™'". 



13. The locust hispa. 



Odontota scuiellaris (Olivier). Hispa suturalis Harris. 



Order Coleoptera. ; family Chrysomelid^. 



In July, blister-like spots appearing upon the leaves, within which is a small flat- 

 tened, whitish worm, with three pairs of feet; a quarter of an inch long, tapering 

 from before backwards, with projections along each side like the teeth of a saw ; re- 

 maining a week in the pupa state within the leaf, about the middle of August it 

 issues as a small flattened black beetle with the prothorax and wing-covers, except 

 along their suture, tawny yellow. (Fitch & Harris.) 



Harris states that in Massachusetts these beetles may 

 be observed the middle of June pairing and laying eggs 

 on the leaves of the locust tree. 



While this species of leaf-mining beetle is met with in 

 the New England States and Xew York, by information 

 received from Kentucky it is at times quite injurious to 

 locust trees in that State, but can always be kept under 

 by hand-picking. 



14. Agrilus otiosus Say. 



Order Coleoptera ; family Buprestidje. 



Mr. W. L. Devereaux, of Clyde, X. Y., writes us that this beetle " is 

 found in plenty in the beetle stage, feeding on freshly forming foliage, 

 at the tips of new growths of the locust." 



Fig. 134— Lo- 

 cust Hispa — 

 From Pack- 

 aid. 



15. Say's weevil. 



Apion rostrum Say. 



Order Coleoptera; family Curculionid^e. 



From June until September, eating numerous small round holes in 

 the leaves, a little black weevil with a slender projecting beak, its 

 thorax with close coarse punctures and an oval or longitudinal inden- 

 tation back of its center, and the furrows of its wing-covers with 

 coarse punctures; its length. 0.09, and to the end of the beak, 0.12 

 inch. (Fitch.) 



Dr. Harris states that the grubs of this little weevil live 

 in the pods of the common wild indigo bush {Baptisia 

 tinctoria), devouring the seeds. He adds : 



A smaller kind, somewhat like it, inhabits the pods and eats the seeds of the locust 

 tree, or BoMnia pseudacacia. 



Fitch regards the insect as very variable, and as most probably de- 

 structive to the seeds of both the plants here mentioned. 



Fig. 135. -Say '8 

 weevil.— 

 From Pack- 

 ard. 



