»mmttmmf>»*' H. E. BARKER ^K L^incolniana 1922 South Hobart Boulevard ff Los Angeles, California A TRKATXs:: 'x: sous of th" insects INJURIOUS TO V"G5TATIDN. By Thaddeus V'illi£i.;.i 'Tarric "indited by Ohafi. L. FlLit. A eoi5y of this work Tnas sent by the ed- itor, Charles L. Fli:it, to preeideut Lincoln, Tfho e-ck:no"v«'led£;eG its^ receipt in a note trrit- teii by his secretary, John Hs.y, and signed >y the I'reeident hi.Aself . The letter follows: EXECUTIVE J'lANSION "TTashington, Muy 15, 1662. My Dear Sir: Allo"w .lie to thank you very cor- dially for the co^oy of i'-our trork on "Insects Injurious to Vegetation'' ivhich you have had the kindness to send Ae, and believe uie Yours very sincerely, A. LINCOLN. . Charles L# Flint, Esq. This authentication coaes direct froa Erotrn University "Vvhere Lincoln's ovm co,->y of the book .lay be seen, together with the above letter. Digitized by tine Internet Arclnive in 2010 witln funding from Tine Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant http://www.archive.org/details/treatiseonsomeofOOinharr 4^ TREATISE ON SOME OF THE INSECTS nJUEIOUS TO YEGETATION. THADDEUS WILLIAM HARRIS, M. D. THIRD EDITION. BOSTON: WILLIAM WHITE, PRINTER TO THE STATE. 18 6 2. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S62, by CATHARINE H. HARRIS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Cambridge : Welch, Bio blow, and Company, Prixters to the Umversitv. EDITOR'S PREFACE. BY a resolve of the Massachusetts Legislature, of 1859, chap. 93, I was directed to issue a new edition of Dr. Harris's admirable Report on Insects Injurious to Vegetation, with suitable additions and illustrations. Arrangements were made to begin the work without delay, but it was found necessary to obtain extensive collections of insects in order to have fresh specimens for use in making the drawings. This required mucli time and labor, and, even with the utmost diligence, it was found impossible to secure all that were needed during the spring and summer of 1859. It has been thought best to insert the additions contemplated in the resolve, in the form of foot-notes. No alterations have been made in the author's language, and the additional notes are en- closed in brackets to distinguish them from those in the former editions. Large additions to the text, however, have been made from the author's own manuscripts. These will be found exclu- sively in the chapter upon the butterflies. In giving a somewhat wider significance to the title, I have but carried out the plan adopted by the author in his last revision of the work. Professor Louis Agassiz very kindly offered to supervise the drawings, comparing them with the original specimens before en- graving. It is believed that very great scientific accuracy has thus been secured in the illustrations. Special acknowledgments are due to Professor Agassiz for this valuable service, and also for assistance rendered by way of suggestion and advice throughout. Acknowledgments are also due to the following gentlemen, wlio have contributed notes on the subjects named : — Dr. John L. IV EDITOR'S PREFACE. Leconte, of Philadelphia, on the Coleoptera ; Philip R. Uhler, Esq., of Baltimore, on the Orthoptera and Ilemiptera ; Dr. John G. Morris, of Baltimore, on the Lepidoptera ;, Edwai^d Norton, Esq., of Farmington, Connecticut, on the Hymenoptera ; and Baron E. Osten Sacken, Secretary of the Russian Legation at Washing- ton, on the Diptera. These distinguished entomologists have made specialties of the orders on which they have had the kindness to furnish notes, and their contributions have done much to make the work complete. I am greatly indebted, also, to Mr. Alex. E. R. Agassiz for very valuable services, and to Mr. Francis G. San- born, whose enthusiasm in making collections, and otherwise pro- moting the progress of the work, has continued unabated from the first. Also to Messrs. James M. Barnard and Edward S. Rand, Jr., wlio have devoted much time and thought to the details of the work. Many individuals have aided by presenting or lending speci- mens for illustration, or otherwise, among whom should be men- tioned, in addition to the above, Messrs. S. H. Scudder, J. H. Treat, and J. 0. Treat. To prevent any misconception, it should be stated that, in the specimens from which Figs. 109, 111, 112, 113, 115, IIG, 117, 126, 127, 128, 129, and 130 were drawn, the second pair of feet were displayed instead of the first, and that in Fig. 114 the fore foot should have been omitted. The drawings for the steel plates were made by Mr. Antoine Sonrel ; those for the wood-cuts by the Messrs. Sonrel and J. Burckhardt. The engraving and coloring of the steel plates is the work of Mr. John H. Richard ; tlie engraving on wood, that of JNIr. Heniy Marsh. The work of these artists needs no comment. Tlie printing has been done by Messrs. Welcli, Bigelow, & Co., of the University Press, Cambridge. This also speaks for itself. No labor lias been spared to secure the utmost accuracy and perfection in every respect, and it is hoped and believed that the objects of the Legislature in ord(;ring a new edition of this valu- able treatise have been fully accomplished. CHARLES L. FLINT, Secrekirij of the Slate Board ii/' Ai/ricultiire. Bo.sT<>x, December, 18G1. AUTHOR'S PREFACE THE first edition of this work was printed in tlie year 1841. It formed one of tlie scientific Reports, wliich were pre- pared and publislied by tlie Commissioners on tlie Zoological and Botanical Survey of Massachusetts, agreeably to an order of the General Court, and at the expense of the State. The Commis- sion for this Survey bore the date of June 10th, 1837 ; and the following instructions from his Excellency, Governor Everett, ac- companied it : — " It is presumed to have been a leading object of the Legisla- ture, in authorizing this Survey, to promote the agricultural benefit of the Commonwealth, and you will keep carefully in view the economical relations of every subject of your inquiry. By this, however, it is not intended that scientific order, method, or com- prehension should be departed from. At the same time, that which is practically useful will receive a proportionally greater share of attention, than that which is merely curious ; the promo- tion of comfort and happiness being the great human end of all science." Upon a division of duties among the Commissioners, the depart- ment of Insects was assigned to me. Some idea of the extent of this department may be formed by an examination of my Cata- logues of the Insects of Massachusetts, appended to the first and second editions of Professor Hitchcock's Report, in which above 2,300 species were enumerated ; and these doubtless fall very far short of the actual number to be found within this Commonwealth. VI AUTHOR'S PREFACE. In entering upon my duty, I was deterred from attempting to describe all these insects by the magnitude of the undertaking, and by the consideration that such a work, much as it might pro- mote the cause of science, if well done, could not be expected to prove either interesting or particularly useful to the great body of the people. The subject and the plan of my Report were sug- gested by the instructions of the Governor, and by the want of a work, combining scientific and practical details on the natural his- tory of our noxious insects. From among such of the latter as are injurious to plants, I selected for description chiefly those that were remarkable for their size, for the peculiarity of their struc- ture and habits, or for the extent of their ravages ; and these alone will be seen to constitute a formidable host. As they are found not only in Massachusetts, but throughout New England, and indeed in most parts of the United States, the propriety of giving to the work a more comprehensive title than it first bore, becomes apparent. This was accordingly done in the small impression that was printed at my own charge, while the original Report was passing through the press, and in which some other alterations were made to fit it for a wider circulation. In the course of eight years, all the copies of the Report, and of the other impression, were entirely disposed of. Meanwhile, some materials for a new edition were collected, and these have been embodied in the present work, which I have been called upon to prepare and carry through the press. Believing that the aid of science tends greatly to improve the condition of any people engaged in agriculture and horticulture, and that these pursuits form the basis of our prosperity, and are the safeguards of our liberty and independence, I have felt it to be "ly <^uty, in treating the subject assigned to me, to endeavor to make it useful and acceptable to tliose persons whose honorable employment is the cultivation of the soil. T. W. H. C'AMiiiuDGE, Muss., Oct. 15, 1852. / CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. Insects defined. — Brain and Nerves. — Air-pipes and Breath- ing-holes. — Heart and Blood. — Insects are produced from Eggs. — Metamorphoses, or Transformations. — Examples of Complete Transformation. — Partial Transformation. — Lar- va, OR Infant State. — Pupa, or Intermediate State. — Adult, or Winged State. — Head, Eyes, Antenn.b, and Mouth. — Tho- rax or Chest, Wings, and Legs. — Abdomen or Hind-body, Piercer, and Sting. — Number of Insects compared with Plants. — Classification; Orders; Coleoptera; Orthoptera; Hemipte- RA; Neuroptera; Lepidoptera; Hymenoptera; Diptera; Other Orders and Groups. — Remarks on Scientific Names. . . 1-22 CHAPTER II. COLEOPTERA. Beetles. — Scarab^ians. — Ground-Beetles. — Tree-Beetles. — Cockchafers or May-Beetles. — Flower-Beetles. — Stag-Bee- TLES. — Buprestians, OR Saw-horned Borers. — Spring-Beetles. Timber-Beetles. — Weevils. — Cylindrical Bark-Beetles. — Capricorn-Beetles, or Long-horned Borers. — Leaf-Beetles. — Criocerians. — Leaf-mining Beetles. — Tortoise-Beetles. — Chrysomelians. — Cantharides. 23 - 140 CHAPTER III. ORTHOPTERA. Earwigs. — Cockroaches. — Mantes, or Soothsayers. — Walking- Leaves. — Walking-Sticks, or Spectres. — Mole-Cricket. — Field Crickets. — Climbing Cricket. — Wingless Cricket. — Grasshoppers. — Katy-did. — Locusts. 141-191 VUl CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. HEMIPTEEA. Bugs. — Squasii-Bug. — Chinch-Bug. — Plant-Bugs. — Harvest-Flies. — Teee-Hoppeks. — Leaf-Hoppers. — Vine-hopper. — Bean-Hop- per. — Thrips. — Plant-Lice. — American Blight. — Enemies of Plant-Lice. — Bakk-Lice 192-256 CHAPTER V. LEPIDOPTERA. Caterpillars. — Butterflies. — Skippers. — Hawk- Moths. — iEcERi- ANS or Boring- Caterpillars. — Glaucopidians. — Moths. — Spin- ners. — Lithosians. — Tiger-Moths. — Ermine-Moths. — Tussock- Moths. — Lackey-Moths. — Lappet-Moths. — Saturnians. — Cera- TOCAMPiANS. — Carpenter-Moths. — Psychians. — Notodontians. — Owl-]\Ioths. — Cut- Worms. — Geometers, or Span- Worms, and Canker- Worms. — Delta-Moths. — Leaf-Rollers — Bud-JIoths. — FRUiT-i\IoTHS. — Bee-Moths. — Corn-Moths. — Clothes-JIotiis. — Feather-winged Moths. 257-511 CHAPTER VI, HYMENOPTERA. Stingers and Piercers. — Habits of some of the Hymenoptera. — Saw-Flies and Slugs. — Elm Saw-Fly. — Fir Saw-Fly. — Vine Saw-Fly. — Rose-bush Slug. — Pear-Tree Slug. — Horn-tailed Wood-Wasps. — Gall-Flies. — Chalcidians. — Barley Insect and .Joint- Worm. 512-561 CHAPTER VII. DIPTERA. Gnats and Flies. — ]\Lvggots, and their Transformations.— Gall- Gnats. — Hessian Fly. — Wheat-Fly. — Remarks upon and De- scriptions OF some other Dipterous Insects. — Radish-Fly. — Two-winged Gall-Flies, and Fruit-Flies. — Conclusion. . 662-626 APPENDIX. — The Ai;my-W()Rm 627-630 INDEX 631-610 EXPLANATION OF PLATES PLATE I . (Frontispiece.) Page Fig. 1. Nepa apiciilata 12 2. Agrion basalis 12 " 3. Mutilla coccinea 15 '' 4. Asilus (Erax) aestuans, Linn 17 " 5. Cassida (Coptocycla) aurichalcea, Fab 122 " 6. Locusta (CEdipoda) sulphurea, Fa6 177 " 7. Nymphalis Arthemis, Drur. ........ 283 PLATE II. (Page 23.) Fig. 1. Eumolpus anratiis, Fab 134 " 2. Chrysobothris (Trachypteris) Harrisii, Hentz 51 •' 3. Galenica vittata, Fab 124 " 4. Coccinella novemnotata 246 " 5. Haltica clialybea, llUg 129 " 6. Attelabus bipustulatus, Fab 66 " 7. Dicerca (Stenurus) divaricata, Say 48 '' 8. Sitophilus OiyzEe, Linn 83 '■ 9. Chrysomela trimaciilata, Fab. 132 " 10. Clytus flexuosus, Fab 103 •' 11. Callidiuin anteniiatum, Newm 100 " 12. Hylotrupes bajulus, Linn. 100 " 13. Saperda (Compsidea) tridentata, Oliv " 111 " 14. Omaloplia (Serica) vespertina, Gyll 33 " 15. Clytus speciosus, Say 101 " 16. Saperda Candida, Fab. 107 •■ 17. " " Larva 108 •' 18. Desraocenis cyaneiis, Fab. 115 " 19. Saperda vestita, Say 109 •• 20. Areoda (Cotalpa) lauigera, JLin?! 24 " 21. Saperda (Anaerea) calcarata, Say 106 PLATE III. (Page 141.) Fig. 1. Locusta (Cliloealtis) curtipennis 184 2. Locusta (Tragocepliala) viridi-fasciata, Dc Geer .... 182 b X EX PLAN ATI ox OF PLATES. Fig. 3. Locustu ( (Kdipinln) Caniliiiu, Li//7i. 4. Aphis inali ........ 5. Tettigonia (Ervtlironeiira) vitis . , . . 6. Clastoptera proteus ...... 7. Cicada septeudeeiin, Linn 8. Chrysopa eiiryptera, Burm 9. •' '• Larva aud cocoon 176 235 227 225 211 247 247 PLATE IV. Page 257.) Vanessa (Grajjta) coiiinia, Han-. Vacant chrvsalis 3. Tliecla Ilnmuli, JInrr. 4. Piqiilin Asterias, Fab. $ 5. •• '■ 9 • • 6 ■• " Lai-va 7. " " Chrysalis 300 301 276 265 265 263 264 PLATE V. (Page 318.) 1. Endamiis (Goniluba) Tityrus, Smith . 2. Pliihunpekis Satellitia, Linn. ..... 3. Philampehis Achenion, Drurtj .... 4. Chmrocampa (Uarapsa) pampinatrix, Smith 5. .Flgeria (Trochilium) Pyri, Harr. .... 6. ■' •• exitiosa, Say ^ . 7. " " " Vacant clirysalis 8. •' " CucurbitM, Harr. 310 325 326 327 335 331 332 331 PLATE VI. (PAciE .340.) Lophocampa (Halesidota) Carya^, Hnri: Larva '' " " Cocoon Deiopeia belhi, Drunj ..... Perophora Melsheinierii, llarr. Larva Case l'vg»ra (l)atana) ministra, Drunj . Endryas gnita, Fab. Larva Imago . Arctia (SpiloMjina) acrca, Drunj ^ Xotodonta ( Pygcbra) concinna, Smith Clostera Americana, Ildn: . 361 362 . 342 415 415, 417 430 . 427 427 . 354 354 . 426 483 P L AT E VII. (Page 376.) I (rgyia liMico'itigma, .S;/t/7/(. Larva . ■' 9 after depositing ( iUtc.iHjn and (.■aas . . 366 367 . 367 367, 368 . 367 EXPLANATION OF PLATES. XI Fig. 6. Tinea grauella. Larva 497 " 7. " " Wheat attacked by 497 8. Pyralis fariiialis, Harr 475 9. Gortyna ZeiB, Harr 439 " 10. Hyphantria (Spilosoma) textor. Cocoon 358 " 11. '■ " " Pupa 358 '• 12. •• " " Young larva . . . 357, 358 " 13. Clislocanipa Americana, Harr. Larva 371 "14. " '• $ 372 " 15. •' " Vacant cocoon .... 372 " 16. >' ■' Cluster of eggs .... 870 "17. " " 9 372 " 18. Clisiocanipa silvatica, Harr 376 " 19. " " Larva 375 PLATE VIII. {Page 512.) Fig. 1. Tacliina vivida, Harr 612 " 2. Gasterophilus (Gastrus) Equi, Linn. ..... 623 '• 3. Lophyrus Abietis, Harr. $ . 520 " 4. " " '• antenna 520 "5. " " 9 520 " 6. Cynips diclilocerus. Natural size ....... 549 " 7. " '• Magnified 549 '■ 8. " " Gall on Rose-bush .... 549 9. Cynips confiuens. Galls on oak-leaf ...... 546 ■• 10. '• •' 546, 547 ■' 11. Cimbex Ulmi. Cocoon . 519 " 12. Cimbex Laportei. ccl.- ilnrinti llic rc-l of llirlr li\r>. Some llics, thouiih TWO-WINGED INSECTS. 17 apparently harmless in the winged state, deposit their eggs on plants, on the juices of which their young subsist, and are often- times productive of immense injury to vegetation ; among these the most notorious for their depredations are the gall-gnats (^CecidomyicB), including the wheat-fly and Hessian fly, the root- eating maggots of some of the long-legged gnats (^Tipulce), those of the flower-flies {Anthomyice), and the two-winged gall-flies and fruit-flies (Ortalides). To this list of noxious flies are to be added the common house-flies (Muscce), which pass through the maggot state in dung and other filth, the blue-bottle or blow-flies, and meat-flies [Lucilice and CalUphorcB), together with the maggot- producing or viviparous flesh-flies {SarcophagcE and Cynomyice), whose maggots live in flesh, the cheese-fly (Piophila), the parent of the well-known skippers, and a few others that in the larva state attack our household stores. Some flies are harmless in all their states, and many are emi- nently useful in various ways. Even the common house-flies, and flesh-flies, together Avith others for which no names exist in our language, render important services by feeding while larvfe upon dung, carrion, and all kinds of filth, by which means, and by similar services rendered by various tribes of scavenger-beetles, these offensive matters speedily disappear, instead of remaining to decay slowly, thereby tainting the air and rendering it unwhole- some. Those whose larva3 live in stagnant water, such as gnats (^Oulicidae), feather-horned gnats (Chironomus, &c.), the soldier- flies {StratiomyadcB), the rat-tailed flies {Helophihis), &c., &c., tend to prevent the water from becoming putrid, by devouring the de- cayed animal and vegetable matter it contains. The maggots of some flies (^MycetopMlce and various Muscadce) live in mush- rooms, toadstools, and similar excrescences growing on trees ; those of others {Sargi, Xylophagidce, Asilidce, 77ierev(e, llilesice, Xylotce, Borhori, &c., &c.), in rotten wood and bark, thereby join- ing with the grubs of certain beetles to hasten the removal of these dead and useless substances, and make room for new and more vigorous vegetation. Some of these wood-eating insects, with others, when transformed to flies, (Asilidce [Plate I. Fig. 4, Asilus Eestuans] , Rhac/ionidcE, DolichopidcB, and Xylophagidcs,) prey on other insects. Some {SyrphidcB), though not jjredaceous them- 3 18 INTEODUCTION. selves in the winged state, deposit their eggs among j)lant-lice, upon the blood of which their young afterwards subsist. Many ( ConopidcB, excluding Stomoxys, Tac/nncB, Ocypfercs, Phor(S, &c.) lay their eggs on caterpillars, and on various other larvte, within the bodies of which the maggots hatched from these eggs live till they destroy their victims. And finally others {AnthracidiB and Volucellce) drop their eggs in the nests of insects, whose offspring are starved to death, by being robbed of their food by the off- spring of these cuckoo-flies. Besides performing their various appointed tasks in the economy of nature, flies, and other insects, subserve another highly important purpose, for which an all-wise Providence has designed them, namely, that of furnishing food to numerous other animals. Not to mention the various kinds of insect-eating quadrupeds, such as bats, moles, and the like, many birds live partly or entirely on insects. The finest song-birds, nightingales and thrushes, feast with the highest relish on maggots of all kinds, as well as on flies and other insects, while the warblers, vireos, and especially the fly-catchers and swallows, devour these two-winged insects in great numbers. The seven foregoing orders constitnte very natural groups, relatively of nearly equal importance, and sufficiently distinct from each other, but connected at different points by various reseml)]ances. It is impossible to show the mutual relations of these orders, Avhen they are arranged in a continuous se- ries, but these can be better expressed and understood by grouping the orders together in a cluster, so that each order shall c(.)me in contact with several others. Besides these seven orders, there are several smaller groups, which some naturalists have thought proper to raise to the raids; of independent orders. Upon the principal of these a few remarks will now be made. The little order Strepsiptera of Kirby, or Riiipiptera of Latreille, consists of certain minute insects, which undergo their transformations within the bodies of bees and wasps. One of them, the Xenos Pecki!., was discovered by Professor Peck in the common brown wasp (Polices fascatd) of this DIFFICULTIES IN ARRANGEMENT. 19 countiy. The larva is maggot-like, and lives between the rings of the back of the wasp ; the pupa resembles that of some flies, and is cased in the dx'ied sldn of the larva. The females never acquire wings, and never leave the bodies of the bees or wasps into which they penetrate while young. The males, in the adult state, have a pair of short, narrow, and twisted members, instead of fore-wings, and two very large hind-wings, folded lengthwise like a fan. The mouth is provided Avith a pair of slender, sharp-pointed jaws, better adapted for piercing than for biting. It is very difficult to determine the proper place of these insects in a natural ar- rangement. Latreille puts them between the Lepidoptera and Diptera, but thinks them most nearly allied to some of the Hymenoptera.^ The flea tribe (^Pulicidce) ^vas placed among the bugs, or Hemiptera, by Fabricius. It constitutes the order Attera of Leach, Siphonaptera of Latreille, and Aphaniptera of Kirby. Fleas are destitute of wings, in the place whereof there are four little scales, pressed closely to the sides of their bodies ; their mouth is fitted for suction, and provided with several lancet-like pieces for making punctures ; they undergo a complete transformation ; their larva3 are Avorm- like and without feet ; and their pup 93 have the legs fi-ee. These insects, of Avhich there are many different kinds, are intermediate in their characteristics betAveen the Hemiptera and the Diptera, and seem to connect more closely these two orders. The earAvigs (^Forficidadce)^ of wdiich also there are many kinds, Avere placed by Linnams in the order Coleoptera, but most naturalists noAv include them among the Orthoptera ; indeed, they seem to be related to both orders, but most [1 Systematic authoi-s now consider the order of Strepsiptera as simply a fam- ily, though a very aberrant one, of Coleoptera. It is placed after the Rhipipho- ridce, mider the name Stylopidte, from its principal genus, Stylops, which is par- asitic in certain genera of bees; a species of this genus has been discovered in Nova Scotia, and will pi-obably be found hereafter in New England. — Leg.] 20 INTRODUCTION. closely to the Orthoptera, Avitli wliicli tliey agree in tlieir partial transformations, and active pnpcT. They form the little order Dermaptera of Leach, or Euplexoptera of Westwood. The spider-flies, bird-flies, sheep-tick, &c. (^Hippohoscadce')^ which, with Latreille and others, I have retained among the Diptera, form the order Homaloptera of Leach, and the English entomologists. The ]May-flies, or case-flies (^Pliryganeadce)^ have been separated from the Neuroptera ; and constitute the order Trichoptera of Kirby. Latreille and most of the natu- ralists of the continent of Europe still retain them in Neuroptera, to which they seem properly to belong. The Thrips tribe consists of minute insects more closely allied to Hemiptera than to any other order, but resembling in some respects the Orthoptera also. It forms the little order Thysanoptera of Haliday ; but I pi-opose to leave it, as Latreille has done, among the Hemiptera. The English entomologists separate from Hemiptera the cicadas or harvest-flies, lantern-flies, fi'og-hoppers, plant-lice, bark-lice, &c., under the name of Homoptera ; but these insects seem too nearly to resemble the true Hemiptera to warrant the separation. Burmeister, a Prussian naturalist, has subdivided the Neu- ro})tera into the orders Neuroptera and Dictyotoptera, the latter to include the species which undergo only a partial transformation. If Hemiptera is to be subdivided, as above mentioned, then this division of Neuroptera will be justifiable also. Ol)jec-tions have often been raised against the study of natui'al liistory, and many persons have been discouraged from attempting it, on account of the formidable array of scientific names and terms wliich it })resents to the beginner; and some men of mean and contracted minds have made themselves merry at the expense of naturalists, and have sought to bring the writings of the latter into contempt, be- ADVANTAGE OF TECHNICAL NAMES. 21 cause of the scientific language and names they were obhged to employ. Entomology, or the science that treats of insects, abounds in such names more than any other branch of natu- ral history ; for the different kinds of insects very far out- number the species in every class of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kinirdoms. It is owino; to this excessive number of species, and to the small size and unobtrusive character of many insects, that comparatively very few have received any common names, either in our OAvn, or in other modern tongues ; and hence most of those that have been described in works of natural history are known only by their scientific names. The latter have the advantage over other names in being intelligible to all well-educated persons in all parts of the world ; while the common names of animals and plants in our own and other modern languages are very limited in their application, and moreover are often misapplied. For example, the name weevil is given, in this comitry, to at least six different kinds of insects, two of which are moths, two are flies, and two are beetles. Moreover, since nearly four thousand species of weevils have actually been scientifi- cally named and described, when mention is made of " the weevil," it may well be a subject of doubt to which of these four thousand species the speaker or writer intends to refer ; Avhereas, if the scientific name of the species in question Avere made known, this doubt would at once be removed. To give each of these weevils a short, approjDriate, significant, and purely English name, would be very difficult, if not impos- sible, and there would be great danger of overbui'dening the memory with such a number of names ; but, by means of the ingenious and simple method of nomenclatirre invented by LinnjEus, these weevils are all arrano-ed under three hundred and fifty-five generical, or surnames, requiring in addition only a small number of different words, like christian names, to indicate the various species or kinds. There is oftentimes a great convenience in the use of single collective terms for groups of animals and plants, whereby the necessity for enu- 22 INTRODUCTION. merating all the individual contents or the characteristics of these groups is avoided. Thus the single word Ruminantia stands for camels, lamas, giraifes, deer, antelopes, goats, sheep, and kine, or for all the hoofed quadrupeds which ruminate or chew the cud, and have no front teeth in the upper jaw ; Lejjidoptera includes all the various Idnds of butterflies, hawk- moths, and millers or moths, or insects havino- winiis covered with branny scales, and a spiral tongue instead of jaws, and whose young appear in the form of caterpillars. It would be difficult to find or invent any single English words which would be at once so convenient and so expressive. This, therefore, is an additional reason why scientific names ought to be preferred to all others, at least in works of natural his- tory, Avhere it is highly important that the objects described should have names that are short, significant in themselves, and not liable to be mistaken or misapplied. There is no art, profession, trade, or occupation, which can be taught or learned without the use of technical words or phrases belonging to each, and which, to the inexperienced and untaught, are as unintelligible as the terms of science. It is not at all more difficult to learn and remember the latter than the former, when the attention has been properly given to the subject. The seaman, the firmer, and the mechanic soon become fimiliar with the names and phrases peculiar to their several callings, uncouth, and without apparent signifi- cation, as many of them are. So, too, the terms of science lose their forbidding and mysterious appearance and sound by the frerpiency of their recurrence, and finally become as harmonious to the ear, as they are clear and definite in their application. :§!; CHAPTER II. COLEOPTEEA. Beetles. — Scaeab.eians. — Ground-Beetles. — Teee-Beetles. — Cock- chafers OR May-Beetles. — Flower-Beetles. — Stag-Beetles. — Bu- peestians, OR Saw-horned Boeees. — Spring-Beetles. — Tim bee-Beetles. — Weevils. — Cylindeical Bark-Beetles. — Capeicorn-Beetles, or LONG-HOENED BoEEES. — LeAF-BeETLES. — CeIOCEEIANS. — LeAF-MINING Beetles. — Tortoise-Beetles. — Chrysomelians. — Canthaeides. THE wings of beetles are covered and concealed by a pair of horny cases or shells, meeting in a straight line on the top of the back, and usually having a little triangular or semicircular piece, called the scutel, wedged between their bases. Hence the order to which these insects belono; is called CoLEOPTERA, a word sio;nifvino; winojs in a sheath. Beetles * are biting-insects, and are provided with two pairs of jaws mo^'ing sidewise. Their young are grubs, and un- dergo a complete transformation in coming to maturity. At the head of this order Linno3us placed a group of insects, to which he gave the name of Scarab^us. It includes the largest and most robust animals of the beetle kind, many of them remarkable for the singularity of their shape, and the formidable horn-like prominences with which they are furnished, — together with others, which, though they do not present the same imposing appearance, require to be noticed, on account of the injury sustained by vegeta- tion from their attacks. An immense number of Scaraba?- ians (Scarab^id^e), as they may be called, are now known, differing greatly from each other, not only in structure, but * Beetle, in old English, betl, bytl, oi- bitel, means a biter, or insect that bites. 24 C 0 L E 0 P T E R A . in tlieir habits in tlie larva and adult states. They are all easily distinguished by their short movable horns, or anten- nte, ending with a knob, composed of three or more leaf-like j)ieces, which open like the petals of a flower-bud. Another feature that they possess in common is the projecting ridge (^clypeus) of the forehead, which extends more or less over the face, like the visor or brim of a cap, and beneath the sides of this visor the antennae are implanted. JNIoreover, the legs of these beetles, particularly the first pair, are fitted for digging, being deeply notched or furnished ^\\t\\ several strong teeth on the outer edges ; and the feet are five-jointed. This very extensive family of insects is subdivided into sev- eral smaller groups, each composed of beetles distinguished by various peculiarities of structure and habits. Some live mostly upon or beneath the surface of the earth, and were, therefore, called ground-beetles by De Geer ; some, in their winged state, are found on trees, the leaves of which they devour, — they are the tree-beetles of the same author ; and others, during the same period of their lives, frequent flowers, and are culled flower-beetles. The iiround-beetles, including; the earth-borers (^Geotnijndie)^ and dung-beetles (^Coprididce and Ajjhodiadce), which, in all their states, are found in excre- ment, the skin-beetles (^Trogidce), which inhabit dried animal substances, and the gigantic Hercules-beetles (^Di/nastidce'), which live in rotten wood or beneath old dung-heaps, must be passed over without further connnent. The other groups contain insects that are very injurious to vegetation, and therefore require to be more particularly noticed. One of the most common, and the most beautifiil of the tree-beetles of this country, is the Areoda lanijiera,^ or woolly Areoda, sometimes also called the goldsmith-beetle (Plate II. Fig. 20). It is about nine tenths of an inch in length, broad oval in shape, of a lemon-yellow color above, glittering [2 Areoda lanifjera, now called Cataljxi kuur/era ; the genus Cotalpa, established by Burmeister, difTers from the true Areoda by not havhig the last joint of the tarsi armed beneath with an anguhir projectioa. — Lec] THE GOLDSMITH AND GRAPE-VINE BEETLES. 25 like burnished gold on the top of the head and thorax ; the under-side of the body is copper-colored, and thickly cov- ered with whitish wool ; and the legs are brownish yellow, or brassy, shaded with green. These fine beetles begin to appear in Massachusetts about the middle of May, and con- tinue generally till the twentieth of June, In the morning and evening twilight they come forth fi-om their retreats, and fly about with a humming and rustling sound among the branches of trees, the tender leaves of which they de- vour. Pear-trees are particularly subject to their attacks, but the elm, hickory, poplar, oak, and probably also other kinds of trees, are frequented and injm-ed by them. During the middle of the day they remain at rest upon the trees, clinging to the under-sides of the leaves, and endeavor to conceal themselves by drawing two or tliree leaves together, and holding them in this position with their long unequal claws. In some seasons they occur in profusion, and then may be obtained in groat quantities by shaking the young trees on which they are lodged in the daytime, as they do not attempt to fly when thus disturbed, but fall at once to the ground. The larvae of these insects are not known ; prob- ably they live in the ground upon the roots of plants. The group to which the goldsmith-beetle belongs may be called Rutilians (Rutilid^), from Miitela, or more correctly Hutila, signifying shining, the name of the principal genus included in it. The Rutilians connect the ground-beetles with the tree- beetles of the following group, having the short and robust legs of the former, with the leaf-eating habits of the latter. The spotted Pelidnota, Pelidnota punc- j,.^ ^ tata (Fig. 9), is also arranged among the Rutilians. This large beetle is fovmd on the cultivated and wild grape-vine, some- times in great abundance, durino; the months of July and August. It is of an oblong oval shape, and about an inch long. The wing-covers are tile-colored, 4 26 C 0 L E 0 P T E R A . or dull brownish-yellow, with three distinct black dots on each ; the thorax is darker and slightly bronzed, with a black dot on each side ; the Ijody beneath, and the legs, are of a deep bronzed green color. These beetles fly by day ; but may also be seen at the same time on the leaves of the grape, which are their only food. They sometimes prove very inju- rious to the vine. The only method of destroying them is to pick them off by hand and ciaisli them under foot. The larviE live in rotten wood, such as the stumps and roots of dead trees ; and do not differ essentially fi-om those of other Scarabffiians. Among the tree-beetles, those commonly called dors, chaf- ers, May-bugs, and rose-bugs, are the most interesting to the farmer and gardener, on account of their extensive ravages, both in the winged and larva states. They were included by Fal)ricius in the genus Melolontha, a word used by the ancient Greeks to distinguish the same kind of insects, which were supposed Ijy them to be produced from or with the flowers of apple-trees, as the name itself im})lies. These beetles, together wdth many others, for which no common names exist in our langTiage, are now united in one family called Melo- LONTHADJS, or Melolontliiaus. The following are the general characters of these insects. The body is oblong oval, con- vex, and generally of a brownish color ; the antennre are nine or more commonly ten jointed, the knob is much longer in the males than in the females, and consists generally of three leaf-like pieces, sometimes of a greater number, which open and shut like the leaves of a book ; the visor is short and wide ; the ui)per jaws are furnished at the l)ase on the inner side with an oval space, crossed by ridges, like a millstone, for grinding; the thorax is transversely scpiare, or nearly so; the wing-cases do not cover the whole of the body, the hinder extremity of which is ex])osed ; the legs are rather long, the first pair armed externally with two or three teeth ; and the claws are notched beneath, or are split at the end like the nib of a pen. The powei-ful and horny jaws are adniiral)ly HABITS OF THE COCKCHAFER. 27 fitted for cutting and grinding the leaves of plants, upon whicli tliese beetles subsist ; tlieir notched or double claws support them securely on the foliage ; and their strong and iao'o-ed fore-legs, beino; fonned for digging in the gi'ound, point out the place of their transformations. The habits and transformations of the common cockchafer of Europe have been carefully observed, and will serve to exemplify those of the other insects of this family, which, as far as they are known, seem to be nearly the same. This insect devours the leaves of trees and shrubs. Its duration in the perfect state is very short, each individual living only about a week, and the species entirely disappearing in the course of a month. After the sexes have paired, the males perish, and the females enter the earth to the depth of six inches or more, makmg their way by means of the strong teeth which arm the fore-legs ; here they deposit their eggs, amounting, according to some writers, to nearly one hundred, or, as others assert, to two hundred fi'om each female, which are abandoned by the parent, who generally ascends again to the surface, and perishes in a short time. From the eggs are hatched, in the space of foiu'teen days, little whitish grubs, each provided with six legs near the head, and a mouth flirnished with strong jaws. Wlien in a state of rest, these grubs usually curl themselves in the shape of a crescent. They subsist on the tender roots of various plants, committing ravages among these vegetable substances, on some occasions of the most deplorable kind, so as totally to disappoint the best-founded hopes of the husbandman. During the summer they live under the tliin coat of vegeta- ble mould near the surface, but, as winter approaches, they descend below the reach of frost, and remain torpid until the succeeding spring, at which time they change their skins, and reascend to the surface for food. At the close of their third summer (or, as some say, of the fourth or fifth) they cease eating, and penetrate about two feet deep into the earth ; there, l)v its motions fi-om side to side, each o;rub forms an 28 COLEOPTERA. oval cavity, which is hned by some ghitinous substance thrown from its mouth. In this cavity it is changed to a pupa by casting oft' its skin. In tliis state, the legs, antenuce, and wing-cases of the fixture beetle are visible tlu-ough the transparent skin which envelops them, but appear of a yel- lowish-Avhite color ; and thus it remains until the month of February, when the thin film which encloses the body is rent, and three months afterwards the perfected beetle digs its way to the surface, from which it finally emerges during the night. According to Kirby and Spence, the grubs of the cockchafer sometimes destroy whole acres of grass by feeding on its roots. They undermine the richest meadows, and so loosen the turf that it will roll up as if cut by a turfing spade. They do not confine themselves to grass, but eat the roots of wheat, of other grains, and also those of young trees. About seventy years ago, a former near Norwich, in England, suftered much by them, and, with his man, gathered eighty bushels of the beetles. In the year 1785 many provinces in France were so ravaged by them, that a premium was oftered by govern- ment for the best mode of destroying them. The Society of Arts in London, during many years, held forth a premium for the best account of this insect, and the means of check- in o- its ravao'es, but without ha vino; iir educed one successftil claimant. In their winged state, these beetles, with several other species, act as conspicuous a part in injuring the trees as the gruljs do in destroying the herbage. During the month of ]\Iay they come forth from the groixnd, whence they have received the name of ]\Iay-bugs, or May-beetles. They pass the greater part of the day upon trees, clinging to the under- sides of the leaves, in a state of repose. As soon as evening approaches, they begin to buzz about among the branches, and continue on the wing till towards midnight. In their droning flight they move very irregularly, darting hither and thither with an uncertain aim, hitting against objects in their way with a force that often causes them to tall to the ground. FOOD OF ANIMALS AND BIRDS. 29 They frequently enter houses in the night, apparently attract- ed, as well as dazzled and bewildered, by the lights. Their vagaries, in which, without having the power to harm, they seem to threaten an attack, have caused them to be called dors, — that is, darers ; while their seeming blindness and stupidity have become proverbial, in the expressions, " blind as a beetle," and " beetle-headed." Besides the leaves of fruit-trees, they devour those of various forest-trees and shrubs, Avith an avidity not much less than that of the locust, so that, in certain seasons, and in particular districts, they become an oppressive scourge, and the source of much misery to the inhabitants. MoufFet relates that, in the year 1574, such a number of them fell into the river Severn as to stop the wheels of the water-mills ; and, in the Philosophical Transactions, it is stated, that in the year 1688 they filled the hedges and trees of Gal way, in such infinite numbers as to cling to each other like bees when swarming ; and, when on the wing, darkened the air, annoyed travellers, and produced a sound like distant drums. In a short time the leaves of all the trees, for some miles round, were so totally consumed by them, that at midsummer the country wore the aspect of the depth of winter. Another chafer, Anomala vitis F. is sometimes exceedingly injurious to the vine. It prevails in certain provinces of France, where it strips the vines of their leaves, and also devours those of the willow, poplar, and fruit-trees. The animals and birds appointed to check the ravages of these insects are, according to Latreille, the badger, weasel, marten, bats, rats, the common dung-hiU fowl, and the goat- sucker or night-hawk. To this Hst may be added the com- mon crow, which devours not only the perfect insects, but their larvas, for which purpose it is often observed to follow the plough. • In " Anderson's Recreations " it is stated, that " a cautious observer, having found a nest of five young jays, remarked that each of these birds, while yet very young, consumed at least fifteen of these frill-sized gxubs in one dav, 30 COLEOPTERA. and of course Avoukl recjuire many more of a smaller size. 8aj that, on an average of sizes, they consmned twenty apiece, these for the five make one hundred. Each of the parents consume say fifty ; so that the pair and family devour two hundred every day. This, in three months, amoimts to twenty thousand in one season. But as the gruh continues in that state four seasons, this single pair, with their family alone, witliout reckoning their descendants after the first year, would destroy eighty thousand grubs. Let us suppose that the half, namely, forty thousand, are females, and it is known that they usually lay ahout two hundred eggs each, it will appear, that no less than eight millions have been destroyed, or prevented from being hatched, by the labors of a single family of jays. It is l)y reasoning in this way, that we learn to know of what importance it is to attend to the economy of nature, and to be cautious how we derange it l)y our short-sighted and futile operations.'' Our own country abounds with insect-eating beasts and birds, and without doubt the more than abundant ^Nlelolontlue form a portion of their nourishment. We have several Melolonthians whose injuries in the perfect and oriib state apiiroacli to those of the Eu- Fig. 10. ^ ropean cockchafer. PhyJhyphana * quercina of Knoch, the May-beetle, as it is generally called here, is our common species. (Fig. to.) It is of a chestnut-brcnvn color, smooth, but finely punctured, that is, covered with little impressed dots, as if pricked with the point of a needle ; each wing-case has two or * A f^fpims propdsod by mc in 1S20. It signifies leaf-eater. Dejean subse- quently called this nciius Aiu-ijhiniivha.^ [3 The L'-eiius rhijllii/ihiKja was indeed proixised by Dr. Harris, but was not accom|)aiiicd by any description; it must tlua-eliire yield t(i the name Lachnosterua of Hopi', ilc>ei-ilied in ].s;i7. liurnicister has im|ir(ipei-|y adopted for the ^enus the name given by Ucjean, but wliich was ikjI sanctioned by a descrijition until 1S45. It is ii very numci-ous i^'cnii^, and many o|' the species resemble each other very closely. -L]-,c. J DESTRUCTION OF THE MAY-BEETLE. 31 three slightly elevated longitudinal lines ; the breast is clothed with yellowish down. The knob of its antennas contains only three leaf-like joints. Its average length is nine tenths of an inch. In its perfect state it feeds on the leaves of trees, particularly on those of the cherry-tree. It flies with a hum- ming noise in the night, from the middle of May to the end of June, and frequently enters houses, attracted by the light. In the course of the spring, these beetles are often thrown fi'om the earth by the spade and plough, in various states of maturity, some being soft and nearly white, their supera- bundant juices not having evaporated, while others exhibit the true color and texture of the perfect insect. The grubs de- vour the roots of grass and of other plants, and in many places the turf may be turned up like a carpet in consequence of the destruction of the roots. The grub* is a white worm with a brownish head, and, when frilly gi'own, is nearly as thick as the Kttle finger. It is eaten greedily by crows and fowls. The beetles are devoured by the skunk, whose bene- ficial foraging is detected in our gardens by its abiuidant ex- crement filled with the wino-cases of these insects. A writer in the " New York Evening Post" says, that the beetles, which fr'equently commit serious ravages on fi'uit- trees, may be effectually exterminated by shaking them fi'om the trees every evening. In this way two pailftils of beetles were collected on the first experiment ; the number caught regularly decreased until the fifth evening, when only two beetles were to be found. The best time, however, for shak- ing trees on which the May-beetles are lodged, is in the morning, when the insects do not attempt to fly. They are most easily collected in a cloth spread under the trees to re- ceive them when they fall, after which they should be thrown into boiling water to kill them, and may then be given as food to swine. * There is a grub, somewhat resembling tliis, wliich is frequently fouml under old manure-heaps, and is commonly called muck-worm. It differs, however, in some respects, from that of the May-beetle, or dor-biig, and is transformed to u dung-beetle called Scarabaus relictus by Mr. Say. 32 C O L E 0 P T E R A There is an midescribed kind of PliyUophaga, or leaf-eater, called, in my Catalogue of the Insects of Massachusetts,* fra- terna, because it is nearly akin to the quercina, in general appearance. It diifers fi'om the latter, however, in being smaller, and more slender ; the punctures on its thorax and wing-covers are not so distinct, and the three elevated lines on the latter are hardly visible. It measiu'es thirteen twentieths of an inch in length. This beetle may be seen in the latter part of June and the beginning of July. Its habits are similar to those of the more abundant May-beetle or dor-bug. Another common Phi/Uojjhar/a has been described by Knoch and Say, inider the name of liirticida (Fig. Win. n '' _ _ . 11), meaning a little hairy. It is of a bay- broAvn color, the punctures on the thorax are larger and more distinct than in the quercina, and on each wing-cover are three longitudinal rows of short, yellowish hairs. It measures about seven tenths of an inch in length. Its time of appearance is in June and July. In some parts of Massachusetts the Phjl- Ifyphaga Georrjicana (Fig. 12) of Gyllenhall, or Georgian leaf-eater, takes the place of the qnercina. It is extremely common, during ]\Iay and June, in Cambridge, where the f>ther species is rarely seen. It is of a bay- brown color, entirely covered on the upper side with very short, yellowish gray hairs, and measures seven tenths of an inch, or more, in length. * III order to save unnecessary repetitions, it may be well to state, that the Catalomie above nameil, to which frequent reference will be made in the course of this treatise, was drawn up by me, and was published in Professor Hitchcock's Report on the Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology of Massachusetts, and that two editions of it appeared with the L'eport, the first in 1833, and the sec- ond, with nunuToiis ailditions, in 183r., Ficr. 12. POLYPHYLLA VARIOLOSA, 33 Phyllophaga pilosicollis (Fig. 13) of Knocli, or the hairy- Fig. 13. Fig. 14. necked leaf-eater, is a small chafer, of an ochre-yellow color, with a very hairy tho- rax. It is often thrown out of the ground by the spade, early in the spring ; but it does not voluntarily come forth till the middle of May. It measures half an inch in leno;tli. Hentz's Melolontha variolosa'^ (Fig- 14), or scarred Melolontha, diflPers essentially from the forecroino; beetles in the structure of its antennas, the knob of which consists of seven narrow, strap-shaped ochre-yellow leaves, which are excessively long in the males. This fine insect is of a light brown color, with irregular whitish blotches, like scars, on the thorax and wing-covers. It measures nine tenths of an inch, or more, in length. It occurs abundantly, in the month of July, at Martha's Vineyard, and in some other places near the coast ; but is rare in other parts of Massachusetts. The foregoino; Melolonthians are found in o;ardens, nur- series, and orchards, where they are more or less injurious to the fruit-trees, in proportion to their numbers in different seasons. They also devour the leaves of various forest-trees, such as the elm, maple, and oak. Omaloplia^ vespertina (Plate II. Fig. 11) of Gyllenhal, and sericea of lUiger, attack the leaves of the sweetbrier, or sweet- leaved rose, on which they may be found in proftision in the evening, about the last of June. They somewhat resemble the May-beetles in form, but are proportionally shorter and [* Melohntlia variolosa. This insect belongs to the genus Pohjphylla, proposed by Dr. Harris, and now adopted by all entomologists. — Lec] [5 OmalopUa. The species here mentioned, with all the other allied American species, belong rather to Serica of M'Leay, than to true OmalopUa, which is thus far confined to the other continent. — Lec] 5 34 C 0 L E 0 r T E R A . tliickcr, and much smaller in size. The first of them, the vespertine or evening Omaloplia, is bay-brown ; the wing- covers are marked with many longitudinal shallow fiuTows, which, with the thorax, are thickly punctured. This beetle varies in length from three to four tenths of an inch. Oma- loplia sericea, the silky Omaloplia, closely resembles the pre- ceding in everything but its color, which is a very deep chestnut-brown, iridescent or changeable like satin, and re- flecting the colors of the rainbow. All these Melolonthians are nocturnal insects, never ap- pearing, except by accident, in the day, during which they remain under shelter of the foliage of trees and shrubs, or concealed in the grass. Others are truly day-fliers, commit- ting their ravages by the light of the sun, and are conse- quently exposed to observation. One of our diurnal Melolonthians is supposed by many nat- Fi"-. ir,. uralists to be the Anomala varlans (Fig. 15) of Fabricius ; and it agrees very well with this writer's description of the lucicola ; but Professor Germar thinks it to be an unde- scribed species, and pr(»poses to name it clv- Icbs. It resembles the vine-chafer of Europe in its habits, and is found in the months of Jime and Jidy on the cultivated and wild grape-vines, the leaves of which it devours. During the same period, these chafers may be seen in still greater numbers on various kinds of sumach, which they often completely despoil of their leaves. They are of a broad oval shape, and very variable in c(jl(jr. The head and thorax of the male are greenish black, margined with dull ochre or tile-red, and thickly })unctui'ed ; the wing-covei's are clay-yellow, irregu- larly furrowed, and punctured in the furrows ; the legs are pide red, brown, or black. The thorax of the female is clay- yellow, or tile-red, sometimes with two obli(|ue blackish spots on the top, and sometimes almost entirely black ; the wing- covers resemljle those of the male ; the legs are clay-yellow. THE COMMON ROSE-CHAFER. 35 or light red. The males are sometimes entirely black, and this variety seems to be the beetle called atrata, by Fabricius. The males measure nearly, and the females rather more than seven twentieths of an inch in length. In the year 1825, these insects appeared on the grape-vines in a garden in this vicinity ; they have since established themselves on the spot, and have so much multiplied in subsequent years as to prove exceedingly hurtful to the vines. In many other gardens they have also appeared, having probably found the leaves of the cultivated gTape-vine more to their taste than their natu- ral food. Should these beetles increase in numbers, they will be found as difficult to check and extirpate as the destructive vine-chafers of Europe. The rose-chafer, or rose-bug, as it is more commonly and incorrectly called, is also a diurnal insect. It is the Melolontlia subspinosa (Fig. 1(3) of Fabricius, by wdiom it was first described, and belongs to the modern genus Macrodactylns of Latreille. Common as tliis insect is in the vicinity of Boston, it is, or was a few years ago, unknown in the northern and western parts of JMassachusetts, in New Hampshire, and in Maine. It may, therefore, be well to give a brief description of it. This beetle measures seven twentieths of an inch in length. Its body is slender, tapers before and behind, and is entirely covered with very short and close ashen-yellow down ; the thorax is long and narrow, angularly widened in the middle of each side, which suggested the name suhspi- nosa, or somewhat spined ; the legs are slender, and of a pale red color : the joints of the feet are tipped with black, and are very long, which caused Latreille to call the genus Macrodactylus, that is, long toe, or long foot. The natural history of the rose-chafer, one of the greatest scourges with which our gardens and nurseries have been afflicted, was for a long time involved in mystery, but is at last fiilly cleared up.* The prevalence of this insect on the * See my Essay in tlie jNliissacliusctts Agricultural Repository and Journal 36 C 0 L E 0 P T E R A . rose, and its anniiul appearance coinciding with the blossom- ing of that flower, have gained for it the po])nlar name by which it is here known. For some time after they were first noticed, rose-bugs appeared to be confined to their favorite, the l)lossoms of the rose ; but within forty years they have prodigiouslv increased in number, have attacked at random various kinds of plants in swarms, and have become notorious for their extensive and deplorable ravages. The grape-vine in particular, the cherry, plum, and apple trees, have annu- ally suffered by their depredations ; many other fruit-trees and shnibs, garden vegetables and corn, and even the trees of the forest and the grass of the fields, have been laid under contribution by these indiscriminate feeders, by whom leaves, flowers, and fruits are alike consumed. The unexpected arrival of these insects in swarms, at their first coming, and their sudden disappearance at the close of theii" career, are remarkable facts in their history. They come forth fi-om the oround during the second week in June, or about the time of the blossoming of the damask rose, and remain from thirty to forty days. At the end of this period the males become exhausted, fall to the ground and perish, while the females enter the earth, lay their eggs, return to the surface, and, after lingering a few days, die also. The eggs laid hj each female are about thirty in number, and are deposited from one to four inches beneath the sur- face of the soil ; they are nearly globular, whitish, and about one thirtieth of an inch in diameter, and are hatched twenty days after they are laid. The young larv;e begin to feed on such tender roots as are within their reach. Like other o-rubs of the Scarabai'ians, wdien not eating they lie upon the side, with the body curved, so that the head and tail Vol. X. p. 8, reiirintcd in the New Eiip;l:in(l Farnior, Vol. VI. p. 18, &c.: my Dis- cotirse before the M:i';sachu«etts Horticultural Society, p. 31, 8vo, Canil)ri(lge, 1832; Dr. Green's communication on this insect in the New England Farmer Vol. VI. p]). 41, 4i», &c.; my Kcport on Insects Injurious to Vegetation, in Massa- chusetts House Document, No. 72, A|)ril, 1838, ji. 70; and a conununication in the New Endand Farnu'r. Vol. IX. p 1. THE COMMON ROSE-CHAFER. 37 are nearly in contact ; they move with difficulty on a level surface, and are continually falling over on one side or the other. They attain their full size in the autumn, being then nearly three quarters of an inch long, and about an eighth of an inch in diameter. They are of a yellowish-white color, with a tinge of blue towards the hinder extremity, which is thick, and obtuse or rounded ; a few short hairs are scattered on the surface of the body ; there are six short legs, namely, a pair to each of the first three rings behind the head, and the latter is covered with a horny shell of a pale rust color. In October they descend below the reach of frost, and pass the winter in a torpid state. In the spring they approach towards the surflice, and each one forms for itself a little cell of an oval shape, by turning round a great many times, so as to compress the earth and render the inside of the cavity hard and smooth. Within this cell the grub is transformed to a pupa, during the month of May, by casting off its skin, which is pushed downwards in folds from the head to the tail. The pupa has somewhat the form of the per- fected beetle ; but it is of a yellowish-white color, and its short stump-like wings, its antennie, and its legs are folded upon the breast ; and its whole body is enclosed in a thin film, that Avraps each part separately. During the month of June this filmy skin is rent, the included beetle withdraws from its body and its limbs, bursts open its earthen cell, and digs its way to the surface of the ground. Thus the various changes, from the egg to the full development of the per- fected beetle, are completed within the space of one year. Such being the metamorphoses and habits of these insects, it is evident that we cannot attack them in the egg, the grub, or the pupa state ; the enemy in these stages is beyond our reach, and is subject to the control only of the natural but unknown means appointed by the Author of Nature to keep the insect tribes in check. When they have issued fi-om their subterranean retreats, and have congregated upon our vines, trees, and other vegetable productions, in the com})lete 38 C O L E 0 P T E R A . enjoyment of their propensities, we must unite our efforts to seize and crush the invaders. They must hideed be crushed, scalded, or burned, to deprive tliem of hfe, for they are not affected by any of the apphcations usually found destructive to other insects. Experience has proved the utility of gather- ino- them by hand, or of shakino- them or brushino- tliem fi'om the plants into tin vessels containing a little water. They should be collected daily during the period of their visitation, and should be committed to the flames or killed by scalding- water. The late John Lowell, Esq., states,* that in 1823 he discovered, on a solitary apple-tree, the rose-bugs " in vast numbers, such as could not Ije described, and would not be believed if they were described, or, at least, none but an ocular witness could conceive of their numbers. Destruction by hand was out of the question," in this case. He put sheets under the tree, and shook them down, and burned them. Dr. Green, of Mansfield, whose investigations have thro\\ai much light on the history of this insect, proposes protecting plants with millinet, and says that in this way only did he succeed in securing his grape-vines from depredation. His remarks also show the utility of gathering them. " Eighty- six of these spoilers," says he, " were known to infest a single rose-bud, and were crushed with one grasp of the hand." Suppose, as was proljably the case, that one half of them were females ; by this destruction, eight hundred eggs, at least, were prevented from becoming matured. Dm'ing the time of their prevalence, rose-bugs are some- times found in immense numljers on the flowers of the com- mon white-weed, or ox-eye daisy ( Chrysanthemum leucanthe- muiii), a worthless plant, which has come to us from Europe, and lias l)een suffered to overrun our pastures and encroach on our mcjwing-lands. In certain cases it may become expe- dient rapidly to mow down the infested wliite-weed in dry * Massachusetts Agri'ciiltural Kcpository, Vol. IX. p. 145. THE FLOWER-BEETLES. 39 pastures, and consume it, with the sluggish rose-buds, on the spot. Our insect-eating birds undoiibtedly devour many of these insects, and deserve to be cherished and protected for their services. Rose-bugs are also eaten greedily by domesticated fowls ; and when they become exhausted and fall to the ground, or when they are about to lay their eggs, they are destroyed by moles, insects, and other animals, which lie in wait to seize them. Dr. Green informs us, that a species of dragon-fly, or devil's-needle, devours them. He also says that an insect, which he calls the enemy of the cut-worm, probably the larva of a Carabus or predaceous ground-beetle, preys on the grubs of the common dor-bug. In France the golden ground-beetle (^Carabus auratus) devours the female dor or chafer at the moment when she is about to deposit her eggs. I have taken one specimen of this fine ground-beetle in Massachusetts, and we have several other kinds, equally predaceous, which probably contribute to check the increase of our native Melolonthians. Very few of the flower-beetles are decidedly injurious to vegetation. Some of them are said to eat leaves ; but the greater number live on the pollen and the honey of flowers, or upon the sap that oozes from the wounds of plants. In the infant or grub state, most of them eat only the crumbled substance of decayed roots and stumps ; a fcAv live in the wounds of trees, and by their depredations prevent them from healing, and accelerate the decay of the trunk. The flower-beetles belong chiefly to a group called Ceto- NiAD^, or Cetonians. They are easily distinguished fi'om the other Scarabasians by their lower jaws, which are generally soft on the inside, and are often provided with a flat brush of hairs, that serves to collect the pollen and juices on which they subsist. Their upper jaws have no grinding plate on the inside. Their antennaa consist of ten joints, the last three of which form a three-leaved oval knob. The head is often squai'e, with a large and wide visor, overhanging and entirely 40 C 0 L E 0 P T E R A . concealing the npper lip. Tlie tliorax is either rounded, some- what square, or triangular. The wing-cases do not cover the end of the body. The fore legs are deeply notched on the outer edge ; and the claws are equal and entire. These beetles are generally of an oblong oval form, somewhat flat- tened above, and often brilliantly colored and highly polished, sometimes also covered with hairs. Most of the bright- colored kinds are day-fliers ; those of dark and plain tints are generally nocturnal beetles. Some of them are of im- mense size, and have been styled the princes of the beetle tribes ; such are the Incas of South America, and the Goliali beetle (Heyemon GoUatns) of Guinea, the latter being more than four inches long, two inches broad, and thick and heavy in ])r()portion. Two American Cetonians must siiffice as examples in this grou}). The flrst is the Indian Cetonia, Oetonia Inda * (Fig. 17), one of our earliest visitors in the spring, making its ap})earance towards the end of April or the beginning of May, when it may sometimes be seen in considerable numbers around the borders of woods, and in dry, open fields, fly- ing just above the grass with a loud luimming sound, like a humble-bee, for which perhaps it might at first sight be mis- taken. Like other insects of the same genus, it has a broad body, very obtuse behind, with a triangTilar thorax, and a little wedge-shaped piece on each side between the hinder angles of the thorax and the shoulders of the wing-covers ; the latter, taken together, form an oblong scpiare, but are somewhat notched or widely scalloped on the middle of the outer edges. The head and thorax (jf this beetle are dark copper-brown, or almost Ijlack, and thickly covered with short greenish-yellow hairs ; the wing-cases are light yellowish- * Scdi'ii/jcrits Indus '>{' Linna-ns, Ci'lonid barhiitu ol' Say.^ |G Cttonia Inda. 'I'lu; (jM geiuis Cetonia has been divided recently into many genera, some of wliicii liave again been merged together by later investigators; our species belong to tlu' one callcil Eimprnia, as enlarged by liiK'ordaire. — Lec] THE AMERICAN C ETONIANS. 41 broAvn, but changeable, with pearly and metallic tints, and spattered with numerous irregular black spots ; the under- side of the body, which is very hairy, is of a black color, with the edo;es of the rino's and the leos dull red. It measures about six tenths of an inch in length. During the summer months the Indian Cetonia is not seen ; but about the middle of September a new brood comes forth, the beetles appearing fresh and bright, as though they had just completed their last transformation. At this time they may be found on the flowers of the golden-rod, eating the pollen, and also in great numbers on corn-stalks, and on the trunks of the locust-tree, feeding upon the sweet sap of these plants. Fortunate would it be for us if they fed on these only ; but their love of sweets leads them to attack om' finest peaches, which, as soon as ripe, they begin to devour, and in a very few hours entirely spoil. I have taken a dozen of them fi'om a single peach, into which they had burroAved so that nothing but the naked tips of their hind-body coidd be seen ; and not a ripe peach remained unbitten by them on the tree. When touched, they leave a strong and disagTeeable scent upon the fingers. On the approach of cold weather they disappear, but I have not been able to ascertain what becomes of them at this time, and only conjecture that they get into some warm and sheltered spot, Avliere they pass the winter in a torpid state, and in the spring issue fi*om their retreats, and finish their career by depositing their eggs for another brood. Those that are seen in the spring want the freshness of the autumnal beetles, a circumstance that favors my conjecture. Their hovering over and occasionally dropping upon the surface of the ground, is probably for the pui-pose of selecting a suitable place to enter the earth and lay their eggs. Hence I suppose that their larvae or gi'ubs may live on the roots of herbaceous plants. The other Cetonian beetle to be described is the Osmo- derma scaher,* or rough Osmoderma (Fig. 18). It is a large * Tricliius scaler, Palisot de Beauvois; Gymnodus scabtr, Kirby. 6 42 C 0 L E 0 P T E R A . Fig. 18. insect, with a broad, oval, and flattened body ; the thorax is neai-ly ruinid, l)ut wider tlian long ; there are no wedge-shaped pieces be- tween the corners of the thorax and the shoulders of the wing-cases, and the outer edges of the latter are en- tire. It is of a jnu'plish-black color, with a coppery lustre ; the head is punctured, concave or h()llowed on the top, with the edge of the broad visor turned u\) in the males ; nearly flat, and with the edge of the visor not raised in the females ; the wing-cases are so thickly and deeply and irreg-ularly pinictured as to appear almost as rough as shagreen ; the under-side of the body is smooth and without hairs ; and the legs are short and stout. In addition to the differences between the sexes above described, it may be mentioned that the females are generally much larger than the males, and often Avant the c(»ppery polish of the latter. They measux'e from eight tentlis of an inch to one inch and one tenth in length. They are nocturnal insects, and conceal themselves during the day in the crevices and hollows of trees, where they teed upon the sap that flows from the bark. They have the odor of Russia leather, and give this out so powerftilly that their presence can be detected, by the scent alone, at the distance of two or three yards from the place of their retreat. This strong smell suggested the name Osmoderma^ that is, scented skin, given to these beetles by the French naturalists. They seem particularly fond of the juices of cherry and apple trees, in the hollows of which I have often discovered them. 'Jlicii- larva? liAc in the hollows of these same trees, feeding upon the diseased wood, and causing it more rapidly to de- cay. They are whitish fleshy grubs, with a reddish hard- shelled head, and closely resemble the grubs of the common dor-beetle. In the autumn each one makes an oval cell or ])(»d, of fragments of wood, strongly cemented with a kind THE LUCANIAN BEETLES. 43 of glue ; it goes through its transformation within this ceh, and comes forth in the beetle form in the month of July. We have another scented beetle, equal in size to the pre- ceding, of a deep mahogany-brown color, perfectly smooth, and highly polished, and the male has a deep pit before the middle of the thorax. This species of Osmoderma is called eremicola * (Fig. 19), a name that cannot be rendered literally into Eng- lish by any single word ; it signifies wil- derness-inhabitant, for which might be substituted hermit. I believe that this in- sect lives in forest-trees, but the larva is unknown to me. The family Lucanid^, or Lucanians, so named from the Linnsean genus Lucanus, must be placed next to the Scara- bffiians in a natural arrangement. This family includes the insects called stag-beetles, horn-bugs, and flying-bulls, names that they have obtained from the great size and peculiar form of their upper jaws, which are sometimes curved like the horns of cattle, and sometimes branched like the antlers of a stag. In these beetles the body is hard, oblong, rounded beliind, and slightly convex ; the head is large and broad, especially in the males ; the thorax is short, and as wide as the abdomen ; the antenna3 are rather long, elbowed or bent in the middle, and composed of ten joints, the last three or four of which are broad, leat-like, and project on the inside, giving to this part of the antenmB a resemblance to the end of a key ; the upper jaws are usually much longer in the males than in the females, but even those of the latter ex- tend considerably beyond the mouth ; each of the under jaws is provided with a long hairy pencil or brush, which can be seen projecting beyond the mouth between the feelers ; and the under hp has two shorter pencils of the same kind ; the * Ccloiila eremicola n[' Ki\i)ch. 44 C 0 L E O P T E R A . fore legs are oftentimes longer than the others, with tlie outer edge of the shanks notched into teeth ; the feet are five- jointed, and the nails are entire and equal. These beetles fly abroad during the night, and frequently enter houses at that time, somewhat to the alarm of the occupants ; but they are not venomous, and never attempt to bite without provo- cation. They pass the day on the trunks of trees, and live upon the sap, for procuring which the brashes of their jaws and lip seem to be designed. They are said also occasionally to bite and seize caterpillars and other soft-bodied insects, for the purpose of sucking out their ju.ices. They lay their eggs in crevices of the bark of trees, especially near the roots, where they may sometimes be seen thus employed. The larvai hatched from these eggs resemble the grubs of the Scaraba3ians in color and form, but they are smoother, or not so much wrinkled. The gruljs of the large kinds are said to be six years in coming to their growth, living all this time in the trunks and roots of trees, boring into the solid wood, and reducing it to a substance resembling very coarse sawdust ; and the injury thus caused by them is fi-equently very considerable. When they have arrived at their full size, they enclose themselves in egg-shaped pods, composed of gnawed particles of wood and bark stuck to- gether and lined with a kind of glue ; within these pods they are transformed to pupre, of a yellowish-white color, having the body and all the limbs of the future beetle encased in a whitish film, which being thrown oflF in due time, the insects appear in the beetle form, burst the walls of their prison, crawl through the passages the larva; had gnawed, and come forth on the outside of the trees. The largest of these beetles in the New England States was first descril)ed by Linna'us, under the name of Lucanus (JapreoluH* (Fig. ^*J^, signifying the young roebuck; but here it is called the horn-bug. Its color is a deep mahogany- * Lucuiius JJaiiKi. i>r lMil»rii-ius. THE SERRICORX BEETLES. 45 Fis 20. brown ; the surface is smooth and polished ; the upper jaws of the male are long, curved like a sickle, and flirnished internally beyond the middle with a little tooth ; those of the female are much shorter, and also toothed ; the head of the male is broad and smooth, that of the other sex nar- rower and rough with punctures. The body of this beetle measures from one inch to one inch and a quarter, exclusive of the jaws. The time of its appearance is in July and the beginning of Au- gTist. The grubs live in the trunks and roots of various kinds of trees, but particularly in those of old apple-trees, willows, and oaks. All the foregoing beetles have, by some natm-alists, been gathered into a single tribe, called lamelli- com or leaf-horned beetles, on account of the leaf-like joints wherewith the end of their antennas is provided. The beetles next to be described have been brought to- gether into one great tribe, named serricorn or saw-horned beetles, because the tips of the joints of their antenna3 usually project more or less on the inside, somewhat like the teeth of a saw. The beetles belonging to the family Buprestid^, or the Buprestians, have antenna of this kind. The Bupres- tis of the ancients, as its name signifies in Greek, was a poi- sonous insect, which, being swallowed with grass by grazing cattle, produced a violent inflammation, and such a degree of swelling as to cause the cattle to burst. Linna3us, how- ever, unfortunately applied this name to the insects of the above-mentioned family, none of which are poisonous to ani- mals, and are rarely, if ever, found upon the grass. It is in allusion to the original signification of the word Biijyn'stis, that popular English writers on natural history sometimes give the name of burncow to the harmless Buprestians ; while 4l> COLE OPT ERA. the French, Avith greater propriety, call them ricliards, on account of the rich and brilliant colors wherewith many of them are adorned. The Buprestians, then, according to the Linn\' (!(.'niiiir. THE WHITE-PINE WEEVIL. 73 the insect is changed to a pupa, it gnaws a passage from the inside quite to the bark, which, however, remaining un- touched, serves to shelter the httle borers fi'om the weather. After they have changed to beetles, they have only to cut away the outer bark to make their escape. They begin to come out early in September, and continue to leave the wood through that month and a part of October. The shoot at this time will be found pierced with small round holes on all sides ; sometimes thirty or forty may be counted on one shoot. Professor Peck has observed that an unlimited in- crease is not permitted to this destructive insect ; and that if it were, our forests would not produce a single mast. One of the means appointed to restrain the increase of the white- pine weevil is a species of ichneumon-fly, endued with sa- gacity to discover the retreat of the larva, the body of which it stings, and therein deposits an egg. From the latter a grab is hatched, which devom's the larva of the weevil, and is subsequently transformed to a four-winged fly, in the habita- tion prepared for it. The most effectual remedy against the mcrease of these weevils is to cut off" the shoot in Augnist, or as soon as it is perceived to be dead, and commit it, with its inhabitants, to the fire. Such is the substance of Professor Peck's history of tliis insect ; to which may be added, that the beetles are found in great numbers, in April and JNIay, on fences, buildings, and pine-trees ; that they probably secrete themselves during the winter m the crevices of the bark, or about the roots of the trees, and deposit their eggs in the sprmg ; or they may not usually leave the trees before spring. Perhaps the method used for decoying the pine-eating bee- tles in Europe may be practised here with advantage. It consists in sticking some newly-cut branches of pine-trees in the ground, in an open place, during the season when the insects are about to lay their eggs. In a few hours these branches will be covered with the beetles, which may be shaken into a cloth and burned. 74 COLEOPTERA. There are some of the long-snouted weevils which inhabit nnts of various kinds. Hence they are called nut-weevils, and belong chiefly to the modern genus Salaninus, a name that sio'nifies liviuir or being in a nut. The common nut- weevil of Europe lays her eggs in the hazelnut and filbert, having previously bored a hole for that pui'pose with her long and slender snout, while the fruit is young and tender, and di'opping only one egg in each nut thus pricked. A little grub is soon hatched fr'om the egg, and begins immedi- ately to devour the soft kernel. Notwithstanding this, the nut continues to increase in size, and, by the time that it is ripe and ready to fall, its little inhabitant also comes to its growth, gnaws a round hole in the shell, thi'ough which it afterwards makes its escape, and burrows in the gTound. Here it remains unchanged through the winter, and in the following sunnner, having completed its transformations, it comes out of the ground a beetle. In this country weevil-grubs are very common in hazel- nuts, chestnuts, and acorns ; but I have not hitherto been able to rear any of them to the beetle state. The most common of the nut-wee- vils known to me appears to be the Hhi/n- chcemis <^BaIa)dni(s^ nasicus of Say (Fig. 38), the long-snouted nut-weevil. Its form is oval, and its ground color dark brown ; Init it is clothed with very short rust-yellow flattened hairs, which more or less conceal its original color, and are disposed in spots on its wing-covers. The snout is brown and ])(jHshed, longer than the whole body, as slender as a bristle, of equal thickness from one to the other, and slightly curved ; it bears the long elbowed antennae, which are as fine as a hair, just behind the middle. This beetle measures nearly three tenths of an inch in length, exclusive of the snout. Specimens liavc ])een found paired u})on the hazel- nut-tree in July, at wliicli time jirobalily the eggs are laid. THE CURCULIO, OR P Lll M- WEE VIL. To Others appear in September and October, and must pass tlie winter concealed in some secure place. From its size and resemblance to tlie nut-weevil of Europe, this is supposed to be the species which attacks the hazelnut here. It is now Avell known that the falling of unripe plums is caused by little whitish grubs, which bore into the fruit. The loss occasioned by insects of this kind is ft'equently very great ; and in some of our gardens and orchards the crop of plums is often entirely ruined by the depredations of the grubs, which have been ascertained to be the larvae or younof; of a small beetle of the weevil " . ^ Fis- 39. Fig. 40. tribe, called Rhynchcenus (^Conotraclie- lus) Nenuphar,^ (Figs. 39 and 40,) the Nenuphar or plum- weevil. This wee- \al, or curcuUo, as it is often called, is a little rough, dark-brown, or blackish beetle, looking like a dried bud when it is shaken fi-om the trees, which resem- blance is increased by its habit of drawing up its legs and bending its snout close to the lower side of its body, and remaining for a time without motion, and seemingly lifeless. It is fi'om three twentieths to one fifth of an inch long, ex- clusive of the cuiwed snout, which is rather longer than the thorax, and is bent under the breast, between the fore legs, when at rest. Its color is a dark brown, variegated with spots of white, ochre-yellow, and black. The thorax is un- even ; the wing-covers have several short ridges upon them, those on the middle of the back formino- two considerable humps, of a black color, behind which there is a wide band of ochre-yellow and white. Each of the thighs has two little teeth on the under-side. I have found these beetles as early as the 30th of March, and as late as the lOth of June, and at various intermediate times, according with the for- * First described by Herbst, in 1797, under the name of Curculio Neniqihar ; Fabricius redescribed it under that of Ekyncluenus Argula ; and Dejean has named it Conotrachelus variegatus. 76 C 0 L E 0 P T E R A . Avardness or backwardness of vegetation in the spring, and have fi'eqnently caught tliem flying in the middle of the day. They begin to sting the phims as soon as the fruit is set, and continue tlieir operations to the middle of July, or, as some say, till the first of August. In doing this, the beetle first makes a small crescent-shaped incision, with its snout, in the skin of the plum, and then, turning round, inserts an egg in the wound. From one plum it goes to another, until its store of eggs is exhausted ; so that, where these beetles abound, not a plum will escape being stung. Very rarely is there more than one incision made in the same fruit ; and the weevil lays only a single egg therein. The insect hatched from this egg is a little whitish gnib, desti- tute of feet, and very much like a maggot in appearance, except that it has a distinct, rounded, light-broAvn head. It immediately burrows obliipiely into the fruit, and finally pene- trates to the stone. The irritation, arising fr'om the wounds and fi-om the gnaAvings of the grubs, causes the young fruit to become gummy, diseased, and finally to drop before it is ripe. Meanwhile, the grub comes to its groAvth, and, im- mediately after the filling of the fi'uit, quits the latter and burrows in the ground. This may occur at various times between the middle of June and of August ; and, in about three weeks afterwards, the insect completes its transforma- tions, and comes out of the ground in the beetle form. The earliest account of the habits of the plum Aveevil, that I have seen, Avas Avritten by Dr. James Tilton, of AMlniing- ton, DehiAvare. It aa'III be found, under the article Fruit., in Dr. James Mease's edition of Willich's " Domestic Encyclo- paedia," published at Philadelphia in 1803. The same ac- count has been reprinted in the " Georgic Papers for 1809 " of the JNIassachusetts Agricultural Society, and in other works. According to Dr. Tilton, this insect attacks not only nectarines, plums, apricots, and cherries, liut also peaches, apples, pears, and quinces, the truth of Avhich lias been almn- (lantlv confirmed Ija^ later Avriters. I have mvself ascertained THE CURCULIO, OR PLUM-WEEVIL. 77 that the cherry-ivorm, so called, which is very common in this fruit when gathered from the tree, produces, at maturity, the same curculio as that of the plum ; but, unlike the latter, it rarely causes the stung cherry to drop prematurely to the gi'ound. The late Dr. Joel Burnett, of Southborough, the author of two interesting articles on the plum-weevil,* sent to me, in the summer of 1839, some specimens of the in- sect, in the cluysalis state, which were raised from the small gi'ubs in apples ; and, since that time, I have seen the same grubs in apples, pears, and quinces, in this vicinity. They are not to be mistaken for the more common apple-worms, from which they are easily distinguished by their inferior size, and by their want of feet. In 1831, Mr. Thomas Say, in a note on the plum-weevil, stated that it " depredates on the plum and peach and other stone-fruits ; " and that his " kinsman, the late excellent William Bartram, informed him it also destroys the English walnut in this country." f Observers do not agree concerning some points in the economy of this insect, such as the time required for it to complete its transformations, the condition and place wherein it passes the winter, and the agency of the curculio in pro- ducing the warts or excrescences on plum and cherry trees. The average time passed by the insect in the ground, during the summer, has appeared to me to be about three weeks ; but the transformation may be accelerated or retarded by temperature and situation. It has also been my impression that the late broods remained in the ground all winter, and that from them are produced the beetles which sting the fr'uit in the following spring. Dr. Burnett's observations coincide with this opinion. According to him, the insect " under- goes transformation in about fifteen or twenty days, in the month of June or fore part of July ; but all the larv^, (as * New England Farmer, Vol. XVIIL p. 304, JIarch 11, 1840; and Hovey's Mag- azine of Horticulture, Vol. IX. p. 281, August, 1843, reprinted in the Now England Farmer, Vol. XXII. p. 49, August IG, 1843, and in the Transactions of the Massa- chusetts Horticultural Society', for 1843-1846, p. 18. t Descriptions of Curculionites, p. 19 (8vo, New Harmony, 1831). 10* 78 C 0 L E 0 P T E R A . for as lie had observed,) that go into the earth as late as the 20tli of July, do not ascend that season, but remain there in the pupa stage until next spring." Dr. Tilton, in his account of the curculio, stated that " it remains in the earth, in the form of a grub, during the winter, ready to be metamorphosed into a beetle as the spring advances." According to M. H. Simpson, Esq., of Saxonville, the larvte, or grubs, " go tlirough their chrysalis state in three weeks after going into the ground, and remain in a torpid state through the season, unless the earth is disturbed." * Dr. E. Sanborn, of Andover, has come to entirely diflPerent conclusions, from a series of experiments made upon these insects. It is liis opinion that they do not remain in the ground, during the winter, either in the grub or in the beetle state ; but that, under all conditions of place and temperature, " in about six weeks " after they have en- tered the earth " they return to the surflice perfectly finished, winged, and equipped for the work of destruction " ; and that, " as neither the curculio nor its grub burrows in the ground diu'ing the winter, the common practice of guarding against its ravages, by various operations in the soil, rests upon a false theory, and is productive of no valuable results. "f If these conclusions be correct, these insects must pass the win- ter above ground, in the beetle state, and the place of their concealment, during this season, remains to be discovered. In July, 1818, Professor W. D. Peck obtained, from the warty excrescences of the cherry-tree, the same insects that he '' had long known to occasion the fill of peaches, apricots, and plums, before they had acquired half their growth"; and, n(jt aware that this species had already received a scien- tific name, he called it IihijncJuenus Cerasi, the cherry- weevil. His account of it, Avith a figiire, may be seen in the fifth volume of the " JMassachusetts Agricultural Repository and * Hovey's Magazine, \'()I. XVI. p. 257, June, 1850. t See Dr. Sanborn's interesting communications on tlie Pium Curculio, in tlie Boston Cultivator, for May 19, 1849, and July 13, 1850, and in the Puritan Re- corder for May 2, and the Cambridge Chronicle for May 30, 1850. CURCULIO FOUND IN WARTS. 79 Journal." The grubs, found by Professor Peck in the tumors of the cherry-tree, went into the ground on the 6th of July, and on the 30th of the same month, or twenty-four days from their leaving the bark, the perfect insects began to rise, and were soon ready to deposit then' eggs. The plum, still more than the cherry tree, is subject to a disease of the small limbs, that shows itself in the form of large irregular warts, of a black color. Professor Peck referred this disease, as well as that of the cherry-tree, to the agency of insects, but was uncertain whether to attribute it to his cherry-weevil " or to another species of the same genus." It was his opinion, that " the seat of the disease is in the bark. The sap is diverted from its regular course, and is "absorbed entirely by the bark, which is very much increased in thick- ness ; the cuticle bursts, the swelhng becomes irregular, and is formed into black lumps, with a cracked, uneven, granu- lated svu-face. The wood, besides being deprived of its nutri- ment, is very much compressed, and the branch above the tumor perishes." Dr. Burnett rejected the idea of the insect origin of this disease, which he considered as a kind of fiingus, arising in the alburnum, from an obstruction of the vessels, and bursting through the bark, which became involved in the disease. These tumors appear to me to begin between the bark and wood. They are at first soft, cellular, and full of sap, but finally become hard and woody. But whether caused by vitiated sap, as Dr. Burnett supposed, or by the irritating punctures of insects, which is the prevailing opin- ion, or whatever be their origin and seat, they form an appropriate bed for the growth of numerous little parasitical plants or fiing% to which botanists give the name of Spliceria 7norhosa. These plants are the minute black granules that cover the surface of the wart, and give to it its black color. When fully matured, they are filled with a gelatinous fluid, and have a little pit or depression on their summit. They come to their growth, discharge their volatile seed, and die in the course of a single summer ; and with them perishes 80 COLEOPTERA. the tumor whence they sprung. It is wortliy of remark, that they are sure to appear on these warts in due time, and that they are never found on any other part of the tree. Insects are often found in the warts of the phmi-tree, as well as in those of the cherry-tree. The larvae of a minute Cy7iips, or gall-fly, are said to inhabit them,* but have never fallen under my observation. The naked caterpillars of a minute moth are very common in the warts of the plum- tree, in which also are sometimes found other insects, among them httle grubs from which genuine plum-weevils have been raised. This is a very interesting tact in the economy of the plum-weevil. It may be questioned, however, whether it be a mere mistake of instinct that leads the curculio to lay its eggs in the warts of the plum-tree, or a special pro- vision of a wise Providence to secure thereby a succession of the sjjecies in unfruitful seasons. The following, among other remedies that have been sug- gested, may be found useful in checking the ravages of the plum-weevil. Let the trees be briskly shaken or suddenly jarred every morning and evening dming the time that the insects appear in the beetle form, and are engaged in laying their eggs. When thus disturbed, they contract their legs and fell ; and, as they do not immediately attempt to fly or crawl away, they may be caught in a sheet spread under the tree, from Avliich they should be gathered into a large wide-mouthed bottle, or other tight vessel, and be thrown into the tire. Keeping the fiiait covered with a coat of whitewash, which is to be applied with a syringe as often as necessary, has been much recommended of late to repel the attacks of the curculio. A little glue, added to the whitewash, causes it to stick better and last longer. We may succeed by this remedy in securing a crop of plums ; but as we cannot apply it to cherries and apples, they will be sure to sufler more than ever, and hence no check will * Schwfiiiitz, Synopsis Fniiwtnim ; in Transactions of the American Fhilo- so])liical Society, I'liiladelpliia, New Series, Vol. IV. p. 204. T H E P 0 T A T 0 - W E E V I L . 81 be ffiven to tlie increase of the Aveevil. All the fallen fruit should be immediately gathered and thrown into a tight vessel, and after it is boiled or steamed to kill the en- closed grubs, it may be given as food to swine. Many of the grubs will be found in the bottom of the vessel in which the fallen fruit has been deposited. Not one of these should be allowed to escape to the ground, but they should all be killed before they have time to complete their trans- formations. The diseased excrescences on the trees should be cut out, and, as they often contain insects, they should be burnt. If the Avounds are washed with strong brine, the formation of new warts will be checked. The moose plum-tree (^Prunus Americana) seems to be free ft'om warts, even when growing in the immediate vicinity of diseased for- eign trees. It would, therefore, be the best of stocks for budding or ingi-afting upon. It can be easily raised from the stone, and grows rapidly, but does not attain a great size. Among the many insects that have been charged with being the cause of the wide-spread pestilence, commonly called the potato-rot, there is a kind of weevil that lives in the stalk of the potato. The history of this little insect was first made known by Miss Margaretta H. Morris, of Ger- mantown, Pennsylvania. In August, 1849, her attention was called to this subject by Mr. Wilkinson, the principal of the Mount Airy Agricultural Institute, " who discovered small grubs in the potato-vines on his farm, and naturally feared injurious consequences." On the 28th of the same month and year, JSIiss INIorris sent to me some specimens of the insects in a piece of the potato-stalk, wherein they underwent their transformations. They proved to be the beetles described by Mr. Say under the name of Bari- diiis trinotatiis (Fig. 11), so called fi'om their having three black dots on their backs. This kind of beetle is about three twentieths of an inch long. Its body is covered with short whitish hairs, which give to it a gray appearance. 11 82 COLEOPTERA. One of the black dots is on the scutel, and the others are on the hinder angles of the thorax ; and by these it can be readily distinguished fi-om other species. According to Miss Morris, it lays its eggs singly on the plant at the base of a leaf. The grubs bui'row into and consume the inner sub- stance of the stalk, proceeding downwards towards the root. In many fields in the neighborhood of Germantown every stem was found to be infested by these insects, causing the premature decay of the vines, and giving to them the appear- ance of havino- been scalded. The insects undergo all their transformations in the stalks. Their pupa state lasts from fourteen to twenty days, and they take the beetle form dur- ing the last of Aug-ust and beginning of September. These insects, though common enough in the IMiddle States, I have never found in New England, in the course of thirty years of observation, and have fliiled to discover them here since my attention was called to their depredations by Miss Morris. That they may become very injurious to the potato crop where they abound, will be readily admitted ; but, as they do not occur in all places, either here or in Europe, Avhere the potato-rot has prevailed, they cannot be justly said to produce this disease.* The most pernicious of the Rhynchophorians, or snout- beetles, are the insects properly called grain-weevils, belong- ing to the old genus Calandra. These insects must not be confounded with the still more destructive larv:T3 of the corn- moth (^Tinea (jrancUa), which also attacks stored grain, nor with the orange-colored maggots of the wheat-fly ( Ceeldomyia Tritici), which are found in the ears of growing wheat. Al- though the grain-weevils are not actually injurious to vege- tation, yet as the name properly belonging to them has often been misa])p]ied in this country, thereby creating no little confusion, some remarks upon them may tend to prevent future mistakes. * Soe my fipniiniiiiicMtinn im this insect, iS:c., in tlic New Eni;l:i.iid FariiK'J', I'or June 22, 1850, Vol. II. p. 204. GRAIN-WEEVILS. 83 The true grain-weevil or wheat- weevil of Europe, Calan- dra (^Sito]}]iilus) granaria^ or Curcidio granarius of Linnaeus, in its perfected state is a slender beetle of a pitchy-red color, about one eighth of an inch long, with a slender snout slightly bent downwards, a coarsely punctured and very long thorax, constituting almost one half the length of the whole body, and wing-covers that are furrowed and do not entirely cover the tip of the abdomen. This little insect, both in the beetle and grub state, devours stored wheat and other grains, and often commits much havoc in granaries and brewhouses. Its powers of multiplication are very great, for it is stated that a single pair of these destroyers may produce above six thousand descendants in one year. The female deposits her eggs upon the wheat after it is housed, and the young grubs hatched therefrom immediately burrow into the wheat, each individual occupying alone a single grain, the substance of which it devours, so as often to leave nothing but the hull; and this destruction goes on within while no external ap- pearance leads to its discovery, and the loss of weight is the only evidence of the mischief that has been done to the grain. In due time the grubs undergo their transformations, and come out of the hulls, in the beetle state, to lay their eggs for another brood. These insects are effectually de- stroyed by kiln-drying the wheat ; and gi^ain that is kept cool, well ventilated, and is frequently moved, is said to be exempt from attack. Rice is attacked by an insect closely resembling the wheat- weevil, from which, however, it is distinguished by having two large red spots on each wing-cover ; it is also some- what smaller, measuring only about one tenth of an inch in length, exclusive of the snout. This beetle, the Oalan- dra (^Sitoplulus) Oryzce* or rice- weevil (Plate II. Fig. 8), is not entirely confined to rice, but depredates upon wheat, and also on Indian corn. In the Southern States it is called tlie black tveevil, to distinguish it from other insects that in- * CurcuUo Oryzie of Liniux'iis. 84 C 0 L E 0 P T E R A . fest grain. I am not aware that these weevils attack wheat in New Enghmd ; but I liave seen stored Southern corn swarming with tliem ; and, should they multiply and extend in this section of the country, they will become a source of serious injury to one of the most valuable of our staple productions. It is said that this weevil lays its eggs on the rice in the fields, as soon as the grain begins to swell. If this indeed be true, Ave have very little to fear from it here, our Indian corn being so well protected by the husks that it would probably escape from any injury, if attacked. On the contrary, if the insects multiply in stored grain, then our utmost care will be necessary to prevent them from infesting our own garners. The parent beetle bores a hole into the grain, and drops therein a single egg, going from one grain to another till all her eggs are laid. She then dies, leaving, however, the rice well seeded for a future harvest of weevil-grubs. In due time the eggs are hatched, the grubs live securely and unseen in the centre of the rice, devouring a considerable portion of its substance, and when frilly grown they gnaw a little hole through the end of the grain, artfully stopping it up again with particles of rice-flour, and then are changed to pupa?. This usually occurs during the winter ; and in the following spring the insects are transformed to beetles, and come out of the gi*ain. By winnowing and sifting the rice in the spring, the Ix'ctles can be separated, and then shoiild be gathered immediately and destroyed. The sudden change of the temperature that generally occurs in the early part of jMay, brings out great numbers of insects from their winter quarters, to enjoy the sunshine and the ardent heat which are congenial to their natures. While a continued hum is heard, among the branches of the trees, from thousands of bees and flies, drawn thither by the fragrance of the bursting buds and the tender foliage, and the very ground beneath our feet seems teeming with insect life, swarms of little beetles of variovis kinds come THE BARK-BEETLES. 85 forth to try their wings, and, with an uncertain and heavy flight, launch into the air. Among these beetles there are many of a dull red or fox color, nearly cylindrical in form, tapering a very little before, obtusely rounded at both ex- tremities, and about one quarter of an inch in length. They are seen slowly creeping upon the sides of wooden buildings, resting on the tops of fences, or wheehng about in the air, and every now and then suddenly alighting on some tree or wall, or dropping to the ground. If we go to an old pine-tree we may discover from whence they have come, and what they have been about during the past period of their lives. Here they will be found creeping out of thou- sands of small round holes which they have made through the bark for then" escape. Upon raising a piece of the bark, already loosened by the undermining of these insects, we find it pierced with holes in every direction, and even the surface of the wood will be seen to have been gnawed by these little miners. After enjoying themselves abroad for a few days, they pair, and begin to lay their eggs. The pitch- pine is most generally chosen by them for this purpose, but they also attack other kinds of pines. They gnaw little holes here and there through the rough bark of the trunk and limbs, drop their eggs therein, and, after this labor is finished, they become exhausted and die. In the autumn the gi'ubs hatched from these eggs will be found fully grown. They have a short, thick, nearly cylindrical body, wrinkled on the back, are somewhat curved, and of a yellowish-white color, with a horny darker-colored head, and are destitute of feet. They devour the soft inner substance of the bark, boring through it in various directions for this purpose, and, when they have come to their fidl size, they gnaw a passage to the surface for their escape after they have completed their transformations. These take place deep in their burrows late in the autumn, at which time the insects may be found, in various states of maturity, within the bark. Their depreda- tions interrupt the descent of the sap, and prevent the forma- 86 C 0 L E 0 P T E R A . tion of new wood ; the bark becomes loosened from the wood, to a greater or less extent, and the tree languishes and prema- Fig. 42. turely decays. The name of this insect is Hijlur- gus terehnms,'* the boring Hylurgus (Fig. 42) ; the generical name signifying a carpenter, or worker in wood. It belongs to the ftmiily ScolytiDxE, includ- ing various kinds of destructive insects, which may be called cylindrical bark-beetles. The insects of this family may be recognized by the following characters. The body is nearly cylindrical, obtuse before and behind, and generally of some shade of brown. The head is rounded, sunk pretty deeply in the fore part of the thorax, and does not end Avith a snout ; the antenna? are short, more or less crooked or curved in the middle, and end with an oval knob ; the feelers are very short. The thorax is rather long, and as broad as the following part of the body. The wing-covers are frequently cut off" obliquely, or hollowed at the hinder extremity. The less are short and strono', with little teeth on the outer edge or extremity of the shanks, and the feet are not wide and spongy beneath. Though these cylindrical bark-beetles are of small size, they multiply very fast, and where they abound are produc- tive of much mischief, particularly in forests, which are often greatly injured by their larvae, and the wood is rendered unfit for the purposes of art. In the year ITtSO, an insect of this family made its appearance in the pine-trees of one of the mining districts of Germany, where it increased so rapidly that in three years afterwards whole forests had disappeared beneath its ravages, and an end was nearly put to the working of the extensive mines in this range of country, for the want of fuel to carry on the operations. Pines and firs are the most subject to their attacks, but there are some kinds which infest otlier trees. The premature decay of the elm in some parts of Europe is occasioned by the; ravages of the »ScoJi/tus da^lrndor^ of which an interesting * Scdli/liis icrchritvs of Olivier. THE BARK-BEETLES. 87 account was written in 1824, by Mr. Macleay. An abstract of his paper may be found in the fifth volume of the "• New Enghmcl Fanner." * The larvae or grabs of these bark- beetles resemble those of the Hylurgus terebrans^ or pine bark- beetle already described. Like the grabs of the weevils, they are short and thick, and destitute of legs. The red cedar is inhabited by a very small bark-beetle, named by Mr. Say Hylargus dentatus, the toothed Hylurgus. It is nearly one tenth of an inch in length, and of a dark- broAvn color ; the wing-cases are rough Avith little grains, which become more elevated towards the hinder part, and are arranged in longitudinal rows, with little furrows between them. The tooth-like appearance of these little elevations suggested the name given to this species. The female bores a cylindrical passage beneath the bark of the cedar, dropping her eggs at short intervals as she goes along, and dies at the end of her buiTow when her eggs are all laid. The gTubs hatched from these proceed in feeding nearly at right angles, fonning on each side numerous parallel furrows, smaller than the central tube of the female. They complete their trans- fonnations in October, and eat their way through the bark, which will then be seen to be perforated with thousands of little round holes, through which the beetles have escaped. Under the bark of the pitch-pine I have fomid, in com- pany with the pine bark-beetle, a more slender bark-beetle, of a dark chestnut-brown color, clothed with a few short yel- lowish hairs, with a long, almost egg-shaped thorax, which is very rough before, and short wing-covers, deeply punctured in rows, hollowed out at the tip like a gouge, and beset around the outer edge of the hollow with six little teeth on each side. This beetle measures one fifth of an inch, or rather more, in length. It arrives at maturity in the autumn, but does not come out of the bark till the folloAving spring, at which time it lays its eggs. It is the Tomicus exesus, or excavated Tomicus ; the specific name, signifying eaten out * Pasie 169. »(5 C 0 L E 0 P T E R A . or excavated, Avas given to it by ]\Ir. Say on account of the hollowed and bitten appearance of the end of its wing-covers. Its grubs eat zigzag and wavy passages, parallel to each other, between the bark and the wood. They are much less com- mon in the New England than in the Middle and Southern States, where they abound in the yellow pines. Another bark-beetle is found here, closely resembling the preceding, from Avhich it differs chiefly in the inferiority of its size, beino; but three twentieths of an inch in Fig. 43. V^ length, and in having only three or four teeth at the outer extremity of each wing-cover. It is the Tomieus Plni of Mr. Say (Fig. 43). The grubs of this insect are very injurious to pine-trees. I have found them under the bark of the Avhite and pitch pine, and they have also been discovered in the larch. The beetles appear dui'ing the month of Angiist. There is another small bark-beetle, the Tomieus liminaris^ of mv Catalogue, which has been found, in great numbers, by Miss Morris, under the bark of peach-trees, affected with the disease called tJie yellows^ and hence supposed by her to be connected with this malady.* I have found it under the bark of a diseased elm; but have nothing more to offer, from my own observations, concerning its history, except that it completes its transformation in August and September. It is of a dark-brown color ; the thorax is punctured, and the wing-covers are marked with deeply punctured furrows, and are beset with short hairs. It does not average one tenth of an inch in length. The pear-tree in New England has been found to be subject to a peculiar malady, which shows itself during mid- summer by tlie sitdden withering of the leaves and fruit, and the discoloration of the bark of one or more of the limbs, [5 This sjifcios (lillurs fmm thf otliers known in this coniitry l)y liaving the Inst tlirco jiiints ul' tlie antciuia' (lihitc(l latcnilly, I'urniing a lanielhito chil) like that of the Scaralja'ida-; it thcrcforo ))cliin^-s to the genus I'hloiotribus. — Lec] * See Miss Morris on the Yellows, in Downing's Horticulturist, \o\. IV. j). ri02. THE BLIGHT-BEETLE. 89 followed by the immediate death of the part affected. This kind of blight, as it has been called, being oftenest confined to a single branch, or to the extremity of a branch, seems to be a local affection only. It ends with the death of the branch, down to a certain point, but does not extend below the seat of attack, and does not affect the health of other parts of the tree. In June, 1816, the Hon. John Lowell, of Roxbury, discovered a minute insect in one of the affected limbs of a pear-tree ; afterwards, he repeatedly detected the same insects in blasted limbs, and his discoveries have been confirmed by Mr. Henry Wheeler and the late Dr. Oliver Fiske, of Worcester, and by many other persons. Mr. Low- ell submitted the limb and the insect contained therein to the examination of Professor Peck, who gave an account and figure of the latter, in the fourth volume of the " Massa- chusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal." From this account, and from the subsequent communica- tion by Mr. Lowell, in the fifth volume of the " New Eng- land Fai'mer," it appears that the grub or larva of the insect eats its way inward through the alburnum or sap-wood into the hardest part of the wood, beginning at the root of a bud, behind which probably the egg was deposited, following the course of the eye of the bud towards the pith, around wliich it passes, and part of which it also consumes ; thus forming, after penetrating through the alburnum, a circular burrow or passage in the heart-wood, contiguous to the pith which it surrounds. By this means the central vessels, or those which convey the ascending sap, are divided, and the cnxula- tion is cut off". This takes place when the increasing heat of the atmosphere, producing a greater transpiration fi*om the leaves, renders a large and continued flow of sap necessary to supply the evaporation. For the want of this, or fi'om some other unexplained cause, the whole of the limb above the seat of the insect's operations suddenly withers, and peiishes during the intense heat of midsummer. The larva is changed to a pupa, and subsequently to a little beetle, in 12 90 COLEOPTERA. tlie bottom of its burrow, makes its escape from the tree in the latter part of June, or beginning of July, and probably deposits its eggs before August has passed. This insect, which may be called the blic/Jit-beetle, from the injury it occasions, attacks also apple, apricot, and plum trees, though less frequently than pear-trees. In the latter part of May, 1843, a piece of the blighted limb of an apple-tree was sent to me for examination. It was twenty-eight inches in length, and three quarters of an inch in diameter at the lower end. Its surface bore the marks of twenty buds, thirteen of which were perforated by the insects ; and from the burrows within I took tAvelve of the blight-beetles in a living and perfect condition, the thirteenth insect having previously been cut out. On the 9th of July, 1844, the Hon. M. P. Wilder sent to me a piece of a branch from a plum-tree, which contained, Avithin the space of one foot, four nests or branching burrows, in each of which several insects in the grub and chrysalis state were found, and also one that had completed its transfonnations. Soon afterwards I caught one of the blight-beetles on a plum-tree, probably about to lay her eggs. In the following month of August, I received a blighted branch of an apricot-tree, one inch in diameter at the largest end, and containing, within the short distance of six inches, seven or eight perfect blight-beetles, each in a separate burrow, and vestiges of other burrows that had been desti'oyed in cutting the branch.* This little beetle, which is only one tenth of an inch in length, was named Scolytus Pyri^ the pear-tree Scolytus, by Professor Peck. It is of a deep brown color, with the antenna; and leo;s of the color of iron-rust. The thorax is short, very convex, rounded and rougli before ; the wing- covers are minutely punctured in rows, and slope off very suddenly and obliquely behind ; the shanks are widened and flattened towards tlic end, beset with a few little teeth * Sec iny comniuiiieiitions on tliese insects in the Massacluisctts Plonglimnn for June 17, 1843. Also Downing's Horticulturist for February, 1848, Vol. II. p. 365. THEBOSTRICHIANS. 91 externally, and end with a short hook ; and the joints of the feet are slender and entire. This insect cannot be retained in the genus Scoli/tus, as defined by modern nat- uralists, but is to be placed in the genus Tomieus. The minuteness of the msect, the difficulty attending the discov- ery of the precise seat of its operations before it has left the tree, and the small size of the apertiu'e through wliich it makes its escape from the limb, are probably the reasons why it has eluded the researches of those persons who disbelieve in its existence as the cause of the blasting of the limbs of the pear-tree. It is to be sought for at or near the lowest part of the diseased limbs, and in the immediate vicinity of the buds situated about that part. The remedy, suggested by Mr. Lowell and Professor Peck, to prevent other limbs and trees from being subsequently attacked in the same way, consists in cutting off the blasted limb belozv the seat of injury, and burning it befoi^e the perfect insect has made its escape. It will therefore be necessary carefully to examine our pear- trees daily, during the month of June, and watch for the first indication of disease, or the remedy may be applied too late to prevent the dispersion of the insects among other trees. There are some other beetles, much like the preceding in form, whose grabs bore into the solid wood of trees. They were formerly included among the cylindrical bark-beetles, but have been separated from them recently, and now form the family Bostrichid^, or Bostrichians. Some of these beetles are of large size, measuring more than an inch in length, and, in the tropical regions where they are found, must prove veiy injurious to the trees they inhabit. The body in these beetles is hard and cylindi'ical, and generally of a black color. The thorax is bulging before, and the head is sunk and almost concealed under the projecting fore part of it. The antennie are of moderate length, and end with three large joints, which are saw-toothed internally. The larvae are mostly wood-eaters, and are whitish fleshy grubs, wrinkled on the back, furnished with six legs, and 92 C 0 L E 0 P T E R A . resemble in form the grubs of some of the small Scara- bffiians. The shagbark or walnut tree is sometimes infested by the ginibs of the red-shouldered Apate, or Apate basillaris of Say, an insect of this family. The grabs bore diametrically through the tiainks of the walnut to the very heart, and undercro their transformations in the bottom of tlieir bur- rows. Several trees have fallen under my observation which have been entirely killed by these insects. The beetles are of a deep black color, and are punctured all over. The thorax is very convex and rough before ; the wing-covers are not excavated at the tip, but they slope downwards very suddenly behind, as if obliquely cut otf", the outer edge of the cut portion is armed with three little teeth on each wing- cover, and on the base or shoulders there is a large red spot. This insect measures one fifth of an inch or more in length. The most powei"hd and destiiictive of the wood-eating insects are the grubs of the long-horned or Capncorn-beetles (Cerambycid^), called borers by way of distinction. There are many kinds of borers which do not belong to this tribe. Some of them have already been described, and others will be mentioned under the orders to which they belong. Those now under consideration differ much from each other in their habits. Some live altogether in the trunks of trees, others in the limbs ; some devour the wood, others the pith ; some are f<)und only in shrubs, some in the stems of herbaceous plants, and others are confined to roots. Certain kinds are limited to plants of one species, others live indiscriminately upon several plants of one natural family; but the same kind of borer is not known to inhabit plants differing essen- tially from each other in tlieir natural characters. As might be expected from these circumstances, the l)eetles produced from these borers are of many different kinds. Nearly one hvnidi'ed species have been foinid in Massachusetts, and probably many more remain to be discovered. The Capricorn-beetles agree in the following respects. THE C A 1' K I C O K N - B E E T L E S . 93 The anteiinte are long and tapering, and generally curved like the horns of a goat, which is the origin of the name above given to these beetles. The body is oblong, approach- ing to a cylindrical form, a little flattened above, and taper- ing somewhat behind. The head is short, and armed with poweiful jaws. The thorax is either square, barrel-shaped, or narrowed before ; and is not so wide behind as the wing- covers. The leo's are lono- ; the thighs thickened in the middle ; the feet four-jointed, not formed for rapid motion, but for standing securely, being broad and cushioned beneath, Avitli the third joint deeply notched. Most of these beetles remain upon trees and shrubs during the daytime, but fly abroad at night. Some of them, however, fly by day, and may be found on flowers, feeding on the pollen and the blossoms. When annoyed or taken into- the hands, they make a squeaking sound by nibbing the joints of the thorax and abdomen together. The females are generally larger and more robust than the males, and have rather shorter antennae. Moreover, they are provided with a jointed tube at the end of the body, capable of being extended or drawn in like the joints of a telescope, by means of which they convey their eggs into the holes and chinks of the bark of plants. The larvEe hatched from these eggs are long, Avhitish, fleshy grubs, with the transverse incisions of the body very deeply marked, so that the rings are very convex or hunched both above and below. The body tapers a Uttle behind, and is blunt-pointed. The head is much smaller than the first ring, slightly bent downwards, of a horny consistence, and is provided with short but very powerful jaws, by means whereof the insect can bore, as with a centre-bit, a cylindri- cal passage through the most solid wood. Some of these borers have six very small legs, namely, one pair under each of the first three rings ; but most of them want even these short and imperfect limbs, and move through their bur- rows by alternate extension and contraction of their bodies, 13 94 C 0 L K 0 V T ERA. on eacli or on most of tlie rings of which, both above and below, there is an oA'al space covered with httle elevations, somewhat like the teeth of a fine rasp ; and these little oval rasps, which are designed to aid the grubs in their motions, ftilly make up to them the want of proper feet. Some of these borers always keep one end of their burrows open, out of which, from time to time, they cast their chips, resembling coarse sawdust ; others, as fast as they proceed, fill up the passages behind them with their castings, well known here by the name of powder-post. These borers live fi'om one year to three or perhaps more years before they come to their growth. They undergo their transfor- mations at the furthest extremity of their biu'rows, many of them previously gnawing a passage through the wood to the inside of the bark, for their fixture escape. The pupa is at first soft and whitish, and it exhibits all the parts of the future beetle under a filmy veil which inwraps every limb. The wings and legs are folded upon the breast, the long antennae are turned back against the sides of the body, and then bent forwards between the legs. When the beetle has thrown off its pupa-skin, it gnaws away the thin coat of bark that covers the mouth of its burrow, and comes out of its dark and confined retreat, to breathe the fresh air, and to enjoy for the first time the pleasure of sight, and the use of the legs and wings with which it is provided. The Capricorn-beetles have been divided into three fami- lies, corresponding with the genera Prionus, Cerauihi/x, and Lqjtura of Linnams. Those belonging to the first family are generally of a brown color, have flattened and saw- toothed or Ijeaded antemiji^ of a moderate length, project- ing jaws, and kidney-shaped eyes. Those in the second have eyes of the same shape, more slender or much longer antennte, and smaller jaws ; and are often variegated in their colors. The beetles belonging to the third family are readily distinguished by their eyes, which are round and prominent. These three famih'es aiv divided into many T H E P R I 0 N I A N S . 95 smaller groups and genera, tlie peculiarities of which cannot be particularly pointed out in a work of this kind. The Prionians, or Pkionid^e, derive tlieir name from a Greek word signifying a saw, which has been applied to them either because the antennae, in most of these beetles, consists of flattened joints, projecting internally somewhat like the teeth of a saw, or on account of tlieir upper jaws, which sometimes are very long and toothed within. It is said that some of the beetles thus armed can saw off large limbs by seizing them between their jaws, and flying or whirling sidewise round the enclosed limb, till it is completely divided. The largest insects of the Capricorn tribe belong to this family, some of the tropical species measuring five or six inches in length, and one inch and a half or two inches in breadth. Their larvae are broader and more flattened than the grubs of the other Capricorn-beetles, and are provided with six very short legs. When about to be transformed, they collect a quantity of their chips around them, and make therewith an oval pod or cocoon, to enclose themselves. Our largest species is the broad-necked Prionus (Fig. 44), Prionus laticoUis* of Drury, its first describer. It is of a long oval shape and of a pitchy-black color. The jaws, though short, are very thick and strong ; the an- tenna are stout and saw-toothed in the male, and more slender in the other sex ; the thorax is short and wide, and armed on the lat- eral edges w^ith three teeth ; the wing-covers have three slightly elevated lines on each of them, and are rough with a multitude of large punctures, which run to- gether irregailarly. It measures from one inch and one * Prionus brevicornis of Fiibricius. 96 C () L E 0 P T K R A . Fig. 45. eighth to one incli and tliree quarters in lengtli ; the females being always much larger than the males. The grubs of this beetle, when fiilly grown, are as thick as a man's thumb. They live in the trunks and roots of the balm of gilead, Lombardy poplar, and probably in those of other kinds of poplar also. The beetles may frequently be seen upon, or flying round, the trunks of these trees in the month of July, even in the daytime, though the other kinds of Prionus generally fly only by night. The one-colored Prionus, Prionus unicolor*^^ of Drury (Fig. 45), inhabits pine-trees. Its body is long, narrow, and flattened, of a light bay-brown color, with the head and an- tennas darker. The thorax is very short, and armed on each side with three sharp teeth ; the wing-covers are nearly of equal breadth throughout, and have three slightly ele- vated ribs on each of them, '^lliis beetle measures fi'om one inch and one quarter to one inch and a half in lengtli, and about three or four tenths of an inch in l)readth. It flies by night, and frequently enters houses in the evening, from the middle of July to Se])tember. Tlie second family of the Capricorn-beetles may be allowed to retain the scientific name, Cerambycid.e, of the tribe to which it belongs. The Cerambycians have not the very prominent jaws of the Prionians ; their eyes are always kidney-shaped or notched for the reception of the first joint of the antennae, which are not saw-toothed, but generally * p. cylmdriciis of Fabi'iciiis. [ '" Tliis s[iccics \v!is very jimpcrly Orlhosoriui. — I,Et . 1 laratod by Sorville ns .i distinct geims THE BANDED STENOCORUS. 97 slender and tapering, sometimes of moderate length, some- times excessively long, especially in the males ; the thorax is longer and more convex than in the preceding family, not thin-edged, but often romided at the sides. Some of these beetles, distinguished by their narrow wing- covers, which are notched or armed with two little thorns at the tip, and by the gi'eat length of their antennae, belong to the genus Stenocorus^ a name signifying narrow or straitened. One of them, which is Fig 46. rare here, inhabits the ''^^ hickory, in its larva state forming long galleries in the trunk of this tree in the direction of the fibres of the wood. This beetle is the Stenocorus (^Ceras- pliorus) einctus* or band- ed Stenocorus (Fig 46), It is of a hazel color, with a tint of gray, arising from the short hairs with which it is covered ; there is an oblique ochre-yellow band across each wing-cover ; and a short spine or thorn on the middle of each side of the thorax. The antennse of the males are more than twice the length of the body, which measm-es from three quarters of an inch to one inch and one quarter in length. The ground beneath black and white oaks is often ob- served to be strewn with small branches, neatly severed from these trees as if cut off with a saw. Upon splitting open the cut end of a branch, in the autumn or winter after it has fallen, it will be found to be perforated to the extent of six or eight inches in the course of the pith, and a slender grub, the author of the mischief, will be discovered therein. In * Cerambyx cinctus, Drniy; Stenocorvs garganims, Fabricius. 98 COLEOPTKRA, tlie spi'ino- tins grub is transformed to a piij)a, and in Jnne or Jiilj it is changed to a beetle, and comes out of the branch. The history of this insect was first made public by Professor Peck,* who called it ) the oak-pruner, or tStenocorus (^Elapliidiori) putator (Fig 47).^^ In its adult state it is a slender long-horned beetle, of a dull brown color, sprinkled with gray spots, composed of very short close hairs ; the antenna3 are longer than the body in the males, and equal to it in length in the other sex, and the third and fourth joints are tipped with a small spine or thorn ; the thorax is barrel- shaped, and not spined at the sides ; and the scutel is yellow- ish-white. It varies in length from four and a half to six tenths of an inch. It lays its eggs in July. Each egg is placed close to the axilla or joint of a leaf-stalk or of a small twig, near the extremity of a branch. The grab (Fig. 48) hatched from it penetrates at that spot to the pith, and then continues its course towards the body of the tree, devouring the pith, and there- by forming a cylindrical burrow, several inches in length, in the centre of the branch. Having reached its foil size, which it does towards the end of the summer, it divides the branch at the lower end of its burrow (Fig 49, pupa), by giiaw^ing away the -wood transversely from ^1 within, leaving only the ring of bark untouched. It then retires backwards, stops up the end of its hole, near the transverse section, with fibres of the wood, and awaits the fall of the l:)ranch, which is usually broken oflp and pre- pupa. cipitated to the ground by the autumnal winds. Larva. Fis. 49. * Massachusetts Afi^ricultural Repository and Journal, Vol. V., with a plate. \ U- This species was previously described by Fabricius as Stenocorus vUlosus, wliich specific name must thf^i-clore be ))n's('rved. — Leg.] THE CAPRICORN-BEETLES. 99 The leaves of the oak are rarely shed before the branch falls, and thus serve to break the shock. Branches of five or six feet in length and an inch in diameter are thus severed by these insects, a kind of pruning that must be injurious to the trees, and should be guarded against if possible. By collecting the fallen branches in the autumn, and burning them before the spring, we prevent development of the beetles, while we derive some benefit fi'om the branches as fuel. It is somewhat remarkable that, while the pine and fir tribes rarely suffer to any extent from the depredations of caterpillars and other leaf-eating insects, the resinous odor of these trees, offensive as it is to such insects, does not prevent many kinds of borers from burrowing into and de- stroying their trunks. Several of the Capricorn-beetles, while in the grub state, live only in pine and fir trees, or in timber of these kinds of wood. They belong chiefly to the genus Callidimn. a name of unknown or obscure origin. Their antennje are of moderate length ; they have a somewhat flattened body ; the head nods forward, as in Stenocorus ; the thorax is broad, nearly circular, and somewhat flattened or indented above ; and the thighs are very slender next to the body, but remarkably thick beyond the middle. The larvae are of moderate length, more flattened than the grubs of the other Capricorn-beetles, have a very broad and horny head, small but powerful jaws, and are provided with six extremely small legs. They undermine the bark, and per- forate the wood in various directions, often doing immense injury to the trees, and to new buildings, in the lumber composing which they may happen to be concealed. Their burrows are wide and not cylindrical, are very winding, and are filled up with a kind of compact sawdust as fast as the insects advance. The larva state is said to continue two years, during which period the insects cast their skms several times. The sides of the body in the pupa are thin-edged, and finely notched, and the tail is forked. 100 C 0 L E 0 F T E K A . One of the most common kinds of CaUldiuin found here is a flattish, rusty-black beetle, with some downy whitish spots across the middle of the wing-covers ; the thorax is nearly circular, is covered with fine whitish down, and has two elevated polished black points upon it ; and the wing- covers are very coarsely punctured. It measures from four tenths to three quarters of an inch in length. This insect is the CalUdium hajulus (Plate 11. Fig. 12) ; the second name, meaning a porter, was given to it by Linnaeus, on account of the Avhitish patch wliich it bears on its back. It inhabits fir, spruce, and hemlock wood and lumber, and may often be seen on wooden buildings and fences in July and August. We are informed by Kirby and Spence, that the grubs sometimes greatly injure the wood-work of houses in Lon- don, piercing the rafters of the roofs in every direction, and, when arrived at maturity, even penetrating through sheets of lead which covered the place of their exit. One piece of lead, only eight inches long and four broad, contained twelve oval holes made by these insects, and fragments of the lead were found in their stomachs. As this insect is now com- mon in the maritime parts of the United States, it was probably first brought to this country by vessels from Eu- rope. The violet Callidium, (JaJUdium violaeeton,* ^^ (Plate II. Fif. 11,) is of a Prussian blue or violet color ; the thorax is transversely oval, and downy, and sometimes has a greenish tinge ; and the wing-covers are rough with thick irregular punctures. Its length varies from four to six tenths of an inch. It may be found in great abundance on piles of pine wood, from the middle of May to the first of June ; and the larvte and pupte are often met with in splitting the wood. They live mostly just under the bark, where their broad and winding tracks may be traced by the hardened sawdust with * Cerdiiibijx viulaceus ol' Linii;i'us. [1- (Jur species is considered dillrrent iVom the KiiropeMii C(iUi(/liuii viiil(ii\inii, under tlii' iiMiiie C. (inlenvuluin, XewniMii. — I.Kc.J THE CAPRICORN-BEETLES. 101 which they are crowded. Just before they are about to be trausformed, they bore into the solid wood to the depth of several inches. They are said to be very injurious to the sapling pines in Maine. Professor Peck supposed this species of Callidium to have been introduced into Europe in timber exported from this country, as it is found in most parts of that continent that have been much connected with North America by navigation. Thus Europe and Amei'ica seem to have interchanged the porter and violet Callidium, which, by means of shipping, have now become common to the two continents. From the regularity of its form, and the noble size it attains, the sugar-maple is accounted one of the most beau- tiful of our forest-trees, and is esteemed as one of the most valuable, on account of its many useful properties. This fine tree suffers much from the attacks of borers, which in some cases produce its entire destruction. We are indebted to the Rev. L. W. Leonard, of Dublin, N. H., for the first account of the habits and transformations of these borers. In the summer of 1828, his attention was called to some young maples, in Keene, which were in a languishing condi- tion. He discovered the insect in its beetle state under the loosened bark of one of the trees, and traced the recent track of the larva three inches into the solid wood. In the course of a few years, these trees, upon the cultivation of which much care had been bestowed, were nearly destroyed by the borers. The failure, from the same cause, of sev- eral other attempts to raise the sugar-maple, has since come to my knowledge. The insects are changed to beetles, and come out of the trunks of the trees in July. In the vicinity of Boston, specimens have been repeatedly taken, which were undoubtedly brought here in maple logs from Maine. The beetle was first described in 1824, in the Ap- pendix to Keating's " Narrative of Long's Expedition," by Mr. Say, who called it Clt/tiis sjMciosus ; that is, the beauti- ful Clytus. (Plate II. Fig. 15.) It was afterwards inserted, 13* 102 COLEOPTERA. and accurately represented by the pencil of Lesueur, in Say's " American Entomology," and, more recently, a description and figure of it have appeared in Griffith's translation of Cuvier's " Animal Kingdom," under the name of Glytas Hayii. The beautiful Clytus, like the other beetles of the genus to Avhich it belongs, is distinguished from a Callidium by its more convex form, its more nearly globular thorax, which is neither flattened nor indented, and by its more slender thighs. The head is yellow, with the antennse and the eyes reddish black ; the thorax is black, with two transverse yellow spots on each side ; the wing-covers, for about two thirds of their length, are black, the remaining third is yellow, and they are ornamented with bands and spots arranged in the followmg manner: a yellow spot on each shoulder, a broad yellow curved band or arch, of which the yellow scutel forms the key-stone, on the base of the wing- covers, behind this a zigzag yellow band forming the letter W, across the middle another yellow band arching back- wards, and on the yellow tip a curved band and a spot of a black color ; the legs are yellow ; and the under side of the body is reddish yellow, variegated with brown. It is the largest known species of Clytus, being from nine to eleven tenths of an inch in length, and three or four tenths in breadth. It lays its eggs on the trunk of the maple in July and August. The grubs burrow into the bark as soon as they are hatched, and are thus protected during the winter. In the spring they penetrate deeper, and form, in the course of the summer, long and winding galleries in the wood, up and down the trunk. In order to check their devastations, they should l)e sought for in the spring, when they will readily be detected by the sawdust that they cast out of their burrows ; and, by a judicious use of a knife and stiff wire, they may be cut out or destroyed before they have gone deeply into the wood. Many kinds of ('lytus frequent flowers, for the sake of the THE PAINTED CLYTUS. 103 pollen, which they devour. During the month of Septem- ber, the painted Clytus, Clytus pictus* (Plate II. Fig. 10,) is often seen in abundance, feeding by day upon the blossoms of the golden-rod. If the trunks of our common locust-tree, Rohinia pseudacacia^ are examined at this time, a still greater number of these beetles will be found upon them, and most often paired. The habits of this insect seem to have been known, as long ago as the year 1771, to Dr. John Reinhold Foster, who then described it under the name of Leptura Rohiriice, the latter being derived from the tree which it inhabits. Drury, however, had previously described and figured it, under the specific name here adopted, which, having the priority, in point of time, over all the others that have been subsequently imposed, must be retained. This Capricorn-beetle has the form of the beautiful maple Clytus. It is velvet-black, and ornamented with transverse yellow bands, of which there are three on the head, four on the thorax, and six on the wing-covers, the tips of which are also edged with yellow. The first and second bands on each wing-cover are nearly straight ; the third band forms a V, or, united with the opposite one, a W, as in the speeiosus ; the fourth is also angled, and runs upwards on the inner margin of the wing-cover towards the scutel ; the fifth is broken or interrupted by a longitudinal elevated line ; and the sixth is arched, and consists of three little spots. The antennge are dark brown ; and the legs are rust-red. These insects vary from six tenths to three quarters of an inch in length. In the month of September these beetles gather on the locust-trees, where they may be seen glittering in the sun- beams with their gorgeous livery of black velvet and gold, coui'sing 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 * Leptura picta, Drury; Clyiiisjiexuosus, Fabricius. 104 C U L K 0 P T E R A . recognition or defiance. Having paired, the female, attend- ed by her partner, creeps over the bark, searching the crevices with her antennas, 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 immedi- ately burrow into the bark, devouring the soft inner sub- stance 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 sap-wood, more or less deeply into the trunk, the general course of their winding and irregular passages being in an upward chrcction 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 wliile 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 eff'orts of the trees to repair the injuries they have suffered. According to the observations of General H. A. S. Dearborn, who has given an excellent account* of this insect, the grubs attain their frill size by the 20th of July, soon become pupse, and are changed to beetles and leave the trees early in September. Thus the existence of this species is limited to one year. Whitewashing, and covering the trunks of the trees with grafting composition, may prevent the female fi'om deposit- m