SB 

 818 

 C578 

 ENT 



No. 23, Second Series. 



lited States Department of Agriculture, 



DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



THE BUFFALO TREE-HOPPER. 



{Ceresa huhnliis Fab.) 

 GENERAL APPEARANCE AND NATURE OF INJURY. 



The adult of this httle g'rass-green insect is one of the best known 

 of the common species frequenting vegetation, and often attracts the 

 curious on account of its triangular shape, quick, active flight, and 

 considerable vaulting powers. It receives its peculiar popular name 

 from a supposed similarity in shape to the male buffalo or bison. 

 The thorax, or pronotum, is greatlj^ enlarged anteriorly, projecting 

 laterally in two strong horns, and is distinctly triangular, as shown 

 in the illustration (fig. 1, a). It is this peculiar shape rather than 

 any knowledge of its habits that has given it its popular interest. 

 During the last ten or twelve years, however, it has become impor- 

 tant on other 

 and strictly 

 e c o n o m i c 

 grounds. In 

 the Missis- 

 sippi V a 1- 

 ley, espe- 

 cially from 

 the Missouri 

 northw a r d, 

 well up into 

 Canada, i t 

 has been the 

 cause of 

 very great 

 ■ damage in 



orchards, fio. 1.— buffalo Trke-Hoppkr: female ((0, with enlargement of foot (7)), 

 narticularl V fi^tenna (c), wing (('), ovipositor (/, y), and terminal segment of male 

 ■ abdomen (7(, i) (author's illustration). 



to young 



trees and nursery stock, not, however, confining itself to fruit trees, 

 but attacking also all sorts of shade trees. The injury is due solely 

 to the cutting up of the limbs by the female with her saw-like ovipos- 

 itor (fig. 1, /, g) in the deposition of her eggs, in which particular 

 the injury is not unlike that caused by the periodical cicada, and 

 frequently is scarcely less in amount on account of the great numbers 

 in which the insect occurs. On entering a badl}^ infested orchard 

 in the latter part of August, or in September, the buffalo tree- 



