96 



THE APPLE LEAF HOPPER 



This beautiful beetle, black with golden 



f markings, nearly three-fourths of an inch long 

 is a common pest of locust trees in Minnesota. 

 In the fall it occurs on the flowers of goldenrod. 

 Branches and sometimes an entire tree succumb 

 to its attacks. Dr. Harris has beautifully de- 

 scribed the life history of this pest, and we are 

 led to give the exact words in this connection : 

 "In the month of September these beetles 

 gather on the locust trees, where they may be 



seen glittering in the sunbeams with their gor- 



^*Borel^'^'oAghmL'* geous 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 antennae, 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 



Fig. 4L Eggs of Locu.st Borer, much enlarged. Al'ter .1. S. Houser, Ohio Bui. 194. 

 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 sapwood, more or less 

 deeply into the trunk, the general course of their winding and irregular pas- 

 sages being in an upward direction from the place of their entrance. For a 

 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 sawdust 

 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 tumors, caused by the efforts of the trees to repair the injuries they 

 have suffered. According to the observations of Gen. H. A. S. Dearborn, who 

 has given an excellent account of this insect, the grubs attain their full size 

 by the 20th of July, soon become pupae, and are changed to beetles and all 

 leave the tree early in September. Thus the existence of this species is limited 

 to one year." 



