INSECTS AFFECTING PARK AND WOODLAN D TREKS 46 1 



Prickly leptostylus 



Leptostylus aculi ferns Say 

 Small worms similar to young apple borers, sometimes occur in multitudes under the 

 bark, forming long, narrow, winding, gradually expanding tracks on the outer surface of 

 the wood of apple and maple trees. 



This species was noticed by Dr Fitch in 1856, who is responsible for 

 the above diagnosis. He states that the beetles appear the last of August. 



Description. The adult has been described by Dr Lugger as a brown- 

 ish gray beetle with "numerous small, thornlike points upon the wing 

 covers and a V-shaped band margined with black, a little behind the middle 

 of the elytra. Some well marked and fresh specimens are little beauties, 

 being almost silvery white with dark dots on the band already mentioned. 

 The insect measures a little more than ^ inch in length." Professor 

 Wickham separates this form from its allies by the tubercles on the elytra, 

 each bearing apically, black scalelike hairs, in connection with the feeble 

 and distant puncturing on the elytra, the latter often inconspicuous or 

 concealed. The legs are not hairy and the antennae are scarcely longer 

 than the body, even in the male, the third joint being considerably longer 

 than the fourth. New York specimens are stout, gray-brownish with the 

 prothorax roughly tuberculate, pubescent, with the punctures sparse and 

 irregularly placed. The elytra have raised tubercles or ridges and are 

 ornamented with a grayish and whitish pubescence, which tends to form 

 a postmedian, transverse band broadest at the suture, the pubescence 

 becoming darker anteriorly ; tip dark. 



Food plants. Dr Hopkins reports it from West Virginia as infesting 

 dead and dying apple and maple trees, and Mr Beutenmuller records it from 

 sweet gum, oak and osage orange. In addition to some of the preceding, 

 Professor Wickham records it from sycamore. Dr Hopkins states that the 

 larvae mine the inner bark of dying and dead tulip trees. 



Distribution. This species has been recorded from New York, New 

 Jersey, District of Columbia, West Virginia and Ohio, and probably occurs 

 over an extended portion of the northeastern United States. 



