470 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW. YORK 
CHESTNUT. TRUNK. 
They are of the same size with the preceding but are of a glossy 
black color, with the mouth, shanks, feet and tip of the abdomen 
pale yellow, and with four large wings which are twice as long as 
the body, and hyaline but not clear like glass. About the begin¬ 
ning of June, during the dampness of the mornings preceding 
pleasant days, these winged white ants leave their retreats and 
come abroad, and the air is everywhere filled with countless mil¬ 
lions of them. The soldiers resemble the workers, but are 0.25 
long with enormously large heads twice as long as wide and their 
opposite sides parallel, with stout jaws half as long as the head 
and of a blackish chestnut color. 
Decaying stumps and logs lying upon the ground, especially 
those of pine and other soft wood, are everywhere occupied by 
these insects. The cavities which they excavate become thronged 
with myriads of them. Fortunately for us it is only soft damp 
wood in which they work; hence the dry timbers and furniture 
of our dwellings are exempt from that havoc which some of these 
insects occasion in tropical countries. But the posts and stakes 
of our fences furnish a congenial resort for them, that portion 
which is under ground being always sufficiently damp to answer 
their requirements. Posts in particular from which the bark has 
not been removed, whereby these creatures can remain hid from 
view whilst they consume the soft sap wood immediately under 
the bark, are a favorite abode for them. And as the sap wood 
becomes destroyed they extend their burrows through the more 
solid heart wood. I have seen a fence four years after it was 
built, every post of which was reduced to a mere shell by these 
insects, though externally there was not the slightest indication 
of the mischief that was going on within. 
AFFECTING THE LEAVES. 
J97. Chestnut tree-hopper, Smilia Castanea, Fitch. (Iloinoptcra 
Membracidae.) 
Puncturing the leaves and extracting their juices, a triangular 
tree-hopper shaped much like a beechnut, of a blackish color, 
tinged with green more or less when alive, its head and the ante¬ 
rior edges of its thorax and all beneath bright yellow, its fore 
