230 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



Tlie beetle. — The form is elongate, like an Elaterid of the genus Melanotus, coarsely 

 punctured and pubescent ; the head is prominent and horizontal ; the maxillary 

 palpi are moderate in length and but slightly dilated ; the antennae are long, slender, 

 and feebly serrate, and the third joint is not longer than the fourth; the anterior 

 coxie are oval and separated by the presternum, which is also slightly prolonged ; 

 the middle coxas are equally separated ; the hind coxse are less distant ; the tarsi are 

 filiform and the claws simple ; the tibial spurs are long. (Leconte.) It is brown, and 

 five-tenths of an inch in length. 



12. The tree-ckicket. 



CEcanlhus niveus Serville. 



Order Orthoptera ; family Gryllid^. 



Boring into the corky bark of the elm in the Southern States, inserting its eggs 

 irregularly, not in regxilar series as when it oviposits in the stems of the blackberry, 

 raspberry, grape, etc. ; a slender pale-gretn cricket, with white wings and a large 

 ovipositor ; the males shrilling londly. 



The eggs of the tree-cricket begiu to develop as soon as they are laid 

 in the early autumn, and the embryo partially develops, so that the 

 rudimeutary limbs may 

 be seen, as well as the 

 mouth parts; the insect 

 completes its develop- 

 ment in the early part of 

 the following summer, appearing early iu August. 



AFFECTING THE LEAVES. 

 13. The spring canker worm. 



Fig. 75. Male tree- 

 cricket.-AfterHar. Paleacrita vernata (Peck), 



ris. 



Order Lepidoptera; family Phal^nid^. 



Very injurious to the elm in the Eastern States, stripping the trees ; a dark-striped 

 measuring worm varying in color to pale green, transforming from the middle to the 

 last of June in the earth to a pupa, some appearing iu the autumn, but most abun- 

 dantly in March; the female grub-like, the male winged. 



Originally confined, as an injurious insect, to New England, it is now 

 destructive in the Western States (Illinois and Missouri) and must 

 originally have occurred all over the United States east of the Missis- 

 sippi, as I have received it from Texas. 



Fig. 76. Female treeciicket, natural 

 .size. — After Harris. 



Fig. 77. Spring Canker worm; 6, Fig. 78. a, female Spring canker-worm mocb ; 6, 



eggs; c, side; d, back of a seg- male; c, antennae joints of female; d, one of female 



ment.— After Riley. abdominal segments; e, ovipositor.— After Riley. 



About the 1st of May, at the time when the leaves of the apple are 

 unfolding, the young canker worms break through the eggs, which have 



