ACORN-BORERS. 215 
gronnd-laying species. The young commence hatching about the middle of March, 
and continue to appear until into April. After molting the first time and becoming 
a little hardened they immediately climb up the trunks of the trees and bushes of all 
kinds and commence feeding upon the new and tender foliage. They molt at least 
five or six times, if we may take the variation in size and difference in the develop- 
ment of the rudiments of wings as a criterion. The imago or mature stage is reached 
by the last of May or during the first part of June. 
The species is very active and shy in all its stages of growth after leaving the egg. 
The larva and pupa run up the trunks and along the limbs of trees with considerable 
speed, and in this respect differ considerably from all other species of locusts with 
which lam acquainted. I am informed that the mature insects are also equally wild 
and fly like birds. They feed both by day and night ; and I am told by those who 
have passed through the woods after night when all else was quiet, that the noise 
produced by the grinding of their jaws was not unlike the greedy feeding of swine. 
Aside from its arboreal nature there is but a single instance mentioned of its prefer- 
ence for growing crops. This was a small field of either cotton or corn, or perhaps 
both. If the nature of the crop was told me at the time I have forgotten. At any 
rate the crop of one or the othei of these two staples grew in a small clearing in the 
very midst of the most thickly visited area. The mature insects alone were the 
offenders in this instance. During the day-time they would leave the trees in swarms 
and alight upon the growing crop and feed until evening, when they would return to 
the trees. If during the day they were disturbed, they immediately took wing and 
left for the tops of the surrounding trees, to return shortly afterwards. 
The exact classification of this locust has not yet been fully ascertained, since no 
mature specimens were to be obtained, or, to my knowledge, are contained in any of 
our American collections. The larvae and pupae collected, however, would indicate a 
relationship to both the genera Melanoplus and Acridium. It appears to be congeneric 
with an undescribed short- winged form, thus far only taken in Missouri, which lives 
among and feeds upon the oaks only of that region. The present species is also 
evidently undescribed, unless the mature insect should differ widely from the prepar- 
atory stages herewith presented. It is popularly known in that region as the " Red- 
legged hopper" of the post oaks. 
The larvae and pupae are of rather bright color, giving them a gaudy appearance. 
The ground color of the body is dark wood brown deepening into black along the 
sides of the pronotum and the apex of the posterior femora. The head for the most 
part is of a bright lemon yellow, while the pronotum is of the same, varied by streaks 
and blotches of the brown. The antennae and posterior femora are red internally, 
•dimly banded with yellow and brown on the external face, through which the red 
color of the inner side can be plainly seen. The feet and tarsi are also dark. The 
pupae average almost an inch in length and are rather robust in form, with short* 
broad heads and powerful jaws. 
INJURING THE SEED (ACORNS). 
305. The acorn worm. 
Balaninus rectus Say. 
Order Coleoptera; family Curculionid.e. 
The grub is like the chestnut borer, boring into the acorns and trans- 
forming into a similar beetle, which is " easily distinguished fro'm B. 
nasicus by the finer, more rectilinear rostrum, and it always differs 
from B. nasicus in having no bands or vitta; the elytra being uniformly 
