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3 2044 106 433 600 



TO TllK 

LIBRARY 

OF 

CONSTANTINE HeRING, 

112 and 114 North 12th Street, 
PHtUOELPHU. 
Section 
Jfo. 



Par. 

A 




/•/tf^ I 



; 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



LIBRARY 



GRAY HERBARIUM 



iVa^^ \^\^ 



Received \ ^ ^ YVcXro^^ 



\ 



I -ML 




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THE AMERICAN 



ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST: 



AN ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE 



OK 



I 



POPULAR AND PRACTICAL ^ 



ENTOMOLOGY AND BOTANY. 



EDITED BY 



CHARLES V. RILEY AND DR. GEORGE VASEY. 



r r 



V^OL. II. ^ _ ^ 




ST. LOUIS, MO.: 
R. P. STUDL.EY & CO., PUBLlaHERS. 
1870. 



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\x>wo.^ vail 



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INDEX. 



A 

Abbot Sphinx 128 

** ** Parasites on its Larva S41 

Abraxat rUtearUi 13^ 

*' groitulariata U 

Acarit acerU cnimena 839 

•« maH 106 

" tcabiei 114 

A Cheap Mosauito Bar IM 

AcbemoD Sphinx 54 

Achtrontia atrovo$ 8% 

A chrysalis flyiDff 205 

Aeomthus JaUarius 174 

'• Americana 173 

Aeoincidence 804 

Aerobttfii Haimwumdii 32 

AcroMCta Americana 61 

«* obHnatm 276,341 

Mgeria caudata 13 

^* exitio9a 148 

•* tipuHformit 13 

< ' {frochilium) tyringtt 61 

♦* poluH/ormit ^3 

AmomoiAaamlU 26 

A9rHvarvJicom» 103, \2» 

Aaroti»inermi» 864 

Ailanthus Silk-worm naturalized . . 244 

Alariafiwida 31, 340 

Aleockora anthomjfia 370 

A lon^ sleeper 44 

AlaudaalpettrU 168 

Alfpia octomaculata 150 

American Procris 178 

Ampkipifra pyramidea 26 

* ' pframidoidet 26 

Anaxjunivi 237 

An electrical Insect 335 

An enemy to young Trout 174 

An Entomologist caught napping . . 84 

A new Hesperian 271 

A new Pear-tree Insect 212 

A new RoYe-beetle : Parasitic on the 

Cabbage-magffot 370 

An experiment ror Tobacco growers 175 

Anoloua pinguimilit %f3 

Anuopteryx vernata 143 

AnobivM paniceum 823 

Anomalous Orape Sphinx Moth 210 

AwmUxyHna 124, 245 

Announcement 821 

Answers to Correspondents — 126, 150 

Antherea Yama-mai 39 

AntKomyia bratrica 79, 187, 802 

** ceparum 110,137 

** raphani 274 

ze<B 137 

Atttkonomus cratagi 308 

*• pruMcida 136 

'* quadrigibbut 136,227 

* * iycofhanta 46 

Antigaster mirabliit 296, 309 

AnUopa Butterfly 307,371 

Antistrophut /. pUum 74 

Ants do not breed Plant-lice iHl 

Mpkit avena lUG 

* • brasaica 79 

, '* ceraH 809 

^ *' mali 241, 106 

'* riWs 13 

^" rudbeckia 142 

^4lpkropkora numaria 234 

A plague of Beetles 266 

Aplodet Jlavilineata 338 

rubivora 203, :m 

Appendix to Galls and their Archi- 
tects 74 

Appendix to Joint-worm, publish- 
ed in Vol. I. No. 8 296 

Apple Curculio 243 

** •* —Does it transform 

underground? 306 

Apple-leaf cluster cups 69 

Apple-tree Borers 146 



Apple-tree Borers— flat-headed 209 

* * * * .— yariations in the 
two striped Saperda 276 

Apple-tree Insects 181 

I • * Root-louse 302 

* • Tent-caterpillar 143 

Apple-tree Worms 32 

Apple-twig Borer 212 

Aquatic Eggs 64 

A rare capture in Illinois 340 

Archippns Bu:terfly— Pupa of 807 

Arctia habella 182 

Arhopalut pictv$ 58 

'^ robinia 68, 246, 809, 373 

ArgynnU Bellona 176 

** MyHna 175 

Army- worm 52, 53 

A Uove Beetle as a Parasite on the 

Cabbage maggot 802 

Ancomycet d^ormana : 112 

Ash-gray Blister-beetle on Beans.. 

274, 975 

AMyu MUtourientiM 340 

** vertebraha 340 

AMopia cottalii 160 

Asparagus Beetles 53 

--tAspidiotm conchiformit liO, 143, 218, 334 

HarriHi 110, 181 

»^ * * (MytUaapis) conchi/ormit 3.V7 

A State Bnt<jmologlat for Wisconsin 169 
Attacks of Insects affected by color 172 

Attacu$ Cecropia 26, 59, 61, 97, 308 

*• Cynthia 98,244 

'* luna 25 

*♦ Polyphemui 61, 156, 212 

Attaferem 826 

Attraction of Male Moths to the Fe- 
male 803 

Aulax »ylvettri» 160 

A Word for the Toad 207, 3<H 

*' to Southern Culturists 176 

B 

Bad Bugs 53 

" lacking 80,60 

Bag-worm 246 

* * airaln 82 

* * alias Basket- worms, Ac. 35 
" at South Pass, HI 182 

Bald-faced Hornet 167, 303 

Banded Ins in calyx of Pear 308 

BaridttM SeMOttrU 105, 106 

^Bark-lice on Grape-vine and Rasp- 
berry Saw-fly 276 

Bean Weevils 125, 182, 374 

BeautlM Wood Nymph 152 

^edbuKs 57 

Beech-boring Larva 240 

Beech-nuts in cocoon of the Cecropia 242 

Bee enemy 245 

" nest 214, »)7 

Bee-bread devoured by Worms 874 

Beetles in dried Englhh currants . . 339 

»• " flouring mills S:J9 

" named 30,31,64,214,246 

' ' under I>ea<l Fish 32 

" working in wheat, oats and 

' rye— the (irain ."Silvanus 339 

Bembex fatciata 125 

Bent Practical Work on Entomology 180 

Black Knot 231 

Bladder Plums 113, 177 

Blister Beetles on composite flowers 155 

Bloodsucker and I*ear-slug 3o9 

Bloodsuckinor Cone-nose 2h, 63 

Blue Caterpillars of the vine 150 

Boll- worm or Corn- worm 42 

Bombua ferviclut 308 

•• Pennaylvanicu* 30,303 

Bombyae mori 39 

Bookworms 822 

Borer in Apple-twig 60 

Bottrichtu bicaudahu. . . 60, 212, 245, 246 



Botanical Department .... 161, 188, 841 

Botytbicolor 906 

Bound Volumes 858 

Brachintu Americanut 80 

Brachipeplui magnut 82 

Brachyptertu microptena 18 

Brood IV of the periodical Cicada. . 837 

Brown Mantispian 808 

Bruchut/abi 119 

** Jlavimanui 119 

granaHu* ... 108, 119, 127, 807 
" obioMui. .118, 126, 182, 802, 807 

** piH 111,127,186,156 

* ' rufimanui 119 

• * varicorni$ 118 

** victa 119 

Buprettia divaricata 14S' 

Burying Beetles 61 

Butalit crrealella 807 

Buthu9 Carolinianut 126,288 



Cabbage Butterflies 74 

** Insects 874 

*♦ PluteUa 874 

** Worms 60,841 

Callochlora vernata 807 

•* viridi* 807 

Calandra granaria 839 

CallydrioM philea 340 

Caloptenxu femur-rubrum 84, 88 

" tpretu* 81,88 

Calopteron terminate 81 

Calotoma ccUidum 840 

Can Land be insured against Cut- 
worms, etc.? 80 

Canker-worm— Remedy for 839 

'• Trap 276 

Capnia mmima 179 

Captv* oblinratut 276, 291^ 

Carolina Sphinx — 389 

Carpocapta pomonella 9, 143, 821 

Ca4»ida aunchalcea 80, 808 

Caterpillars named 63, 341 

<* on Grape-vines 276 

** ofthelo-moth 81 

* * * * White-marked Tus- 
sock Moth 806 

Cecidomyia c. ananoita 244 

** eircinann 881 

•• dutructor 867 

'• orbitalf 50 

*♦ salicU 214 

*• solidaginU «9 

*• tubicola 807 

Cecropia Chalcis Fly 101 

Moth 97 

** *♦ Caterpillar 20, 59, 276,809 

*• TachinaFly 101 

Celetut eruditu* 828 

Centipedes in Tennessee 238 

Ceratina dupla 214, 307 

Cermatia forcepi 182 

Ceroptre* batata* 381 

Cfrotoma caminea lt<2 

Chslcideous Parasite ol the Apple- 
tree Bark-louse 860 

Chalcii {Aphelmui) mytilaepidit ... 860 

•* mnritB 101,166 

Change of Addn»88 388 

ChauUognathuA Pennaylvanictu 134 

Cheap Mosquito Bar 154 

Cheese Fly 78 

• ♦ and Blow Fly 839 

Cheilotia rvjicomit 142 

Chelymorp} a cribaria 4 

Cherry Plants and their Foes 800 

' * lice— Destroying 27b 

Chickweed Geometer 182 

Chinch Bugs 51 

('hip-trap (Curculio catching) 274 

Chosrocampa pampinatrix 22, 60, 309 

Choice Flowers 211 



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IV 



Index to Volume //. 



Chramerui icoria 

Chrysalis flying 

** named 

ChrytU ignita 

Chrviobothrii femorata 

lOS, 146, 148, 209, 

Chrjftoehta auratuM 

Chrytomela cyanea 

...^vCicada Notes 

V ' * parvula 

— » / *« •eptemdecim 804, 

) «* CMHnii 804, 

( * * trtdecim 

^CUmmicaitu 

Clinocampa Americana 27, 

39, 107, 143, »45, 261, 

<< iylvatiea 107, iUS, 

Clover- worms 160, 

Clytus robinuB 

Cocoon found on carpet 

* * of Hom-biisj 

i' i,.i,.,. -,,.;,,Ti Klies 

** " r^. . i-Li..uus Moth 

Codling Moth" 

Cmliodes inagxialU 

Coincidence — A 

Colaspu Jlavida 

Colia* phifodice 

Colorado Potato-beetle 

'* " in Indiana... 

* * " around 

Springfield. . 

Calosoma scrutator . , 265, 

Coming Cotton -worm 

Compumeutary 

Common Yellow Bear 

Conotrachfius nenuphar 180, 227, 

Cortus tristis .55, 91 , 156, 176, 

Com KemelB in Cocoons of Cecropia 

Moth m, 

Cowkiller 

*• —More about 

Crane-flies ; liose-bugs ; Ants 

Crioceris asparagi 

Cryptus nwncius 

Ctenucha iatrcillana 

Cucumber Beetle, striped. In a new 

role 

Cupressi ananassa, Gall . , 

Curculio and Rose-bugs 

" Extermination possible — A. 
great Discovery 

* ' Hemedy— Ttie Ransom .... 

Currant- worm 

Cycocephala immaculata 

Cynipidct inquiiina 

' * pstnides 

Cynips q acicuiata 331 , 883, 

* * " frcundatrix 

* • * • frondosa 

* * * * inanis 880, 

* * " ianuginotus 

* * * ' podagra 

* * * ' stm inator 

* * * ' semipicea 

* * * ' spongijica 880, 



298" ^Directions 



261 

200 

127, 

68 

26 

62 

212 

821 

52 

804 

209 

805 

841 

804 

870 
306 
124 
157 
272 
276 
287 

870 
156 
887 
841 
106 
102 
808 

239 
244 
66 

225 
268 
276 
807 

74 

74 
834 
880 

72 
833 
881 
334 

71 
181 
888 



Uahlia-stalk Borer 

Danais arckippus 177> 

DHngerous-iuuking 

Datana mtnistra 268, 

Death of nottd Entomologists 

•* to Hoyse-flv 

Death-web of >;ouhg Trout. .174, 211, 
Vecaiama duhia 

• ♦ excruciaus 

• * k yalipcnnis ...: 

•* nigrtceps. ., 

• * nuhilhtigma 297, 

• * timpHci stigma 

• * varians 

Decorative Larvie 

Dfiltphila lineata 

Ddoyala ciavata 

YDepttis to which Cicadas go 

Dermcstes iardarius 246, 

1 >eacri ptive Entoi oology 

Desmia maculalis 

Deatroying Cherry Plant-lice 

Development of Egg of imported 
i.urraiit Saw-fly 

Diabrotica vitia.a. .5, 8. 24, 56, 156, 

JHastrophus cuscutaform is 

' * nebuiosus 74, 

* * mbi 

Dicerca divaricata 

picdrocephala coccinea 



for making Boxes for 

{)reservina' Insects 68 
seasein wheat 96 

Divorced Cryptos 108 

Dobson 26 

Do not disseminate injurious Insects 803 

Doryfkora \Mifuata 84, 86 

Do Worker Bees sting Drones to 

death? 180 

Dried up 840 

Drop of Gold 26 

Drop- worm again 81 

Dryocampa imperialis 166, 307, 840 

•* ruhicunda 61 

* * sanatoria .... 26 

Daring the Suspension 872 

Dynastes Titytu 276, 874 

E 

Ecpautheria tcribonia 182 

Eggs of imported Currant- worm not 

inserted in Leaf 274 

** '* Oblong- winged Katydid ... 182 
'* " Snowy Tree- cricket on Kasp- 

berry-canes 1*8 

'* on Grape-cane 63 

Egg-sack of some unknown Spider. 180 

Eight-spotted Forester 160 

Elapkidion poralUlum 60 

*• putator 28 

* * villosum 60 

Electrical Insect 885 

Ellopia (Abraxas) ribearia. . . .18, 88, 243 
Empretia stimuUa .. .32, 59, 60, 839, 373 
Entomological Collections 338 

^* Jottings. .51, 87, 125, 156 

176, 209, 239, 278, 802, 836 

*« Works 59, 181 

Entomology indeed run mad 805 

** intheSouth 158 

Eptira riparia 50, 874 

** spinea 82 

*' spinicamda 82 

*« vulgaris 180 

Ephestia sea 874 

Epicauia cinerea 6 

• • corvina 276 

<* marginaia 8 

«* viiiata 6, 8 

Epilachna borealis 378 

Erebia nepkele 175 

Eudamus tityrus 27 

Eudryas grata 152 

♦^ unto 152 

Eumenes fraterna 841 

EumolypHus auratus 156 

Euryomia melancholica 61 

Eurytoma abnormicomis 299 

♦ ' auriceps 299 

** bicolor 296 

*« Bolteri 299^ 

•' diastrophi 299 

*« Julvipes 880 

• * gigantea 299 

** gTvbulicola 299 

** %ordei 830 

** orbiculata 299 

** prunicola 298 

• * pUHctiventris 299 

** secalis 380 

•* seminatrix 299 

*< studiosa 297,299,382 

'« triHci ;«» 

Experiments with the Japanese Silk- 
worm TO 

Exorista cecropia 101 

•« leucanite 266 

'* mUitaris 101 



Fall Army-worm 828,340,868 

Fern Insects 181 

Fidia viiicida 807 

Fighting Curculio 278 

Flat-headed Apple-tree Borer 209 

< * Borer in Soft Maples. . . 800 

Flock ot Butterflies 210 

Food for'i1x)Ut 180 

*< ^lant of Green sprangling Slug- 
worm 210 

II II <«the Southern Cabbage 

Butterfly 804 

Forest Trees — Their Diseases and 

Insect Enemies 96 

Fowls M. Worms 237 

Fungus on Wild Plums 906 



G 

Galeruea calmaristuis IfiS 

«* viitata 6, 8 

Gall on Spotted Touch-me-not 63 

Galls....!; 372 

<* and their Architects.... 46, 70, 108 

*' made by Beetles lOS 

** «' GaU-fliea 70 

** '« Saw-flics 45 

*< on supposed Dock 212 

** Rubi nodus 381 

** ** podagra 108 

** Salictsgemma 49 

*« ** ovum 40 

•* ** pomum 45 

** siligua 214 

'« Vitislituus 28, 113 

•* •• viticola 118 

*« «• vulnus 108 

Gapes in Fowls 140, 167 

<^ —Do they occur in Pigeons?.. 878 

Gasiropacka Americana 82, 199 

♦• velleda 199 

Geleckia galUtsolidaginis 212 

Generic Names 7 

Gigantic Rhinoceros-beetle 276, 874 

Boot-borer 61 

Gilt Gold-beetle 27 

Girdled Pear-twigs 62 

** Sphinx— Pupa of 241 

Glossina morsiians 231 

Goat-weed Butterfly 121 

Golden-rod Galls 29 

Golden Tortoise-beetle on Goose- 
berry 808 

Good Thoughts from an eminent 

Entomologist S26 

Good Won! for the Toad 207 

Gooevberry and Currant Worms — 12 

** Span-worm 18 

«« '• on Black Cur- 
rant 88 

'* ** Remedies.... 22 

Gordius or Hair-worm 193 

Gordius aguaticus 180 

♦* hneatus 104 

'« longilahatus 104 

** rotmstus 194 

* subspiralis 194 

•* vartus 180, 194 

Goriyna nitela 13, 42, 64, 276 

^' seee iS 

Grain Bruchus of Europe Just im- 
ported 126 

<jrand-daddy Long-legs 60 

Grape-berry Moth 28, 88 

• * Curculio ft2 

** Insect 878 

'* leaf-folder 208 

«' Gall 874 

^ *« «• Gall-louse 242,858 

** Sphinx Moth, an anomalous. 211 

** vine Fidia 307 

" " Flea-beetle 309, 327 

- «« «« Leaf-galls tfl 

*' ** Plume 284 

«' '* Wound-gall 104 

Grasshoppers 62 

Great Discovery— Curculio Exterm- 
ination possible 226 

Green Hag-moth 807 

** Sprangling Slug- worm— Food 

plant for «10 

Gregarious Willow- worms 68 

** Worms on Horse-chest- 
nut 246 

Group Eurytomides of Uie Hymen- 
opterous Family of Chalcididse 207,320 

Gryllotalba borealis 34<» 

Gryllus hiviUaius 88 

II 

Hismalopis gratario 182 

Httg-moih Larva 26,840 

Hag-wurm, the Green 807 

Hair-worm or Hair-snake 64, 180 

Halesidota Harrisii 384 

♦ • tessellaris 884 

Haltica ckalybea 309,827 

Handsome Digger Wasp as a horse- 
guard 87,126 

. .JIarlequin Cabbage-bug 79, 177 

«« ^* in Tennessee 166 
Harmless Parasites on Larva of Lu- 
I na-moth 1*5 



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Index to Volume II. 



HarfacUr cinctus d5, 

Harpalus Pennsylvanicus 

HateAil Colonulo Graashopper 

Hedgehog Caterpillar 

HdMkis armi^era 49, 172, 

HtiopkUus latijrcus 

HtmtiHts ntmativorus 

Unptria alttrmata 

^* Batkyllus 

•• Piwesheik 

Hindranoes to sacoessfnl Fruit- 

powiDg 

Hippodamia eonvergtns 

Uoc-oaterpillar of the Vine — 8S. 
<* •* •« infested 

with Parasites 

HogSTB. Cnrcolioe 

Homalomyia canicuiaris 

«« Leidyi 

« * prunivora 

*« scalaris 

•* WUsoni 

Horinmt lavis 

Horlsontal vs. Vertical Combs 

Horse-hair Snakes 68, 64, 

How Cut- worms originate 

*■ * to collect and study Insects . . 
166, 199, 286, 266, 

•* *<killlnsects 

** study and breed Insects 

Humble-bees 

Hybrid between a Grai^e-vine and a 

Hickory 

Hylobius conjusus 

*« siMpidus 

Hyphontria Uxtor 80, 

Hypogymna dispar 

Hypsopygeo costaiis 

I 

Illinois State Entomologist 

Imperial Dryocampa 

Imported Currant- worm 

* *■ Insects and Native Amer- 
ican Insects 

Information wanted 

Ij^nred Pear-roots 

Iiuarlous Insects— Do not dissemi- 
nate 

In Memorlam 

Insectivorous habits of Prairie Lark 

Insect Depredations 

• * l>estroyer 

** Erabrv<»gi*ny 

* * Sounds 

Insects aruund Indianapolis . 

* * boring liquor C4Mks 

** clustered on Apple-trees . . . 

** destroying association 

< < feeding on sap of Black Wal- 
nut 

•• forSale 

•* InComRoots 

** injurious to the Grape-vine 
22, 54, 89, 128, 150, 173, 2U8, 
272, 29ft, 827, 

*' named— M. Barret 

** *• AH. R. Bryant .. 

«* •* J. E. Chase 96, 

•* ** E. T. Dale 

•• •• Chas. 8 Davis 

•* *• A.Engelmann 

*• Mrs E. W. B 

•* •• C. B Faulkner .... 

•* T W G 

• • • « Mrs Marion Hobart 
•• •* Mrs M Chappell- 

smith 

*• ** T K. Kidd 

** L.P.Kraft 

*• J. R. Muhleman . . . . 

•• *• W H. Patton 

•' ** . G Saffir 

•• •* 8. V. hummers 

•• *' T. P 

•• "J. P. WaUrs 

*• of Colorado 

Interesting Insects 

Iowa Butterflies 

Ips fasriiUus 

1a any Knowledge useless? 

. iMosoma kordei 8«0, 882, 

Is the Vew York Weevil the cause of 
Pcar-bllght? 

Is the Ursula Bntt<»rfly more com- 
mon in some sections of U S. than 
PisippUB? , 



KatvdidEggs 

Killing Apple- worms by machinery 
' ^l^nots on Apple-tree roots caused by 



LadderSpider 

Lagoa opercularis 

Lapkria tkoracica 

Laupet Caterpillar on Apple-tree. . . 

T.arder-beetle 246, 

Large Asilns-fly 

*' black Potato Beetles 

'* Brood 

*' Water-beetle 

Larvse in the Human Bowels . . 187, 
Larva named— Q. W. Gordon 

'* of Abbot Sphinx 

** ** clubbed Tortoise-bfetle . 

** ** Imperial Moth 

' * * • the Thoas Swallow-tail 308, 

Latiopttra ruhi 

* • tolidaginis 

Leafy Oak-gall 26, 

Lthia grandis 

. ^^f^tcantum (Pnlvinaria) viiis 

^J^ema trilineata 

Leucania unipuncta 106, 111, 828, 

Lice on Snowballs 

Lilac-borer 



110 
96 
182 

802 

168^^, 
801 
178 
284 
82(( 
804 
207 
339 
57 



234 
858 

180 

50 

889 

62 

344 

245 

340 

81 

27 

179 

378 
306 
841 

26 
192 

63 

64 
245 

62 
24( 
807 
175 
308 
164 
367 

176 



177 



Itch Mite 

Itkyctrus nov^tboraceutis . 
Ixodes unipuHciaia , 



.176, 



114 
216 

160 



yulus marginatum 
Jumping Cricket. . 



69 
209 



Koot-lice 246 



Limacodes ci^put . 
ttkeciu. 



pitkecium 25, 199, 

viridus 

* * epkippiatMS 

Umeniiis dtsippkt 246, 

• * proserpina 

* * Ursula , 

Limexylon navaU 

Litkobius Americanus 

. Jttle Cicada 

Lohesia hoirana 

Locust-borer 58, 127, 246, 

Locust Year for Tennessee 

Locusts in India 

I^ng-tailed Ophion 

Look out for a bad Bug 

Lopkyrus Ahhotiit 

*^ ahittts 

Lucanus dama 

24644^"'^^'^^"^^ Leaf- hopper 
30 TLuiui'inoth 

275 



Lygodetmia juncea 

• * pisum . . 

Lyita airata 4, 

*• cinerea... ...5,7,274, 

'* marginata 5, 155, 

* * murina 

•* viitata 5, 28, 

M 

Macrodai tylus suhspinosus 

Macrobasis cinerea 

* * Fabricii 

Madarus ampelopsidos 

Mangoldwurzel-Hy 

Mantis Carolina 

Mantispa brunnea 

Maple- worms 

Matter crowded out 

Melancholy Cliof^r in Apples 

Metapodius nasalus 

Methodical Table of the Crickete . . . 

Microscopes 

Missouri Entomological Report 126, 

Mite-gall on Sugar Maple 

MoleCrlcket 

More about the Cow-killer 

Mossy Rose-gall .'. 

Moth named 81 , 

Moth of ^5addle-back 

Mr. Walsh's Portrait 126, 

• * * * successor 

Musca domntica 

* * vomitoria 



841 
8 
5 
105 
156 
272 
308 

61 
372 

61 

2«i6^. 
178T 
171) 
880 
840 
887 
213 
808 
373 
129 
9J 
189 
830 



Mutilla coccinea 82,69,168, m 

MygaUHentsii 288,114 

My Raspberry and Verbena Moths, 
and what came of them 208 



yrmica molesta 112 



Uyodites Walskii. 
Ulyrx 

Uysia IR-punciata 840 

N 

^ ><Native Apple-tree Bark-lice 181 

* * Currant- worm 20 

Nebraska Bee-kiUer 887 

Necropkorus marginaius 61 

Ntmatus mendicus 47 

* * quercicola 78 

•* solids pomum 19, 45 

•« s,pisum 73 

• * ventraiis 276 

** '9<it/ri«0nM....15, 200, 242, 

274, 276, 804, 806, 838 

Nepkila plumipts : 59 

Nest of the Bi^d-CMed Hornet 806 

Nturoterus lamuginosus 831 

New Bean-weevil 118 

* * Bee enemy 59 

** Curculio Rwnedy 248 

•* Food for 8Uk- worms 42 

'* Hesperian 271 

** Insecticide 86 

'* Pear-tree Insect 212 

Nisioniadss catullus 175 

*♦ lycidas 805 

** pylades 805 

No Apple-pUut Lice 241 

** Pins for Sale 276 

** Plant-lice Eggs 178 

N A . Lepidoptera wanted 874 

Northern Lady-bird; its larvio 873 

Not a Gall bat a Wasp-nest 341 

Not Eggs, but parasitic cocoons — 878 
Notes ana Experiments on Currant- 
worms 900 

NoU's fh>m Wilkinsonville 880 

* ' on the Tarantula-killer 02 

Notodonta concinna 27 

* * unicornis 841 

Noxious Larvn 282 

Nympkalis disippus 121 , 177 

o 

^Oak-loafGaU 29 

Oak Pruner 28 

Obertn perspicillata 26 

•* Iripunctata 807 

Odynerus Jlttvipes 10 

(Ecanikus nivtus 128 

• (Bdipoda corallines 82 

Carolina 195 

Of what Use is Entomology? 86 

Olibrus nitidus 236 

One day's Journal of a State Ento- 
mologist 197 

Onion Maggots 51 

** Worm— Remedy for 885 

On our Table 158, 179, 211, 338 

On the Group Eurvtomides of the 
Hymenopterous Family Chalcidi- 

d» 297.329, ?67 

On thetran8rormationsofSimuUnm.229 
Onward march of the Colorado Po- 
tato-beetle 289 

Opkion macrurum 100, 160 

Orange Raspberry Rust »45 

Orckelimum gracile 194 

♦ * glaberrimum 64 

** vulgare 64 

Orgyia leucosiigma l8l , 806 

Orockaris saliator 209 

Ortalis arcuata 110 

Osage Orange for the Mulberry Silk- 
worm 2ft{, 373 

Otuscnotus 22 

Oyster-shell Bark-louse in Missouri 213 
"Mississippi 802 



Papkia glycerium 121, 872 

Papilio Ajax 175 

* • asterias 80, 175, 840, 341 

' * glaucus 835 

•« Iktarcellus 806 

<• Pkilenor 175 

•• tkoas 175,308,840 

* * tumus 176 



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vi 



Index to Volume II. 



Parasa viridt 307 

Mtraaites of the Cecropia-moth 100 

*' ** Human animal 114 

** upon a Syrphus Larva ... 306 
Parasitic Ckxsoons 128, 160 

" Mites on tiie House-fly ... 87 

Paris Green for the Curculio 838 

** poisonous 92 

Parsnip Caterpillar 80, 64 

Peach-nub Man 148 

Pearl Wood Nymph 150 

Pear-leaf Fungus 236 

Pear-tree Worms 25 

Pea- weevil I55 

Ptlidnota punctata 285 

J^emthigus vitifolia 357 

Penthina Fuilerea 204, 371 

* ' vitivorana 28, 273 

Pepsis formosa 152 

Perilampus platygaster I74 

Periodical cicada, alia* 17 and 13 

year Locust 211 

^ *' *' BroodlV 337 

Periodical Cicadas in GeoT^ia 372 

* * Cicada not in KreuU Creek 

Valley 372 

Phacellura nitidaiis 61 , 107 

Pkilampelus achemon 54 

' ^ satellitia 89, 211 

Phllenor Swallow-tail 241 

Phycita nthulo 32. 181, 307 



Ptinus hrunneus 180,322 

* * frontalis 322 

Punctures on Rose-twig 2IS 

Pupa of Disippus Butterfly *46 

'^ •* the dlrdled Sphinx 241 

Pyralis costalis 160 

* * farinalis * 160 

** Jimbriaits 160 

** olinalis 160 



PkyUoptera oblongifoliet 136, 182, 296, 369 

J^hylloxera vitifotitt 353 

** vastatrix 354 

Phyiomma Henrietta 304 

Phymapkora pulchella 242 

Pkymata erosa 26 

Pkysalis viscosa 87 

Pkysonota helianthi 4 

* * quinqmepnnctata 4 

* * unipunctata 4 

Pieris oleracea 76 

*' protodice 60, 76, 90, 304 

* * rap<t. .60, 75, 79, I06, 206, 338, 341 

PIgreon 1 remex in Apple 128 

Pimpla melanocepkala 266 

Piopkila casei,,,. 78 

Piophila casei 180, 339 

Pirates ptcipes 809 

Pissodes strobi 26 

Pithy Blackberry-gall 159 

Plague of Beetles 266 

_^lant-lice and their enemies 141 

Platycerus quercus 212 

Plum CuroiUio 53, 130 

* * * * breeds in Apple .... 276 

* * * * will deposit in Fruit 
which overhangs water 119 

Plutella cruciferarum 79 

Podisoma clavarisforme 162 

** Junipertnum 162 

. * * sab$iuB 162 

■ — ■ PodisHs placidus 208 

Pod-Uke Willo w-gaU 214 

Poisonous qualities of the Colorado 

Potato-bug 86 

Polistes fitscatus 166 

' • metricus 156 

Polyphemus Moth 88 

Pompilus formosus 238 

Potamanthus marginatus 868 

Potato-beetles— Large black 275 

*• -bugs 28 

Potter Wasp 10 

Preservation of Entomologicfd Cab- 
inets 9 

Preserving and mounting Beetles . . 245 

** Insects 180 

• * Larvae 374 

Prickly Rose-gall 246, 309 

Prionus imbricomis 3*0 

Pristiphora grossulariee 20 

Procris vttis 173 

Prodenia autumnalis 329, 363, 8U5 

' * commelinct 

Daggyi 43, 328 

Progress of tne Potato-bug 84 

Promackus Bastardii 337, 340 

Prosopis ajfinis 307 

Psiekeheltx . 384 

Psocris Americana 27, 178 

Procus amabilis 324 

" bipunctatus 334 

* * domesticus 324 

* * gfologus 324 

' • variegatus 834 

'* venosus 180, 246, 8 {9 

Pteropkorus carduidactylus 235 

'* periscelidactylus 234 



Oueen Humble-bee 808 

^mercus inanis 332 

* ' pseudotinctoria 882 

*', spongijica 832 

Questions aus wei ed 809 



R 

Radish Maggots 278 

i Ranatra fusca 29, 246 

^ * * linearis 29 

Range of the Rear-horse 63 

Ransom Curculio Remedy 268 

Rape Butterfly 60, 155, 838, 374 

* * * ' our new Cabbage Pest 338 

Rare Capture 241 . 242 

•' fnlllinois .340 

Raspberry-borer 26 

" Geometer 205 

** Gouty-gall 108, 128 

" Root-gall 181 

* * Rust— Orange 246 

Ratzebni^d Works on Forest Trees, 
their Dineascs and Insect Enemies. 95 

Rearing Eggs of Butterflies 306 

Red Ant of Texas 324 

Red-bumped Caterpillar on Apple 

and Pear 27 

Red Spider 180, 305 

AReduvius serratus 385 

Remarkable Tenacity of Life in a 

Butterfly 872 

Reiwrt ol Conunitteeon Entomology 106 
^* *'the Department of Agri- 
culture for 1868 178 

Remedy for Onion-worm 386 

** ** Canker-worm 289 

Rkizopertka pMsilla 109 

Rkodttes bicolor 246, 309 

• • radicum 181 

** roset 213 

Rkyssa lunator 96 



Semiotellus ckalcidipkagus 368 

vSeventeen-year Cicada at George- 

town, Ohio, in 1871 .;.. 887 

*Seventeen-year Locust two years too 

late 304 

Shed Snake-scale * 212 

SilkSpiders .:;; 09 

Silk- worm Eggs 109 

Silpka ( Necropkila) peltata 82^ 306 

Stmulium motestum 228 

*' reptans 281 

-., *! ptscicidium 367 

Sttodrepa pantcea 323 

Skunk as a Tomato- worm Destroyer 63 

Slug on Pear and Cherry Trees 296 

Slugs on Plum Trees 340 

Small reddish Snout-beetle on Apple 308 

Snout-beetle ' . . 2I8 

Solenobia Walskella ..i 182 

Some Friends and Foes MQ 

** good Thoughts from an emi- 
nent Entomologist 826 

* * interesting Inaecto 307 

Southern Cabbage Butterfly 76 

'* •* Worms 90 

^ * * Notes ... 90, 124, 163, 176, 238 

Bow-bugs 181 

Sparrows 102 

Specific Names 5 

Specimens Lost 276 

Spectrum bivittatum 374 

* * femoratum 96 

Spkinx Carolina 8S9 

'* cingulata 241 

" b-maculata 87,91.175,241 

** (Darapsa) myron 22 

Spilosoma acrea 838 

* ' Virginica 272, 836 

Spined Slug- worm 181 

* * Spider 32 

Slotted Pelldnota 306 

* * • • —Error regMding it 309 
*' Rove-beetle 128 

^Squash-bug 91 

* • and White-bush Scallop 156 
** does not touch Whlte- 

J bush Scallop 65 

Stapkilinus maculosus 128, 246 

State Entomologist for Minnesota . . 94 
•* •* ** Wisconsin .. 1GB 

stinging-bug 25 

Larvao 9i 



Ratstelia canceUata\ 162, 235 

• * comifera 162 

' * penicillata 162 

Roman-nosed Pupa 276 

Rose-gall and Pupa of Archlpptis 

Butterfly 807 

Rose-gall, mossy 218 

Rose-twig, punctures on 218 

Rot in Peaches and other Fruits.... 200 
Rove-beetle as a Parasite on the 

Cabbage Maggot 302 

Royal Homed-caterplllar 30, 62, 04, 840 

S 

Saddle back Larvae 69 

Salt-marHh Caterpillar 336 

Samia Cyntkia 39 

Saperdabivittata 143, 148,276, 306 

jSarcoptes kominis 115 

Satellite Sphinx 8a 

Saturnia Jo 31, 339 

Scab in Apple vs. Apple-tree Plant- 
lice 178 

Scetva ( Syrpktts) Pkiladelpkicus. .. 142 

• • rihesii 142 

Scarcity of the Boll -worm and Cot- 
ton-worm 53 

Sclerostoma syngamus 1 49 

.SctentiHc Language 171 

*' Norai'nclature 6 

' • Phraseology 56 

'« Symbols 60 

Scolopendra castaneiceps 59 

*• keros 2:W 

Scorpion in Kansas 126 

* ' and Tarantulas in Tcnn. . . 2:i8 

Scorpio ( Tdegonus) boreus 238 -^ 

See<r-tick8 under bark of Apple- trees 160 

Selandria cerasi 296, 809, 340 

•* rosa 19, 276 

•• rubi 136, 276 

** vitis 309 



Stiretus fimbriatus 201 

Rocky Mountain Grat8hopi>er can- k ^J''«' */'f >f «f : ^«-:^-;k/ ,?I 

not live in Pennsylvania. 88- ^£'1''^*.'^^?*''''^?!"''!; ^^' ^' ^^» i55 



Striped Blister-beeUe 806 

*^* Cucumber-beetle 24 

* ' • * in a new role 239 

Strongylus concortus 149 

*• filaria 149 

'* gigas 157 

** micrurus 149 

Sugaring for Moths 374 

Supposed Trout Enemy 179 

Syivanus surinamensis 339 

Syrpkus concava 142 

'• pyrastri 142 

•* ribesii 142 



Tabanus lineola 337 

Tarantula of Texas 244 

** KiUer 62 

^Tarnished Plant-bug 291 

Tenebrio molitor 110 

* * obscurus Ill 

Tent Caterpillars 61 

•* *' and Fall Web- worms 39 

* * * * of the Forest .... 245, 261 
Termes Jlttvipes 266, 324 

* • frontalis Ill 

Tetracka Virginica 308 

Tettigonia obliqua 871 

Texas Fever and Ticks l«o 

The Antlopa Butterfly 307 

* ' banded Ips in calyx of Pear 308 

•* Botanical Department 161 

* * brown Mantlsplan 808 

'* coming Cotton- worm 124 

* * Fall Army-worm 828 

•* green Hag-moth 307 

** little Cicada 808 

* * Ransom Curculio Remedy 268 

* * red Ant of Texas 324 

'* Slug on Pear and Cherry Trees. 296 
" so-called Web- worm of young 

Trout 866 



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Index to Volume II. 



vu 



The SparrowB 102 

• ' Unicom prominent 841 

*< Walsh Entomolofrical Cabinet. . 27.'S 

** Year's interniisttion 863 

Tkecla strigosa 175 

Tktlia bimaculata 27 

Tboas Swallow- tail— Larva of 808 

Thoosand* legged Worms 61» 

Three-lined Potato-beetle 274 

Tkysania Zenobta 341 

Tkyreut Abbotii 123, 309, 326 

Tkyridopterix tpkemeraformis . . .35, 246 
Time of appearance of Polyphe- 
mas Moth in Kentucky and Trn- 

nessee 156 

Tinea iapetxtUa 90 

** "vestianella 90 

Toads in Gardens 60, 176 

*< ys.Bugs 91 

*• *• Ineects 287 

T.> destroy Plant- lice 180 

* • exterminate Cockroaches 246 

*' kiU the Pea-weeril 241 

* * our Sabscribers 93 

** •' ** inCanada 203 

Tomato-feeding Worm 62 

•' Fruit •* 172 

' ' Worms not poisonous 11 

" «* again 91 

* « * • on Ground Cherry . 87 
«• ** Parasites 88 



Tomicus maieriarius 241 

** monographus 907 

Tortoise-beetles 3 

Tortrix RiUyana 246 

Trockilium hospes 208 

Trombtdium tAarium 180, 305 

Trout Enemy 180 

** Web- worm 274 

Trumpet Grape-gall 28, 113 

Trypfta pomonella 273 

"* * (Acinia) solidaginii 29 

Twig-borer 245 

Two-striped Walking Stick 374 

u 

Unicom Prominent 341 

Universal Remedies 83 

Unknown Larvie 63 

Unnatural Secretion of Wax 26 

Uredo ruborum 245 

Ursula Butterfly more common than 
Disippus in some sections of the 
country 177 

V 

Vanessa Antiopa 176, 807, 372 

** articit 826 

** profne 175 

Verbena Bud-moth In the West 871 

Vespa maculata Itf7 



w 

Walsh Entomological Cabinet . . 98, 2f76 

Walnut Caterpillars 306 

Water-bug 29, 246 

'* -larva 275 

Wheat- barberry Rust 242 

* ♦ Rust and Barberry Rust 162 

White Grub Fungus 63 

** Grubs in Strawberry-beds . 307 

' * lined Morning Sphinx 867 

*' Pine Weevil 26 

*' Willow-worm 276 

Why noxious Insects increase upon 

us 1 

Willow Apple GaU 46 

Bud *• 49 

** Egg *' 49 

Gafl. pod-like 214 

Wire-worms in Potatoes 62 

W ool-so wer Gal 1 71 

Wooly slug-like Worm on Apple ... 29 

Worms boring into Cucumber 81, 61 

•♦ '* *• Peach 246 

** Exterminator 170 

* * on Cherry and White Beech 81 

* * " Horse-chestnut— gregari- 

ous 246 

'* under mulch Hay 212 

X 

Xyleuies rohiniee 127 

Xylocopa Carolina 96 



ERRA-T^, 



Page 5, col.)^ line 11, omit the second '<of." Page 
6, coL 1, line 2, for ? read ! Page 8, col. 1, line 1, for 
"thirty" read "twenty." Page 27, col. 2, line 13 flrom 
bottom, for "Gold Gilt-beetle" read "Gilt Gold-beetle." 
Page 31, col. 1, line 30, for ''Culoptsron^^ read ^'Calop- 
t€ron.^* Page 81, col. 1, line 41, for **No. 8 pin" read 
**No. 18 pin." Page 82, col. 2, line 10, for ^'Qasteror 
eatdha^' read ^^Oasteracantha.*' Page 45, col. 1, line 
17 from bottom, for **35" read **47;" line 12 Irom bot- 
tom, for **33" read <*46," and for "34" read "46." 
Page 85, col. 1, line 23, for "last" read "this." Page 
97, over the illustration, for "Fig. 59" read "Fig. 59i." 
Page 101, col. 2, line 25, for " Cecropia'' read *^Ckcropia\^^ 
same column, note, for ^^ Chalet* maria*^ read ^* Chalets 
nioruB.'* Page 111, col. 1, line 2 from bottom, for 
**Pairu'* read ^*Pien»,^^ Page 181, col. 1, line 10 from 
bottom, for ''oval" read "oblong-oval." Page 152, 
coL 1, line 21, for <*one" read **our." Page 163, col. 



2, line 6, for "results" read ♦ 'result." Page 168, col. 1, 
lines 15 from top and 6 from' bottom, for ^^Alanda^^ read 
'^AUuda.'' Page 159, col. 2, Une 13, for "8. C." read 
"C. W." Page 188, col. 2, Une 21 from bottom, for 
"Fig. 113" read **Fig. 115." Page 188, col. 1, line 
16, for * * Cersu^ ' read " Cercit,'^ Page 211, col. 1, line 
20 from bottom, for * * as " read * * and . ' » Page 244, col . 
2, line 24, for ''{C thyaidesY' lead "((7. rfw^cAa, Linn.)" 
Page 271, col. 1, line 8 from bottom, add a comma alter 
"left." Page 276, col. 1, line 8 from bottom, for 
^^qumquemacalata^^ read '*quinquemaeulata;^^ same page, 
col. 2. line 16 from bottom, for "Shaffer" read "Saffer." 
Page 302, col. 2, line 25 from bottom, for <*in" read 
*<and." Page 339, col. 1, line 22 from bottom, for 
'* Colandra* ^ read ^^CalandraJ^ On page 126, note, we 
referred all the drawings of Figure 85 to Bruchus gra^ 
narius: in reality a, 4 and /only, represent that species, 
while h, Cf d and g represent Bruchus piH. 



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Vlll 



Index to Volume II. 



INDEX TO BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 



A 

AbuHlon AvicentuB 224 

Acer datcycarpum 186 

* * rubmm 186 

American Uolly 2WI 

*• PulBatillft 216 

AmpeloptiM qtdnqu^olia 286 

Anem&ne patera 216 

Answers to Correspondents — 192, 

224, 266, 288, 819, 852, 884 

Apiot tuberoea 191 

A question 311 

Arborescent Grasses 877 

Aristolochia terpentaria 816 

ABplenium ruta-mtirturia 880 

B 

BladkJaok 813 

Blood-root 187 

Botanioal MisceUany 282 

«« Note8,No.l 817 

«• '* No.2 862 

** Notes 879 

BnirOak 260 

C 

Cactos 882 

Canobeamulti/Uta 884 

CercU Canadetuii 187 

Chestnut Oak 281 

Chinquapin Oak 281 

ClassifloatlonofOaks 282 

Claytonia Vlrginica ]8t 

** CaroHfdana 188 

CUmatU Virgifdana 216 

Common Virgin's Bower 216 

Camut Jlorida 221 

Corrections 287 

Cottonwood, which is it? 311 

D 

Darlingtonia. Flowering of 816 

Definite and Indefluite Vegetable de- 
velopment ?54 

Distribution of Inmiigrant Plants . . 878 
Dogwood, The ilowenng 221 

E 

EditorialJottlnm 191 

Epiphytes or Air-plants 217 

Errata 816 

European Correspondence 316 

P 

Ferns and Mosses 228 

Field and Meadow Mosses 223 

Flowers, The love of 263 

Foxgiove Pentstemon 310 

G 

OauUKeria procumbent 180 

Gerardias, The 878 

QledittcMa triacanthot 222 

Grasses, The 188 

<< Our cultivated 222 

Ground-nut 191 

Gymnoeladut CanaderuU 862 



H 



Herbarium, The 

Heuchera^ A peculiar form of. . 

Holly, The American 

** ** Fnropean 

Honey Locust, The 

Hop Tree, The . 



How to study the Grasses . 
Hybrid Oak 



216 
310 
283 
284 
, 222 
261 
219 
191 



new opaca 

* * aquifolium. 
Ivy, Poison 



264 



Kentucky Coifee Tree 892 

L 

Laurel Oak 812 

Leaf as a Worker, The 247, 284 

Liber CeUs of Cinchona 219 

Live Oak 282 

Ust of Plants, Chicago 813, 846 



Maratime Plants of the Great Lakes 842 

Maples, The Soft 184 

»« ** 8Uv«r-leaf 186 

*« •* Red 186 

Morphology of Lemna 848 

N 

New Plants 288 

** Book 228 

Notes irom Correspondents — 191, 

224, 817, 352, 888 

Notes, Botanical 317, 362, 879 

< < on some Wisconsin Plants. . 180 



Oaks, The 249. 280, 811 , 844, 876 

* * Synoptical Table of. 876 

OpunHa R^neiquii 263 

Origin of Prairie Vegetation 277 



Palms 882 

Pine Barren Plants 818 

Pin Oak 876 

Pith of Geranium 218 

Pentstemon Digitalit 810 

Plants for name 256, 288, 862, 884 

Poison Ivy 286 

•• Plants 230,286 

PostOak 260 

Prairie Apple 283 

Preservation of Forest Trees 248 

Prickly Pear family 263 

Ptelea trifoliata..,. 261 

PulMoHUa, American 216 



Q^ercu9 lUba-macrocarpa. . 
alba.. 



** aouatica. 
** bxcoloT... 



191 
249 
812 



Q^ercu» cattanoa 281 

" coccinea 844 

** faUata 375 

«• imbricaria 312 

«* Leana 316 

•* niacrocarpa 260 

** nigra 313 

*« obtuHloba 250 

«« paluttrU 376 

" pheUoe 311 

«' pHnoidet 281 

** rubra 375 

* * virent 28* 

<< in Menard Co., Ills 191 

B 

Bamtncului Cymbalarhu 288 

Bed-bud 187 

Bed Maple 186 

*• Oak 875 

** Snow 190 

tthu» toxicodendron 286 

Boae. The 264 

Kue-leaved Spleenwort 880 

S' 

Sanguinaria CanadentU 187 

Sat^aga Forbetii 2B6 

Scarlet Oak 844 

Seaside Crowfoot ttS 

Silver-leaf Maple 186 

Some Interesting Plants of Western 

Missouri 877 

Spanish Oak 875 

^hagnumjimbriatum 219 

Spicy Wlntergreen 180 

Spring Flowers 1 83 

Starch cells of Cinchona 219 

Study of Natural History 883 

Swamp White Oak 280 

Synoptical Table of the Oaks 876 

T 

The Herbarium 216 

** Gerardias 878 

** Love of Flowers 263 

** Bocky Mount' n Alpine Beglon 881 

To our Headers 183 

Transverse cut of Hyacinth 218 

V 

Vegetable Cells 217.256, 349 

Velvet Leaf 224 

Virginia Creeper 286 

Vitality of Seeds 388 

W 

Water Oak 812 

Western Botany 2iO 

White Oak 248 

White-A-uited Fragaria 352, 384 

Who should study Botany 186 

Wintergreen, The Spicy 180 

WDlow Oak 811 

Wild Bice 851 

Woody Composite 2A 

Z 

Zanthowylum CUtoa HercuHs 251 



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THE 




VOL. 2. 



ST. LOUIS, MO., SEPT.— OCT., 1869. 



NO. 1. 



TUBUSHED MONTHLY BT 
li. I»- QTTJlDXjTrsr SB 00-, 

104 OZJVZ BTRKWr, BT. LOXHS. 



TERMS Two dollars per annnm in advance. 



BHDITOItSt 

BENJ. D. WALSH Rock Island. 111. 

CHAS. V. SILEY, 221 N. Main Street St Louis, Mo. 

WHY NOXIOUS INSECTS INCREASE UPON US. 

It is an old and a very true remark, that the 
Tarious insects that afflict the Gardener and the 
Fruit-grower arc year by year becoming more nu- 
meroQs and moi*e destructive . One principal rea- 
son for this result is sufficiently obvious. The con- 
tinual tendency of modern improvement is to con- 
centrate vegetable gardens and fruit farms in 
certain peculiarly favorable localities, instead of 
scattering them evenly and uniformly over the 
whole country. Hence every injurious insect 
that troubles the Gardener and the Fruit-grower 
has an abundant supply of such vegetation, as 
forms a suitable nidus for its future offspring, 
close at hand, instead of having to search for it 
with much labor over an extensive surface of 
conntiy. Such insects are therefore enabled by 
this means to increase and multiply with gi-eater 
ease and greater rapidity. Upon precisely the 
same principle, if you scatter over the surface 
of a whole county the amount of shelled corn 
that is just sufficient to feed a certain gang of 
hogs, and compel them to seek it out and pick 
it np every day of the year, they will not thrive 
so well nor multiply so fast, as if you feed out 
the very same amount of corn to them in a ton- 
acre lot, day after day for a whole year. 

To a gentleman in Arkansas, who had ex- 
pressed the opinion that that State was the 
best in the Union for the peach and the grape, 
and that Illinois was not naturally adapted to 
the culture of fruit, Dr. E. S. Hull recently re- 
plied in the following masterly manner. We 
copy from the Journal of Agriculture for Au- 
gust 14,1869: 

Sir— Your confidence in the superior adapta- 



bility of your soil and climate will probably not 
be maintained after a few jrears^ experience. 
Just in proportion as you increase improved 
fruits, just in that proportion will fk'uit insects 
and fruit and fruit tree diseases increase with 
you. A recognition of this fact will each year, 
as you multiply your orchards, become more 
ana more apparent. Your Hale's Early peaches, 
at first, will be free from rot, your pear trees 
measurably exempt from pear tree blight, your 
vines free from vine hoppers, the grapes free 
from grape codlings ana rot, etc., etc. From 
some cause, not yet well understood, all or 
nearly all young vineyards are for the first few 
years' of fruitage, free from rot, and thou ever 
afterwards subject to it. The same is true of 
cherry, peach, and plum rot. Thei'efore to 
those engaging in norticultnral pursuits, a 
knowledge of the several difficulties likely to 
be encountered should be recognised, and so 
far as known the remedies for each difficulty 
must be promptly applied. 

In this State, or in certain portions of it, 
many persona believe that horticulture is un- 
dergoing a gi*eat revolution, and ultimately 
that the business will be mainly in the hand's 
only of Jhe well-informed — those who under- 
stand and promptly apply the proper means. 
In view of known facts anil obsoi'vations, made 
during the past twenty-three years in this part 
of the West, and further South, I am convinced 
that all sections alike must recognize as facts 
these statements. 

Here the matter seems to have dropped. No- 
body has thought of accusing Dr. Hull of beiug 
an atheist and a blasphemer, because he has said 
that the more you multiply your orchards, and 
the more you increase improved fruits, the more 
will bugs and other kinds of destructive organ- 
isms multiply and increase upon you. Nobody, 
in fact, has even gone so far as to insinuate that, 
simply because he has written the letter which 
we have printed above, he leans towards Socini- 
anism, or Arianism, or Erastianism, or any of 
the other fine shades of isniy whereby heteix)- 
doxy (whatever that may be) differs from 
orthodoxy. 

Now, mark how one man is allowed to steal 
a horse with impunity, and another man may 
not even look over the hedge without being 
thrown into jail for it. Henry Ward Beecher, 
in one of his contributions to tho Ledger, re- 
cently expressed the following seiiUments; and 
turn them which way you will, they merely 



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amount to the very same doctrine recently pro- 
mulgated by Dr. Hull, and — we are almost 
afraid now to avow it— firmly believed in by 
ourselves; namely, that the lai^ger the masses 
may be in which you grow any crop, the more 
will destructive organisms prey upon it: 

The only way to exterminate the Canada this- 
tle is to plant it for a crop, and propose to make 
money out of it. Then worms will gnaw it, 
bugs will bite it, beetles will bore it, aphides 
will suck it, birds will peck it, heat will scorch 
it, rains will drown it, and mildew and blight 
will cover it. 

But does Henry Ward Beecher, after publish- 
ing such shocking sentiments, escape with as 
much impunity as his more fortunate compeer. 
Dr. E. S. Hull, of Alton, Ills.? Quite the con- 
trary I Forthwith a writer in the Christian In- 
teUigencer, signing himself " Puritan," is down 
upon the i*everend gentleman like a thunderbolt, 
accusing the poor man of " veiled profanity," 
and arguing the question in the following lucid 
and cei*tainly most original manner: 

These bugs, beetles, aphides, heat, rain, and 
mildew, are the messengers of God. K they 
are sent — they are on an errand for Ood! Now, 
if the above extract has a point, it is that when 
mankind plant a ci*op of any kind of grain or 
seed, God takes a malicious pleasure in defeat- 
ing stick schemes. 

Excellent I Most admirable logician I But 
why not attack the Illinois layman as well as 
the New York clergyman? "Just in propor- 
tion," says Dr. Hull, ** as you increase improved 
fruits and multiply your orchards, just in that 
proportion will fruit insects and fi*uit and fruit- 
tree diseases increase with you." What is that 
but saying, that when mankind try to grow 
large quantities of extra fine fruit, " God takes 
a malicioits pleasure in defeating such schemes?*^ 
At him, ** Puritan !" Seize him by the throat 
and worry him to death I The Illinois State 
Horticultui-ist is clearly guilty of the most abom- 
inable ''veiled profanity." 

But it seems that '' circumstances alter cases," 
and '* the case being altered alters the case," 
and to parody the language of Shakspeaixi — 
What in the layman's scientific truth 
That in the panton is rank blasphemy. 

For up to this day, though we always read the 
Christian Intelligencer and all the other reli- 
gions newspapers with the most commendable 
pei-severance, we have not noticed any attack 
in any of their columns upon the Alton philos- 
opher — whether fi*om the pen of " Puritan " or 
of any other anonymous scribbler— such as 
that which has been recently hurled upon the 
devoted head of Henry Waixl Beecher. 

That our readers may not suppose that Mr. 
Beecher is unable to fight his own theological 



battles and has hired us, in default of a better 
ally, to defend him against the mnrderoas 
thrusts of ''Puritan," we shall close this article 
by quoting his most conclusive and logical reply 
to this most absurd and irrational attack : 

This is exquisite! If mildew attacks my 
grapevine, it is on an errand for Ghd, and if I 
spnukle it with sulphur as a remedy, I pat 
brimstone into the very face of God's messen- 
ger I When it rains—is not i*ain, too, Grod's 
messenger?— does "Puritan" dare to open ablas- 
phemous umbralla, and push it np in the very 
face of this divine messenger? When a child is 
attacked by one of ** God's messengers " — mea- 
sles, eanker-rash, dysentery, scarlet fever — 
would it be a very great sin to send for a doctor 
on purpose that he might resist these divine 
messengers? There are insects which attack 
man, against one of which we set up combs, and 
against another sulphur. "Nay," says "Puri- 
tan." "If they are sent, tlieg are on an errand 
for God,^^ and it is profanity to have recoui*se to 
fine tooth combs and sulphurous ointments in 
order to defeat the expressed will of God. 
•» ♦ ■^» 

TORTOISE-BEETLES. 

"Tortoise-beetles I" the i*eader will perhaps 

exclaim, "Why, this picture that you give us 

in the margin is not a beetle at all, but a true 

veritable mud-turtle I Beetles, as you have told 

[Fig. 1] us time and again, have got «ta; legs, 

V ^ and this fellow has got only four^ 

jgl^^ two on each side of his body, which, 

J^HB|l as with other mud-turtles, are evi- 

^^^^H deutly nsed as swimming-paws." 

^^^Hvl Nevertheless, kind reader, this is 

^^^^ a true beetle, and if you were to 

Colore— Brown- turn him upside down, you would 

bhick ami yel- ^i_ ^ . i. x ^i. i 

lowish. see that he has got, on the lower 

surface of his flattened body, six very dis- 
tinct pale-colored legs, though they are so 
short that they scarcely project when stretched 
out at full length beyond the thin crust which, 
as with a mud-turtle, projects from his body 
all round him. What you take for swim- 
ming-paws are not paws at all, but mere 
patches of dark opaque color on the thin pro- 
jecting semi-transparent shell. If you refer to 
the drawing which wo gave in our last num- 
ber of the MotUed Tortoise-beetle (Fig. 179), 
you will see that that species has two such 
patches of dark color, representing the front 
Kwimraing-paws, while those which represent 
the hind paws are entirely absent. Nor is this a 
mci*e fortuitous circumstance, dependent upon 
variation and what gardeners call "sports." 
You may take a thousand specimens of either 
species, and you will find that our species, 
which is termed the Clubbed Tortoise-beetle 
{Deloyala clavdta, Oliv.), always seems to have 



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four paws, while the Mottled Tortoise-beetle 
always confines himself to two. And what is 
very remarkable, there is a species found in 
Hindostan which is marked almost exactly like 
our insect.* 

Of coarse, in such a case as this, the re- 
semblance must be purely fortuitous ; for the 
discrepancy in size is so enormously great, that 
it is impossible to believe that any, even the 
stupidest animal, could mistake this Tortoise- 
beetle for a real tortoise. In several other cases, 
however, of entomological mimicry, where a 
nest-building insect and its parasite have a 
strong general resemblance, it has been sup- 
posed by authors that this is a beautiful pro- 
vision of nature, in order to enable the parasite 
to penetrate without danger into the nest of the 
other insect, and deposit its eggs there without 
interruption on the part of the nest-builder. It 
is contended, in fact, that, from the great resem- 
blance between the two, the nest-builder mis- 
takes the parasite for an individual belonging 
to its own species. So far as regards social in- 
sects, such as Yellow Jackets and Humble-bees, 
this theory will do very well ; for as there are 
here a great number of individu&ls owning a 
nest in common, it is reasonable to suppose 
that a parasite, that strongly resembled the 
members of the community, might occasionally 
slip in unobserved by any one of them. But 
with solitary nest-building insects the case is 
very different. Here there is but a single in- 
dividual—the female — that constructs the nest, 
the male taking no pai*t whatever in this pro- 
cess ; and even if she mistook the parasite for 
an individual belonging to her own species, she 
would be just as unwilling for the stranger to 
enter her own private and peculiar nest, as a 
hen robin would be for another hen robin to 
make herself at home in the nest which she has 
herself labored to construct. Indeed, the num- 
ber of parasites that resemble the insects upon 
which they are parasitic is so exceedingly small 
— certainly not exceeding the one hundi*edth 
part of the whole number of parasites — that 
here we are compelled, as in the case of our 
tortoise-beetle, to attribute the seeming mimicry 
to chance. 

There are, however, very numerous instances 
of mimicry among insects, where the mimicker 
gains a manifest advantage by wearing the liv- 
ery of some other organism, and where conse- 
quently the imitation must be attributed, not 
to chance, but to design. Such are those well- 
known cases among the span-worms or measur- 



•Wcttw. Introd.f I, p. 379 and p. »77, Fig. 12. 



ing-worms, where the larva is of the same dingy 
brown color as the twig upon which it rests, 
and where it habitually stretches itself out in a 
straight line at angles with the twig, remaining 
all the time perfectly stiff and immovable, so 
that even the acute eyes of the practised ento- 
mologist ai*e sometimes deceived by the ma- 
noeuvre, and mistake the living and breathing 
woi*m for a bit of dead and dry stick. Such 
also is the case of the Stick-bug, otherwise 
known as " Walking-stick," which we referred 
to on page 58 of our First Volume, and which 
has the singular habit of projecting forwards its 
two front legs and its antennae all in a straight 
line, so that the whole insect, remaining immov- 
able in this posture, looks like a straight stick, 
as represented in the middle of the right hand 
margin of the cover to our Magazine. Such 
again are those other cases, where insects, for 
instance our common Catydid, habitually living 
among gi*een leaves, imitate those leaves, not 
only in the general coloring of their bodies, but 
in the veiy shape and even in the style of vein- 
ing of their wings. The veiy peculiar and re- 
markable case of the Imitative Butterflies we 
have already treated of in a separate article.* 
Unlike the four or five species of Tortoise- 
beetles, which we figui-ed and descnbed in our 
recent article on the Insects infesting the Sweet 
Potato, the Clubbed Tortoise-beetle (Fig. 1) 
infests, not the Sweet, but the common Irish 
Potato. In the West it is rather a rare insect; 
for in the course of twelve years' collecting we 
have only met with some half dozen specimens, 
and we are entirely unacquainted with the 
larva. Mr. J. B. Hartwell, however, of Wilkin- 
sonville, Massachusetts, frequently finds the 
perfect beetle feeding on the leaves of Potatoes 
and Tomatoes, though not in sufficient numbers 
to be seriously injurious; and Mr. Blanchard, 
of the same State, meeU with it quite commonly 
both on the cultivated Potato and on the Bitter- 
sweet, a weed belonging to the same genus 
(Solanum) as the Potato. Moi-eover, Isaac 
Hicks, of Long Island, N. Y., has transmitted 
to us no less than twenty-six specimens, all 
found upon potato-slalks iu his neighborhood. 
Thus, as the Tortoise-beetles previously figured 
by us mostly infest plants belonging to the 
Convolvulus Family, pucIi as Sweet Potato and 
Morning Glory, the species that we have now 
to do with seems to be confined to plants be- 
longing to the closely allied Solanum Family, 
such as the Potato, the Bitter-sweet and the 
Tomato. It is remarkable that the East Indian 



• Ambb« Entomolooist, Vol. I, pp. 189-lW. 



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species, jast now referred to as being almost 
the exact couuterpaii; in colonng of our Clabbed 
Tortoiise-beetle, occurred in the Botanic Garden 
at Calcutta upon a convolvulus ; but to what 
genus this insect belongs, authors do not in- 
form us. 

The larvae of all the Tortoise-beetles, belong- 
ing to the genera with the body greatly flat- 
tened (Cassida and [Fig. 2.] 
Coptocyda), always 
have the pHckles that 
project from their bo- 
dies sprangled or bar- 
bed, as will be re- 
marked from our fig- 
ures 174, 177, 179 and 
180. In the genus 

( Chdymorpha ), to ^lo"-(*) brick-rcd and black. 

which belongs a brick-i'cd insect with black 
spots (C%. cribrariay Fabr., Fig. 2 a, pupa; 
b beetle) found upon Milkweed (Asclepias), 
and which has the body greatly rounded above 
with scarcely any lateral flange, the larva, 
as observed by Dr. Packard, has the prickles 
smooth and not sprangling. Tii the gQimsFhi/s- 
onota, to which belongs a new species figured 
herewith, the Five-dotted Tortoise-beetle {Ph. 




[Fig. 3.] 




quinqv^punctata, u . sp.. 
Fig. 3, 6), and which 
is intermediate in form 
between the last-named 
genus (Chelymorp?ia)y 
and those with the body 
gi-eatly flattened (Cas- 
sida, CoptocyclQy Be- 
loyala), the prickles of 

the lai-va are also Colore- (ft) KreeniBh-yellow. 

smooth, as may be seen by referring to Figure 
3 a. Thus it results that structural differ- 
ences in the perfect beetle are accompanied 
by corresponding structural differences in the 
lai-va.* 

As a general rule, to which as usual there are 
several exceptions, it is also the case that struc- 

• We annex the scientiflc description of the Five-dotted 
Tortoise- beetle. The genus was determined for lis In 1865 by 
Dr. J. L. LeConte, according to Boheman's arrangement 
of the Family . 

PUY80N0TA QUINQUEPUXCTATA. n. sp. Pale greenish yel- 
low. Head with the basal half or the antenna; polished both 
above and below, and black above; the teiininal half opaque 
and black both above and below. Thornx polished and 

glabrous, with thn>e black spots behind the middle, etpii- 
istant from each other and from the hind thoracic angles: 
the middle spot often elongate niul always more advanced 
than the other two. Before the middle black s|x)t a double 
dark olive si>ot, com^msed of two trapezoidal 8|)ots trans- 
versely arranged and not unfn>quently more or less confluent 
with eAch other. Scutel pale. Elytra sparsely and rather 
coarsely punctured, with all but the exterior margin of a 
more or lefts pale dull olive color, the olive-colored portion 
of each clytrum dotted with pale yellow and witti a large 
pale yellow round spot always a little before the middle, the 
pale yellow dots and spots slightly raised and impuuctate. 
Thorax beneath a little varied with black. Venter, except 



tui*al differences in this gi*oup of plant-feeding 
insects ai^ accompanied by structural differences 
in the groups of plants upon which they ordi- 
narily occur. "We have seen that certain genera 
(Cassida and Coptocydd) are peculiarly at- 
tached to the Convolvulfis Family ; that another 
genus (Deloyala) haunts the Solanum Family; 
and that a lourth genus (Chdymorpha) is gen- 
erally found on Milkweed. The genus to which 
the Five-spotted Tortoise-beetle belongs {Phys- 
onota) seems to be confined to the botanical 
Family Compositas; for although we have not 
been able to ascertain the food-plant of this par- 
ticular species, we have observed the One-dot- 
ted Tortoise-beetle (Physonota uniptmctatay 
Say), feeding in the larva state upon a Sow- 
thistle (Sonchtts); and as the name denotes, the 
Sunflower Tortoise-beetle (Phys, hdianthi, 
Randall), which we were assured by Dr. Lc 
Conte in 1865 is rightfully i-efeiTcd to this genus 
must feed upon Sunflower (ffelianthtis) . 

In the second and third number of our first vol- 
ume we gave an account of eleven distinct spe- 
cies of insects, including the Black Blister-beetle 
(Lytta atrata), that attack the potato. The 
Black-rat Blister-beetle (Lytta murina), which 
is fi-equently confounded with the Black Blis- 
ter-Bcetle, though the former appears early in 
July and the latter not till the middle of Au- 
gust and forepart of September, has since been 
i*eceived by us from Mr. Munger of Lone Cedar, 
Minnesota, with the statement that it nearly ru- 
ined some fields of potatoes there in the fore- 
part of July. To this formidable list of eleven 
distinct kinds of Potato Bugs, we must now 
add the Clubbed Tortoise-beetle, which no 
doubt works upou the potato in the larva, as 
well as in the perfect beetle state, though there 
is as yet no direct evidence to that effect. 

It thus turns out that there are no less than a 
dozen different kinds of Potato Bugs, differing 
from each other in size, in shape, in coloring, 
in habits, in the number of broods produced in 
a single year, in their geographical distribution, 
and what is of most practical importance, in the 
best and most available method of fighting 
them. And yet wo can scarcely take up a 
pai>er, whether political or agricultural, without 
stumbling upon some paragraph informing us 
that **THE Potato Bug" is behaving thus and 



the ti|»s of the Joints, black. Legi vt'ith a more or leas ex- 
tensive abbreviated sui)erior simt on the femora, and an 
exterior line on the tibia), blaeJc. LcngthO.38— O.M inch. 
Twenty specimens. 

Mitfht be readily confounded with Ph. unipunetata. Soy, 
but diiTers, 1st. by the basal Joint of the autenna: having no 
black spot below ; 2d . by the givater number of 8ix>ts on the 
thorax (5 instead of 1); :M. oy the scutel being |jalc, not 
dark ; and 4th . by the disk of the elytra not being unicolored 
and uniformly punctured. 



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80 in sucb and such a locality. The Editors 
might just as well tell us, by way of important 
and interesting news, that ''THE man" was 
elected to the United States Senate from such 
and such a State, and that immediately upon 
his election he married "THE woman." 



SCIENTIFIC NOMENCLATURE. 

A correspondent from California, Mr. C. P. 
Faulkner, puts the following questions to us, 
the answers to which wo propose to give in the 
following article, inasmuch as those answers 
cannot be comprised in any very limited com- 
pass, and will perhaps be interesting to many 
others of our readers : 

1. How is it that the Striped Cucumber Bug 
is called ** Diahrotica vittata" in the Practical 
Entomologist, And ^^ Galeruca vittata^^ in Har- 
ris's Injurious Insects? 

2. Should ''Lytta mttata'' be called '' Upi- 
cauta vittata?^^ 

3. Should '^Lytti cinerea'^ be called "Jfo- 
crobasis FabriciiP^ 

4. Should *^ Lytta marginata''^ be called 
** Epicauta cinereaV^ 

Every scientific name for every species, whe- 
ther of animals or of plants, consists of two 
words either simple or compound, the first of 
which is the generic and the second the specific 
designation of the particular species treated of. 
In popular language the order of these two 
words is always, reversed ; for we say " White 
Oak," "Burr Oak," "Live Oak," etc., in Bot- 
any; and in Zoology "Cinnamon Bear." "Griz- 
zly Bear/' " Black Bear," etc., instead of "Oak 
White," etc., and "Bear Cinnamon," etc., as 
these same words would be arranged according 
to scientific rule. This is because scientific 
names are always Latin or what passes for 
Latin, and in Latin, as in French, the adjective 
usually follows instead of preceding the sub- 
stantive. In English, on the contrary, the ad- 
jective must almost invariably come before the 
substantive to which it belongs. 

Specific Names. 
As regards the specific name, the general rule 
in science is, that when once given and estab- 
Uebed by a suitable published description it 
must not be changed, unless it is manifestly in- 
correct and ungrammatical, or unless the same 
name has previously been applied, by some other 
author, to some other species belonging to the 
moe genus, or, technically £fpeaking, when the 
name is f pre-occupied.V For example, a vei-y 
large number of our North American Insects 
received specific names a hundred yeai*8 ago 
irom Linn^BuS; and i*etain those very same 



names to the present day. The only disputable 
point here is, what is to be done when a species 
has been named and described by B in some 
work of scientific authenticity, and when the 
name given to this species by B has been uni- 
vei*saUy received by the whole scientific world 
for ten, twenty, or perhaps even fifty years, 
provided it should subsequently be discovered 
by C that several yeai'S before B wrote and pub- 
lished, A gave to this very same species, in some 
obscure publication of perhaps^^ but little or 
no value, another and a very diflerent nanie, 
along with some kind of brief description. Ac- 
cording to what is known as the " Law of Pri- 
ority," interpreted in its utmost rigor, A's 
name takes precedence of B's, and all the labels 
in all the Cabinets in Christendom have to be 
changed so far as regards this particular species. 
Why? Because it is held that A, who is sup- 
posed to have established a kind of scientific 
pre-emption to his new species, will be unjustly 
treated and dishonored, if his scientific name is 
not adopted, although perhaps the description 
upon which that name is based is so brief, ob- 
scure, incorrect and unsatisfactory, that it is 
very doubtful whether it really applies to B's 
species, which may have been described by B 
fully, clearly and correctly. And yet, in the 
majority of such cases as these, A is in his 
grave, and perhaps it would have been a posi- 
tive benefit to science if he had never been born. 
So that the practical result is, that, for the sake 
of appeasing the indignant ghost Of some ob- 
scure and long-forgotten naturalist of the last 
century, all the naturalists of the present day 
are to be inconvenienced, and a great deal of 
valuable time is to be expended in studying 
out mere scientific phrases, which time might be 
employed to much better advantage in studying 
out new scientific /ac^«. 

The popular reader can form no notion of 
what a nuisance this perpetual disinterment of 
old buried names has become in the Ecientific 
world, but by putting an analogous case in 
common life. Suppose a set of industrious an- 
tiquaries were to busy themselves in investigat- 
ing the genealogies of all the leading business 
men in the United States, and were to prove by 
the most satisfactory documents from the differ- 
ent Heralds' Colleges in Europe, that Smith's 
correct name was Jones, and Thompson's pro- 
per appellation was Johnson, and Cook's real 
title was Taylor ; and suppose it was the estab- 
lished law that all these unfortunate men had 
to give up their old names and take up with the 
new-fangled ones. What confusion there would 
then be between the old firms of Smith & 



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Thompson or Cook & Smith, aud the new firms 
of Jones & Johnson, or Taylor & Jones? How 
everybody would be bothered and tormented, 
for no earthly purpose, except for the special 
gratification of the very learned antiquaries 
who, by toiling without pay or reward for a 
long series of years, and by covering themselves 
with the dust of all the libraries in Europe, had 
made these most valuable and important discov- 
eries! It is just so in Science. This year an 
insect bears the specific name which it has borne 
for the last ton or twelve years. Next year 
some entomological archaeologist, who knows a 
great deal more about books than about bugs, 
insists upon its receiving a new name, being an 
old name which he is of opinion was given to 
this same insect fifty years ago by some ancient 
author. Well, the obedient scientific world 
submits to his dictum — relabels its cabinets — 
and begins gradually to acquire the habit of 
addressing Mr. Smith as '' Mr. Jones." But — 
lo and behold I — the very next year there comes 
a still more recondite antiquary, covei*ed three 
inches deeper with learned dust than his prede- 
cessor, and insists upon it that this very same 
bug was named and described one hundred 
years ago by an old forgotten author, whose 
writings are now completely out of date I Alas 
for the poor helpless victims of the inexorable 
" Law of Priority I" Everybody has to adopt 
the newly-discovered name; and while nineteen 
naturalists out of every twenty curse these arch- 
aeologist, in their hearts, as the greatest of all 
possible scientific nuisances, they yet laud them 
most vigorously in public, as ornaments of sci- 
ence and discoverers of the most important 
truths. But we have not yet arrived at the last 
scene in this scientific farce. After our two an. 
tiquaries have successively covered themselves 
with glory by rebaptlzing twice over the very 
same insect, some ingenious person comes along 
who has access to some European Cabinet of 
Insects, in which original specimens of several 
of ^e species named by old authors are pre- 
served. Upon carefully examining these speci- 
mens, he discovers that the two antiquaries are 
both of them mistaken, and that the two species 
described by the two old authora are quite dif- 
ferent from that which has given rise to all this 
wilderness of assertions and argument. The 
result of course is, that we have to return to the 
original name, and all the cabinets in the world 
have for the third time to receive new labels. 
To recur once more to our homely illustration 
from popular life — we are first compelled to 
call Mr. Smith '' Mr. Jones," and then just as 
we are getting used to calling him '^ Jones," 



we have to give up " Jones " and take perforce 
to "Thompson" or "Cook." And finally, af- 
ter all this useless and wearisome chopping and 
changing, we have to return like a dog to bis 
vomit and call Mr. Smith by his original appel- 
lation of " Smith." 

Certain scientific associations and certain au- 
thors — Dr. Schaum for example — have endeav- 
ored to limit and restrict the above abuse of the. 
" Law of Priority." For ourselves, we must 
confess that we agi*ee with Dr. Schaum and the 
rest of that school ; but at present the fashion 
tends in the contrary direction, and naturalists 
are now, many of them, as busily occupied in 
discovering new names as ladies are in invent- 
ing new bonnets, and perhaps with much the 
same benefits to the cause of science. To us, it 
appears that a single new fact about the habits 
of an insect, or a single new idea upon its cor- 
rect position in the scale of classification, are of 
far more importance than the knowledge of 
what particular name it bore some fifty or a 
hundred years ago. Of course such inquiries 
as these last are to a certain extent interesting 
and instructive ; and so it is just as well for as 
to know that New York was formerly called 
"New Amsterdam," and that London was 
known to the ancient Ilomans, not as London, 
but as " Londinium." Nobody, however, but 
a fool or a madman would try to persuade the 
modem Gothamites to call their great city 
" New Amsterdam," or the English cockneys to 
have their letters addressed to "Londinium," 
because these were the old original names. And 
yet what men of the world would never dream 
of doing, certain scientific men are busily en- 
gaged in doing every day. For unfortunately 
the entomological antiquaries ai^ never satisfied 
with simply proving to their own satisfaction 
that cei'tain species, now universally known by 
certain specific names, were known a long time 
ago under other names. But they will insist 
upon having the privilege of forcing these old- 
fashioned names down the throata of their 
neighbors, by virtue of this tremendous " Law 
of Priority." 

To apply the above i-emarks to the third and 
fourth questions of our correspondent : About 
the middle of the last century a Grerman author 
called Foerster, is thought to have named and 
described as the "Ash-gray Blister-beetle" 
{dnered) the very same species of insects, 
which Fabricins several years afterwards named 
and described as the " Margined Blister-beetle" 
(marginata)f and which was for a long series of 
subsequent years known in the scientific world 
exclusively by this latter specific name. As 



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both Harris and Fitch make use of this name, 
and it has thus become familiarized to the popu- 
lar ear in America, we ourselves adopted it in our 
first Yolnme (page 25) . And thinking as we do 
of the necessity of not pushing the " Law of 
Priority " to its exti'emest point, we maintain 
tliat this name, the " Margined Blister-beetle," 
having been once firmly established and receiv- 
ed in science, ought never to be changed. Of 
course, the ultra advocates of the ^^ Law of Pri- 
ority '' will be of the contrary opinion; and this 
being a free country, everybody can think and 
act for himself. After all, it is a mere question 
of words and not o£ things; and even those that 
maintain such changes as these to be necessary 
will allow that they are an unmitigated nui- 
sance. 

On the whole, such scientific reconstructions 
strike us very much like those heraldic anoma- 
lies of the British aristocracy, according to 
which the man whom we read of in histoiy 
as Dauby, subsequently becomes Marquis Car- 
marthen, and finally Duke of Leeds. Or we 
may compare them to the ancient law of the 
Sandwich Islandere, that, on the death of every 
King of those islands, so many 6coi*e words in 
their language should be radically changed, so 
that, instead of " bread" and " stone " for ex- 
ample, being called '^ whang" and ^'choch," 
they should, in commemoration of the deceased 
monarch, be forever thereafter known as 
"chum" and "fum." 

If the reader adopts the views expressed by 
us above, " the Ash-gray Blister-beetle " (cine- 
red) is the correct specific name for the species 
which was designated by this appellation by 
Fabricius after Foerster published his work. If, 
however, the Margined Blister-beetle is to be 
rechristened as " the Ash-gray Blister-beetle," 
in accordance with the strict Law of Priority, 
then the specific name of " Ash-gray " (cinerea) 
is preoccupied, provided we refer both insects 
to the same genus. And in that event no new 
specific name can be more appropriate and in 
accordance with rule than Fabricii, We can- 
not nuderstand, however, why both insects 
should not bear the same specific name (cinerea), 
provided they are referred to difi*erent and dis- 
tinct genera, as is now generally done in purely 
scientific works. 

In any case, if we are careful to add to the 
specific name the name of its author, there can 
practically be no confusion or mistake. Every- 
body, for example, will underatand at once, 
that ^^Lytta dnerea, Foerster," means the 
Blister-beetle described under the name of 
cinerea by Foerster and " Lytta cinerea, Fabri- 



cius" means the very different Blister-beetle 
subsequently described under the very same 
name of cinerea by Fabricius. 

Generic Names. 
As a general rule, species may be considered 
aft having a real existence in nature, and as cre- 
ations which, however much they may become 
changed and modified in a long series of indefi- 
nite ages, are yet practically unchangeable 
within the veiy limited times to which the 
knowledge of the present generation extends. 
Take, for example, the magnificent group of 
Moths formerly comprised by LinnsBus under 
his extensive genus AttactiSy to which the Poly^ 
pJiemus Moth, figured on page 121 of our first 
volume, belongs. In the United States there 
are four species of this group commonly met 
with, besides two or three others which are 
more or less rare. Thousands of specimens of 
each of these four species pass annually through 
the hands of American Entomologists ; and yet 
nobody ever met with a single specimen, which 
could not be referred at a glance to its appro- 
priate species. With genera the case is very 
different. It will be allowed on all hands that 
a genus is not a definite and unchangeable crea- 
tion — the same in the days of our grandfathers 
as it is now, and likely to remain the same till 
the days of our grandchildren. On the con- 
trary, genera in the scientific world are in a 
constant state of fiuctuatlon, two or three old 
genera being sometimes amalgamated together 
to form a new one, but the more usual tendency 
being for one old genus to be split up into sev- 
eral new ones. For instance, the four splendid 
Moths referred to above, which in the times of 
LinnsBUS and his immediate followers were all 
considered as belonging to the same genus, are 
now referi*ed by almost all scientific entomolo- 
gists to three distinct genera, and in the opinion 
of some few are divided among no less than 
four — or a genus for every single species. No 
doubt, in the great majority of cases, this sub- 
division of one old genus into several new ones 
is a benefit to science and a great practical con- 
venience to the student. When, for example, 
an old genus contains a very great number of 
species — say fifty or a hundred — and we wish to 
ascertain whether a species that belongs to it 
has been already described, we then have to 
compai*e our species with no less than fifty or a 
hundred different descriptions before we can 
decide the question one way or the other. 
Whereas if this unwieldy old genns had been 
separated by well-marked characters into four 
pr five pew genera, each containing some twen^ 



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ty-five or ^mhy species, we should manifestly 
Uien have a much smaller number of descrip- 
tions. to refer to. It must be confessed, how- 
ever, that in many instances small genera, con- 
taining but a very few species, are unnecessa- 
rily cut up into a number of new genei-a each 
containing but one or two species, while on the 
other hand large unwieldy genera are rendered 
still more unwieldy by amalgamating them 
with other large genera. Usually this latter 
process is had recourse to, because one or more 
species are discovered, which form a sort of 
transitional stage or intermediate grade between 
the two large genera. Such species are gener- 
ally called " aberrant;" and probably, if all thie 
species that ever existed in the world in all geo- 
logical time were placed side by side, there 
would be no two genera in Nature, that would 
not then graduate into one another impercepti- 
bly ty such aberrant forms. In such a case as 
the above, therefore, instead of uniting two 
large genera^ and thereby making the rich 
richer still, as by splitting up small genera the 
poor arc made poorer stUl, the appropriate 
course seems to be indicated by Audubon and 
Bachman in the following passage : 

In every department of Natural History, a 
species is occasionally found which forms the 
connecting link between two genera, rendering 
it doubtful under which genus it should pro- 
perly bo arranged. Under such circumstances, 
the Naturalist is obliged to ascertain, by careful 
examination, the vanous predominating chai*- 
acteristics, and finally place it under the genus 
to which it bears the closest affinity in all its 
details. — History N. A, Quadrupeds^ Vol. II, 
page 215. 

Up to a comparatively recent date, the general 
opinion has been that generic characters should 
be founded exclusively upon structural peculi- 
arities, and that color is not a generic but a spe- 
cific distinction. It is now, however, beginning 
to be recognized in science, that there are cer- 
tain colors and colorational patterns peculiar 
to almost eveiy genus, and which are therefore 
as tioily generic characters as the minutiae of 
structure usually employed for that purpose. 
Take, for example, a few of our largest and best 
known genera of Butterflies. "We shall find 
that Argynnis is usually some shade of tawney- 
red with zigzag lines running across its wings 
in a very remarkable pattern ; while Hippar- 
chia and its allies are brown with eye-like spots 
transversing its wings near their tips; and 
Colias ranges from white through sulphur-yel- 
low to orange, with the tips of its wings black 
and a small silvery spot in the middle of each 
wing below. It is on this account, as well as 



for other reasons, that we believe those authors 
to be in error, who have referred our N. A. 
Cecropia and Promethea moths and the Asiatic 
Cynthia moth to three distinct genera ; for in 
all three may be found very nearly the same 
coloring and the same very peculiar col6ratioiial 
pattern. 

To return to the questions asked by our cor- 
respondent: The old and very extensive genus 
Zytta has been very satisfactorily divided by 
Dr. Le Conte into a number of new genera, 
such as Macrobasis, Fomphopaeay etc. If we 
were writing a purely scientific Paper for the 
Proceedings of some learned Society, we should 
certainly name the insects specified by Mr. 
F&ulkuGr 08 Upicaut a vittata, Fabr., Macroba- 
sis cinereay Fabr., and Epicauta marginata^ 
Fabr., instead of referring them all three to the 
old genus Lytta, But writing as we do for the 
popular eye, and endcavoiing to simplify as 
much OS possible that technical nomenclature, 
which in spite of all the sauce we can serve it 
up with is still so distasteful to many palates, 
we have preferred to follow Dr. Harris's exam- 
ple and use the more generally known gen- 
eric appellation for all these thi*ee insects. 
For similar reasons. Hams called the Striped 
Cucumber Beetle Oaleruca vittata, instead of 
Diabroiica viltaia, Galei'uca being the old 
genus, which included a great number of the 
less extensive modern genera, such as ZH'a- 
brotica. 

One word more and we have done with this 
somewhat dry subject. It should never be for- 
gotten that scientific nomenclature is a means 
and not an end. It is necessary to be able to 
name with accuracy and precision each organ- 
ized being, before we can record any knowledge 
that we may have acquired concerning it, or 
understand such knowledge when recorded by 
others. And as Law is said to be '* the perfec- 
tion of human reason," so Science may be per- 
haps sufficiently well characterized as the per- 
fection of human accui-acy. But to learn by 
rote the names of a great number of organisms, 
without any intention of applying what we 
have learned to any ulterior purpose, and with, 
out troubling our head one particle about the 
grand system upon which all scientific classifi- 
cation is based; is about as unprofitable a task 
as the human mind can be employed in. 



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I^* Should a number of the Entomologist, 
through whatever cause, fail to reach any of our 
subscribers, we will cheerfully send another one 
upon being informed of the fact. 



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9 



ON THE PRESERVATION OP ENTOMOLOGICAIi 
CABINETS. 

BY JOHH L. LBCOXTB, M. D. 
CFtom tlM AmericMi Katanlist Ibr Aniput, 1M>. ] 

I have tried at various times many experi- 
ments for the preservation of collections of in- 
sects, but with such limited success that I did 
not think the I'esults obtained worth publishing'. 
For the sake of deterring others from pursuing 
these different lines of unsuccessful attempts, it 
would be useful, perhaps, to give a brief ac- 
count of my failures befoi*e describing a pro- 
cess recently devised, which seems to be both 
simple and effective. 

Corrosive sublimate and various preparations 
of arsenic have been recommended by several 
high authorities. The former, even when most 
diluted, will finally render the pin brittle by the 
amalgam developed ; the latter, when used in a 
very weak alcoholic solution so as to leave no 
effloresence on the specimens, will preserve 
them well, but it is troublesome to apply, as the 
insects must be thoroughly soaked with the 
fluid before being placed in the cabinet. Binar- 
seniate of potassa being deliquescent, sug- 
gested itself to mo as a material that might be 
applied in greater strength, and many years a^o 
I prepared two boxes of specimens with it. 
They had a good appearance for some time, and 
have never been attacked, but eventually a con- 
siderable deposit or efflorescence came on the 
surface, so that the specimens required cleaning 
before they conld be used for study. 

Painting the interior of the boxes with arsen- 
ious acid was also only partially successful ; I 
have seen, though not often, living larvae of 
Trogoderma in boxes thus prepared. 

TIaving thus failed in finding any satisfactory 
mineral poison I then tried the vegetable 
alkaloids. 

I soaked specimens in moderately strong al- 
coholic solutions of strychnia and picrotoxia, 
dried them, and put them into pill boxes with 
Trogoderma larvsB. After some weeks the 
specimens were partly eaten, and the larvaB 
transfoi-med into perfect insects. 

The efiects of benzine and carbolic acid are 
powerful, but only temporary. The former is 
preferable on account of its less disagreeable 
odor, and may be used by pouring about a tea- 
spoonful in each box ; it must be renewed evei:y 
four or &ve months. 

Packing the collection in chests painted with 
coal-tar has been also recommended, and would 
certainly be efficient, but troublesome, and ren- 
ders the collection, practically, nearly useless 
for study, on account of the difficulty of access 
to the boxes. Surgical art has, however, ^iven 
to us an instrument by which a poisonous liouid 
can be rapidly and most effectively applied to 
the entire surface of largo numbers of specimens 
as tlmey stand in the cabinet boxes, without the 
trouble of moving them . I refer to the Atomizer. 
Opinions may vary as to the nature of the liquid 
poison to be used, but after several trials I have 
lound the following formula to be quite satis- 
fiictory; it produces no efflorescence, even on 
the most highly polished species, while the odor 



is quite strong, and persistent enough to destroy 
any larvae or eggs that may be already in the 
box: 

Saturated alcoholic solution of arsenious acid, 
eight fluid ounces; Strychnine, twelve grains; 
Crystallized carbolic acid, one drachm; Mineral 
naphtha (or heavy benzine) and strong alcohol, 
enough to make one quart. 

I have not stated the quantity of naphtha, since 
there are some varieties of light petroleum in 
commerce which dissolve in alcohol only to a 
slight extent. These should not be used. The 
heavier oils which mix indefinitely with alcohol 
are the proper ones, and for the two pints of 
mixture ten to twelve fluid ounces of the naphtha 
will be sufficient. 

Care should be taken to test the naphtha on a 
piece of paper. If it leaves a greasy stain 
which does not disappear after a few hours, it is 
not suitable for this purpose. 

The best form of atomizer is the long, plated, 
reversible tube; it should be worked with a 
gum elastic pipe, having two bulbs to secure 
uniformity in the current. The atomizing glass 
tubes and' the bottle which usually accompany 
the apparatus are unnecessary: a common nar- 
row-necked two ounce bottle will serve per- 
fectly to hold the fluid. 

I trust that the use of the means here indicated 
may render the pi-eservation of insect collec- 
tions less troublesome than heretofore, and thus 
increase the interest of amateurs who fix)- 
quently become disgusted with the science 
of entomology, by seeing the results of years 
of active and intelligent labor destroyed by 
a few months of inattention, or by careless- 
ness in introducing infected specimens. 



KDiLING APPLE-WORMS BY MACfflNERT. 

The world certainly moves I Men are con- 
stantly making discoveries, which though trivial 
in themselves, gi*eatly benefit their fellow-men. 
The hay-band remedy against the Apple- worm 
(Carpocapsa pomonella, Linn.) is an excellent 
one, but we are obliged to seek for the worms 
which spin up under it, and crush each one 
separately. Mr. D. N. Brown, an enterprising 
fruit-grower of St. Joseph, Mich., ha$ however 
devised a plan of slaughtering them by whole- 
sale, which commends itself to the good sense 
of every apple-grower. Here it is, as given in 
a late number of the St. Joseph Herald, by our 
friend and cori*espondent, L. P. Haskell of that 
place: 

♦Tlace early in June rags, not hay bands, in the forks 
of the tree, or trunk below the lower limb, and in these 
the larv» will secrete themselves to enter the chrysalis 
state. Once in two weeks remove these rags, and de- 
stroy the insects. Mr. Brown does it verv quickly and 
effectively by passing the rags through a clothes-^vnnger. 
In this manner he believes the nuisance may be got rid 
of; and yet the effort will bo useless unless every owner 
of an orchard does the same thing. There must heuniied 
effort. Let every man feel it his duty to urge his neigh- 
bor to act at once and persistently, rememberhig that, 
'eternal vigilance is the price of^--^oodfrteU, ' ' 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



A POTTER-WASP. 

( Odynerut flavipet t Fabr . ) 

Iq oar article on ** Wasps and their Habits," 
in Vol. I, No. 7, of the American Entomolo- 
gist, we showed how the various kinds of soli- 
tary Wasp? provisioned their ne^^ts with differ- 
ent kind? of insects and spiders-^how they first 
stung these little creatures so as to paralyze but 
not to kill them— and how the egg deposited by 
the mother-wasp, along with this living but dor- 
mant prey, subsequently hatched out into a soft 
defenseless larva, which fed at its ease upon the 
living provisions accumulated and stored up 
with such provident care by the author of its 
being. On page 138 we cursorily referred to 
the genus Odynerus — a very extensive group of 
the Solitary True Wasps, of which there are no 
less than ninety-nine described species found in 
North America. Several European species be- 
longing to this genus are known to provision 
their nests with green lepidopterous larva), some 
of them excavating holes in sandy banks, some 
building their nests in the interstices of stone 
walls, and some selecting for that purpose wood 
that had been honey-combed by boring larvse. 
We have a small North American species in our 
collection, which had made two nests in the 
central hole of a common wooden spool upon 
which cotton had been wound, closing up each 
end of the hole with tempered clay and separa- 
ting one nest from the other by a partition of 

[Fig. 4.] 




Colors— >(c) black and yellow. 

the same material. (See Fig. 4, a.) For this 
specimen and the spool in which the nests had 
been constructed we ai'e indebted to Miss Ma- 
rion Hobart, of Port Byron, N. Ills. Quite re- 
cently we have received a much larger species, 
which we figure herewith {Odynerus flavipesf 
Fabr., Fig. 4, c), from Mr. E. Daggy, of Tuscola, 
Central Illinois, with the following acconnt of 
its operations: 

Enclosed I send you five small worms, one 
brown and four green ones. They came to my 
notice as follows : I was sitting in the sanctum 
of the Journal office this morning, and saw a 



yellow Jacket or wasp deposit one of these 
worms in a hole in the top of a common black 
wooden ink-stand which was upon the table 
just beiore me. After the wasp had coiled it 
down nicely it left, and I of course examined to 
see what was done . I saw there were more than 
the single worm, so I left it, to await results. 
Presently the wasp returned, but not with a 
worm, and worked some little time with its 
head in the hole where the worms were. Aft«r 
ic left, I noticed that the hole was sealed over 
with mud; presently it returned with still more 
mud, and thrice this operation was performed. 
On examining the contents of the hole in the 
ink-stand, I found, to my astonishment, thirty- 
five worms in it, doubtless the work of the same 
wasp. I send you five of these, wasp and all, 
as I have just captured it since I commenced 
writing to you. 

It has been supposed by some entomologists 
that Wasps always provision the same nest with 
the same species of insect. But the five worms 
forwarded to ub by Mr, Daggy, which averaged 
about one-third of an inch in length, although 
they were all the larvae of small moths, mostly 
leaf- rollers, yet belonged to at least three dis- 
tinct species. Along with them was sent a 
Wasp-larva which had attained maturity and 
already spun its cocoon, showing that there 
must have been more than one nest built by the 
mother wasp in the hole in the ink-stand, and 
that the tenant of the bottommost nest had al- 
ready consumed its private and peculiar stock 
of larvflB and was preparing to lie up for the 
winter. In the cotton-spool, which was less 
than one and a half inches long, there were, as 
we have seen, no less than two distinct nests, 
although both ends of the central hole had to be 
filled up with clay to fit it for the purpose for 
which it was employed. 

In the drawing which we have given above 
of this Potter Wasp (Fig. 4 c), the wings are 
represented as fully expanded. In repose, how- 
ever, they are always doubled over upon them- 
selves in the singular manner shown in figure 
96, page 123 of our First Volume. This is a 
remarkable peculiarity of the True Wasps 
(Diplopteryga) f not to be met with in a single 
species of the Digger Wasps (Fossores), although 
these last have precisely the same general habits 
as the Solitary True Wasps, to which our spe- 
cies appertains. The habits of the Social True 
Wasps, such as the Yellow Jackets, the Bald- 
faced Hornet, etc., are entirely different from 
those of the Solitary True Wasps ; and yet their 
wings are folded in repose in exactly the same 
manner. 



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11 



TOMATO-WORMS NOT POISONOUS. 



For some nnaccountable cause there are cer- 
tain of God'g creatures^ that everybody seems to 
take a pleasure in vilifying and slandering, 
while on the other hand there are others that 
are almost worshiped in the popular mind. 
For instance, Toads and Snakes are considered 
by most persons as all of them equally poison- 
ous and dangerous ; whereas in reality the num- 
ber of venomous snakes to be found in the 
United States may be counted on the fingers of 
one hand; and as to Toads, they may be freely 
handled with the most perfect Impunity, and 
they prove themselves to be one of the ver>*be8t 
friends to the gardener and the farmer by prey- 
ing to a great extent upon noxious insects. On 
the other hand our small birds are considered 
by many as a kind of Sacred Animal, that it 
would be as impious for us to shoot when they 
are destroying our grapes and our cherries, as 
it would be for a Hindoo to drive away the 
holy Brachman Bull when that Bull is devour- 
ing his rice-crop before his very eyes. Among 
our insect friends, however, we find but very 
few that are popular favorites, the only instance 
that occurs to us at present being that of the 
Lady-birds {CocdneUa family), which are the 
children's pets all over Europe, and are known 
in France as '* the Virgin's Cattle," and " God's 
CJows." With this exception, perhaps, all other 
insects are commonly devoted to destimction as 
ugly and hateful abominations, which it is dan- 
gerous to touch and ridiculous to admire. More 
especially are the difi*erent kinds of Caterpillars, 
or " worms*' as they are often called, which are 
the larvse of our multifarious species of Butter- 
flies and Moths, objects of the most unmiti- 
gated disgust. And perhaps of all these none 
is in worse repute than the common Tomato- 
worm. 

This larva belongs to an extensive group (the 
Sphinx Family), almost all of which have a stiff 
pointed horn growing out of their tails — a 
merely ornamental appendage, such as those 
which are distributed in considerable numbers 
over the body of the magnificent larva, which 
we illustrated in the Frontispiece to our first 
volume. Why or wherefore it is impossible to 
say, but this poor unfortunate Tomato-worm 
has been selected by the popular voice, out of 
about fifty others belonging to the same Family 
and found within the limits of the United States 
— all of which have a similar horn growing out 
of their tails — to be falsely accused of using this 
horn as a sting. The Tomato-worm and the 



Tobacco-worm ai*e as like as two peas, and pro- 
duce moths which resemble each other so closely, 
that entomologists for a long time confounded 
them together. Each has exactly the same kind 
of horn growing on the hinder extremity of its 
body ; yet while the Tomato- wonn is generally 
accused of stinging folks with this horn, nobody, 
so far as we are awai*e, ever yet said that the 
Tobacco-worm would or could do so. The real 
truth of the matter is that neither of them can 
sling, either with its tail, or with its head, or 
with any part of its body. Yet not a season 
elapses but the newspapers publish horrible 
accounts of people being stung to death by To- 
mato-worms, and earnestly recommend those 
that gather tomatoes to wear heavy buckskin 
gloves. These stories, however, have been con- 
tradicted so flatly and so often, that latterly 
the penny-a-liners have struck off upon another 
tack. Tomato-worms, it appears, do not sting 
with the horn that grows on their tails, but they 
''eject with great violence a green caustic fluid 
from their mouths to a distance of from three 
to fifteen inches " 1 1 Now what is the real truth 
about this matter? Tomato-worms do really 
discharge from their mouths, when roughly 
handled, a greenish fluid, and so do the larvad 
of almost all moths, and so does every species of 
grasshopper with which we are acquainted, and 
so do many different kinds of beetles. But it 
is not true that they can spit out this fluid even 
to the distance of a quarter of an inch, much 
less to the distance of fifteen or even of three 
inches; and especially it is not true that the 
fluid is poisonous. If it were so, we should 
have been in our graves long ago ; for we have 
had it repeatedly daubed over our fingers, but 
without the least ill effects therefrom, and so 
have scoi*es of other entomologists in this coun- 
try. The strangest thing of all is, that of two 
worms almost exactly alike, one of which eats 
tomato leaves, and the other eats tobacco leaves, 
the tomato-chewer should be accused of spitting, 
and the tobacco-chewer should be held to be 
guiltless of this offensive practice. 

Now then. Gentlemen of the Public Press, if 
Tomato-worms neither sting nor spit, what is 
the next charge that you are going to bring 
against them? Why not assert that they can 
leap a distance of from ten to twenty feet, hav- 
ing taken deadly aim at the human eyes, which 
they forthwith proceed to gouge out with their 
rough rasp-like pro-legs ? Of course you would 
follow this up by recommending everybody 
never to go near a tomato patch, without a large 
pair of green goggles to protect the eyes from 
being destroyed. 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



GOOSEBERRY AND CURRAKT WORMS. 

We candidly confess that we are discouraged. 
Nearly a year ago we published a fnll account 
of the different Potato Bugs to be found in the 
United States, showing that there are about a 
round dozen of perfectly distinct species attack- 
ing the Potato plant — some burrowing in the 
stalk, but most of them devouring the leaves — 
some infesting the plant both in the larva and 
in the perfect state, others in the perfect state 
exclusively — and most of them to be found all 
over the Union, while one of them is almost en- 
tirely confined to the Eastern States, and an- 
other is at present only to be met with in the 
West, though it is gradually advancing with 
giant strides towards the devoted East. In that 
article we further pointed out the practically 
very important fact, that different Potato Bugs 
having different habits must be attacked in dif- 
ferent modps; and that what is excellent sauce 
for the goose will often turn out to be very poor 
sauce indeed for the gander. Yet — wonderful 
to relate I— in spite of all our efforts to dissemi- 
nate correct knowledge on this subject, several 
newspapers have continued to publish para- 
graphs through the summer of 1869, showing 
how ** THE Potato Bug" has done thus and so 
in such and such a neighborhood ! They might 
just as well publish as interesting and satisfac- 
tory news, that "THE sheep" took the first pre- 
mium at such and such a Wool-growers' Conven- 
tion, or that " THE horse " won the race at the 
last meeting of the Honorable Jockey Club of 
Swindleton. 

What then, under the circumstances, are we 
to do? Shall we give up in despair and discon- 
tinue the Entomologist, simply because it is 
demonstrated by hard dry facts, that such a 
paper is urgently needed, and that the popular 
ignorance on the subject of insects urgently re- 
quires to be enlightened? Far from us be such 
faint-heartedness I We acknowledge that we 
find a great many veiy "hard cases" among 
our adult population — men who maintain 
stoutly, that it is beneath the dignity of the 
human species to pay any attention to these in- 
finitesimally minute little creatures, which are 
every day picking our pockets of untold mil- 
lions of dollars. But we have great faith in the 
rising generation. School Superintendents are 
now beginning to recognize the fact, that Natu- 
ral History is not only a very pleasing, but 
practically a most important study ; and that as 
insects outnumber tenfold all the other animals 
in the world put together, so they annually in- 



flict upon us ten times as much pecuniary dam- 
age as all the other animals in the world put to- 
gether. Hence the very legitimate inference is 
drawn, that of all the various departments of 
Natural History, Entomology-, viewed in the 
light of dollars and cents, is of the greatest 
practical importance; and but for the want of 
competent teachers and suitable text books, it 
would no doubt be intix)duced at once, as a reg- 
ular branch of study, into all our best schools. 
We would suggest, however, to those who have 
such matters under their official charge, that 
where there is a demand there will always sooner 
or later be a supply; and that the very best way 
to create a demand for good Entomological Text- 
books, suited to the comprehension of children, 
is to disseminate among children a tASte for the 
more pleasing and popular branches of Ento- 
mology. It is for the express purpose of creat- 
ing such a taste in the public mind, that oar 
Magazine has been set on foot; and in spite of 
our well-known modesty, we cannot help 
throwing out a hint here, that worse text-books 
than the American Entomologist might on a 
diligent search be found in some of our public 
schools. But we must stop here. The pub- 
lisher gravely admonishes us, that if our little 
work were generally introduced into all our 
Public Schools, or even into all our High 
Schools, it would be utterly impossible for him, 
with his present typographical facilities, to sup- 
ply the demand for it. Such an idea, if pi*acti- 
cally carried out, would certainly ruin him ; for 
he would then have to purchase, at a vast ex- 
pense, one of the Patent Forty-Cylinder Print- 
ing-presses, that throw off 1,639.141 impressions 
every five minutes. 

We have deteimined, therefore, upon a cool 
consideration of the state of the case, not to be 
daunted or discouraged, because a few benighted 
individuals will still persist in talking about 
" THE Potato Bug," instead of telling us in so 
many words whether they mean the Colorado 
Potato Bug, or .the Ash-gray Blister-beetle, 
or the Three-lined Leaf-beetle, or whatever 
the particular species of Potato Bug may 
be that is destroying their potato- vines. 
We have thrown our bread upon the waters ; 
we hope and believe that, after many days, or 
at all events after many years, it will be found 
and appreciated by the world. In the mean- 
time, with unflagging resolution and unabated 
confidence, we shall proceed with our task. We 
have already given a complete history, illus- 
trated by figures, of the different bugs that afflict 
the Irish Potato. We have done the same thing 



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13 



with those that infest the Sweet Potato. We 
have commenced a series of articles, throwing 
light upon the multifarions species that destroy 
the health and vigor of the Grapc-yine. In the 
present Paper we propose to give the Natural 
History of three perfectly distinct kinds of 
worms, or larvie as they would be more pro- 
perly termed, that devour the foliage of the 
Currant and the Gooseberi-y* There are other 
larvse that bore into the stems or twigs of one 
or both of these plants, and should rather be 
called "Borers" than "Worms;" but with 
these we have at present nothing to do. In a 
future Paper we shall perhaps treat of these last 
by themselves. 

The Currant and the Gooseberry, although 
the general appearance of the two plants is very 
different, and although almost all the species of 
Gooseberry are thoniy and bear each fruit upon 
a separate stem, while all the species of Cunant 
are devoid of thorns and bear their fruit in a 
peculiar kind of bunch technically known as a 
" raceme," are yet referred by Botanists to the 
same genus {Ribes), Our common Garden 
Grooseberry {Ribes grossularia) has been intro- 
duced among us from Europe; but we have 
four wild species commonly found in the North- 
em States ; and besides these four there is a Cal- 
ifomian species, the Showy GoosebeiTy (^. sped- 
omm)f which is sometimes cultivated as an orna- 
mental plant in our gardens, for the sake of its fine 
deep-red hanging flowe]*s and red stamens. On 
the contrary, our common Garden Red Currant 
(B. rubrum), of which the White Currant is a 
mere variety, is indigenous in the more noi*th- 
erly of the Northern States fi'om New Hamp- 
shire to Wisconsin, although it is also a native 
of Europe ; while on the other hand the Black 
Currant of our gardens (R, nigrum) is a Euro- 
pean plant, and is thought by the best authors 
to be distinct ft*om our American Wild Black 
Currant (R. Jloridum) . Besides the above we 
have three other Currants peculiar to America. 
One of these, the Missouri or Buffalo Currant 
(S.aureMm), grows wild in the Far West and 
is often cultivated in gardens, where its small, 
bright-yellow, spicy-scented flowers are veiy 
conspicuous in the early spring. Another of 
them, peculiar to Oregon and Califoi'uia, the 
Red-flowered Currant {R, sanguinetun) , is also 
occasionally grown as an ornamental plant on 
this side of the Rocky Mountains. 

We have entered into these botanical details, 
because it is a remarkable fact that the three 
different Currant and Gooseberry Worms, now 
to be brought under our notice, all of them attack 
almost indiscriminately in our gardens the Red 



CuiTant and the GoosebeiTy, while they are 
none of them ever found upon our cultivated 
Black CuiTant or, so far as is known, upon our 
wild Black Currant. On the other hand our 
common imported Currant Borer (^geria 
tipuUformis) infests the Red or White Cun*ant, 
but is never found in the twigs of the cultivated 
Black Cunant or in those of the GoosebeiTy, 
whether wild or tame ; while our wild Black 
Currant has a peculiar borer of its own {jEgeria 
caudaia), belonging to the very same genus as 
the impoi-ted species which attacks the Red 
Currant; and we ourselves recently noticed, in 
the grounds of Mr. D. F. Kinney at Rock Island, 
111,, that the tips of the rank vigorously grow- 
ing twigs of the tame Black Currant were ex- 
tensively bored on the last of June by that very 
general feeder the Stalk Worm ( Gortyna 
nitela),* Finally, the common CuiTant Plant- 
louse {Aphis ribis) — a species introduced among 
us from Europe — may be noticed almost every 
spring in every patch of Red Currants, curling 
up the leaves in gieat numbers into blister-like 
elevations, on the inferior surface of which it 
resides; while neither this particular species of 
Plant-louse, nor any other species so far as we 
are aware, is ever met with either upon the 
Gooseberry, whether wild or tame, or upon the 
Black Cun*ant, whether wild or tame. These 
facts may seiTC to show us how unsafe it is to 
infer that, because one insect can thrive upon a 
number of different species of a particular genus 
of plants, therefore another insect can do the 
same thing. 

The Gooseberry Span-worm. 
{Miopia [Ahraxa»\ Hbearia, Fitch.) 

This may be at once distinguished from any 
other worm, found either on Gooseberry or Cur- 
rant, by its being what is popularly called a 
"measuring-worm" or span-woi*m. The an- 
nexed sketch (Fig. 6) shews this lai-va in three 
different positions, No. 1 representing it in profile 
in the looping attitude, and No. 2 giving a dor- 
sal view of it as it hangs suspended by a thi*ead. 
When full-grown it measures about an inch, 
and is of a bright yellow color, with lateral 
white lines and numerous black spots and round 
dots. The head is white, with two large black 
eye-like spots on the outer sides above and two 
smaller ones beneath. The six true legs are 
black and the four pro-legs yellow. It attains 
its growth about the middle of June, when it 
descends to the ground and either burrows a 



* Figured with ite larva in Amkr. Entom. I. page 22, fig. 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



little below the surface or hides under any rub- 
bish that may be lying there; but in neither 

[Fig. 5] 




Colors— (I and 2) yellow, black and white; (3) mahogany 
brown. 

case does it form any cocoon. Shortly after this 
it changes to a chiysalis (Fig. 5, No. 3), of the 
usual shape and shining mahogany brown color. 
After remaining in the pupa state about four- 
teen days, it bursts the pupa shell and in the 
forepart of July appears as a moth (Fig. 6), of 
a pale nankin yellow color, the wings shaded 
with faint dusky leaden-colored spots arranged 
so as not to present any [Fig. 6] 

definite pattern. The. 
sexes then couple as 
usual, and the female 
lays her eggs on the 
branches and twigs of 
the bushes. Owing to 

this peculiarity, the ^j^^__p^,^ ^^^j^^ ^^^ ,^j^, 
species is frequently lead-ooior. 

carried in the egg state upon transplanted bushes 
from one neighborhood to another; which ac- 
counts for its sudden appearance in parts where 
it was before unknown. For there is but one 
brood of this insect in one year, and the eggs 
must consequently, like those of the Tent-worm 
of the Apple-tree, be exposed, on the twigs and 
limbs to which they are attached, to all the heats 
of July and August without hatching out, and 
to all the frosts of December and January with- 
out freezing out. At length, when the proper 
time arrives, and the gooseberry and currant 
bu«hes are out in full leaf so as to afford plenty 
of food, the tiny but tough little egg hatches 




out about the latter end of May, and in a little 
more than three weeks the worms attain their 
full larval development. 

This Gooseberry Span-worm was first noticed 
near Chic^igo in 1862 or '63; and for two or 
three years aftei-wards it increased rapidly, so 
as in most gardens not to leave a single leaf on 
the gooseberry, and in many instances to en- 
tirely strip the currant bushes. It is quite 
common also in St. Louis and Jefierson counties 
in Missouri, and for the past two seasons has 
entirely stripped the Gooseberry bushes on 
many farms in these counties. Elsewhere in 
the Western States it is not by any means com- 
mon ; but in many localities in the East it has 
been a severe pest for a great number of years, 
especially in the States of New York and Penn- 
sylvania. Near Rock Island, 111., in the course 
of twelve years collecting, we only met with 
one solitary specimen of the moth, although 
there are plenty of wild gooseberries growing 
in the woods there, which plant was in all 
probability its original home, before the intro- 
duction into this countiy of the cultivated 
gooseberry. We have observed that the species 
shows a decided preference for the gooseberry, 
always attacking that plant first when growing 
side by side with the currant. Hence we have 
given it the English name of the " Grooseberry 
Span-worm," to distinguish it from the Imported 
Currant Wonn next to be treated of, which con- 
versely prefers the Currant to the Gooseberry. 
In reality, however, as we hinted before, the 
" Gooseberry Span-worm " frequently becomes 
a Currant Span-worm, and the ^'Imported 
Currant Worm" is often to be met with per- 
forming the part of an Imported Gooseberry 
Worm. 

It should be carefully observed that the Groose- 
beri7 Span-worm is a native American insect, 
not to be found on the other side of the Atlantic. 
In Eui*ope, indeed, there is an allied span-woi-m 
(Abraxas grossulariata), which infests their 
gooseberry and currant bushes much in the same 
way as our indigenous species infests our 
bushes ; but the larva and especially the perfect 
moth are marked very differently.* We men- 
tion this fact, because it was eiToncously stated 
four years ago in an Article in the Prairie 
Farmery that the two were identical; and be- 
cause, as we shall show in a future article, the 
truth is here of some considerable scientific in- 
terest and involves some very curious conse- 
quences. 



•Figures of both wiU be found in Westw. hUrod, n. 
886, Figi. lands. 



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15 



The Imported Currant-worm. 

{Nematus ventricotus, Klug.)* 

It is only about a dozen years since this most 
pemicioas enemy to the Currant and Goose- 
berry was introduced from Europe into the 
United States. So far as can be ascertained, it 
made its first appearance among us in the neigh- 
borhood of Rochester, N. Y., and is supposed 
to have been imported along with some goose- 
berry bushes from Europe by the celebrated 
Rochester nurserymen, Messrs. Ellwanger & 
Barry. In nine yeai's time, besides colonizing 
in other directions, it had gi-adually spread to 
Washington Co., N. Y., on the east side of the 
Hudson River — a total distance of about 225 
miles. Thus, as it appears, it traveled at the 
average rate of some 25 miles a year, establish- 
ing a permanent colony wherever it went, and 
not passing through the country as a mere 

•In the Practical Entomologist for September, 1866, 
the Senior Editor pablished the first complete tiistory of this 
Insect, na it exists in the United States, and in an Apiiendix 
to the Article gmve its fhll scientific synonymy, showing 
that, in accordance with the Law of Priority, its correct 
name was Nematus ventricotut, Klug, and that, according 
to SneUen Yon VollenhoTen. this was as early as 1859 the 
receiTed name for the species in Europe. As is stated in 
that Article, the species was first describecl by Klng4n the 
year 1S19 under the above specific name, and it was not till 
four years afterwards that St. Faigeau blunderingly de- 
scribe the male under the specific name of affinity and the 
female under the s|)eciflc name of frtmocuia/tM— thus manu- 
ftcturing two species out of one ! Two years after the abo^e 
Paper from the pen of the Senior Editor had been published, 
Dr. Fitch gave to the world an Article on this subject in the 
Trmuaetion* of the New York State Agricultural Society for 
1867, pp. 909—932 In this Article, though he incidentally 
remarks (p. 910) that the same Insect had been described by 
another author under the name of ventricottu, he yet adopts 
St. Fargeau's name for it, or rather that one of St. Far- 
geau's two names which applies exclusively to the female 
sex-^iamely ** trimaculattu.** This, however, is a trifling 
matter; for although Dr. Fitch has nreqnently busied him- 
self in upsetting old established names, and in accordance 
wlththerigidljawof Priority supplanting those old names 
by stiU older ones, which he has chosen to resurrect from 
the buried dust of ages, we ourselves attach but little im- 
portance to this kind of scientific legerdemain. But Dr. 
Fitch has not been satisfied with adopting St. Fargeau's 
name published in 1823 in preference to King's name pub- 
lished in 1819, thus flying in the face of that verv Law of 
Priority, for which he ts generally so great a stickler: he 
most also adopt Sf . Paiveau's blunder in giving that name. 
It wUl scarcely be believed, but it is positively and abso- 
lutely true, that Dr. Fitch describes exclusively the female 
sex of this insect, and pabns it off upon his readers as a de- 
84sription of both sexes f (See pp. 926-7) . Yet the males are 
almost entirely black and the females almost entirely yel- 
low; so that a description that suits the female is altogether 
inapplicable to the male. Nor is this an unusual thing 
among the Sawflies; for it was shown by the Senior Editor 
as long ago as December, 1886, that in this Family the body 
of the nuue is very generally much darker than that of the 
female, while in the Ichneumon family it is exactly the re- 
verse. (SceProc. Ent. Soc, Phil , VI, pp. 238-9). 

In the Paper in the Practical Entomologift which has been 
already referred to (Vol I. pp. 120-1) it is expressly stated 
that ** the males and females of this Sawfiy duTer so widely 
that they would scarcely be taken by the inexperienced en- 
tomoloc^ for the same species;" and a very full descrip- 
tloii of each sex is then and there given. Yet two years snS- 
sequently Dr. Fitch, as it appears, was totally unacquainted 
with the male sex, or at all events his description applies 
exelosively to the female, and he says not one single word 
about the sexes. And this when, bv his own account, the 
insect was swarming in his own garden under his very nose! 
Of course, under these circumstances, it is impossible that 
be could ever have looked into the Paper on the same sub- 
ject published two years before in the Practical Entomologiet . 
But when an author is careless enough to make such blund- 
ers as the above, would he not do well, before he gives his 
own locubrationa to the world, to see what others have pub- 
lished in the same special department of Natural History? 



moveable colamu of invaders. In 1860 or '61 
it appeared at Erie in the N. W. corner of Penn- 
sylvania. In 1864 Prof. Winchell fonnd it at 
Ann Arbor, Michigan . In 1866 it was generally 
distributed over the N. E. counties of Pennsyl- 
vania. And judging from a conversation which 
we had in October, 1868, with Mark Carley, of 
Champaign, in Central Illinois, this gentleman 
must have had it in great numbers upon his 
currant bushes in the summer of that year. At 
all events he described the worm which had 
infested his bushes as being green with many 
black spots and as not being a looper. 

But besides the principal centre of distribu- 
tion at Rochester, N. Y., this Curmnt-worm 
seems to have been imported from Europe at 
one or two other points in the Eastern States, and 
as at Rochester to have spread therefrom as from 
a focus. Unless our memory greatly deceives 
us, Mr. Geo. Brackett, of Maine, described this 
same insect many years ago, as existing in that 
State, though he gave it a different specific name, 
and was not at all aware that it had been intro- 
duced from the other side of the Atlantic. We 
also heard of it in the summer of 1867, from Mr. 
A. H. Mills, of Vermont, as being very destruc- 
tive in his neighborhood. Not improbably, it 
was independently imported at other points in 
the East. Wherever it is introduced it spreads 
with great rapidity, and as there are two broods 
every year, it soon multiplies so as to strip all 
the currant and gooseberry bushes bare and 
utterly ruin the crop, besides eventually destroy- 
ing the bushes, unless proper measures be taken 
to counteract it. Throughout the western parts 
of New York, as we have been informed by our 
ornithological friend Dr. Velie, the cultivation 
of currants and gooseberries has been almost 
entirely given up, on account of the depreda- 
tions of this seemingly insignificant little sav- 
age. And, according to Dr. Fitch, at Water- 
town, N. Y., " it kept the bushes so destitute 
of leaves in most of the gardens, that in three 
years they were nearly or quite dead." 

The Imported CuiTant-worm Fly (Fig. 7, a 
male, b female, both enlarged), belongs <o the 
Sawfiies (Tentkredo Family) — a group of the 
Order of Clear-winged Flies {Hymenoptera) ^ 
which is ix3markablc for having most of its larvae 
with the same plant-feeding propensities as those 
of the great bulk of the larvae of the Moths, and 
with very much their general appearance. Saw- 
fly larvae, however, may bo readily distinguished 
from moth larvae, in the majority of cases, by 
having either 22, 20 or 18 legs; whereas the 
greatest number of legs that any moth larva has 
is 16. The species that wo now have to do with 



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comes out of the groand soon after the leaves I 
of the currant and gooseberry bashes, upon 
which it feeds, put forth in the spring, or from 

[Fig. 7.] 




Colors— Black and yellow. 

the latter part of April to the forepart of May, 
The sexes then couple, and the female proceeds 
to lay her eggs along the principal veins on the 
under side of the leaf. From these eggs shortly 
afterwards hatch out minute gveen 20-legged 
larvae or worms, which at first have black heads 
and many black dots on their bodies, but after 
moulting for the last time are entirely of a grass- 
green color, except the large dark eye spots on 
each side of the head found in all larvsB belong- 
ing to this genus, and except tliat the joint next 
the head and the two hindmost joints are of a yel- 
low color, as is also the case in the less mature 
larva, which bears so many black markings. In 
the annexed Figure 8, a, a, a, a shows larvae of 
different sizes in different positions : and b gives 

[Fig. 8.] 




Colors— Green, yellow and black. 

an enlarged view of one of the abdominal joints 
in profile^ so as to exhibit the position of the 



black spots. When full-grown the larvae arc 
about thi^ee-quartcrs of an inch long, and from 
their greatly increased size, make their presence 
readily known by the sudden disappearance of 
the leaves from the infested bushes. Shortly 
afterwards, having attained a length of fully 
three-quarters of an inch, they burrow under- 
ground, generally beneath the infested bushes, 
or, if there are many leaves lying on the ground, 
simply hide under those leaves. In either case 
they spin around themselves a thin oval cocoon 
of brown silk, within which they assume the 
pupa state. But frequently, as we are assured by 
Mr. Saunders of Canada West, and as European 
observers have noticed, they spin their cocoons 
in the open air upon the bushes. About the 
last week in June or the first part of July, or 
occasionally not until the beginning of August, 
the winged insect bursts forth from the cocoon 
and emerges to the light of day ; when the same 
process of coupling and laying eggs is repeated. 
The lai*vae hatch out from this second laying of 
eggs as before, feed on the leaves as before, and 
spin th^ir cocoons as before ; but the perfect fly 
from this second brood does not come out of the 
cocoon till the following spring, when the same 
old series of phenomena is repeated. 

From the drawings of the Male and Female 
Fly given above (Fig. 7), the reader will see 
at once that the two sexes differ very widely. 
This is very generally the case among the Saw- 
flics, and it is a remarkable and most suggestive 
fact that, when this takes place, the body of the 
male is almost invariably darker than that of 
the female. Nor docs our species, as will be 
observed at the flrst glance, form any exception 
to the rule. Indeed, as with two other Sawflies 
that devour the foliage of our Pines and Firs 
{Lophyrus Abhottii and L. ahietis), the body of 
the male is almost entirely black and that of the 
female almost entirely yellow ; so that at first 
sight wo should suppose the two to belong to 
different species. Since, from some unaccount- 
able oversight. Dr. Fitch has overlooked this 
fact, and described both sexes as being colored 
in the manner which is exclusively to be met 
with in the female, it will be as well to add here 
full descriptions, first of the female fly and 
secondly of the male fly. These descriptions 
were, indeed, published by the Senior Editor 
two yeara before Dr. Fitch's appeared ; but the 
writings of that gentleman circulate so exten- 
sively that, when he makes an important mistake 
such as this, it is proper that it should be cor- 
rected in our columns in detail. 

Female Ply. — General color of body bright honey- 
yellow. Head black, with all the parts between and 
below the origin of the antennae, except the tip of tlie 



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mandibles , dull honey-yellow , Antennoe brown-black , 
olten tinned with rufous above, except towards the 
base, ana beneath entirely dull rufous except the two 
basal joints; four-iifths as long as the body, joint 3, 
when viewed laterally, four times as long as wide. 
Joints 3-6 equal in length, 6-9 very slowly snorter and 
shorter. In two females the antennte are 10-jointed, 
joint 10 slender and % as long as 9. Thorax with the 
anterior lobe above, a wide stripe on the disk of each 
lateral lobe which is very rarely reduced to a mere dot, 
or very rarely the whole of each lateral lobe, a spot at 
the base and at the tip of the scutel, the two spots 
sometimes confluent and very rarely subobsolete, a 
small spot at the outer end of each cenchrus and a 
geminate small spot transversely arranged between the 
cenchri, the tip of the metathoracic scutel, the front 
and hind edge above of what seems the 1st abdominal 
joint, but is in reality the hind part of the metathorax, 
or very rarely its whole surface above, and also the 
whole lower surface of the breast between the IVontand 
middle legs, or very rarely two large spots arranj^ed 
crossways on that surface, all black . Cenchri whitish. 
Abdomen with joints 1 and 2 very rarely edged at tip 
with black . Sheaths of the ovipositor tipped more or 
le$s with black, the surrounding parts sometimes more 
or less tinged with dusky. The triangular membrane 
at the base of the abdomen above , whitish . Z^gs bright 
honey-yellow* all the coxa) and trochanters whitish; 
the extreme tip of the hind shanks and the whole of the 
hind tarsi, brown-black. Wings glassy; veins and 
stigma brown-black, the latter as well as the costa 
obscurely marked with dull honey-yellow. In a single 
$ all three submarginal cross-veins are absent in one 
wing, and only the basal one is present in the other 
wing. In another $ all three are indistinctly present 
in one wing, and in the other only the basal one and a 
radiment of the terminal one. In a single wing of two 
other $ , the terminal subnL'irginal cross- vein is absent. 
And in a single $ there are but three submarginal cells 
in either wing, precisely as in the genus £uura.— Length 

2 0.23—0.28 inch. Front wing $ 0.27—0.83 inch. 
Expanse of wings $ 0.53— 0.64 inch, (wings depressed). 

Hale Fly.— General color of body black. Bead 
with the clTpeus and the entire mouth, except the tip 
of the mandibles, dull honey-yellow . Antennae brown- 
black, often moi*e or less tinged with rufous beneath 
except towards the base : as long as the body , the joints 
proportioned as in $ , hut the whole antenna, as usual 
in this sex, vertically much more dilated, so that joint 

3 Is only 23^ times as long as wide when viewed in pro- 
file, thorax with the wing-scales and the entire cotlare 
honey-yellow. Cenchri whitish. Ahdomm vi'Wh m^te 
or less of its sides, the extreme tip above, audits entire 
inferior suriaee honey-yellow. Legs as in $ . Wings 
as in $ . In two ^ the middle submarginal cross- vein 
is absent in both wings, so that if captured at large 
they would naturally be referred to the genus Eutira. 
In two other ^ this is the case in one wing only. An- 
other r^ has but the basal submarginal cross-vein 
remaining in each wing. And in two other ^ the ter- 
minal submai^nal cross-vein Is absent in one wing. — 
Length S 0.20—0.22 inch. Front wing ^ 0.28—0.25 
isch. Expanse of wings ^ 0.44—0.51 inch, (wings 
depressed.) 

Described from 22 c? and 13 ? , 3 c? and 1 ? 
of the spring brood. The fact of two ? , con- 
trary to the established character of the genus 
Hematus, having 10-jointed instead of 9-jointed 
antennas is a variation of a kind of which no 
other example in the whole Family of Sawflies 
is on record. Had such a specimen been cap- 
tared at large, instead of being bred, along with 
a lot of normal ? , from the same lot of larvae 
taken from the same lot of bushes, it would pro- 
bably have been made the basis for a new genus 
and a new species by some of our gcnus-giinding 
closet-entomologists. 

The mode in which this Currant Worm has 



been transmitted, first from the European nur- 
sery to the American nui'sery, and afterwards 
all over several States of the Union, can be 
easily explained. As has been stated just now, 
it usoally passes the autumn and winter in the 
ground under the bushes, where it has fed, 
housed in a little oval cocoon from } to J inch 
long. Hence if, as often happens, infested 
bushes are taken up in the autumn or early in 
the spring, with a little dirt adhering to their 
roots, and sent off to a distance, that dirt will 
likel y enough inclose a cocoon or two . A single 
pair of cocoons, if they happen to contain indi- 
viduals of opposite sexes, will be sufficient to 
start a new colony. The first and probably the 
second year the larvae will not be noticed ; but 
increasing, as almost all insects do, unless 
checked ft*om some extraneous source, in a fear- 
fully rapid geometric progression, by the third 
or fourth year they will swarm, strip the bushes 
completely bare of their leaves, and ruin the 
prospect for a good crop of fruit. Of course, 
like other winged insects, they can fly from 
garden to garden in search of a suitable spot 
whereon to deposit their eggs ; so that any point 
where they have been once imported becomes, 
in a few years, a new centre of distribution for 
the immediate neighborhood. 

Nurserymen and all others, importing Goose- 
berry and Cun*ant bushes from a distance, should 
be particularly careful, before they plant them, 
to wash t?te roots thoroughly in a tub of water, 
and hum or scald whatever comes off them. 
Any cocoons, that may happen to be hidden 
among the dirt attached to the roots, will then 
be destroyed. By attending to this precaution 
the dissemination of this mischievous little pest, 
throughout the United States, may be greatly 
retarded for many years to come. 

For those who are already cursed with it, the 
same hellebore which we shall recommend at the 
end of this Article, as universally efficient against 
all thi*ee kinds of Grooseberry and CuiTant 
Worms, is the best, the cheapest and the most 
available remedy. Where this cannot be con- 
veniently obtained, the Imported CuiTant Worm, 
owing to a peculiarity in its habits, can be pretty 
successfully fought upon a system, which is inap- 
plicable to the other two species on account of 
the difference in their habits. Unlike the other 
two, the Imported Currant Worm, as has been 
already stated, lays its eggs in large groups on 
the under side of the leaf, and upon the princi- 
pal veins, as shown at No. 1 in Figure 9, instead 
of attaching them in comparatively small patches 
to the twigs and branches. Hence, when the 
eggs hatch out, the minute little larvae can find 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



[Fig. 9.] 




plenty of food without wandering off, and they 
have the habit when very young of boring small 
holes through the leaf as shown at No. 2 in Fig- 
ai*e 9, and when they become a little older, 
holes that are a little larger as shown at No. 3. 
It is evident that such holes as these may be 
readily recognized, and the leaf be carried larvae 
and all far away from any currant or gooseberry 
bushes and left to wither there, or — to make 
assurance doubly sure — thrown into the fire. 
If, however, the young larvae arc removed a few 
rods away from any plant belonging to the 
botanical genus Hibes ( Currant and Goose- 
berry), they will be sure to die of stai-vation. 
For they cannot feed on anything else, any more 
than the common Locust-borer can live on an 
Apple-tree. As the eggs are laid in such large 
groups, there will be but a few leaves bearing 
these newly hatched lai'vsB to remove from every 
bush. 

"Wherever this Currant Worm has been in- 
troduced, there has prevailed from some cause 
or other a popular superstition, that the currants 
grown upon the infested bushes are poisonous. 
This is a mere delusion. They may be, and 
very probably are, unwholesome, just as any 
other fruit would be perhaps more or less 
unwholesome, if grown under such unnatural 
conditions as to seriously affect the health of 
the tree; but we have the authority of Dr. 
Fitch, himself a physician, for believing that 
the common notion on this subject is entirely 
erroneous. 

Entomologists have often speculated, whether 
the same parasite will attack several distinct 
species of insects, and whether any European 
species, which has been introduced into America 
without its peculiar parasites, will ever be 
attacked by the indigenous parasites of this 
country. So far as regards our Imported Cur- 
rant Worm, both these questions can be an- 



swered in the affirmative. Three years ago the 
Senior Editor published the fact, that this worm 
was parasitically infested by the larva of a small 
Ichneumon-fly ( Brachypterus microptems, 
Say), which has such short and rudimentary 
wings, that it has very much the appearance 
of an Ant; and more recently it has been dis- 
covered by that excellent observer, J. A. Lintner 
of Schoharie, N. Y., that the eggs of this CuiTant 
"Worm Fly are so generally inhabited by the 
larva of a minute H> mcnopterous Parasite, 
that among fifty eggs he only found four or five 
which hatched out into Currant Worms. 

As these pages were going through the press, 
we received Irom the Editor of the Canadian 
Entomologist a third parasite, which he had 
himself ascertained to prey, not on the egg of 
the imported Currant Worm Fly, but on the 
larva. This parasite is a small four-winged fly 
belonging to the great Ichneumon Family, and 
scarcely one-fifth of an inch long, with its front 
wings very prettily ornamented each of them 
with two dusky bands. A full descnption of it 
(under the name of Ifemitelesnemativorus yii.sp.) 
will probably appear before long, from the pen 
of the Senior Editor, in the columns of the ex- 
cellent Periodical just now refeiTed to. This 
very same species of Ichneumon-Ay had been 
captured near Rock Island, 111., several years 
ago by the Senior Editor ; and as the Impoi-ted 
Currant Worm has not as yet been introduced 
into that region, we must conclude that this 
Ichneumon-fly could not have been imported 
into America from Europe along with this Cur- 
rant Worm, but that in all probability it is an 
indigenous species. Hence we have additional 
proof that, under certain circumstances, native 
American parasites can, and actually do, ac- 
quire the habit of preying upon European in- 
sects when the latter are imported into America. 
It is certain^ however, that they will not do so 
in all cases without exception ; for although the 
Wheat Midge, or Red Weevil as it is incorrectly 
termed in the AVest, invaded our shores some 
forty or fifty years ago, not a single parasite has 
yet been discovered to prey upon it in this 
country, although there are no less than three 
that prey upon it in Europe. 

The Sawfly Family {Tenthredo), to which 
both this and the next species to be noticed 
belong, dci-ives its name from the ** ovipositor" 
or egg-laying instrument being modified so as 
to mimick the blade of a saw. Under the mi- 
croscope—and in the larger species even under 
a good lens— it will be seen that the lower edge 
of each of the two horny blades, of which this 
insti-ument is composed, is furnished with very 



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19 



fine teeth, the phape of which differs iu different 
species. With this tool the female fly saws into 
the texture of the leaf or of the twig, in which 
the instinct of each particular species teaches it 
to deposit its egg ; and — wonderful to relate — 
it was demonstrated long ago that the eggs thus 
deposited inside the substance of the plant, 
whicli is to supply the future food to the young 
lanra as soon as it hatches out, actually grow 
and dei'ive nourishment from the sap of that 
plant, so as often to attain double their original 
size. Hence we may see at once why the eggs 
are deposited by this group of insects in such 
situations as these, and why Nature has provided 
the female Sawflies with saws iu their tails. 
But — as the thoughtful reader will perhaps have 
already observed — our Currant Worm Fly lays 
its eggs upon the surface, and not in the inteiior, 
of the leaf, glueing them thereto by some adhe- 
sive fluid which it secretes for that purpose. 
And we may add that there are a few other 
Sawflies — such for example as the Rosebush 
Sawfly {Selandria rosce)— which do the veiy 
same thing, and consequently, as well as our 
species, can have no use for any saws at their 
tails. If, therefore, as was formerly the almost 
universal belief of the scientific world, each 
species whether of animals or of plants was 
independently created, with all its present 
organs and instincts, and not derived, as is the 
more modern doctrine, from the gradual modi- 
fication of pi-e-existing species through a long 
series of geological ages, we might naturally 
expect our CuiTant Woi-m Fly, and the Rose- 
bush Sawfly and such few other Sawflies as 
practice similar modes ot" laying their eggs, to 
have no saws at all. For why should nature, 
when she is creating new species, bestow an 
iostrument upon a particular species which has 
no occasion whatever to use that instrument ? 
In point of fact, however, all female Sawflies, 
no matter what their habits may be, possess 
these saws, though in one genus (Xyela) the 
saws, instead of being hard and horny through- 
out, are said to be soft and membranous above 
and below;* and in certain other Sawflies, 
though they arc as hard and horny as usual, 
they are degraded and — to use the technical 
term — " defunctionated." This wiLl be seen at 
once from an inspection of the following draw- 
ing (Fig. 10) copied by ourselves from 
nature and very highly magnified. Here a 
represents the two saws of the female of 
the Willow-apple Sawfly {Nematus salicis- 
pomum, Walsh), which belongs to the very 

•See Westwood's Introduction, II, p. 95. 



[Fig. 10] 




same genus as our Currant Worm Fly. Now, 
we know that the female of the Willow-apple 
Sawfly deposits a single egg inside the leaf of 
the Heart-shaped Willow (Salix cordata) about 
the end of April, probably accompanying the 
egg by a drop of some peculiar poisonous fluid. 
Shortly afterwards there gradually develops 
from the wound a round fleshy gall, about half 
an inch in diameter, and with a cheek as smooth 
and as rosy as that of a miniature apple ; inside 
which the larva hatches out and upon the flesh 
of which it feeds. Of this gall we propose to 
present a figure to our readers in the next num- 
ber of our Magazine, in illustration of a Second 
Article on ** Galls and their architects." In 
this particular case, therefore, as the female 
Fly requires a complete saw with which to cut 
into the Willow leaf, nature has supplied her 
with such saws, as is seen at once from Figure 
10, a. Now look at Figure 10, b, which is an 
accurate representation under the microscope 
of the two saws of our Currant Worm Fly. 
It will be noticed at the very first glance, that 
although the blade of the saw is there, the teeth 
of the saw are almost entirely absent. 

What, then, are we to make of these and many 
other such facts? Manifestly the teeth of the 
saw are in this last species degraded or reduced 
to almost nothing, because the female Fly, 
laying her eggs upon the surface of the leaf, and 
not cutting into the substance of that leaf as 
does the female of the Willow-apple Sawfiy, 
has no occasion to perform any sawing process. 
But why, it will be asked, is the blade of the 
saw there in its normal size and, with the excep- 
tion of the degradation of the saw-teeth, as com- 
pletely developed as in the other species, when 
such a tool can not be necessary for the simple 
process of glueing an egg on to the surface of a 
leaf ? The modern school of philosophers will 
reply, that this is so, because the primordial 
Sawfly, in the dim far-away vista of bygone 
geological ages, had a complete pair of saws, 
and our insect is the lineal descendant of that 
species, slowly and gradually modified through 
a long series of years, so as to conform more or 
less to the change in its habits. On the other 



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hand the old school of philosophers, who believe 
that every species was independently created, 
will argue that this is so, in order to ** complete 
the System of Nature,'' and " carry out the Plan 
of the Creation," and *' give full and free expres- 
sion to the Thoughts of the Creator." Possibly 
this may be the true solution of the difficulty ; 
but — and we say it in no irreverent spirit — what 
should we think of a Potter, who made all his 
teacups without exception with bandies ; those 
for which handles were required with complete 
ones such as you could put your finger through, 
and such cups as were not wanted to have any 
handles at all, with solid uuperfo rated ones, 
such as would be nearly useless? And what 
should we say, if the Potter's friends were to 
gravely argue, that he took all this unnecessary 
trouble in order "to complete the System of 
Art," and "carry out the Plan of the Tea- 
drinker," and "give full and free expression to 
the Thoughts of the Potter"? 

The Native Currant Worm. 
{Pri8tip7M>Ta grotsularicB, Walsh.) 
Like the Imported Currant Worm, this worm 
produces a Sawfly, which, however, belongs to 
a different genus (Pristipkora) , chiefly distin- 
guishable from the other one {Nematus) by the 
front wing lacking what is technically termed 
the "first submarginal cross-vein." In Figure 
11, 6, we give a magnified drawing of the female 
of this fly, and if the reader will look at this 
drawing and compare it with that of the Imported 

[Fig. 11.] 




Colors— (a) green and black; (6) black and honey-yellow. 
Currant Worm Fly (Fig. 7, a and 6), he will 
see that there is in each of them but one cell, or 
" pane " as it might be termed, on the upper 
edge of the front wing towards its tip. This is 
technically called "the marginal (or radial) 
cell." Now let the reader look a second time 
at these two flgures, and he will see that, under- 
neath this " marginal cell," there is a tier of 
four cells in the one genus {ITematus) and a tier 
of only three cells in the other genus (Pristi- 
phora), the first or basal cross-vein being absent 
or "obsolete" in the latter, so as to leave the 



first or basal cell extravagantly large. These 
three or four cells, as they underlie the "mar- 
ginal cell," are technically known as "the 
submarginal (or cubital) cells ;" and upon the 
difference in the number and arrangement of 
these marginal and submarginal cells depends 
to a considerable extent the generic classifica- 
tion of the Saw files. For example, in another 
genus (Euura), which is closely allied to the 
two of which we present drawings, there are, 
as in the second of these two, one marginal and 
three submarginal cells; but here it is the *ec- 
ond, not the flrst (or basal) submarginal cross- 
vein that is obsolete; so that here it is the 
second, not the^r*^ (or basal) submarginal cell 
that is extravagantly large, being formed in this 
last case by throwing the typical second and 
third cells into one, and in the other case by 
throwing the typical first and second cells into 
one, just as by removing the folding doors two 
rooms are thrown into one. 

Persons who are not familiar with this sub- 
ject are apt to suppose, that the pattern of the 
cunous network on every fly's wing varies 
indefinitely in different individuals belonging 
to the same species. As a general rule, there 
is scarcely any variation at all in this matter, 
each species and even each genus having its 
peculiar pattern, and all the individuals belong- 
ing to a particular species having the network 
of their wings as exactly similar as the different 
photographs executed by a Daguerreotypist from 
the same negative plate. You may take, for 
instance, a thousand honey-bees, and you will 
find that in the front wing of every one of them 
there are exactly one marginal and three sub- 
marginal cells, which however are all of them 
shaped veiy differently from the corresponding 
cells in any Sawfiy, though all the thousand 
honey-bees will be found to have them shaped 
exactly alike, cell corresponding to cell, as in 
any particular issue of $5 Bank notes, vignette 
corresponds to vignette and medallion die to 
medallion die. Among the Sawfiies, indeed, 
as was noticed in the description of the Im- 
ported Currant Worm Fly, the pattern of the 
wing-veins in different specimens of the same 
species varies occasionally a little; but this is 
the exception and not the rule, and is philoso- 
phically of high interest, as showing how one 
genus may in the course of indefinite ages change 
gradually into another genus. 

The Native Currant Worm Fly differs in an- 
other remarkable point from the Imported Cur- 
rant Worm Fly. The sexes are here almost 
exactly alike in their coloration, and with the 
exception of the legs of the male being a little 



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more marked with black than those of the 
female, it would not be very easy to distinguish 
one from the other, but by the usual sexual 
characters. Hence we have not thought it 
necessary to give a figure of the male as well 
as of the female; whereas in the imported 
species the two sexes difier so essentially in 
their coloration that, as already observed, a fig- 
ure of one would give scarcely any idea of the 
other. 

The larva of the Native Currant Worm Fly 
(Fig. 11, a) is of a uniform pale gi-een color, 
without those black dottings which are always 
found except after the last moult in the imported 
species. Before the last moult, indeed, the head 
is of a uniform black color, though itaftei'wards 
has a good deal of green in front ; but the body 
remains throughout of the same immaculate 
green shade. It differs also in its habits from 
the imported species, never, so far as we can 
find out, going underground to spin its cocoon, 
but always spinning that cocoon among the 
twigs and leaves of the bushes upon which it 
feeds. 

This species agrees with the other one in being 
double-brooded, the first brood of laiTaa appear- 
ing about the end of June and the beginning of 
July, and the second brood from the middle of 
August to the forepart of September. But in- 
stead of the larvae of the second brood lying 
underground in their cocoons all winter, they 
burst forth in the fly &tate from the beginning 
to the middle of September. Hence the female 
fly is compelled to lay her eggs upon the twigs 
instead of on the leaves ; for if she laid them 
upon the leaves, as is the habit of the imported 
species, the second laying of eggs, which has to 
pass the winter in that state, would fall to the 
ground along with the leaves in the autumn, 
and the young larvae would starve when they 
hatched out next spring before they could find 
their appropriate food. Consequently, in the 
case of this species, we cannot apply the method 
of counterworking the other species which has 
been already referred to. For we have parti- 
cularly remarked that the very young larvae 
were not gathered in great numbers upon one 
piuticular leaf— as with the imported species — 
but were distributed pretty evenly over the 
whole bush. Neither did they bore the singular 
holes through the leaf (Fig. 9) , which render 
the other species so easy of detection when 
young. 

As will have been observed from the figures 
given above, the Native species, besides the dif- 
ferences already noticed, is only about two- 
thirds the size of the other in all its states . Like 



the other, it infests both Currant and Goose- 
berry bushes, but appears rather to prefer the 
Gooseberry. Indeed there can be little doubt 
that our native gooseberries formed its original 
food-plant ; for many years ago we captured a 
single specimen in the neighborhood of Rock 
Island, 111., in woods remote from houses, where 
the wild gooseberiy was pretty abundant, and 
there was no wild Red Currant. The species 
was described in 18G6 by the Senior Editor* 
from numerous specimens found stripping the 
gooseberry and currant bushes in Davenport, 
Iowa ; and it has since been reported to us by 
Miss Madon Hobart, of Port Byron, N. Ills., as 
so abundant in her neighborhood in 18C8 on the 
gooseberries as to completely defoliate them 
three times over, so that she inferred — but we 
think erroneously — that there were three dis- 
tinct broods of them, one generated by another. 
Mr. Jas. H. Parsons, of Franklin, N. Y., has in 
a letter to us expressed the same opinion with 
regard to the imported species. Probably both 
parties have been deceived by what is a very 
common occurrence with many leaf-feeding 
larvae. There is often a warm spell early in the 
year which causes a moiety of the eggs of a par- 
ticular brood to hatch out. This is taken for 
the first brood. Then follows a long series of 
cold weather, which prevents the other moiely 
of the same batch of eggs from hatching out 
till perhaps a month or six weeks afterwards. 
When at last this moiety does hatch out, it is 
considered by inexperienced persons as a dis- 
tinct second brood. There is also very fre- 
quently a very great variation, probably from 
similar causes, in the time at which the same 
batch of pupae burst forth into the perfect winged 
state. For example, out of a lot of 31 cocoons 
of the second brood of the Imported Currant 
Fly, all received by us at the same time from 
Dr. Wm. M. Smith of Manlius, N. Y., most of 
the flies came out between June 26th and July 
11th, but a few did not appear till towards the 
latter end of July and one lingered on till 
August 13th. 

On Sept. 11th, 1869, we captured a single 
female of the Native American species at large 
in the City of Rock Island; but the species has 
not yet prevailed there to any noticeable extent, 
so far as we have heard. In August, 1867, A .11. 
Mills, of Vermont, wrote to us about **a small 
green worm " infesting the leaves of his Currant 
bushes, which, as he was well acquainted with 
the Imported species, was moyt probably the 
Native American worm. And as long ago as 
1858, a species of Sawfly was described in the 

• Practical Entomologist, I, pp. 122-4. 



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Ohio Fm^mer, by an anonymous correspondent, 
as infesting the goosebeny and red currant 
bushes in tlie vicinity of Cleveland, Ohio. This 
last Fpecies seems to agree in eveiy material 
respect with our insect, except in going under- 
ground to spin up, and in <he last brood lying 
underground in their cocoons all through the 
winter. Now, we particularly experimented 
with our species, by counting off a large num- 
ber of larvae and putting them into a separate 
vessel half full of earth; and we found subse- 
quently just as many cocoons attached to the 
twigs in this vespel as we had put larvae into 
the vessel. Hence, if the species ever goes 
underground to spin up — which is perfectly 
possible, as there is a similar variation in habits 
in the Imported Currant "Worm — it must be only 
occasionally. Moreover, we raised fifty-three 
flies in all (4 c?, 49$), from larvaj which spun 
up the last week of August, and none of these 
flies came out later than Sept. 12th of the same 
year. Hence — unless the Ohio insect be a dis- 
tinct species, which we can scarcely believe — 
we suspect some error in the statements put 
forth in the Ohio Fm^mer,* 

Kemedies. 

In the case of the multifarious species of 
Potato Bugs, we showed that diflerent groups 
must be attacked upon different systems. In 
the case of the three Currant and Gooseberry 
worms, that we have here treated of, there is a 
single remedy which, like Dr. CurealPs Never- 
failing Pills, is a universal specific. That rem- 
edy is powdered White Hellebore, which can 
be bought at any drug-store at quite a low price. 
All that is required is to dust it lightly over the 
infested bushes, taking care to stand to wind- 
ward during the operation, as if taken into the 
nostrils it excites violent sneezing. For this 
purpose, the best plan is to put the powder into 
a common tin cup, tying a piece of very fine 
muslin over the mouth of the cup; or the pow- 
der may be simply enclosed in a bag of muslin 
of convenient size. In either case, the appara- 
tus must be fastened to the end of a short stick, 
so as to avoid coming to too clo?e quarters with 
it. It is best to select a moderately still day 
for the operation ; as the powder is so exceed- 
ingly fine that on a windy day it is apt to get 
wasted. 

To test the genuineness of the article, a very 

• The Article in the Ohio Farmer appeared in Vol. VII, p. 
2a'J, and is sunposed by Dr. Fitch— to whom we are indebted 
f r our linowledge of it—to have been written by Dr. J. P. 
Kirtland Dr. Fitcb, who entirely ignores Pr. grossularitB . 
Walsh, supposes that the Ohio insect may perhaps be the 
European species, Pr. rujipts, St. Fargeau, which is not 
known to feed on gooseberry or currant. 



small pinch of it should be applied to the nose. 
If it is good and has not lost its strength by 
keeping too long, it will immediately produce 
a tingling sensation in the nostrils ; if it does 
not produce this eflect, it is worthless and should 
not be used. There is every reason to believe 
that in those cases where men have used White 
Hellebore to kill Currant Worms without any 
perceptible effect, that they had been deceived 
into buying an adulterated or worthless drug. 
Although, like almost all our medicines, Helle- 
bore, in large doses, is poisonous, yet in minute 
doses there is no reason to be afraid of it; for, 
according to Dr. Fitch, it has long been in use 
as ttie basis of those snuffs, which are designed 
to excite violent and continued sneezing. 

We might easily fill two or three columns, 
and distract the minds of our readers, by enu- 
merating two or three dozen other remedies, 
which are highly recommended on good au- 
thority, and which may, or may not be as eflS^- 
cient as White Hellebore, but we prefer to " let 
well enough alone." 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE-VINE: No. 2. 
The Hog-caterpillar of the Vine. 

{Chcerocampa pampinatrir. Smith & Abbott, alias Sphisiz 
[Darapga] myrorij Cramer, aliad Ofus cnotuSf HUbner).* 

Of the large, solitary caterpillars that attack 
the Grape-vine, this is by far the most common 
and injurious in the Mississippi valley. We 
have frequently found the egg of this insect 
glued singly to the underside of a leaf. It is 
0.05 inch in diameter, perfectly round, and of a 
uniform delicate yellowish-green color. The 
young worm which hatches from it, is pale- 
green, with a long straight horn at its tail ; and 
after feeding from four to ^ve weeks it acquires 
its full growth, when it presents the appearance 
of Figure 12, the horn having become compara- 
tively shorter and acquired a posterior curve. 

This worm is readily distinguished from other 

•Of the four dilTerent generic names under which this 
species has been classilled, ** Sphinx** is a general term for 
all the Hawk-moths and refers to the sphinx-lilEe attitude 
often assumed by their hirvae; *' Chacroccmpa'* is derived 
from two (jreek words which mean ** Hog-caterpillar; " 
and ' • Darap»a '* and * • Otu* ' ' are gibberish . Of the three 
different sjieciflc names. ** Myron** refers to an ancient 
Greek who bore this appellation, * * cnotu* * * is pure unadul- 
terated gibberish « and ^ * pampinatrix * * is ftt>m the I^atin and 
signilies ' ' a female vine-prunor. ' ' Both Harris and Fitch 
describe this insect imder the name of Chctrocampa pampina- 
trix; and this, as the appellation best known to our grape- 
growers, and the most characteristic of the habits of the 
species, we should prefer to retain, although no doubt, ac- 
cording to the strict Law of I*riority_, the specific name of 
Myron ought to be employed Mr. Walker, Dr. Clemens 
and Dr. Morris call this species * ' Darapsa Myron,*' and Mr. 
Grote calls it ' * Ottu Myron. * * By ringing the changes with 
sufficient ingenuity upon the four generic and the three speci- 
fic names, we may obtain no less Uian twelve different 
for this one insect I 



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[Fig. 12.] 




Colors — Pea-green, lilac, and yellow. 
grape-feeding species by having tlie third and 
fourth rings immensely swollen, while the first 
and second rings are quite small and retractile. 
It is from this peculiar appearance of the fore 
part of the body, which strikingly suggests the fat 
cheeks and shoulders and small head of a blooded 
hog, that it m ly best be known as the Hog-cat- 
ei-pillar of the vine. The color of this worm 
when full grown is pea-green, and it is wrink- 
led transversely and covered with numerous 
pale-yellow dots, placed in iiTCgular transverse 
rows. An oblique cream-colored lateral band, 
bordered below with a darker green and most 
distinct on the middle segments, connects with 
a cream-colored subdorsal line, which is bor- 
dered above with darker green, and which ex- 
tends from the head to the horn at the tail . There 
are five and otten six somewhat pale yellow tri- 
angular patches along the back, each contain- 
ing a lozenge-shaped lilac-colored spot. The 
head is small, with yellow gi'anulations, and 
four perpendicular yellow lines, and the stig- 
mata or spiracles are orange-brown. When 
about to transform, the color of this worm usu- 
ally changes to a pinkish-brown, the darker 
parts being of a beautiful mixture of crimson 
and brown. Previous to this change of color 
Mr. J. A. Lintner, of Schoharie, N. Y., has ob- 
served the worm to pass its mouth over the 
entire surface of its body, even to the tip of its 
bom, covering it with a coating of apparently 
glutinous matter — the operation lasting about 
two hours.* Before transforming into the pupa 
or chrysalis state, it descends from the vine, and 
within some fallen leaf or under any other rub- 
bish that may be lying on the ground, forms a 
mesh of strong brown silk, within which it soon 
changes to a chrysalis (Fig. 13) of a pale, warm 

• Proc. Knt. Soc. . Phil., HI, pp. 663. 



[Fig. 13.] 




Colors— Yellowish and brown . 

yellow, speckled and spotted with brown, but 
characterized chiefly by the conspicuous dark 
brown spiracles and broad brown incisures of 
the three larger abdominal segments. 

The moth (Fig. 14) which in time bursts from 
this chrysalis, has the body and front wings of a 
fleshy-gray, marked and shaded with olive- 

[Fig. U.] 




Colors — Gray, olive-green and nist color. 

green as in the figure, while the hind wings are 
of a deep rust-color, with a small shade of gray 
near their inner angle. 

Thisinsectis in northerly regions one-brooded, 
but towards the south two-brooded, the first 
worms appearing, in the latitude of St. Louis, 
during June and July, and giving out the moths 
about two weeks after they become chrysalids, 
or from the middle of July to the first of August. 
The second brood of worms are full grown in 
September and, passing the winter in the chrys- 
alis state, give out the moths the following May. 
On one occasion we found at South Pass, 111., a 
wonn but h gi*own and still feeding as late 
as October 20th, a circumstance which would 
lead to the belief that at points where the win- 
ters are mild they may even hybernate in the 
larva state. 

This worm is a most voracious feeder, and a 
single one will sometimes strip a small vino of 
its leaves in a few nights. According to Harris 
it does not even confine its attacks to the leaves, 
but in its progress from leaf to leaf, sto])s at 
every cluster of fruit, and either from stupidity 
or disappointment, nips off the stalks of the 
half-grown grapes and allows them to fall to the 
ground untasted. It is fortunate for the grape- 
grower therefore that Nature has furnished the 
ready means to prevent its ever becoming ex- 



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cessively numerous, for in all our entomological 
experieuce, we have never known it to swarm 
in very great numbers. The obvious i-eason is, 
that it is so freely attacked by a small parasitic 
Ichneumon fly — belonging to a genus {Micro- 
gastet") exceedingly numerous in species — that 
three out of every four worms that we meet with 
will generally be found to be thus victimized . 
The eggs of the parasite are deposited within 
the body of the woi-m, while it is yet young, and 
the young maggots hatching from them feed on 
the fatty parts of their victim. After the last 
moult of a worm that has been thus attacked, 
numerous little heads may be seen gradually 
pushing through diflerent parts of its body ; and 
as soon as they have worked themselves so far 
out that they are held only by the last joint of 
the body, they commence forming their small 
snow-white cocoons, which stand on ends and 
present the appearance t^^ff- ^5.] 

of Figure 15. In about 
a week the fly (Fig. 16, 
a, magnified ; 6, natu- 
ral size), pushes open Color— White. 
a little lid which it had previously cut with its 
jaws, and soars away to fulfil its mission. It 
is one of those remarkable 
and not easily explained facts, 
which often confront the stu- 
dent of Nature, that, while 
one of these Hog-caterpillars 
in its normal and healthy con- 
dition may be starved to death 
in two or three days, another that is wnthing 
with its body full of parasites will live without 
food for as many weeks. Indeed we have known 
one to rest for three weeks without food in a 
semi-paralyzed condition, and after the parasitic 
flies had all escaped from their cocoons, it would 
rouse itself and make a desperate eflTort to regain 
strength by nibbling at a leaf which was offered 
to it. But all worms thus attacked succumb in 
the end, and we cannot conclude this article to 
better advantage than by reminding the Grape- 
grower, that he should let alone all such as are 
found to be covered with the white cocoons we 
have illustrated, and not, as has been often done, 
destroy them under the false impression that 
the cocoons are the eggs of the worm. 




Color— Black. 



To OUR Subscribers in Canada. — Parties in 
Canada, who wish to subscribe for the Ameri- 
can Entomologist, can obtain it, postage free, 
by remitting $2.00 to the Rev. C. J. 8. Bethune, 
Secretary to the Entomological Society of Can- 
ada, Credit, C. W. 



crig. 17.] 



I 



Color— WhitiBh. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

Notice. — Such of our correspondents as have already 
sent, or may hereafter send, small collections of insects 
to be named, will please to inform us if any of the 
species sent are ft'om other States than their own. 
Lists of Insects found in any particular locality are of 
especial interest, as throwing light upon the geograph- 
ical distribution of species . But to make them of real 
value^ it is requisite that we know for certain, 
whether or not all the insects in any particular list come 
from that particular locality, and if not, from what 
locality they do come. 

Striped Cacnmber Beetle — M. M. Gray, Car- 
dington, Ohio,— We quote your letter in full, as it well 
describes the lar\'a about which you desire information : 

I inclose a specimen 
of bug which we call the 
Cucumber or Squash 
bug, and also a small 
worm or lan-a which 
has destroyed many of 
my melon and cucum- 
ber vines. My object 
in part is to learn if 
this worm or larva is 
the product of the bug 
or something different 
and foreign to it. In 
the early part of the 
season the small striped 
bug commenced work- 
ing on my vines, and 
they began to wilt and 
die. I used sulphur 
and plaster, quassia, 
tobacco, etc., to pre- 
vent or check their rav- 
ages, but with little ef- 
fect. Finally I hunted 
outand killed a good many, and shortly they seemed to 
disappear, and my vines began to revive and grow. 
About three weeks later the vines began to wilt and die 
worse than before ! But this time there were no bugs to 
be found. Upon examination of the roots, however, 1 
discovered this little white- worm with a black head, 
irom l-16th to l-4th of an inch in length, eating into and 
perforating the root and vine; and as tbe vines they 
infested the most were the same that the bugs preyed 
upon the worst, I conjectured there must be some rela- 
tion between them. 

The larva referred to which attacks the roots, and of 
which we present highly magnified figures (Fig. 17, 1, 
dorsal view, 2 side view), is in reality the young of the 
very same Striped Cucumber Beetle {Didbroticavittata, 
[Fig. IS.] Fig. 19), which is so injurious to 

the leaves; for we have ourselves 
bred the beetle from this larva, 
T and in 1865 Dr. H. Shimer, of 
Mt. Carroll, HI., first pubUshed 
an account of its transforma- 
tions.* After boring into and 
around the roots for upwards of 
a month, the larvse enter the surrounding earth, and 
within a smooth oval cavity soon change to pupae (Fig. 
18, 1, ventral view; 2, dorsal view), which are trans- 
[Fig. 19.] formed to beetles about two weeks after- 
wards. There are two or three broods du- 
ring the year. By getting rid of the beetles 
in the early part of the season, you of 
course prevent the iiyuries of the larva, 
and the most effective agents for this pur- 

Colori — Black ^. ^ ^. j.., , , 

and yellow, pose, or at Icast those in which we have the 
most confidence, are Paris green and white hellebore. 
T his inse ct has been very ii^urious the present year. 

*PraM» Fiirmer, Aag. 12, 1865. 




Color— Wliitish. 




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I^mffT Oak-^all— J?. H, J?., PiehtM* Sta,, Miss.— 
The cone-like leafy oak-gall which you send, and which 
we herewith illustrate (Fig. 20, a), is appjirently the 

[Fig. 80.] 




Color— Green. 

gall named Qu^rcus/roTidosa hyB&ssett, meaning literally 
* * full of green leaves. ' ' You do not mention the kind 
of oak on which it occurred, but from the fact that Mr. 
Bassett described his as occurring on the Chinquapin, 
yours might have been taken from this species, though 
we have found the same gall both on White and on Bur 
Oak . This gall is developed after the summer growth of 
the tree is completed, and the axillary bud, which other- 
wise would not bui-st till the spring following, is made, 
by the puncture of the gall-fly, to develop prematurely 
in the singular manner illustrated above. The cell 
(Fig. 20, J, section showing larva) containing the larva 
is half immersed in the apex of the cone, and though 
the perfect fly is unknown, the character of the larva 
indicates it to be Cynipidous. (See article on Galls, 
Vol. I, :No. 6.) 

]>rop off Gold— i?. II. B., Piclcfns' Sta., Miss.— 
The • * drop of gold in shape of a French loaf" attached 
to a leaf of the Shellbark -Hickory, is in reality the 
vacated egg-shell of some large moth, and not impro- 
bably of that large species which produces the Royal 
lloroed Caterpillar. The smooth short-oval eggs of the 
same large Stinking Bug, which we figured on page 12 
of our first Volume {Metapodius nasalus. Fig. 6, h), have, 
even when vacated by the young bug, just the same 
lustre of burnished gold. In July, 18()8, at Lacon , 111. , 
we found a row of nine of these eggs, all arranged in 
regular order, like the beads of a necklace, upon a leaf 
of White Pine; and from these eggs we subsequently 
hatched out the young bugs. 

Tlie I^una VKotlk—Geo, W. Einney, Snow EiU^ Mo. 
— Tlie immense green moth with an eye-spot in each 
wing" and with each of the hind wings prolonged into a 
tail, is the Luna Moth (Attacus luna, Linn.) The speci- 
men was $ and wo were glad to get the eggs which she 
hid deposited. The larva feeds on Walnut and Hickory. 

T. W. Hoyty e/r.— The large pale green swallow-tail 
moth which you describe is the Luna Moth referred to 
above . 



CFlK. 21.] 




Hagr-motli I^arira— />r. (7. T. Farrell, South Pass, 
7ZZ.— The curious brown slug-like larva found on Sibe- 
rian Crab, of which a better idea can be formed by the 
accompanying illustration (Fig. 21) than by any des- 
criptive words of ours, is the 
larva of the Hag-moth {Lima' 
codes pitlucium, Sm. & Abb.) 
. When received, it had already 
moulted its long fleshy append- 
' ages and attached them to the 
outside of its round compact 
cocoon, and ten days subse- 

^ quently the moth made its ap- 

Coior-Brown. pearauce. This moth is of a 

dusky brown color, the front wings variegated with light 
yellowish-brown. In the Northeastern States this insect 
is supposed to be single-brooded, but in yoiu- latitude it 
is probably double-brooded. The " spider-Uke animal' ' 
on Blackberries is the pupa of the Many-banded Rob- 
ber (^Harpactor ciwtus, Fabr., see Vol. I, Fig. 44.) 

Jf. i?. Baldwin, Elgin, III,— The specimen you found 
on a spear of grass, and from which you detached, in 
handling, some of the appendages, is the same Hag- 
moth larva . At the time you found it, it was evidently 
in search of some cozy nook in which to form its 
cocoon, for it had already conunenced the operation 
when it reached us, and the species has never been 
known to feed on grass. 

Stingringr Buir — «/. M. Shaffer, Fairfield, Iowa — 
The singular craggy-looking bug, about 0.38 inch long, 
of a yellowish color variegated with brown, with the legs 
green and a transverse deep-brown band running supe- 
riorly across IVom one side to the other of the dilated 
abdomen, is Phymata erosa, Linn. The genus is 
characterized by the immensely swollen front thighs, 
and by the last joint of the .mtcnnaj being also swollen, 
this last character being a remarkable one, as Amyot 
and Serville well renuirk, in bugs of such carnivorous 
propensities. Your statemeLt that one of these bugs 
stung you severely, does not greatly surprise us, though 
we never heard of their stinging before, and have hand- 
led hundreds of them with impunity. The stinging 
was of course done by the beak, which is 3-jointed 
and somewhat resembles that of Harpactor cinctus , Fabr. 
(Vol. I, Fig, 44, h.) The plant upon which you found 
these bugs we take to be Parthenium integri folium, and 
Mr. A. Fender, of Allenton, Mo., is of the same 
opinion . We have noticed them ourselves in the latter 
part of the summer lying quietly in wait for their prey 
upon a great variety of wild flowers, but mostly on 
such as like themselves are of a yellowish color so as to 
conceal them from view. We have also often seen this 
Bug with its beak inserted into a small bee or a small 
wasp, which it is wide awake enough to hold at arm's 
length with its prehensile front legs, so that the poor 
unfortunate captive has no chance to sting it. 

Pear-freo -worms— i?. Hathaway, Little Prairie 
Ronde, i/icA.— The worms found on pear-tree leaves 
are the same Red -humped Prominent noticed in the 
answer to D. W. Kaufl"man of Des Moines, Iowa. 

** Dobson ^^— Fisherman —We cannot tell without 
seeing specimens, what it is that the disciples of the 
* * gentle art ' ' call ' ' Dobson . » » It may be the larva 
either of some May-fly {Ephemera), or of some Dragon- 
fly {Libellula), or of a dozen other insects. 



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uriate Pine ureeTil—^. S. Fuller, Jiid^ewood, iV; 
J,— The borers which have been attacking the leading 
shoots of your Pines, gradually spreading to the 
branches, have produced the perfect beetle since their 
receipt, and as we anticipated, they turn out to be the 
White Pine Weevil {Pissodes stroU, Peck.) At Figure 

[Fig. 2S.] 





Color*— {a and h) whHlih; (c) niBt-brown and white. 

22 it is illustrated in its three stages of larva (a), pupa 
(5), and beetle (c). We have not known this insect to 
occur in the West, but it has long been known to be 
common in the Eastern States. The only practical way 
of counter-working the injurious work of this weevil, 
is to cut o/f the infested shoots and consign them to the 
flames, while they yet contain the larvae and before the 
beetles have escaped. Dr. Fitch,* under the impres- 
sion that most of the beetles are perfected in the spring, 
recommends that this work be done in August and 
September; but as all the beetles had issued from the 
shoots you sent, by the end of August, we should 
advise you, so as to be on the safe side, to do such work 
in July. 



•Trmoi. N. Y. SUte Agr. Soc. WB7, p. 785. 

Unnatural Secretion of "Wax — /*. Bracer, 
Wayjiesville, Mo, — The honey bee which has such a pro- 
ftise waxy formation exuding apparently from the rings 
of the abdomen, and which you took alive from the 
entrance of one of your hives, presents a very unusual 
appearance, and a most remarkable case of wax forma- 
tion. Mr. J. T. Langstroth, to whom we sent the 
specimen, suggests that the bee ** had a kind of wax 
dropsy 1 * ' The specimen is interesting, and beautifully 
illustrates the manner in which the ordinary wax of 
our hives is secreted from the belly ol the worker bee, 
as explained by HUbner, Reaumur, and other writers 
on the sul^ect. 

Raspberrjr Borer—/'. A, Oatee, Mastillon, Iowa. 
—The borer you describe as having nearly ruined your 
patch of raspberry bushes, is apparently the common 
Blackberry and Baspberry borer {Oherea perspidllata, 
Hald . ) which in the perfect state is a beetle . The large 
ochre-yellow moth, with a conspicuous white spot on 
the front wings, and each of the wings tinged with 
purple and crossed near the tip by a purplish line, which 
moth had deposited a large number of eggs on one of 
the raspberry leaves, was not, as you inferred, the 
parent of the borer. It is the Senatorial Dryocampa 
{Dryocampa senatorial Fabr.) The young worms hatch- 
ing from those eggs would have fed upon the leaves, 
though the more common food-plant of the species is 
Oak. 

Cocoon of Horn-bngr— ^. H. McClutchen, Lafay- 
ette, (?a.— The egg-shaped cocoon formed of excrement 
and rotten wood glued together, contained the large 
white larva of some Horn-bug, probably Zucanue dama, 
Fabr.i 



Insects nameil. —J. R, Muhleman, Woodbum, 
Jlle,— The moth, with the front wings variegated 
with light and dark brown with a conspicuous 
dark zigzag line running across the outer third, and 
with the hind wings of a lustrous coppery reddish brown, 
is the Pyramidal Amphipyra {Amphipyra pyramid&ide$, 
Quen). You say you bred it from a grape -feeding larva 

cng. 28] 




Colon— Light and dark Brown. 

like tlie one illustrated on page 225 (Fig. 163) . We have 
also the present summer bred the same species of moth 
from a similar larva feeding on Bed Bud, and have 
found the larva on the Poplar, which makes three 
distinct plants that it is known to attack. The specific 
name of the moth probably refers to the pyramidal 
hump on the 11th segment of the lar\'a. You say you 
* ' recollect a similar larva in Europe on apricots, prune 
trees, etc. , producing an analogous moth . ' ' Not at all 
unlikely, for there is a very similar worm common to 
the whole of Europe, and which feeds on Oak, WlUow 
and Elm, as well as on fruit trees, and produces a 
very closely allied moth, the Amphypyra pyramidea of 
Linnaeus. The other moth of which you send 
a pencil sketch, and which is of a uniform deep 
brown, with two oblique white lines nmning— the inner 
line entirely, and the outer one but partially — across 
the fore wings, is Agnomoniaanilts of Drury, who states 
that the caterpillar is violet-white with longitudinal 
rose-colored line's and an elevated brown ridge across 
segments 4 and 11, and that it feeds on plants of the 
genus Chironia, The chrysalis is enclosed within a 
few leaves and is covered with a rosy efflorescence. 
The other pencil figure which you send seems to repre- 
sent Limacodes dppus, Fabr. (See Harris, Inj. Jns., p. 420> 

Cecropla IVIotli Caterpillar — If. G. Letoellingy 
High Hilly Mo,— 'The gigantic green caterpillar, covered 
with beautiTul yellow, blue and coral -red tubercles, 
which you find on the leaves of an apple tree, is the 
larva of the Cecropia Moth {Attacus cecropia, Linn.) 
It is an immense feeder, and we liave known it to be so 
abundant as to greatly iiyure young Apple and Soft 
Maple trees, but its occurrence in very large numbers 
is extremely rare. We shall figure this caterpillar in 
a fliture number. 

Sand. If. J. Green, EliaH City, III. —The large worm 
found by you descending from an apple tree is the same 
as the above. 

B.OXV Cat«iirornis orlgrlnate — Ihos, W. Gordon^ 
Georgetown, Ohio.— Yo\i ask how our common cut- 
worms originate. They are produced from eggs depo- 
sited by obscure colored owlet moths belonging to sev- 
eral difl'erent genera, and for fuller information on the 
subject we refer you to the First Annual Beport of the 
Junior Editor, where the history of twelve different 
species is detailed. 



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27 



IteAHhiamped. Omterpillars on Apple and 

P«ar — D. W. Kauffmar^ Dei Moines, /<?»«.— What you 
are irreverentiy pleased to term * <a lot of ugly disgust- 
ing worms,' ' but what we consider as one of the most 
gorgeously dressed caterpillars that God has created, 
is known as the <<Red-humped Prominent" and pro- 
duces a brownish yellow moth, called in English 'Hhe 
Trim Prominent" (scientifically Notodonta ooncinna). 
Do pray, Mr. Kaufiman, for the future take a careftil 
look at the wonderAil Works of the Great Author of 
Nature, before you again slander and malign them, and 
call that <'ugly and disgusting" which is in reality a 
perfect gem ot insect beauty. Look at the brilliant 
coral-red head of your larva, and the hump on the 
middle of its back of the same lovely color! Did you 
ever sec a string of coral beads, on the fair white neck 
of a young hidy , show to greater perfection than do these 
bright red parts, among the delicate black, yellow and 
white lines traced lengthways by the linger of Almighty 
God along the rest oi its body? Surely such artistically 
arranged colors can not be '* disgusting" to any pro- 
perly trained eye I But these worms are *'ugly" for- 
sooth I They are at most only about \}i inch long— 
they hare no sting— no irritating hairs or prickles such 
as have the larvse of a very few of our rarer moths— 
and they will not even bite, however much you may 
please to irritate and torment them. Surely a grown 
man ought not to fiuicy that so harmless a creature as 
this is hateful or formidable! But they ale all the 
leaves off one ot your young pear-trees I Very well ! 
They had just as good a right to do so as you have to 
sit down to your dinner, consuming vegetables and 
fruits that would otherwise have fed a host of beauti- 
ful creations which the vulgar denominate ''bugs." 
God made this lovely green world for the pleasure and 
benefit not of man alone, but of the multitudinous 
hosts of the inferior animals. True, we have a right 
to destroy these inferior animals, when they interfere 
with our wants and wishes; and so we have a right to 
take the life even of our brother man, when our own 
life, and even in certain cases when our property 
merely, is jeoparded by him. **Kill and be killed" 
is the great law of Nature, from one end of the Animal 
Kingdom to the other. But when we are compelled to 
kill, let us always do it in a mercifUl and not in a wan- 
ton and cruel spirit; and especially, even when we are 
obliged in self-defence, or for purely scientific purposes, 
to take the life of some of these little miracles of per- 
fection that the poet calls ''winged flowers," let us 
not add insult to iiyury and slander them as ' ' disgust- 
ing,' ' when even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed 
like the very meanest of them I 

The Bed-humped Prominent— of which we herewith 
represent the three stages (Figs. 24 larva; 25 pupa, and 

[Fig. «] 




Colors -Black, white and red. 

26 moth) — has hitherto been iound only on rose, thorn, 
cherry, plum and apple, and especially on the last. 
Your finding it on pear, which is very closely allied 





to the apple, and yet is inimical to the life of several 
insects commonly found on apple, is a new fact. The 
species is not very common in the Valley of the Mis- 
sissippi; but when it does occur, it occurs in great 
numbers, because the mother-moth deposits a very 
large number of eggs upon a single leaf. As these 
larvsB are gregarious throughout their entire existence, 
and do not scatter over the whole tree, as do many 
CFij?. 25. ]_ ^ others that occur onour fruit trees— some 
of lyhich wander off from the very earliest 
stage in their larval life, and others, as for 
example the common Tent Caterpillar 
( Clisiocampa americana) , only toward the 
Color-Brown, latter part of their existence in the larval 
state — they can always be easily destroyed. For 
ourselves, we never feel the least fear or scruple 
at crushing hundreds oi any of these caterpillars in our 
naked hands; any one, however, that is more nice than 
[Fig 26 ] we are can put on a pair 

of stout buckskin gloves 
before he commences the 
squashing process. But 
although we do not hesi- 
tate to squash any kind ef 
caterpillar bare-handed, 
we by no means advise any 
Coioi^Brownith-ydiow. onc to tr>' thls Operation , 
either upon the Colorado Potato Bug or upon any of the 
Blister-beetles. For all these last-named Insects are more 
or less poisonous, and we have known a young girl make 
her hands very sore by crushing with her naked fingers 
a lot of the Ash-gray Blister-beetles, that were Infesting 
some English beans. 

Insects named — T, W. G., Georgetown^ Ohio, — 
The yellowish-green worm with an immense reddish - 
brown head with two yellow spots upon it, is the larva 
of the Tityrus Skipper {Eudamus titynue, Fabr.) a brown 
butterfly with a semi-transparent yellow band across 
the front wings, and the hind wings each produced into 
a short rounded tail behind. This worm is most com- 
monly found on Honey Locust, though it also feeds on 
the common Black Locust, on the Wistaria and on the 
False Indigo, {Amorpha/ndicoea.) The dusky-brown 
tree-hopper with a long yellow spot each side and a 
horn-like projection irom the fore part of its body is 
the Two-spotted Tree-hopper {TheliahtTnaculata, Fabr.) 
which likewise occurs on Locust. The pale yellow and 
black worms all huddled together on the leaf of a Grape- 
vine are the larva of the American Procrls {Procris 
Americana f Boisd.) If you have Harris's work on 
Injurious Insects you can find in it figures of all three 
of these si>ecies. 

^Goldg^lt-beetlc— Z>r. W, IJ, Mai tin, Pinchiey, 
Mich.— The brilliant beetle, resplendent in u full suit 
of green and gold and about half an inch long, which 
you find devouring the leaves of the conuaon Dogs- 
bane {Apocynum andros<zm>folium), is the Gilt Gold- 
beetle (C^Ary^ocAw* aura^M*). It is very common cver)'- 
where in the West upon this plant in the perfect beetle 
state, but as its larva is never met with there, it most 
probably during the lan'al state feeds underground 
upon the roots either of this or of some other plant. 
Your finding the beetle upon another species of the 
same genus of plants {Ap, cannahinum) is, we believe, 
a new fact. 



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Tlie Trumpet Grape-irall— i>. McClaine, Pter^ 
fnonf, K r.— The reddish -brown, elongate-conical 
galls about one-third of an inch long, growing in con- 
siderable numbers from the leaf of a wild grape-vine, 
and which we represent at Figure 27, have long been 

[Fig. 27 ] 




Color— CrimtoD, 

known to us, and are described In our manuscripts 
under the name of the Trumpet Grape-gall {Vitis 
lituus) . Like the other three grape-galls which we have 
figured, one of them in number 12 and the other two 
in number 6 of our first Volume, (pages 106, 107 and 
247,) it is made by a Gall-gnat {Cecidomyia) — XhME 
further exemplifying the truth of the general law, 
that when one species of any particular gall-making 
genus of insects is found to inhabit a particular genus 
of plants, many more species of the same gall-making 
genus can generally be met with on the same genus of 
plants. Specimens of this same Trumpet Grape-gall, 
said to occur on the Isabella grape-vine, were received 
by us three years ago from J. H. Foster, of Pennsyl- 
vania, as noticed in the Practical £ntomologist , I. p. 101. 
Wo have seen very similar galls on a wild grape which 
we took for the Frost Grape ( F. cordt/olia). Two years 
ago, a very similar kind of gall, said to grow on the 
** Texas Mustang Grape-vine,'* were received by us 
from M. W. Phillips, of Mississippi. These last, how- 
ever, diflfered in being green (not brown), and in grow- 
ing in bunches of three or four (not promiscuously) on 
the leaf. (See Pract. EtUom. II. p. 102). Several galls 
resembling yours and made like yours by Gall-gnats, 
one of which has been described by Osten Sacken as 
the Blood-red Hickory Gall {SanguiTwlenta) , and is of 
nearly the same crimson color as the Trumpet Grape- 
gall , occur on the leaves of diflferent species of Hickory ; 
and we are acquainted with two such galls that grow on 
Hackberry leaves. 

Grape-berrjr Klotli — H, C. BarnardjM. 2>., Ckarles' 
ton, JIL—The worms which you sent, and which are 
injuring your grapes by boring into the berries, are the 
larvae of the Grape-berry Moth {Penthina titivorana, 
Pack.) of which wo gave an illustrated account, with 
suggestions for its prevention, in our first volume, pp. 
177-9. 

Oak Pruner— r. J. Plumb j Madison, Wis,— Your 
insect is the common Oak Pruner {Elaphidion ptitatoVf 
Peck), of which you will find an account in Harris's 
Treatise on Iigurious Insects, p. 98. 



Potato Buir»— TFm. R. ShelnUre, Taughhinanum , 
Pa.— The blister-beetle which infests your potatoes so 
grievously and also your tomato vines, is, as you sup- 
pose, the very same Striped Blister-beetle {Lytta riitaia) 
which we gave an account of in No. 2 of our Ist vol- 
ume, page 24, where a figure of the insect will be found. 
In Central Illinois, in the year 1868, we heard of an 
entire field uf potatoes being utterly destroyed by this 
species in a single day. The tomato being so closely 
allied to the potato, it is not at all strange that you find 
this little pest to like it about as well as the potato, 
seeing that most of the Blister-beetles :.re pretty 
miscellaneous feeders. Your statement that it prefers 
other varieties of potato to the Mercer, or Neshannock 
as we call it out West, corresponds with the fact which 
we published in the passage just now referred to, 
namely, that it prefers other varieties of potato to the 
Peachblow. It would be a curious enquiry which of 
the two it would take, if it were absolutely restricted lo 
Mercers and Peach blows. The only approved remedy 
against all the difl'crcnt kinds of potato-eating Blister- 
beetles, which are no less than five in number— namely, 
the Striped, the Ash-gray, the Black -rat, the Black, 
and the Margined Blister-beetle— is to drive them to 
leeward with brush into some dry hay or straw previ- 
ously prepared for their reception, and then to set fire 
to the dry stuff and burn them all up. 

The whitish IG-legged larva, nearly an inch in length 
and with ita head and the first ring of its body mahogany 
brown, which you found burrowing in a potato stalk, 
is unknown to us. All that we can at present siay is, 
that it would have produced some kind of moth if it 
had lived to maturity. As you suggest, it is cjuite 
different from the common Stalk Borer infesting the 
potato, which we figured and described on page 22 of 
our first volume, this last larva being distinctly striped 
lengthwise with black. If you had packed this larva 
of yours according to our printed directions, in a small 
tight tin box along with a little of its natural food, it 
would have doubtless reached us in good health, and we 
could have probably bred it sooner or later to the moth 
state. As it was, you packed it along with a hmall 
morsel of potato stalk and a very large allowance of 
cotton wool, in a pasteboard box. Consequently, long 
before the three days expired, which it takes Uncle 
Sam to travel from Pennsylvania to Illicois, the poor 
unfortunate larva had perished, partly of starvation 
but principally of drought. If you had replaced the 
cotton wool by pieces of potato stalks, retaining the 
pasteboard box, the insect might perhaps have reached 
us alive; but the cotton wool effectually did its business. 
You might as well pack a trout in dry sand and expect 
it to live and flourish, as pack the inhabitant of a juicy 
potato stalk in dry cotton wool, and believe that it will 
not give up the ghost in a very short time. 

Blood-sncklngr Cone-nose— (r. W, 6\, Alton, 
/W.— Yes, the bug which by its <* bite" caused your 
nephew's arm to swell so badly, is the above insect, 
which was figured in American Entomologist, Vol. 
I. p. 88, (Fig. 74.) The fact that for a year after the bite 
the child's arm would swell in the same place, whenever 
he was unwell, is t^ingular. Your observations about 
the perfect winged Bug preying on the common Ik'd- 
bug are new, but corroborate our inference that, in the 
larval and pupal states, this species probably sucks the 
juices of other insects. 



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Xf^oly ulug'lULe -vrorm on Apple — ff. A, Grnn, 
Atco, N. J. — The slug-like worm lound on a young 
apple tree, and which is covered above with thickly 
set, long, but evenly shorn light-brown hairs, these 
hairs generally meeting and forming a sort of ridge 
along the back and along each side, is the larva of the 
Itabbit Moth (Za^oa operculans, Sm. and Abb.) This 
moth w cream-colored with thick wooly body and legs, 
and with the basal portion of its tVont wings covered 
with curly wool which is marked more or less with 
rusty black. The generic name which comes flrom the 
Greek, sig^ilies of, or belonging to, a rabbit, and was 
given by Dr. Harris on account ol the short, squat 
form and smooth fur of the larva. The species is not 
likely to be troublesome, for it has long been considered 
a rare insect; though we i*eceived It last year from a 
corresx>ondent in the East, who stated that he had met 
with it in very considerable numbers on one of his apple- 
trees. 

And now Mr. Green, you deserve a good scolding! 
As often as we have remonstrated against sending 
insects folded loose in a letter, you persist in com- 
mitting the same offense. Here is a choice and rare 
larva, which we should have been much pleased to 
have reared, and you send it all the way from New 
Jersey to St. Louis, folded loose in a letter, in tlie 
vain hope that it would reach us alive . Well, by some 
miracle or other it was not entirely squelched by Uncle 
Sam's canceling stamps^ but it had been so effectually 
squeezed in the mail bags that life was past recovery. 
And when we ponder. Sir, over the torture and linger- 
ing death which you caused the poor creature by your 
careless packing, we feel strongly inclined to report 
you to the * * Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals ' ' and have you suffer the highest penalty of 
the law. The only way we can think of, for you to 
exonerate yourself from prosecution for such a heinous 
crime, is to bribe us to keep * * mum ' * by sending us 
another specimen properly packed I 

A DTater-Buy.— JT. V. Smith, J^rooklyn, N, Y.— 
The brown-colored and very slender Bug, almost three 
inches long, including the slender bristle-like tail that 
projects from its hinder extremity, and with long slen- 
der legs, is the Banatra fusca of Beauvois. An almost 
exactly identical species occurs in Europe, which is 
known as Banatra linearis. This insect belongs to the 
same AV/>a Family of the Half- winged Bugs {Hderoptera) 
as the Gigantic Belostoma, of whicli we gave a ligure 
on page 249 of our last number. This entire Family 
inhabits the water, though they are all provided with 
wings by means of which they are enabled to fly from 
pond to pond; and they are all of them Cannibals, their 
front legs being metamorphosed into arms to seize their 
prey with . Your insect is very common out West in 
shallow sluggish pieces of water. We have never met 
with any in nmning brooks, which, as you say, is the 
situation in which your specimen was found. 

O^ldeiirodGalU— (^. W. C, Alton^ Tif^.— The round, 
pithy galls which you find on the stems of the Goldenrod 
^!k>lldago,) each containing a maggot in the centre, are 
formed by a two-winged fly Trypeta {Acinia) solidaginis, 
FIteh. The * * bushy bunch of leaves' ' at the extremity of 
the safine plant is, as you rightly suppose, a gall; but it is 
made by a Gall-gnat {Cecidomyia tolidaginis, L(cw),and 
»ot hj the same Gall-fly which produces the round gall. 



Oak-leaf GaU— ^. ff. Broadnox, Pickens' Sta., 
JfM*.— You send us a spherical but somewhat depressed 
gall on the leaf of the Black Jack Oak {Quercus nigra) ^ 
about the size oi a small pea, but several of them often 
running together into an irregular mass; its under sur- 
face pale green and flattened, with a central nipple, its 
upper surface dark blood-red or crimson, much rounded, 
and often divided by slender grooves into from 12 to 20 
four-five-or six-sided compartments, like the back of 
a tortoise. This gall was described in 1864 under the 
name of the Oak-pill Gall {Q. pUula) by the Senior 
Editor. The specimens you sent contained the lurva ot 
a Gall-fly {Oynips), and the Senior Editor, from the 
fact of his having actually bred certain Guest Gall-flies 
from this gall, when he published his description, sup- 
posed the gall to be the work of some unknown gall- 
making Gall-fly. Subsequently, however, he became 
aware that the real gall -maker was not a Gall-fly 
{Oynips)j but a Gall-gnat {Cecidomyia), and that the 
very same gall had been briefly described, but not 
named, by Osten Sacken in the year 1862 as the pro- 
duction of a Gall-gnat. Up to this period this was the 
first published case of a Gall-fly living as a guest in a 
gall made by a Gall-gnat; but several other such cases 
have since been discovered. The true gall-making 
larva of this Oak-pill Gall, which larva, as already 
stated, produces not a Gall-fly, but a Gall-gnat, is 
orange-colored, with a very small pointed head and a 
clove -shaped * * breast-bone ; ' ' (see our figure 86 a. Vol. 
I, No. 6;) on the other hand, the larva of the Gall-fly 
that inhabits this gall as a guest is whitish, sometimes 
with a dark stomach, and has a large round whitish 
head with long robust horny black jaws, which in 
the living insect may often be seen to open and shut in 
a vicious manner. The former does not develop to its 
full size till about the time of the fall of the leaf; when 
it leaves the gall and is supposed to go under ground 
and come out the next summer in the perfect fly state, 
ready to deposit its eggs upon the next year's crop of 
oak-leaves. On the other hand, the larva of the Guest 
Gall-fly does not leave this gall till it assumes the perfect 
or winged state. 

Hitherto, this gall has only been met with upon Black 
Oak ( Q. tinctoria), and Red Oak ( Q, rubra) , upon which 
trees in certain seasons it swarms so prodigiously, that 
almost every leaf bears at least half a dozen of them, 
and some leaves are studded all over with them. Your 
finding it upon the Black Jack Oak is a new fact, but it 
is quite in accordance with the general rule, because 
that Oak belongs to the same great group of the genus 
Quercus as the Red and Black Oaks,^and because there 
is no known Oak-gall that occurs indiscriminately upon 
certain species belonging to the White Oak group and 
upon certain other species belonging to the group 
of the Red and Black Oaks. Botanically, these two 
groups of Oaks differ in this very notable character, 
that while it requires two years to perfect the acorn of 
the Red and Black Oak group, the acorn of the White 
Oak group is perfected from the blossom in a single 
season . There is a very closely allied gall, the Symmet- 
rical Oak-leal Gall of Osten Sacken, also produced by 
a Gall-gnat, which scarcely differs from yours except 
in the lower surface being as much rounded and of the 
same crimson color as the upper surface. It is very 
satisfactory that this gall also occurs on a species be- 
longing to the Red and Black Oaks — namely, the Spanish 
OqK {Q./alcaia). 



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Humble "Beem^ Charles S. Davit, Deeatur, III. — 
There are about fifty distinct species of Bumble or Hum- 
ble Bees found in North America, of which rather more 
than half the number occur in the United States, includ- 
ing our new possessions in Alaska. In the immediate 
neighborhood of Rock Island we have taken about ten 
different species. The species differ notably in the 
amount of yellow markings, but have all of them the 
same general appearance; they differ also in size. 

AS with all other social insects, there are three dis- 
tinct forms in every species of Humble Bee, like the 
drones (or males), the queens (or perfectly fertile fe- 
males) and the workers (or partially fertile females) 
among the honey-bees. Among the Humble-bees, it is 
only the queens or large females that live through the 
winter and start fVesh nests in the spring; the workers 
or small lemales always diejn the fall. These last, for 
the most part, only differ ftom the queens in being 
about two-thirds their size . It is the queens alone that 
are seen in early spring flying round apple blossoms, 
etc. , the workers not being bom till later in the year. 
The specimens you send are genuine Humble-bees — 
workers — and belong all of them to our commonest spe- 
cies in the U. S., the Pennsylvania Humble-bee {Bom- 
but pennsyhanicus . De Geer). This kind makes its nest 
in the ground; and there were probably several of their 
nests in your hay-field, which your hay-making opera- 
tions disturbed. Hence they attacked your teams, as a 
hive of honey-bees will fight if you disturb them . You 
state yourself that they troubled you a good deal while 
making hay, and say nothing about their disturbing 
your teams at any other time or in any other place. No 
doubt if you had let them alone, they would have let 
you and your horses alone. You must not blame them 
for fighting ior their families. We presume you would do 
the same if our Indian fHends were to make an on- 
slaught upon your household gods. 

With the exception of a few solitary bees (belonging 
to the genera HaXictus and Andrena), which are known 
as '* Sweat-bees," and having a taste for human sweat 
often get under folks's shirts in the hot summer weather 
and sting if roughly handled, there is no kind of Bee or 
Wasp that does not let man severely alone, if man will 
be good enough to do the same by him. And what is 
true of man, is equally true of the different animals do- 
mesticated by man . 

As with all Bees and Wasps, including the Honey-bee, 
the males of all the Humble-bees have got no sting at 
all. In the case of certain species, the male Humble- 
bee haunts flowers for the sake of the honey and pollen 
found therein; in the case of other species, they fly idly 
about till they die ot starvation , as we have observed t^ 
be the practice of the male of your species. In no case, 
however, does any male Humble-bee, or indeed any 
male Bee or Wasp belonging to any species, gather up 
provisions for the nest. Like the red Indians, the males 
are too chivalrous to work themselves, and it is upon 
the females that all the labor of providing for the family 
devolves. 

Insects for sale — ff. if. O,, ChicagOf HI. — Yes, we 
understand that the extensive collection of N. A. 
Lepidopteni, belonging to Mr. Geo. M. Peck, is for 
sale as a whole, or in part. It has been represented to 
us as being one of the finest private collections in the 
country. Mr. Peck's address is 129 Maiden Lane, New 
York. I 



Can Eiand l^e insured afalnsi Cnt-nr ari s 
and other Insects \—A. Willis, Columbia, Mo. — ^In 
answer to your queries, we regret to say that we know 
of no kind of preparation which you can apply to your 
clover land, so as to insure the nursery stock you 
intend planting upon it next spring, against the depre- 
dations of insects. The habits of these lUliputian foes 
are so. diverse, and we have to fight them in so many 
different ways, that it is impossible to apply any par« 
ticular remedy or preventive that will affect them all. 
We think that the best thing you can do, is to keep the 
land plowed clean until you wish to use it. It was for- 
merly supposed that a clean summer and fall fallow 
would insure the crops planted the following springy 
against the attacks of Cut-worms. But since we have 
shown that some of these worms, which are so iiguti- 
rlous in May and June, are produced fVom eggs depos- 
ited the same spring,* and that all Cut- worms do not 
hatch the year before they attain their growth, it fol- 
lows that this clean fallow will be but a partial prevcn- 
tion of t heir attacks. 

* Sc« AUMOuri £nt. Rep., pp. 72-8, and Amur. EmiomolcfUt, Vol. I, p. 188' 

Beetles named— 7*. W. Boyt, Jr. — Your golden 
beetles are Cassida aurichalcsa, Fabr. (See Vol. I, Fig. 
177.) The beetle with blue-black wing-covers and 
rufous head, thorax, legs and antennse, which *' made 
a sort of crackling noise and emitted smoke which 
smelt like sulphur from the hind part of his body,'^ is 
one of our common Bombardier beetles, Brachinus 
Americanus, Lee. Upon one occasion, when we were 
collecting insects and— as often happens— saw at the 
same moment two rapidly running beetles, both of 
which we were desirous to capture, we thoughtlessly 
put one of the two, which liappened to be a Bombar- 
dier, between our lips, so as to hold him securely while 
we caught and disposed of the other one. Forthwith 
he fired away the customary discharge of blue smoke 
ftom his tail; and the next instant our lips felt as if a 
bottle of the strongest Aquafortis had been emptied 
upon them. But we were not to be fooled thus. The 
more he blazed away the tighter we held him; and after 
a copious discharge of saliva fi*om our mouth, the dis- 
agreeable sensation paiised off in some five minutes, 
without any further unpleasant results. 

Royal Sorned-Caterplllar— W, C. Holme*, 
Piatt shurg, Jfo.— The immense horned worm you fiend, 
is the species which was Illustrated in the colored plate 
to our first volume. 

if. G. Ksrn, Supt, LafayttU Pari, Si. Louis, Mo.— 
The worm you iound on Lilac is the same Royal 
Horned -Caterpillar. The fact of its occurring on 
Lilac is, we believe, entirely new to science. 

Parsnip Caterpillar— 7*. W. Hoyt, Jr., Si. Louis, 
Mo.— ThQ worms found on Parsnip, which are green, 
marked with transverse black stripes and yellow dots, 
and which protrude from the first segment, when dis- 
turbed, two orange -colored strong-smelling processes, 
are the larvae of our most common black swallow-tail 
buttei fly, Papilio asterias. Cram. 

Bad ptLclLing—Dr. W. W. Buiterfeld, Indianapolis, 
Ind. — Owing to your bad packing, the glass vial, con- 
taining the •* aquatic insects," broke in Uncle Sam's 
mail-bags, and not a solitary bug of the whole lot 
reached us. We only hope that none of them crawled 
into some young Udy's love-letters, while they were 
rampaging round among the postal matter. 



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iBflects Bamed— C7. P. Fatdhner, Bridgeport , Conn. 
— ^No. 1 is not Kecrophorui american^tj Oliv., which is 
a much larger and handsomer insect with the elevated 
middle part of the thorax looking like red sealing-wax, 
bat jr. marginatMs, Fabr. Both have similar burying 
habits. No. 2 is Oreophtlus villotuiy Grav.— usually found 
under small pieces of carrion, where it preys upon car- 
rion-eating insects. We have noticed the allied LUto- 
tropAus cingulaius, Gray. , which haunts cowdungs, fly 
oflf from its fkvorite abode with a large Huter in its 
moutb. No. 8 is Coccinella lipunctaia^ Linn. No. 4 Is 
not Mdanotui communis y Schonh, but M. incertua, Lee. 
The two are very closely allied, but incertn$ is on the 
average a considerably larger species. No. 5 is Scarites 
nbferraneus, Fabr. We have dug up many of this spe- 
des from the burrows oi the large southern Dung-bee- 
tle, Copris Carolina, Linn., and believe that it lays its 
^gs there and in other such situations, and that its 
larva lives upon dung-feeding larva. No. 6 is Uloma 
impresfia^ Metsh. , very abundant in all its stages under 
decaying bark in the woods. This species was for- 
merly confounded with 0". cidinaris of Europe, which, 
as the name denotes, haunts kitchens. No. 7is/p« 
fatciatu8j Oliv.— The Elater family is a very difficult 
one, very numerously represented in the U. 8.; and it 
is impossible to identify your species from your descrip- 
tion, which neither specifies the size nor includes a 
ringle generic character. 

Beetle named — Wade Keyes, Florence y -4^. —Your 
Beetle is Onlopteron [Lycus] terminaUy Say, and is tolera- 
bly common, occurring on a variety of different plants. 
The larva, which is clay-yellow prettily spotted with 
black , and very closely resembles the wingless female of 
the European genus Drilvs as figured by Westwood 
(Introd. I, p. 247, fig. 18), occurs under prostrate logs, 
where it no doubt feeds upon the numerous lun-» that 
are found in such situations We have bred this beetle 
through all its stages, and upon one occasion, having de- 
termined to presene a pupa of this species as a cabinet 
specimen , we pinned it through the thorax with a very 
fine N0./8 pin. Directly after we had done this, we 
changed our mind, removed the pin, and replaced 
the pupa in the breeding-jar. A week or two after- 
wards this very same pupa developed into a perfect 
specimen of the beetle; thus showing how tenacious of 
life some insects are. If a lamb was run through the 
breast with a sword, and then left to shift for itself, it 
would not be very apt to develop into a perfect fuJl- 
grown sheep. LeContc in his Catalogue, but not in his 
edition of Say's Fntomoloffy, considers ierminale Say 
as a mere variety of reticulaium Fabr., which has 
across tbe middle of its wing-cases an additional black 
band, but is otherwise undistinguif>hable. We have 
captured hundreds of both forms, and as we have never 
met with any intermediate grade, we incline with Say 
to think Urm*naU a true species. It would be interesting 
to know whether or not reticulatym dificrs in its larval 
and pupal stages from terminaU, 

IHetM named— FT. 0, Bafton, Salem Mast.— The 
moth which you describe as having tbe front wings 
pink edged at tip with yellow, is probably Alariajlor' 
ida, Guen. This insect expands about one and a quar- 
ter inches, and you will find an account of its larva by 
Mr. W. Saunders in the Canadian Entomologist, Vol. 
II, page 6, or in Dr. Fitch's twelfth Report. It feeds 
on the Evening Primrose ((Enothera,) 



urorm berinir Into Cucnniber— ^. W, C, Alton, 
HI.— The pale worm which enters and bores into your 
cucumbers, and which is nearly of the same color as 
the inside of that vegetable, produces a very strikingly 
marked moth of a yellowish -brown color, with an iris- 
colored reflection, the lh>nt wings having an irregular 
semi-transparent dull yellow spot, not reaching their 
front edge, and constricted at their lower edge, and the 
hind wings having their inner two-thirds of this same 
semi-transparent yellow. The moth is new to us, and 
during a recent trip East we found no Entomologist who 
could identify it. It belongs to the genus Pkahellura, 
and is evidently Cramer's nitidalis, though the larva is 
said by Guenee to feed on potatoes. We have found 
this worm quite common in southerly latitudes the 
present year, boring into melons, both musk and water. 
A very similar worm, which however we have not yet 
bred to the moth state, has been this autumn exceed- 
ingly destructive to the cucumbers near Rock Island, in 
Northern Illinois. In company with this, but in 
smaller numbers, we have also met with a rather 
smaller worm, of a pale light yellow color and dotted 
with black very much like the larva of the Currant 
Worm Moth. (See Figures, aa in this Number). We 
have not yet reared this last to the moth state, but hope 
to do so before long. Of course, in a northerly latitude, 
insects do not develop as eariy in the year as they do 
f\irther South. 

O. L, Barler, Alton, III. — The worms which have 
ruined so many of your Nutmeg Melons by boring into 
them, and causing them to rot, are the same species 
spoken of above. 

F, 6, Smith f Pevelyy Mo, — Tlie worm boring into your 
Crook -neck and Hubbard squashes is the same species. 

CaterpUlar of the lo ^IKotl^ — Mrs. TUdedey, 
West Baden Springs, Orange Co., Ind. — The grass* green 
worm found on Locust, willi a conspicuous white and 
lilac-colored line along each side, and covered with 
numerous tufts of yellowish-green prickles, is the larva 
of the lo Moth {Satumia /o, Sm. and Abb.) The moth 
receives it8 name from two conspicuous eye-spots on 
the hind wings, in allusion to the ancient Greek hero- 
ine lo, who, as the fable went, was jealously guarded 
by the hundred-eyed Argus. The sexes differ very 
greatly from each other, the general color of the c^ 
being deep yellow, while that of the $ is purple-brown ; 
though the same pattern is observable in both . The 
caterpillar is capable of stinging with it£ spines. 

uremia en dierrr and ob Wliif e BeeoM— i>. 
B. Waits, Springipaier, i\'. Y, — The worm that is *' play- 
ing foul with your cherry trees ' ' had spun himself up 
before be reached us; but from a peep that we got at 
him through a rent in the cocoon, he appears to be 
difi'erent f^om anything known to us. The other lana 
that usually feeds on beech, but will also eat grape 
leaves, was also spun up; and as we have no beech near 
us and are almost entirely unacquainted with tbe insects 
that infest that tree, we thought it useless to disturb 
him; more especially as, if the cocoon was cut open, 
the larva would most probably die, and by nursing the 
cocoon carefully through the winter we hope to breed 
the moth fi-om it next summer. If we succeed next 
year in rearing the moths from either or both of your 
two cocoons, we will take care to advise you immedi- 
ately what they are. 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Apple-trco -wnnu—ff. JET. Vichroy, ChariyMign, 
JU.— The small green 16-legged lorrse, nearly half an 
inch long and with a broad dark brown stripe on each 
Bide extending the whole length of their backs, which 
you find doing considerable damage to the Apple-tree, 
belong to a new and hitherto undescribed species. 
These larvaj were first communicated to us by A. C. 
Hammond of Warsaw, 111., early in Sept. 1868; and 
subsequently at the Illinois State Fair specimens were 
shown to us by W, T. Nelson, of Wilmington, 111. 
At the latter end of May, 1869, we bred the moth from 
them; and a full account of the species, illustrated by 
figures, will be published in the Second Annual Beport 
of the Senior Editor. The mode in which this larva 
operates on the apple-tree is by tying together the 
leaves witli silken cords, forming a mass of considerable 
size inside which it lives gregaiiously, skeletonizing 
the leaves that it has thus appropriated and filling them 
with its gunpowder-like excrement. It was so abun- 
dant in 1868 near Warsaw and Quincy as nearly to 
strip many trees, especially in young orchards that were 
in an unthrifty condition. It is quite difierent from the 
Rascal Leaf-C rumpler {Phycita nebulo, Walsh), which 
lives all the time in a little black horn-like case, whereas 
this larva carries no house on its back. And moreover 
the Leaf-Crumpler is solitary in its habits, whereas this 
species lives in communities of several dozen during 
its entire larval life. As to the moths produced from 
these two larsie, they are as different from each other 
as a goat is from a sheep. To distinguish our species 
from the Rascal Leal-crumpler, we may call it in Eng- 
lish ** Hammond's Leaf-tyer " {Acrohasis Hammondi, 
n. sp.) 

Stlni^liiir larTSB— e/. C, Falls, I<iw Alhany, Jnd.— 
The lepidopterous lar\'aj which you send arc those of the 
Saddleback -moth {Empntia stimvUa, Clemens), a spe- 
cies which has derived its Englii>h name from the sad- 
dle-like dark spot on the middle of its back. The two 
scientific names are derived rcFpectivcly from a Greek 
word which means **to bum," and a Latin word which 
signifies * * a goad." We shall shortly publish an arti- 
cle on ** Slinging Lar\'ie," giving figures and descrip- 
tions of the very few t^iat po-ssess this peculiar power, 
so that our readers— and especially our fair readers, 
whose hands may be presumed to be more delicate and 
susceptible than those of us rough bearish men-fellows— 
may take due warning and govern themselves accord- 
ingly . Our own experience is that these lan'se produce 
no efllect whatever on the palm of the hand, but if any 
of their sprungling prickles touch the back of the hand, 
or any other part of the body where the skin is not 
hardened and homy, then the result is about the same 
as if the same part bad been stung by nettles. 

l.appei Caterpillar on Apple-tree — William 
Starl'f Louisiana f J/o.— We regret to say that the first 
caterpillar you sent was so rotten and stank so badly, 
that we were glad to fling it away the moment the box 
containing it was opened. The second * * ugly wooly 
worm " found high up on a Rome Beauty Apple-tree, 
and which was broad and perfectly flat below, with 
fleshy, lappet-like appendages at its sides, was the larva 
of the American Lappet 'iloth {Oastropacha Americana^ 
Sm. & Abb.) which you may find figured on page 877 
of Harris's Injurious Insects. The species is rather 
rare, and there is but little risk of its undue multipll- 
c in. 



SplneA Spider—^. W. Kinney ^ Snow Hill, Mo,— 
The odd-looking angular spider, of a shiny mahogany 
brown, with the upper part of the abdomen yellow, 
and with two immense spines or thorns projecting ftt>m 
behind, and other smaller ones from above, is Eptira 
spinea, Hentz. It was subsequently described as found 
sparingly near Murphy sboro, in South Illinois, by 
Vespa (Cyrus Thomas?) in the Prairie Farmer for 18CI 
(Vol. 23, page 169), under the name of £peira{Ga»(era- 
cautha) fpinicavda. Kear Rock Island, in North Illinois, 
it is by no means uncommon . 

T. W, Gordon, Gtoigetotpn y Ohio. — The spider sent by 
you is the same species spoken of above in answer to 
Mr. Kinney. 

Dan^eroaa IttolLlUi^— i>r. M. M, Kenzit, Centtf- 
riUe, Mo,— The ** dangerous looking" hairy ant-like 
insect of a black color with the forehead, upper part 
of thorax and two broad bands on the abdomen of a 
deep rufous, is $ Mvtilla coccinea, Linn. The (^ is 
somewhat smaller and has wings. This insect belongs 
to the Digger Wasps, and the sting of $ is said to be 
exceedingly severe. 

Bai:*Mrorms aflrain — T, C. Tipton f WilUamsport, 
Ohio.— The worms which are literally eating up your 
Cedar trees are the common Bag-worm, which we have 
already frequently referred to under this head. We 
shall publish an article on this insect in our next num- 
ber. The Tomato-worm cannot sting! The common 
House-fly breeds in stable manure. We shall give its 
natural history whenever we can spare the space. 

liari^e irater beetle — S. E. Munford, Prin^Uon, 
Jnd, — In our answer to you last month, we should have 
mentioned that the water-beetle you sent was $ , and 
that in the (J the wing-covers, instead of having longi- 
tudinal impressed lines, are perfectly smooth, with Uie 
exception of the normal rows of flne punctures. Thos. 
Say, who was the first to describe this species, was not 
acquainted with the S, 

Beetles under dead FUM— T. Terrell y Franl/ori, 
Ohio. — The large beetles with round, deep brown wing- 
cases and yellow thorax with a central dark spot, 
which you found under a dead fish, are Silpha {Secro- 
phila) peltata, Catesby. They feed on all kinds of 
carrion . 



Errata in Vol. 1, No. 12. — Page III, columu 
2, line 36, for " Brachyrynchus^^ read *^Brachy- 
rhyncusJ' Page VII, column 2, lino 1, for 
"Stinging "read "Stinking." Page 235, col- 
umn 1, line 3 from bottom, for " 1G9, *" i-ead 
"174, "." Page 242, column 1, line 18, for 
*^ Musea" read *^ Musca,*^ Page 260, column 
1, line 12 from bottom, for " Tkerydoplefyx ^^ 
read •* Thyridopteryx.^^ Same page, column 2, 
line 7 from bottom, for " Cartwell " read 
"Hartwell." Page 261, column 1, line 18, for 
"Welsh" read " Meleh." 



&* Several answers that should have appeared 
in the present number, must unavoidably lie 
over till our next issue. 

• ♦ • 

f^ Our acknowledgements and notices of 
new works have also been crowded out of this 
number. 



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VOL. 2. 



ST. LOUIS, MO., NOVEMBER, 1869. 



NO. 2. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 

i^- i>. sxTjr>i-B^5r SB oo., 

104 OIiIVX 8TBBXT. 8T. L01718. 



TERMS Two dollars per annum in advance. 



KI>ia?ORS : 

BENJ. D. WALSH Rock Island. D). 

CHAS. V. RILEY, 221 N. Main Street St Louis, Mo. 



UNIVERSAL REMEDIES. 

We have received several circulars from the 
"Union Fertilizer Company of New York," 
crjing up the merits of a miraculous panacea 
of theirs, which they kindly offer to the public 
at the low price of $45 per ton, packed in bar- 
rels ready for shipment. The Secretary of this 
Company rejoices in the very appropriate and 
snggestive name of A. S. Quackenbosh, and 
he assures ns that the article which he offers for 
sale, besides being an excellent Fertilizer, is 
*'sare death and extermination to the Canker- 
worm, the Curculio, the Apple Moth, the Potato 
Bug, the Cotton Worm, the Tobacco Worm, the 
Hop Lionse, the Army Worm, the Currant Bug, 
and all descriptions of insect and vermicular 
life which infest and devastate the Orchard, the 
Garden, or the Farm." Of course, as with all 
other QUACK remedies blazened forth with such 
a vast parade of bosh, there is a host of certi- 
ficates appended to the printed Circular, 
showing how " the Insect and Worm Extermi- 
nator'* was applied by Mr. Jones to hiscun*ant 
bushes, and how not long afterwards Mr. 
Jones's currant bushes were entirely free from 
worms, though they had previously been 
swaiining with "vermicular life;" how Mr. 
Smith, who had manured his potato patch with 
the Patent Exterminator, raised a much better 
crop of potatoes than his neighbor Thompson, 
who had tried to grow potatoes without any 
manure at all ; and how a dozen different men, 
whoso orchards were formerly much troubled 
with canker-worms, and who have, for the last 
year or two, been drenching their apple trees 
with heroic doses of this never-failing Bug-des- 



troyer, have scarcely seen a single canker-worm 
on their trees, ever since they invested their 
money in the Great Miraculous Insect-killing 
Exterminator. But who does not know that, 
whether the **Extenninator" be applied or 
not, all currant-worms after they have got their 
growth disappear from among the leaves in or- 
der to form their cocoons? Who denies that ev- 
ery Fertilizer, that contains no other ingredients 
than clean sand, must necessarily be more or less 
beneficial to some crop or other; and that 
though it may be positively injurious to wheat; 
to corn, to hops and to fruit trees, it may yet 
be an advantageous preparation to apply to 
potatoes ? Lastly, what well informed Orchard- 
ist is not aware that, for the last year or two, 
the Canker-worm in several widely-remote 
regions in the United States has ceased to 
swarm as it used to do— most probably from 
the action of the different parasites that prey 
upon it, either when it is in the egg or when it 
is in the larva state? The trouble with all such 
panaceas as this vaunted New York "Extermi- 
nator " is, that we hear nothing of the ninety 
and nine cases where the Universal Remedy 
was applied and found to do no good, while In 
the one case where the medicine worked well, 
or was supposed to work well, the happy exper- 
imenter lauds it to the skies in a flaming adver- 
tisement. In the words of the veteran sports- 
man, when his juvenile companions were brag- 
ging of their achievements with the fowling- 
piece — 

What is hit is history, 

But what is missed is mystery. 

Of course, for all such interesting and instruct- 
ive advertisements as those above referred to, 
the eloquent inditer of them may, or may not, 
get " value received " from this Right Honor- 
able Company, which has apparently been born 
under the most felicitous auspices in Wall 
street, N. Y., and after being carefully nursed 
through a rickety childhood in the Gold Room 
of the Great City of Gotham, is now in its ma- 
ture manhood flooding the whole country with 
its elegantly printed Circulars, in praise of 
** the only sure Remedy for destroying Worms 
and Insects injurious to Vegetation." 



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34 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



" Bat," It will be said, " these are mere vague 
generalities." "Well, then, let us come to close 
quarters with A. S. Quackenbosh, Esq. You 
assert roundly, friend Quackenbosh, that your 
Patent Nostrum is " sure death and extermina- 
tion" to all descriptions of insect life. Ot 
course, then, you have experimented with the 
different noxious insects that afflict the Farmer, 
the Fruit-grower and the Gardener, and are tol- 
ei'ably familiar with the natural history of each 
of them. Of course you are well acquainted 
with the twelve very distinct bugs that attack 
the Potato, as long ago catalogued in this Maga- 
zine, and the two different worms that infest 
the Cotton Plant, namely, the Cotton Caterpil- 
lar and the Boll Worm. Of course you are 
thoroughly aware that the Tobacco Worm, 
which troubles the Connecticut Tobacco-farmer, 
is a very distinct species from that other Tobacco 
Worm, which is found in Kentucky and Mary- 
land and Virginia. Of course you are completely 
posted as to the well-ascertained fact, that the 
Cotton Caterpillar of the South, the true Army 
Worm of the Northern States, and in the North 
West corner of New York the Tent Caterpillar 
of the Forest, are all three of them, in certain 
localities, popularly designated by the same 
name of " Army Worm." Of course you your- 
self perfectly understand what you mean by the 
term "Currant Bug;" but, for our own pail;, 
we must candidly confess that we never heard 
any particular insect called by this name, though 
we have in our time listened to a great deal of 
talk about "Currant Boror^," and "Currant 
Worms,"^ and "Currant Plant-lice." Since, 
then^ Mr. Secretary Quackenbosh, you know 
so much on all these different entomological 
points — which after all are the mere A, B, C of 
the science — how in heaven's name docs it come 
about that, on the very Title-page of your Great 
Braggadocio Circular, you warrant your Patent 
" Fertilizer '* to be sure death and extermina- 
tion to " THE Potato Bug, THE Cotton Worm, 
THE Tobacco Worm, THE Army Worm, and 
THE Currant Bug?" Are you actually green 
enough to suppose, that there is only one kind 
of Potato Bug, when i n reality there are twelve ? 
That there is only one W6rm that infests the 
cotton plant, when in point of fact there are 
TWO? That there is but one Tobacco Worm, 
and ONE so-called Army Worm, when every 
entomologist knows that there are two insects 
which pass by the former, and thbee which 
pass by the latter name? And. lastly do you 
expect us poor igqorant country folks to under- 
stand, at the very first glance, what you mean 
by your recondite and learned disquisition 



about " THE Currant Bug?" Quackenbosh! 
we are really sorr>'^ for you I We fear greatly 
that, instead of being a decently good entomo- 
logist, tolerably well acquainted with the Nox- 
ious Insects of the United States, you are a mere 
entomological Quack ; and that, instead of talk- 
ing good common horse-sense to us, you are 
uttering all the time nothing but Bosh ! 

In sober serious earnest, what Stock-grower 
would trust a sick horse or a sick cow to a vet- 
erinar>' surgeon, who actually did not know the 
difference between a horse and a cow? And 
yet thousands of farmers are trusting every day 
to the delusive humbug, which is broached by 
this New York Company, about the hundreds 
of different kinds of Noxious Insects that swarm 
among us in the country, when it is demon- 
strable from the very circulars, which this pre- 
cious Company puts forth with such brazen 
effrontery, that it cannot tell the difference be- 
tween a Bee and a Beetle; and that the only 
insects with which it is practically familiar are 
the insects of city life, namely, Cockroaches, 
House-flies, Mosquitoes, Fleas and Bedbugs, 
with perhaps a small infusion of Head-lice and 
Body-lice. Farmers of the United States! how 
many more times are you going to be fooled by 
a set of men, who live in a wilderness of brick 
walls and brown-stone palaces ; and know no 
more about you and your thousand and one 
insect enemies, than a Scotch Highlander does 
about knee-breeches? 

In one word, we would earnestly advise our 
readers, whenever they meet with a preparation 
which is warranted to destroy all bugs without 
exception — no matter whether it be labeled as 
" Best's Invigorator " or as the " Insect Elxter- 
minator" of some Eastern Company — to set 
down the authors of that preparation as quacks, 
charlatans and humbugs. Different insects dif- 
fer far more widely from each other, than does 
a Horse from a Hog or a Sheep from a Kabbit; 
and as we know that food that would poison a 
horse may often be eaten with impunity by a 
hog, and that a sheep can thrive upon a great 
variety of weeds which would be deadly poison 
to almost any other plant-feeding quadruped, 
we may reasonably infer a priori — even if we 
have no special expenence on the subject — that 
a particular chemical prepai*ation may some* 
times be destructive to one particular form of 
insect life, and yet prove to be entirely innocu- 
ous or even salutary when employed against 
every other species of insects. Nothing is more 
certain than that there is no Royal Hoad to the 
destruction of the Bad Bugs ; and that the only 
way in which we can fight them satisfoctorily, 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



35 



is by carefull.v studying out the habits of each 
species, and adapting the mode of attack to the 
peculiarities of the fortification, which we 
arc about to besiege. The tactics that took 
Sevastopol would have failed at Vicksburg; and 
Richmond would never have fallen, if the opera- 
tions which proved so successful against the 
Mississippi fortress had been exclusively em- 
ployed against the capital city of the Southern 
Confederation. 

THE BAG-WORJtf, alias BASKET- WORM, alias DROP- 
WORM. 
{Thyridopteryx ep?iemerw/o7'mis, Haw.) 

[Fig. 28.] 




Olore— (a) livitl brown, lilack and white; (ft) (lark brown; 
(c) whitish; {d) black. 

^Irs. MaryTreat,of Vineland,N. J., sent us last 
June great numbers of the newly-hatched lai-vaB 
of this Bag- worm, and expressed a desire to learn 
something of their natural history. As we are 
continually receiving specimens of this peculiar 
insect, for determination, we have concluded to 
give an account of it, by aid of the above illus- 
trations. (Fig. 28.) 

The Bag- worm may be regarded as a Southern 
rather than a Northern insect, though it is found 
as far North as the northern part of New Jersey. 
It may even occur at points above this; but 
specimens which Dr. Harris hat<2hed on his 
place, at Cambridge, Mass., from eggs obtained 
from Philadelphia, had not yet acquired their 
full growth by the 25th of September; and he 
expressed the opinion, that the greater portion 
of them would be arrested by frost before com- 
pleting their growth.* Mr. C. J. S. Bethune 
also informs us that it is not met with in Canada. 

It is known to occur on Long Island, N. Y., in 
New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York,Pennsyl- 

•lEntomological Correspondence, Harris, p. 244. 



vania, Ohio, Maryland, District of Columbia, the 
Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, South 
Illinois, and South Missouri. Like the Canker- 
worm, the Tussock-moth, and all other insects 
in which the perfect female is wingless, the 
Bag-worm is extremely local in character, often 
abounding in a particular neighborhood, and 
being totally unknown a few miles away. 

The clothing made by different solitary in- 
8ect«, for protection either against the inclem- 
encies of the weather or against their enemies, 
is even more varied in cut and make-up, than 
are the divera costumes of the different peoples, 
civilized and barbarous, which inhabit our globe. 
Some insects live in the interior of leaves, using 
the upper and under cuticles as protection ; some 
make their coats out of the leaves them- 
selves ; some make cases of a sort of gummy 
cement, while others use cases of spun 
silk; but by far the greater number, of 
these which protect themselves at all, 
employ silken cases which they cover and 
disguise with some other material. Thus, 
lichens, gi*ass, rushes, stones, shells, sand, 
wool, cotton, hair, wax, and the bark, 
twigs and leaves of trees, are all used for 
this purpose, while a few worms actually 
use their own excrement arranged on the 
outside of their cases with mathematical 
precision. Unlike us mortals, however, 
these insects do not change the fashion of 
their dress with every change of season, 
but follow strictly the pattern used by their an- 
cestors, who cut, spun and wove, ages before 
our primordial mother sewed fig-leaves tosrether 
to hide hel nakedness. The follicle of our Bag- 
worm is covered by the leaves and stems of 
those trees or shrubs upon which it subsists; 
and when evergreen leaves are used they are 
often very regularlv and prettily an*anged after 
the fashion of thatching. 

Throughout the winter, the weather-beaten 
bags of this insect may be seen hanging from 
almost every kind of tree. Upon plucking them 
at that season many will be found empty, but the 
greater proportion of them will, on being cut 
open, present the appearance given at Figure 28, 
e; being in fact pai^tly full of soft yellow eggs. 
Those which do not contain eggs are the male 
bags, and his empty chrysalis skin is generally 
found protruding from the lower end. From 
the middle to the end of May, in the latitude of 
St. Louis, these eggs hatch into little active 
brown worms, which,.from the first moment of 
their lives, commence to form for themselves 
coverings. Th^' crawl on to a tender leaf, and, 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



attached by the anterior legs, with their tails 
hoisted in the air, they each spin around them- 
selves a ring of silk, to which they soon fasten 
bits of leaf. They continue adding to the lower 
edge of the ring, pushing it up as it increases in 
depth, till it reaches the tail, and forms a sort 
of cone J as represented in Figure 28, g. As 
the worms grow, they continue to increase their 
bags Irora the bottom, until the latter become 
so large and heavy that the worms allow them 
to hang, instead of holding them upright, as 
they did while they were young. By the end of 
July, the worms acquire their full growth, when 
they present the appearance of Figure 28, /. 
At this stage, on being pulled out of its bag or 
follicle, the worm appears as at Figure 28, a, 
that portion of the body which is always covered 
by the bag, being soft, and of a dull, smoky 
brown, inclining to reddish at the sides; while 
the three anterior, or thoracic segments, which 
are exposed when (he insect is feeding or march- 
ing, are horny, and mottled with black and 
white. The prolegs, on the hidden part of the 
body are but poorly developed, and consist of but 
slight wart-like projections; they are furnished, 
however, with numerous small hooks, which 
answer an admirable purpose, in enabling the 
bearer to cling to his home-spun coat, which 
shelters him from the weather, and defends him 
from his enemies, and which is even more essen- 
tial to his existence than are the clothes we wear 
to ours. The worms do not arrive at their full- 
grown condition without passing through ci-iti- 
cal periods. At four different times during their 
growth they close up the mouths of their bags, 
and retire for two days to cast their skins or 
moult, as is the nature of their kind, and they 
push their old skins through a passage which 
is always left open at the extremity of the bag, 
and which also allows the passing of the excre- 
ment. 

During their growth they are very slow trav- 
elers, and seldom leave the tree on which they 
were born ; but when full grown they become 
quite restless ; and it is at this time that they 
wander by the day, dropping on to persons by 
their silken threads, and crossing the sidewalks 
of our cities in all directions. It is from this 
habit of dropping on to persons that they have 
been called ** Drop- worms." A wise instinct 
urges them to thus wander from place to place, 
for, did they remain on one tree, they would 
soon multiply beyond the power of that tree to 
sustain them, and would in consequence become 
extinct. When they hav^ lost their migratory 
desires, they fasten their bags veiy securely by 
a strong band of silk to the twigs of th^ tree on 



which they happen to be. Here again, a 
strange instinct leads them to thus fasten their 
cocoons to the ttcigs only of the tree they 
inhabit, so that these cocoons will remain 
through the winter; and not to the leaf-stalky 
where they would be blown down with the 
leaf. After thus fastening their bags, they line 
them with a good thickness of soft white silk, 
and after turning around in the bag so as 
to have the head towards the lower orifice, they 
rest awhile from their labors, and at last cast 
their skins and become chrysalids. Hitherto 
the worms had all been alike in appearance, but 
now the sexes are distinguishable, the male 
chrysalis (Fig 28, 6) being but half the size of 
that of the female, and exhibiting the encased 
wings, legs and antennse as in all ordinary 
chrysalids, while hers shows no signs of any 
such members. ( See inside of bag at e). Three 
weeks afterwards a still greater change takes 
place the sexes differentiating still more. The 
male chrysalis works himself down to the end of 
his bag, and, hanging half-way out, the skin 
bui-sts, and the moth (Fig. 28, rf,) with a black 
body and glassy wings, escapes, and, when his 
wings are dry, soars through the air to seek his 
mate, who is not blessed with wings, but is an 
abortive affair with the head and general ap- 
pearance of the larva, but still more degraded, 
since she has not even the legs which it pos- 
sessed: she is in fact a naked yellowish bag of 
eggs, with a ring of soft light brown silky hair 
near the tail. (See Fig. 28, c). 

Dr. Harris wrote to Edward Doubleday, on 
the 29th of October, 1849,* as follows: 

*'The males are disclosed in September aud 
the early part of October, and immediately 
afterwards the females will be found to be ino- 
pregnated. I examined about fifty female folli- 
cles on the 25th of October, and found all the 
females escaped, and their puparia half full of 
fertilized eggs. It is not true that the females 
remain in their puparia or in their follicles. 
Among all those examined as above mentioned, 
not a single female was discovered; they had 
come out of their pupa skins, and had also left 
their follicles. It is only at an early period, or 
in some rare cases when the females have re- 
mained unimpregnated till this time, that any 
females are to be found within their pupa skins. 
But they do not leave their pupa skins until 
they have been impregnated, and have laid their 
eggs. 

**now the male contrives to get at the female 
is a mystery that I have not yet solved. The 
pupa skin of the female splits in the middle of 
the little carinated ridge found on the top and 
fore part of the thorax, and also laterally, so as 
to admit of a kind of T-shaped opening. It is 
through this that the male organ must be intjro- 

*SQtomoloirical Correspondence, p. 179, 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



37 



dacedy and, passing between the back skin of 
the papa and the body of the female, reach her 
hinder extremity in the bottom of the pupa 
skin. But, in addition to this extent to be pen- 
etrated, the male has to penetrate the whole 
length of the lower orifice of the follicle, 
say half an inch, before he can reach the head 
of' the poparium. The female lays her eggs in 
the puparium or pupa shell, receding from it 
as she does so, and filling the shell half or two- 
thii*ds full of eggs. The rest of the shell she 
fills with a fawn-colored down, rubbed off* her 
own body." 

In order to elucidate and forever settle these 
two points in the natural history of our Bag- 
worm, we have closely studied the habits of 
this insect, and have not only examined hun- 
dreds of specimens in (he open air, but have 
reared great numbers within doors from the 
egg to the perfect state, watching their opera- 
tions day by day. The females of several in- 
sects which inhabit similar follicles (genera 
GSceticus Psyche, etc.), are perfectly wingless. 
They are, indeed, the most degraded and im- 
perfect of moths, and afibrd a marked excep- 
tion to that very general, but not universal 
rule as laid down by Agassiz, viz: that the 
earliest condition of an animal cannot be its 
highest. It is well known that certain Euro- 
pean species never quit their follicles, and that 
the shrunken body not only lies near the ori- 
fice and protects her eggs, but that it forms the 
first food of the young larvae, who play the car- 
nivorous role for the first moments of their 
lives, by subsisting on this remnant of their 
mother's body. It is consequently stated by 
most European authors, as a characteristic of 
the group, that the females never quit their 
cases. But as Harris well remarked in the 
above extract, the insect of which we now 
write, forms an exception to this rule. 

The manner in which fertilization takes place 
is easily explained, though we are not one 
bit surprised that to Dr. Harris, and to all 
who have not given close attention to the mat- 
ter, the modus operandi should be involved in 
such mystery. 

The males of most insects mature before the 
females, but if we take a given number of our 
Bag-worm cocoons, one-half of which are males 
and the other half females, and cut them open 
at the time that the first male makes his appear- 
ance from the lot, we shall find that many of 
the females have already burst open the pupa 
shell at its anterior or lower end, and have 
worked themselves through the aforementioned 
T-shaped opening, to the lower end of the fol- 
licle. The puparium is held tenaciously to the 
upper part of the follicle by the abundance of 



soft but tough silk with which the follicle is 
lined, but it is extenuated to nearly double its 
natural length by the efibrts which the female 
makes in emerging. The female never with- 
draws herself entirely from the pupa shell, but 
holds on to it by her terminal segments, being 
evidently assisted by the ring of wooly hair 
already referred to. Thus, with the pupa shell 
extended to its utmost capacity, and the addi- 
tional length of her whole body, she is enabled 
to reach to the lower orifice of the follicle, 
where she patiently awaits the male, and 
after meeting him, works herself back into the 
pupa shell. Here she deposits her eggs in the 
upper part, intermingling them, and crowding 
the lower part of the puparium with the pecu* 
liar fawn-colored down already referred to. 
After having thus cosily secured her eggs 
against the winter's blasts she works herself out 
and drops exhausted to the ground. 

The eggs ai-c very soft opaque ob-ovate bodies 
about 0.05 inch long, and each is surrounded 
by more or less of the down, which cannot Avell 
be detached from it, and seems to be part and 
parcel of the external surface. The fulvous or 
fawn-colored down is in reality extruded Irom 
the abdomen, and not rubbed off the body as 
stated by Harris. This fact becomes apparent 
when Ave consider the nakedness of the body, 
and may be proved by dissecting an impreg- 
nated female just before the laying of the eggs, 
or by a microscopic examination of the down 
itself. It is in reality a very fine silk and not 
hair. Not only are the eggs mixed with it, and 
the lower third of the puparium tightly crowded 
with it, but there is always an abundance of it 
mixed in with the white silk at the lower end 
of the follicle, and evidently scattered by the 
emaciated female in her exit. 

Follicles in which the female i^ waiting for 
the male may be distinguished even without 
cutting into them, for her body entirely fills up 
their lower third which is otherwise contracted 
and empty. In a state of nature the females 
scarcely ever fail to get impregnated, but in 
confinement a majority of them thus fail, and in 
such an event they remain at the lower part of 
the follicle until death. Out of 82 $ follicles 
that were set apart by us last September, in a 
separate cage, so that no males could reach them, 
every one of them died in this manner, and we 
could not find a single attempt at virginal re- 
production, though very closely allied species 
have been known to produce impregnated eggs 
without fecundation. 

The males emerge dudng the warm morning 
hours. They are very active, and in confine- 



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ment generally batter themselves to death 
within two days. The penis is telescopically 
extensile to about twice the length of his body, 
and he is thus enabled to reach the female 
without difficulty. 

This insect is essentially polyphagous, for it 
occurs alike on evergreen and deciduous trees. 
Wo have found it on the red and white elms, 
the common black and honey locusts, Lombardy 
poplar, catalpa, Norway spruce, arbor-vitae, 
osasre orange, soft and silver maples, sycamore, 
apple, plum, cherry, quince, pear, linden, and, 
above all, on the red cedar, while Mr. Glover 
has also found it on the cotton plant in Groorgia. 
We have even seen the bags attached to rasp- 
berry canes ; but the Ailanthus, which is now 
extensively grown in our large cities for shade 
and ornamental purposes, will bo found entirely 
exempt from its attacks. There seems to be a 
very general prejudice against this tree on ac- 
count of the mther unpleasant and fetid odor 
of the male blossoms, and we were much sur- 
prised at the wholesale tirade against it, that 
was made by the editor of the Horticulturist in 
1869 in the August number of that journal. In 
view of the fact that it is so free from the attacks 
of injurious insects, we deem it well worthy of 
cultivation; and those who do not like the odor 
of the male blossoms, ought to know enough, 
either to cut them off at the proper time, or to 
grow only the female tree which produces no 
unpleasant effluvium, and which, with its large 
cluster of seed-pods — now yellow, now assum- 
ing almost every tint from flesh-color to crim- 
son — forms, in our eyes, a most graceful and 
pleasing sight. In 1868 we had noticed that 
this tree when surrounded by other kinds, 
would have a few isolated bags hanging fi*om 
its twigs, and it became a question in our 
minds whether the Bag-worm actually disliked 
the leaves, or whether the leaves being com- 
pound, its usual instinct failed it, insomuch that 
it fastened its case to the mid-stalk, which falls 
to the ground. But after ample experiment the 
past summer, with worms newly hatched and 
with others of various ages, we have concluded 
that they cannot live on Ailanthus leaves, and 
that such few bags as arc found upon this tree 
in winter, have been fastened there by wonns 
which had traveled from other kinds of trees. 

This insect is also exceedingly hardy and vig- 
orous, and the young woi*ms will at firat make 
their bags of almost any substance upon which 
they happen to rest when newly hatched. Thus, 
they will construct them of leather, paper, straw, 
cork, wood, or of any other material which is 
sufficiently soft to allow of their gnawing it. 



and it is quite amusing to watch their oper- 
ations. 

Remedies. 

How often does the simple knowledge ot an 
insect's habits and transformations, give the clue 
to its easy destruction! From the foregoing 
account of the Bag-worm, it becomes obvious, 
that by plucking and burning the cases in the 
winter time, the trees can be easily rid of them. 
If this is done whenever the first few bags are 
observed, the task of plucking is light; but 
where it is not so done, the worms will continue 
to increase, and partly defoliating the tree each 
year, slowly, but surely, sap its life. 

For many years this insect had been multi- 
plying in the city of St. Louis, until in 1868 it 
had become exceedingly abundant and destruc- 
tive, especially in the older portions of the city. 
So many trees were. unhealthy, and dwindled 
or died, that tree plantcre frequently became 
discouraged. Very few persons, however, sus- 
pected that the Bag-worm was the cause, and 
still fewer were aware how easily its ravages 
were checked, until last winter, the Junior Edi- 
tor called attention to the matter through the col- 
umns of one of the daily papers, and urged the 
destruction of the bags and their contents befoi^e 
the trees again put forth their leaves. This 
appeal, we are glad to say, was duly responded 
to by the citizens; for in less than a month, 
the trees in the public parks and around the 
court-house, and also along many of the street?, 
were entirely cleared of the bags. Indeed, we 
have seldom known entomological information 
to be fraught with such immediate and bene- 
ficial results ! It even opened up a new field of 
employment for ceitain enterprising youths, 
who, with a dirty copy of the daily already 
refeiTcd to in hand, might have been seen trot^ 
ting up some of the principal avenues, and 
shrieking out, newsboy fashion: ** Clean your 
Bag-worms off, ma'am." " Clean your trees, 
sir?— take 'em all off for a dollar! " 

Though the very first efforts of the newly- 
hatched worm are directed to building for itself 
a covering, and though, throughout its larval 
life, it is always covered and protected by this 
covering, this insect is yet subject to the attacks 
of parasites, two of which are already known 
to assist us in subduing it.* 

•CryptxuinquUitor, Say, and Hem</e/ft /Ayrtdop/eryo?, Ri!ey. 



CF" The publishei*8 of those papers which ad- 
vertise to club with ours, will please take notice 
of our change of subscription price. 



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TENT-CATERPILLARS AND PALL WEB-WORMS. 

The following appears in the Weste^-n Rural 
of August 26, 1869, from the pen of a corres- 
pondent : 

The Tent Caterpillar has taken possession of 
many fine young trees, and spread his web from 
" pole to pole," for many are stripped of foliage 
and resemble bare poles. 

The true Tent Caterpillar, or as it is often 
briefly called, ** The Caterpillar,'' hatches out in 
the spring almost befoi'e the leaves of our apple 
trees put forth. Early in June they spin up, 
and the moths, which are of a reddish brown 
color, make their appearance early in July, 
shortly after which they deposit their eggs in 
the well-known rings on the twigs, of which 
we gave a drawing (Fig. 145 c) on page 208 of 
our first volume. The Fall Web Worm, on the 
contrary, does not hatch out till August, and 
although it makes a very similar web-like nest 
to that constructed by the preceding species, it 
is yet a much smaller insect and somewhat dif- 
ferently coloi-ed. Towards the end of the sum- 
mer this worm spins up like the true Tent Cat- 
erpillar ; but instead of the Moth bursting forth 
from the cocoon the same season, it does not 
make its appearance till the middle of the fol- 
lowing season. Moreover this moth, instead 
of being reddish brown, is of a pure milk- 
white color, and it does not lay its eggs in a 
ring upon the twigs, but deposits them in an 
irregular mass upon a leaf. Thus it will be 
seen that one insect hybernates in the egg state, 
the other in the pupn state : one larva appears 
in May, the other in August; one moth is 
brown, the other is white ; and one lays its eggs 
on the twigs, because if it laid them on a leaf 
they would fall ofi* the tree and be lost in the 
winter, whereas the other species lays its eggs 
on a leaf, because it is instinctively aware tliat 
those eggs will hatch out long before the leaf 
falls to the ground. 

No two insects are more frequently con- 
founded than the true Tent Caterpillar {Glisio- 
campa americanay Harris), and the Fall Web 
Worm {Hyphantria textor, Harris) ; so that the 
correspondent of the Western Rural will find 
plenty of company in the mistake that he has 
made, in speaking of Tent Caterpillars in Au- 
gust. Both species are very general feeders, 
the nests of the Tent Caterpillar being found on 
the Wild Black Cherry, the Apple, the Crab, 
the Choke Cherry, the cultivated Cherry, the 
Plum both wild and tame, the Thorn, and the 
Shad bush, but scarcely ever on the Pear or on 
the Peach ; while those of the Fall Web Worm 
occur in the greatest abundance on Hickories, 



especially the Pignut Hickory, and also on Wild 
Black Cherry, Apple, Crab, Ash, Elm, Willow, 
Oak, Birch, and Sycamore or Button wood. 



EXPERIMENTS \^1TH THE JAPANESE SILK-WORM. 

(Anther ea Yama-maL) 

BY W. v. ANDREWS OF NEW YORK, 

In the year 1868 I made some experiments in 
i*earing the Ailanthus Silk-worm (Samia Cyn- 
thia) , an account of which appeared In the Amer- 
ican Naturalist, in the August number of that 
year. I was of opinion then, and am now, that 
Cynthia is the moth best adapted to our north- 
ern climate as a silk-producer. My i*ea8ons 
need not be repeated here, but I may say that, 
since writing the article above adverted to, I 
have received from Dr. Wallace, of England, a 
specimen of sewing silk made from the cocoon 
of the Cynthia, and its appearance and quality 
have strengthened my previous favorable 
opinion. 

By way, however, of ascertaining (he species 
of silk-worm moth most suitable to the climate 
of North America, I obtained from Dr. Wal- 
lace a number of the eggs of the Japanese silk- 
worm known as Yama-mai, which is said to 
produce a most beautiful silk, of a greenish 
color, and the cocoons of which are as easily 
reeled as are those of the ordinary silk-woi*m 
(Bombyx mori). These eggs were sold to per- 
sons residing in widely distant localities, while 
I reserved a considerable number for my own 
use. 

I propose in this paper to give the readers of 
the Entomologist not only an account of my 
own experiments with this insect, but also a 
synopsis of the results of the experiments of my 
correspondents, so far as I have been nble to 
ascertain them. 

The whole of the eggs I received from Eng- 
land arrived in New York in the months of 
March and Apnl. I am inclined to think that this 
is a bad time to receive them here, and that in 
future it will be better to receive them in the 
fall, so that they may be forwarded to tlieir res- 
pective destinations before the severe cold sets 
in, thus enabling parties living in widely dis- 
tant latitudes to keep their eggs at a tempera- 
ture which, without injuring the egg, will i-e- 
tard the hatching till such time as vegetation 
in their respective localities shall be so far ad- 
vanced as to afford the caterpillars a good sup- 
ply of food. If the eggs be kept in England till 
early spring, it is clear that they Avill be some- 
what developed by the warmth of the climate, 



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which development may be serioasly checked if 
the temperatiii*e hero should be, as it probably 
would be, much lower than the temperature of 
England. Disease maybe thus induced ; and my 
opinion is that most of the failures occurring 
here this last season may be attributed to this 
cause. 

It will be perhaps remembered that the spring 
of 1869, at least on the Atlantic coast, was very 
backward. The consequence was that, when 
on April 26th some of the Yama-mai eggs began 
to hatch out, there was nothing worthy of be- 
ing called an oak-leaf to be found for them. 
The few warm days occurring at this time were 
sufficient to complete the development of the 
caterpillar, but not sufficient to make the neces- 
sary advance in the growth of its food-plant. 
Buds, rather than leaves, of Qiiercus coccinea 
wei*e however obtained, and upon these the 
larvae fed a little. Still they wei-e very sluggish 
and inert, and the weather again becoming very 
cold, most of this first lot died within the fii*8t 
two days. Dr. Wallace recommends that the 
larvsB be removed, as they hatch out, to strips 
of glass moistened with water so that they may 
drink. A better plan is, I think, to remove 
them at once to branches, the leaves of which 
have been well sprinkled. Moisture in some 
way should, I have no doubt, be furnished 
them. 

By May 3d nearly all the caterpillars, amount- 
ing to over a hundi-ed, had died from the preva- 
lence of cold. I was obliged to keep them 
within doors, and they appeared to eat a little 
during the day; but they became torpid during 
the night, and in the morning were all but in- 
animate. The temperature had ranged from 
40<> on April 26th to 68^ on the 27th, and by 
May 3d had gone down again to 35^. 

By May 12th more eggs had arrived from 
England, and the weather having become some- 
what warmer, hatched out almost immediately. 
These I fed on Q. coccinea and Q. tinctoria 
indifferently, the larv» evincing, I think, a little 
preference for the former, but doing well on 
both. The branches were placed in water, un- 
der a verandah facing the northeast, so that the 
rays of the morning sun had access to them, the 
larvae appearing to enjoy the warmth. I kept 
them out night and day, unless the night threat- 
ened to be very cold. In warm dry days I 
sprinkled the branches two or three times with 
clear water. A short description of the larvae 
may not be out of place here. 

On hatching out tliey are brimstone yellow ; 
the body sparsely covered with strong haira. 
After the second moult they become greenish, 



with black spots. After the third moult the 
color is a beautiful apple-green, with yellow 
tubercles on each segment, and a few black 
haii*s emerging from each tubercle. The head 
and legs are chocolate brown, the pro-legs red- 
dish. On the anal legs there is a dark brown 
or nearly black patch. The first segment is 
edged with deep pink. In some lights a silver 
spangle appears on some of the tubercles. The 
markings do not greatly differ during the re- 
mainder of their growth, but the apple-green 
color becomes, if possible, still more beautiful. 
It is almost impossible to imagine weather 
more unfavorable for the rearing of any foreign 
insects, than that which prevailed in New York 
during the months of April and May. I have 
already noticed this, tut it may be well to quote 
from the record a little farther. On April 26th 
the thermometer at 6 a. m. stood, as I said be- 
fore, at 48^ ; at 3 p. m. it was 71<>. On the 27th 
it was 68^ in the morning and 129 in the after- 
noon, while on the 3<Jth the mercury scarcely 
reached 66*^ in the hottest part of the day. On 
the 2d of May it reached no higher than 41®, 
keeping quite cold up to about the 22d, when it 
ranged from 49^ at 6 p. Ji. to 62<> at 8 p. m. On 
the 3l8t it reached as high as 79^. Dr. Wallace 
tells us that the temperature most favorable to 
the welfare of the Iai-V8B is from 60^ to 60<^ in 
May and 65<> to 75^ in June, and thinks that a 
higher temperature ** endangers the safety of 
the worm." Now, in June we had a series of 
hot days, in which the mercury reached over 
86^. The consequence of all this was, that on 
June 25th, out of about 200 larvae which had 
been a few days before apparently thriving, 
having reached their last moult, all but six 
wei'e dead. A few may have wandered, and 
about three died of diarrhea, but the majority 
died of a disease acting very rapidly, which 
showed itself first in brown patches, generally 
on the second and third segments, but which 
soon afterwards extended over the whole body. 
Dr. Wallace informs me that in England, this 
year, Yama-mai has generally failed ; the larvae 
dying of a disease displaying symptoms similar 
to those above named. In some cases the larva 
eats a little after the disease becomes manifest, 
then suddenly stops, and a few hours after- 
wards it is seen hanging down fi*om its anal 
legs a flaccid mass of corrupt ion . A pale green 
fluid has by this time escaped, generally from 
between the flrst and second segments ; and all 
that remains of the once beautiful caterpillar is 
an empty skin. 

Most of my correspondents have also been un- 
fortunate. In some cases the eggB hatched out 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



41 



all right, but the larvas were so weak that they 
were nnable to feed. On the other hand, indi- 
viduals who had obtained eggs out of the same 
lot found no difficulty in getting their larvae to 
eat, and for a time to thrive well. So it should 
seem that, as I hinted before, the temperature 
at which the eggs are kept may have a good 
deal to do with the health of the future cater- 
pillar. 

Most of us who have been iu the habit of rais- 
ing caterpillars have doubtless met with similar 
instances where they have refused to eat. Even 
this year I have seen such in the case of a brood 
of the Royal Horned-Caterpillar that refused to 
eat a particle, and of course all died. But even 
hero it is possible that the eggs may have been 
kept too cool or too hot ; and it must be borne in 
mind that, although I attribute the failure of 
my Yama-mai to the unfavorable weather, I 
have by no means forgotten that disease may 
have been superinduced by the maltreatment of 
the eggs. Illustrative of this point are two re- 
markable cases involving one exception to the 
general failure of the Yama-mai crop to which 
I have already alluded. 

A friend of mine, in Brooklyn, wishing to 
make sure that his eggs should not hatch out 
prematurely, placed them in an ice-house where 
the temperature was about 40^ ; and the conse- 
quence was that not a single caterpillar appeared . 
Yet a quantity of B, mori eggs, placed in the 
same situation, hatched out, thus showing that 
Yama-mai eggs cannot be exposed with impu- 
nity to a degree of cold that may be harmless to 
species duly acclimated. 

On the other hand, a correspondent in Massa- 
chusetts, being also desirous of shielding his 
eggs from harm, placed them in a glass in his 
bed-room. The servant, however, objected to 
this '^ littering up,'' and took down the glass to 
wash it out, throwing the whole of the eggs 
into very hot water. My friend was just iu time 
to rescue two eggs, both of which hatched out ; 
the caterpillars grew and flourished, and in due 
time formed beautiful cocoons; and, sti*ange to 
say, this is the only instance, with an exception 
to be noticed presently, in which any of my cor- 
respondents have this year been successful in 
reaHng Yama-mai. An extract from his letter 
may be of interest : 

" The egg^ hatched out May 21st, and on the 
14th of July I had one cocoon fully formed, and 
on the 21st the other. One of the larvae was 
much larger than the other, and had Ave silveiy 
spots on each side, while the other had only two ; 
so I think I have a male and female. The woiins 
were kept in a room facing the south, with 



doors and windows open, night and day. 
Highest temperature 98^; lowest 65^, Fahr."* 

The other successful instance occurred with 
the young ladies of the Academy of the Sacred 
Heart, at Manhattanvillc, New York, who have 
had the good sense to introduce the study of en- 
tomology, and I believe the other natural sci- 
ences, into their admirably conducted school. 

One would infer from these facts that, as the 
time for hatching out approaches, the ^gg should 
be exposed, not to direct sunshine, but to a good 
degree of heat; and this treatment would seem 
to be the more necessary if, as is generally sup- 
posed, the caterpillar is fully formed in the egg 
shortly after laying, and one can also see why 
any great or sudden change to a low tempera- 
ture is injurious to the egg. 

A word now as to the food-plant and manner 
of feeding. 

I have little doubt that Yama-mai will feed 
on any kind of oak, and it is stated in Dr. Wal- 
lace's report that they will feed on apple tree. 
Nay moi*e, that some lai-vae which refused " ever 
green and other fancy oaks," did well on apple. 
More experiments ai-e required in this direc- 
tion, for it is quite possible that a change of cli- 
mate may necessitate a change of food. 

One thing struck me dunng the feeding of 
my laiTae, and that was that they seemed to bo 
very lazy, inert fellows, preferring to feed on a 
half-dead leaf to taking the trouble to crawl to 
a fi-esh one near at hand. I believe that this 
eating of half-dry food is injurious, and gener- 
ally removed the caterpillar, dry leaf and all, to 
pastures new. But it must not be forgotten that 
in Dr. Wallace's report it is asserted, that moist 
succulent leaves do not appear to agree so well 
with the caterpillar as well grown, fully devel- 
oped leaves, even if they should be a little dry. 
More experience is required here. 

It is perhaps not worth while to go more fully 
into details in this paper, when the experiments 
of another season may be productive of very 
different results; but I may say that, notwith- 
standing these almost complete failures, I have 
no doubt that both Yama-mai and Pernyi will 
in due time be acclimated in this country, and 
form another source of wealth for our energetic 
and enterprising people. If a number of indi- 
viduals could succeed in raising a few cocoons 
each, we may, by making a collection from 
each, succeed in bringing together a number of 
males and females sufficient to secure a few lots 

... • 4 subRcqiient letter ftrom this correspondent informs me 
that his mottis liave come out male and rimalc, and tliat the 
larv» were fed on lied Oak (Q, rubra) . Food changed twice 
a week, branches sprinkled daily ; and that they were kept 
at an open window facing the southeast, with a curtain 
placed so that the early morning sun only, could fall on them. 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of fertile eggs, and doubtless caterpillars from 
those would be healthier, and consequently 
would feed better, and be less predisposed to dis- 
ease than those produced from imported eggs. 

The great objection hitherto to the cultiva- 
tion of Cynthia is the difficulty of reeling off the 
cocoons. As I said before, no difficulty of this 
kind occurs with Yama-mai; for Mr. J. P. 
Murray of England, to whom I am indebted for 
a valuable pamphlet on silk- worms, has suc- 
ceeded in reeling 250 yards in one continuous 
thread from this cocoon, and is of opinion that 
350 yards may be obtained. This is encourag- 
ing, and it would seem veiy strange if none of 
our silk manufacturers can discover a plan by 
which large quantities of this silk may either 
alone or mixed with other staples, be profitably 
made up into at least coarse goods for oixlinary 
wear, for umbrella covering, or for a variety of 
other articles of that nature. 

For those intending to make experiments 
next season with Yama-mai, it is desirable that 
they should this fall house some young oak 
trees, so as to be prepared with early food in 
case of premature hatching of the egg. They 
should also ascertain the localities of the earliest 
budding oaks, there being doubtless a consider- 
able difference in the time of early vegetation. 
It was stated before the Royal Dublin Society 
in November last, by Messrs. Moore and An- 
drews, that at Killaruey Q, sessili flora came into 
leaf full a mouth earlier than any other species. 

Over our widely extended country it is 
scarcely possible that any one species of oak 
has the advantage universally over all othei*s; 
but it would be of service to amateur silk- 
growei*s, if the botanists would help us on this 
point by stating what species are earliest in dif- 
ferent latitudes. 

[Our own experience the past summer with 
this Japanese Silkwoim was very unsatisfac- 
tory, and we learn from Dr. Wallace that ex- 
perimentei's met with but poor success in Eng- 
land in 1869, though an Austnan Baron suc- 
ceeded in rearing 20,000 cocoons. — Eds.] 



New Food for Silk-worms.— The lUustra- 
ted Sidney News (Australia), says tliat a native 
shrub has just been discovered both on Phillip 
Island and the shores of the western port bay, 
which has proved far better for feeding silk- 
worms than the Mulberry. 

•-»« 

To all persons interesting themselves in the 
American Entomologist we will allow twenty- 
five cents on every dollar, on all over five names 
which they send. 



THE BOLL- WORM OR CORN-WORM. — 2d ARTICIiB. 

{EeliothU armigera, Htlbner). 

In number 11 of our first Volume wo gave an 
account of this insect, illustrated by figures. In 
this Article we stated that it fed in the larva 
state on the bolls of the cotton plant, on the silk 
and the soft kernels of roasting ears of com, 
and also on gi^een tomatoes and young pump- 
kins. Fi'om the following passage in an Ad- 
dress on Insects, delivered at Vineland, N. J., 
by that excellent observer, Mrs. Mary Treat of 
that place, and published in the Vineland 
Weekly of August 21, 1869, it appears that this 
very same larva also feeds upon the unde- 
veloped tassels of corn and upon green peas ; 
and, as will be subsequently shown, it likewise 
bores into the stems of the garden-flower known 
as Gladiolus; and in confinement will even eat 
ripe tomatoes. Thus it seems to be almost as 
promiscuous in its tastes as the Stalk-borer 
(Gortyna nitela, Guen.), which burrows in the 
stalks of the Potato, of the Tomato, of the Dah- 
lia, of the Aster and other garden flowers, of 
the common Cocklebur and of Indian com, be- 
sides bonng into green corn-cobs and eating 
into green tomatoes and ripe strawberries, and 
in a single instance in Missoun eating into 
peach twigs, and in Illinois inhabiting the 
twigs of the Black Currant.* 

This year green peas have been eaten into by 
a hateful looking worm, and a similar one ate 
into the staminate flowers of the corn before it 
tasscled out, commencing their depredations 
while the tassels were still enfolded in the 
leaves. I have examined considerable com, 
and in some gardens this worm has done much 
damage. "While feeding it is of a green color; 
but when it comes to full size it turns brown, 
and goes into the around to assume the chrysa- 
lis form. I already have the moths of the cater- 
pillars that lived upon the peas, and am waiting 
for those that lived upon the corn to make their 
appearance, so that I may decide whether they 
are distinct species. It is a query with me what 
the second brood of caterpillars will live upon, 
as green peas and untasseled corn will be out 
of their reach. 

There can be no doubt about the identity of 
the moth, the larva of which fed upon peas, be- 
cause Mrs. Treat obligingly forwarded to us in 
the middle of August specimens actually bred 
by her from green peas, which differ in no res- 
pect from the common type of the Corn-worm 
moth. Unfortunately, she has mixed together 
promiscuously the moths bred by her from 
green peas and those which she subsequently 
bred from corn-tassels ; but at our express de- 

•Sec Ambr. Entom., I, p. 206jII. p. 13. 



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43 



gire she has examined the mixed lot, and in- 
forms us that she can detect no difference of 
any consequence among them. It is veiy true 
that this does not amount to a definitive proof 
that the Corn-worm sometimes feeds on undc- 
Teloped corn-tassels as well as on peas ; but we 
have such confidence in Mrs. Treat's perceptive 
powers as an entomological observer, that we 
consider it as morally certain that the Corn- 
worm does so feed. 

The fact that the early brood of larvae, feeding 
upon gi-een peas and apparently also upon unde- 
veloped corn-ta88el8,alway8 has the longitudinal 
stripes so obscurely represented, that in Mrs, 
Treat's eyes they seemed to be of a uniform 
green or brown color, is especially interesting 
and remarkable. Several other such cases are 
known to entomologists, where one brood of a 
two-brooded insect differs constantly in color- 
ation from the other brood ; and philosophic- 
ally such observations as these are of the very 
highest importance, as throwing light upon 
that mysterious question of the Origin of Spe- 
cies, which is now puzzling so many brains. 

It has always been said by entomologists that 
the Corn-worm or Boll-worm is two-brooded ; 
and in Georgia, according to Mr. Glover, even 
three-brooded ; and moreover we all know that 
it cannot feed upon hard corn, but only upon 
snch as is in a soft or milky state. Since in our 
hot summers the ears of corn are developed and 
matured with most surprising rapidity in the 
northern States, it always seemed a mystery to 
us, how two successive broods of the same 
Owlet-moth could be matured there from green 
com in one and the same season. We can now 
better understand how the corn plant can in 
northerly regions mature in one summer two 
broods of corn-worms, and in southerly regions 
even three; for it would seem that the first 
brood occasionally feeds upon the green tassel 
or male flower, and the next broods upon the 
ear and its silk, which is the female flower. 
This point is elaborated more fully in the fol- 
lowing extract from a letter of Mrs. Treat's to 
08, dated August 25th, 1869, or four days after 
the publication of her Address on Insects : 
^ I did not think that this green lai*va, that eats 
into the peas and the stalks of corn before the 
latter are half grown, was, as you inform me, 
this game striped boll-worm, that eats into the 
soft ears ot corn. I never found one of these 
i>ea-eating, stalk-eating fellows striped off like 
the one that eats into tlie ears of corn. The 
other day I passed through a large field of corn, 
where the depredations of this worm were vis- 
ible upon almost every stalk. They had done 
the work weeks before, eating through the 
leaves while they were folded around the stam- 



inate flowers, before the ears had begun to 
make their appearance. So I suppose this sec- 
ond brood was jost then ready to take the ears. 
At any rate it is difficult to flnd an ear free from 
their depredations. I have several chrysalids 
of this last cropf and noticed that they looked 
precisely like those of the first, although the 
caterpillars were marked so differently. This 
last brood confines its diet more strictly to corn 
than the first did, which ate into the stalks and 
flower-buds of the Gladiolus as well as other 
things; and when confined they would leave 
the Gladiolus stalks for ripe tomatoes which 
they specially liked. 

It was formerly supposed that there was but 
a single larva that burrowed in the young stem 
of corn, namely the notorious Spindle-worm 
( Gortyna zeoi, Harris) . We know now that, 
at a somewhat later period perhaps in the 
growth of the corn-plant, the Stalk Borer often 
bores into the stem of the same corn-plant. 
And it results from Mrs. Treat's valuable obser- 
vations, that the first brood of the common Corn- 
worm most probably does the same, or very near- 
ly the saoje thing. We have also on hand an un- 
described species of Owlet-moth {Prodenia 
near commelince, Sm. Abb.), the striped larva 
of which is of nearly the same size and general 
appearance as that of the Corn-wonn, and 
eats into the heart of the young corn-plant in 
Central Illinois, besides feeding externally on 
the leaves. Of this lai'va we received very nu- 
merous specimens from Mr. E. Daggy, of Tus- 
cola, 111., in July, 1868, with a full account of 
its habits, and the moths made their appearance 
towards the end of the same month. In a future 
article we shall describe and illustrate this new 
species. There can be but little doubt that, in 
very many cases, these four larvte, namely the 
Spindle-worm, the Stalk Borer, the Corn-worm, 
and our new species, which we shall take leave 
to call Daggy 's Corn-worm (Prodenia Daggyi), 
have been confounded together; more particu- 
larly as the larviB of almost all Owlet-moths, 
including the multifarious species of Cut-worms 
CAgrotis and allies), present the same colora- 
tional patterns, are very variable in their colora- 
tion, and afford but very few strongly marked 
and reliable distinctive characters. 

In those southerly districts, such as South 
Illinois and Kentucky, where the Corn-worm is 
a grievous pest to the farmer — since it is now 
probable that the first brood of this mischievous 
insect occasionally matures in the undevel- 
oped tassel of the corn-plant— it would possi- 
bly pay to go through a field in July and break 
off and destroy the tops of all corn-plants that 
appeared to contain one of these borers. If the 
toppings were fed out immediately to stock, 



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before the worm inside had had time to escape, 
the forage thus gained would probably pay 
in good part the expenses of the operation ; and 
by this means the propagation of the 2d and 3d 
broods y which are the ones that do the real 
damage to the crop by attacking the roasting 
eai*s, would be pretty effectually checked, espe- 
cially if this system were adopted by a whole 
neighborhood. We do not profess to more than 
a general knowledge of Botany ; but we strongly 
incline to believe, that topping a certain per- 
centage of the corn-plants in a field would not 
in any wise diminish the product of corn ; inas- 
much as with all plants, such as hemp, cucum- 
bers, pumpkins, etc., which bear the male and 
female reproductive organs in distinct flowers, 
a single male flower is sufficient to fertilize a 
great many females. To northern men, per- 
haps, topping corn might seem to bo very *'8low 
business;" but to Southerners, who are in the 
habit of plucking ofi* all their corn-blades for 
fodder every year, it would come quite natural, 
lu any event, we throw out the hint for what 
it is worth. "Try all things, and hold fast to 
that which is good." 

In 1860 — the year of the great drought in 
Kansas — the corn crop in that State was almost 
entirely ruined by the Corn-worm. According 
to the Prairie Farmer of January 31, 1861, one 
county there which raised 436,000 bushels of 
corn in 1859 only produced 5,000 bushels of 
poor wormy stuff in 1860; and this, we are told, 
was a fair sample of most of the counties in 
Ejinsas. The damage done was not by any 
means confined to the grain actually eaten by 
the worm ; but, as we are informed in the same 
excellent article just now referred to, "the 
ends of the ears of corn, when partially de- 
voured and left by this worm, afforded a secure 
retreat for hundreds of small insects, which, 
under cover of the husk, finished the work of 
destruction commenced by the worm eating 
holes in the grain or loosening them from the 
cob. A species of greenish-brown mould or 
fungus grew likewise in such situations, it ap- 
pearing that the dampness from the exuded sap 
favored such a growth. Thus decay and des- 
truction rapidly progressed, hidden by the husk 
from the eye of the unsuspecting farmer." "We 
reproduce here, by way of representing the op- 
erations of this insect more vividly to the eye, 
the graphic though somewhat rough figure 
which illustrated the above Paper in the col- 
umns of the Prairie Farmer; and we may add 
that many horses in Kansas subsequently died 
from disease, occasioned by having this half- 
rotten wormy corn fed out to them. Of course 



[Fig. 29.] 




it will be readily understood, that the insect 
here figured in its three stages is the same 
which we oui*selvcs illustrated in the same three 
stages on page 213 of our first volume, besides 
giving two sketches of the egg, 

m ^ • 

A Long Sleeper. — I had a caterpillar of the 
Puss Moth brought me by a friend twelve 
months ago last August : it formed its cocoon a 
few days after I received it, and has been lying 
in that state for twenty-one months. This 
morning the moth made its appeai-ance. — II, 

Chalwin in Hardwicke's Science Gossip. 

•» • #• 

HT Should a number of the Entomologist, 
through whatever cause, fail to i*each any of our 
subscribers, we will cheerfully send another one 
upon being informed of the fact. 



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45 



GALLS AIO) THEIR ARCHITECT8-2d ARTICLE. 

In our former Article upon this very inter- 
esting and instructive subject*, we showed that, 
in the language of Naturalists, ^' Galls " are all 
such deformations of living and growing plants, 
as are produced by one or more insects or other 
allied animals residing therein, and deriving 
their nourishment therefrom. We further 
showed that galls were of ihe most various 
sizes, shapes and colors; that the same gall 
almost invariably grows upon the same part of 
the same plant, whether that part be the flower, 
the twig, the branch, the root or the leaf; that 
for the formation of a gall the combined action 
of an animal and vegetable organism is abso- 
lutely necessary; that the insects which are 
known to be the architects of galls are by no 
means an isolated group, but belong to several 
dlflerent Families in no less than five diflferent 
Orders; that in none of these Families is the 
gall-making facnlty universal, the very same 
genus often containing certain species that 
make galls and certain others that do not; and 
finally that, besides the true Insects, many of 
the Mites, which are not true Insects, construct 
galls of no very conspicuous size, shape or 
structure. 

We then went on to state that Galls originate 
in two distinct modes, either first, by the mother 
insect depositing one or more eggs in or on the 
part of the plant which she attacks, or secondly, 
by a young larva stationing itself upon a leaf or 
other part of a plant and irritating its surface 
with its beak, until a hollow sack is gradually 
formed, inside which the larva finally develops 
and propagates. In the former case, when but 
a single egg is deposited in one place, the larva 
that develops from that egg forms but a single cell, 
as in Figures 30, 31, 32 and 35 of this Article, and 
the gall is then technically said to be "monotha- 
lamous," i. e. one-celled; but wherever several 
eggs are deposited in one place, the larvae devel- 
oping therefrom inhabit several cells enclosed in 
a common envelop, as in Figures 33 and 34 of this 
Article, and the gall is then technically said to 
be " polythalamous," i. c. many-celled. In the 
second group of galls, namely those originated 
by young larvae, the inhabitants of the gall, 
however numerous they may be, always reside 
promiscuously in the same large cell or hollow. 

In addition to the history of the different 
Galls treated of in our former Article, we will 
now give a brief account, illustrated by Figures 
drawn from nature, of several others of our 



commoner galls, grouping them according to 
the different Families to which the different 
gall-makers belong. 

Galls made by Sawflies. 

(Order ffymenoptera, TerUhredo Family.) 

The Willow-apple Gall (Salicis pomum^ 
Walsh), represented in Figure 30 is of a green- 
ish yellow color, usually with a bright rosy 
cheek, and has very much the look of a minia- 
ture apple. It makes its first appearance early 

[Fig. 30.] 



•AxBBiOAN Entomologist, Vol. I, pp. 101-110. 




Colors— Pale-green and rosy. 

in the spring, on the leaf of the Heart-leaved 
Willow (Salix cordata) — nearly attains its full 
size by the last of May, when the rosy cheek is 
already very conspicuous — and is fully matnred 
by the last of July. Internally it is of a fleshy 
consistence and whitish color like any ordinary 
apple. But appearances are sometimes very 
deceptive. Though this gall looks as tempting 
to the eye as a cheiTy, it is tusteless and insipid 
when taken into the mouth. That is, it is taste- 
less and insipid to us human beings; but no 
doubt, to the little larva that bores into its sub- 
stance and feeds throughout its entire larval 
existence upon its pulp, it offers as relishing a 
flavor as would a basin of the best Turtle Soup 
to a hungry Alderman. 

The four-winged fly that originates this gall 
{Nematus s. pomum, Walsh) presents very 
much the appearance of the Imported Currant 
Worm Fly which we figured on page 16 (Fig. 
7, a (?, 6 ?), except that it is about one-third 
smaller. We have reared hundreds of them 
from the gall, and so variable are they both in 
size and in coloration, that a suite of specimens 
which by way of expeiiment we sent to Mr. 
Norton of Connecticut — an Entomologist who 
has devoted yeara of his life to the special study 



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of this particular Family of Insects — were pro- 
nounced by him to belong to two distinct spe- 
cies*. Yet they were all bred from the same 
lot of galls, gathered off the same group of wil- 
low bushes, and preserved in the same breed- 
ing-vase. Hence we may see how impossible 
it sometimes is to distinguish species, from the 
mere comparison of dried cabinet specimens by 
the closet-entomologist. 

The perfect Fly makes its appearance about 
the middle or latter end of April, when the sexes 
couple as usual, and the female shortly after- 
ward deposits a single egg in the leaf of the 
Heart-leaved Willow, or occasionally in that of 
the Glaucous Willow (8. discolor). For cut- 
ting the tiny slit, which is to receive the eggy 
into the substance of the leaf, she employs the 
small pair of saws which are found at the tail 
of all female Sawflies, and which we figured 
fi*om a microscopic inspection of those of this 
particular species on page 19 (Fig. 10, a). 
Along with the egg she deposits a minute drop 
of a peculiar poison, through the action of which 
upon the vegetable tissues of the plant, com- 
bined after the lapse of a few days with the 
hungry gnawings of the young laiTa that hatches 
out from the egg, the apple-like gall is called 
gradually into existence. By the end of July 
the larva is full-grown, and is then about one- 
fifth of an inch long, the body of a pale green- 
ish white color and the head pale brown, with' 
the usual lateral eye-spots blackish. Besides 
the six true or jointed legs in front, it has seven 
pail's of sham Jegs (pro-legs) behind, as usual 
in larvsB belonging to this genus. It generally 
passes into the pupa state inside the gall, and in 
the April of the succeeding year the pupa-shell 
bursts open and the winged fly appears, to re- 
iterate the same old cycle of operations year 
aft«r year. 

If we cut into a gi'eat number of these Wil- 
low-apple galls early in July, Ave shall often 
find a good many of them to contain, not 
the 20-legged larVa of the Sawfly that makes 
the gall, but a small whitish legles§ grub very 
similar to the grub of the common Curoulio, 
but of a much smaller size. In August there 
is produced from this grub a small Snout-beetle, 
which we may call the Sycophant Curculio 
(Anthonomus sycophanta, Walsh), about half 
the size of the common Curculio, and nearly ot 
• the same general shape, but of a uniform brown- 
black color, except that the wing-cases are 
almost entirely blood-red. This Snout-beetle, 
is what we have denominated a "Guest-beetle," 

•See the Paper on Willow GalU by the Senior Editor in 
Proe. Ent. Soc. PMl.Yl. p. 254. 



that is, it does not make a gall for its own future 
progeny like the Willow-apple Sawfly, but it 
lays its egg in the immature gall of that unfor- 
tunate insect, thus sponging upon the labors of 
its more industrious compeer for food and lodg- 
ing for its own offspring. The intrusive egg 
then hatches out into a minute larva, which has 
the wonderful instinct to destroy the rightful 
tenant of the gall, either in the egg or in the 
early larva state ; thereby monopolizing for it« 
lazy self (he delicious gall, which the provident 
Mother Sawfly had intended for her own off- 
spring. The larva of the Sycophant Curculio, 
when fully fed, changes into the pupa state in- 
side the gall, and in August, as already stated, 
the winged beetle emerges, destined to pass the 
winter in the perfect state, and in the cnsuiug 
spring to rob another brood of tho poor ill-used 
Willow-apple Sawflies of their own rightful 
tenements. 

" But," it will be asked, "how do you know 
«ll this? How do you know that it is not the 
Sycophant Curculio that is the veritable archi- 
tect of this gall, and that the Willow-apple 
Sawfly does not in reality sponge upon tho 
Snout-beetle for food and lodgings, instead of 
the Snout-beetle, as you assert, sponging upon 
the Sawfly?" Wo answer that we have reared 
numbers of this same Sycophant Curculio. not 
only from the Willow-apple gall, but from two 
perfectly distinct galls {S. desmodioides, Walsh, 
and S. nodus, Walsh), one of which is peculiar 
to the Humble Willow (S. humilis) and the 
other to the Long-leaved Willow (S. longifolia). 
Both these two galls produce Sawflies, one of 
which belongs to the same genus {Nematus) as 
the Willow-apple Sawfly but to a distin3t spe- 
cies, while the other one is not only specifically 
distinct but belongs to a distinct genus {Euura), 
Now, if it is the Snout-beetle, and not the Saw- 
fly, that makes the Willow-apple gall, it must 
be this same identical Snout-beetle that makes 
these other two galls on two other species of 
Willow. But, upon that supposition, we 
should have the same insect generating three 
entirely distinct galls, which is physically as 
impossible as for the same cow to produce in- 
differently either a calf, a lamb or a pig. There- 
fore it necessarily follows that our Snout-beetle 
cannot be a gall-maker, and as we And numbers 
of them in all their stages in three perfectly dis- 
tinct Willow-galls, it must be a Guest in each 
of them. For, as it feeds upon the substance of 
the gall, and not except incidentally upon the 
larva that in reality generates the gall, it cannot 
be a mere Parasite. 

Besides the 20-legged larva of the Gall-making 



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Sftwdfyand the legless lai'va of the intrading 
Snout-beetle, we shall often fiud in July in the 
Willow-apple galls a small lively wriggling 16- 
legged caterpillar, cross-barred with alternate 
bands of brown-black and milk white, so as to 
present quite a harlequin-like appearance. This 
is another intruder or Guest upon the tenement 
which rightfully appertains to the Sawfiy larva ; 
and it behaves in the same outrageous manner 
as the Snout-beetle larva, for it is mean and 
selfish enough to murder its Host either before 
that Host is born or shortly after he is born. In 
the May of the succeeding year this pretty 
banded larva^ after having passed through (he 
Qsnal pupal stage, emerges in the form of a 
small dull-gray moth, with very narrow elon- 
gate wings, known as the Willow-apple Tinea 
(Batrachedra salicipamoneUay Clemens) ; and . 
the female moth, after coupling, is then ready 
to operate upon another crop of Willow-npple 
galls, and destroy through the instrumentality 
of its reckless and unprincipled offspring a sec- 
ond generation of poor honest hard-working 
Sawfiy larvae. This very same moth wo have 
also bred from two perfectly distinct Willow- 
galls (8. desmodioides, Walsh, and S. rhodoides, 
Walsh), both of which grow on the Humble 
Willow, and the first of which produces a Saw- 
fly while the second produces a Gall-gnat. 
Hence, precisely in the same manner as wo 
proved that the Sycophant Curculio must be a 
Guest and not a Gall-maker, we may prove 
the same thing of the Willow-apple Tinea. 

In our first Article on * 'Galls and their Arch- 
itects,^' speaking of the different Guest-insects 
that are found in galls, we stated (page 109) 
that some of them were very closely allied to 
the gall-maker, and some were as different as it 
is possible to conceive. The two Guest-larvae 
that we have already referred to, as found in 
profusion in tho Willow-apple Gall, belong to 
the latter group ; for while the larva of the Wil- 
low-apple Sawfiy is 20-legged, that of the Syco- 
phant Curculio is entii*ely legless, and that of 
the Willow-apple Tinea is 16-legged ; and both 
of Uiese last produce winged insects, which are 
as different from the Sawfiy as a Hawk is from 
a Pigeon. There is still a third Guest-insect 
which infests this gall ; but this, instead of being 
widely distinct in all its stages from the true 
gall-maker, actually belongs to the same genus 
{Iffematus) and is of about the same size, though 
its general color is pale grass-green instead of 
honey-yellow, and its dark markings are much 
fewer in number and are very differently ar- 
ranged. This is the Beggar Sawfiy (Nemattts 
mendicus, Walsh) ; and what we took to be its 



lai-vae were 20-legged like the true gall-makers, 
but differed from these last in being of a pale 
ash-color with some pale dusky markings on 
the body, instead of pale greenish-white with 
no dark markings at all on the body. We also 
bred another specimen of this same Beggar 
Sawfiy from the same Willow-cabbage gall 
(S. brassicoides, Walsh), that we figured in the 
First Volume of our Magazine (page 106, Fig. 
84). Now, this last gall is the work, not of a 
Sawfiy, but of a Gall-gnat; so that it follows — 
as in the case of the Willow Tinea and in sev- 
eral other instances which we have put on 
record — that the very same Guest-insect some- 
times infests galls made by insects belong- 
ing to the most widely distinct Orders. Of 
course, it further follows from the fact just 
stated — as in the case of our other two Guest- 
insects — that this Beggar Sawfiy, being bred 
from widely distinct galls, cannot bo a gall- 
maker; and as no known Sawfiy is parasitic in 
its habits, it cannot bo a Parasite, and must con- 
sequently be a true Guest in both the galls 
which it is known to inhabit. 

Besides the above three Guest-insects, there 
are several Parasites which wo have bred from 
the Willow-apple gall, some of which appear 
to infest the architect of the gall, while others 
attack the Guest-insects. But, as our readers 
are by this time tolerably familiar with tho 
mode in which Parasites attack the vanous 
kinds of plant-feeding insects, and as there is 
nothing at all remarkable in the mode in which 
these particular parasites operate, we will not 
occupy unnecessarily the space, which we have 
to devote to the history of our different Gall- 
insects, by dwelling further upon this stale 
subject. 

Let us now pause for a moment and consider 
how complicated is- the great tangled web, in 
which every Animal organism is enveloped, as 
exemplified in the Natural History of this one 
apparently insignificant little Sawfiy, which is 
the Architect of the Willow-apple gall. How 
many millions of men have cast their eyes upon 
these rosy little apples, that are in certain sea- 
sons found in such prodigious abundance on 
the leaves of the Heart-leaved Willow, without 
even giving a passing thought to the very inter- 
esting questions— "What makes these apples? 
Why are they so abundant in certain seasons 
and so scarce in others? What prevents them 
from increasing to such an extent, as to entirely 
eat up all the leaves on every Willow bush be- 
longing to this particular species upon which 
they occur, and thereby killing the entire bush? 
What prevents them from swarming to this ex- 



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tentnpon every such willow-bush throughout 
the leugth and breadth of North America, and 
thereby aunihilating the species from off the 
face of the earth? Female Sawflies usually lay 
at least two or three hundred eggs. What pre- 
vents this Sawfly from increasing a hundred 
fold every year, till, at this rapid geometrical 
rate of progression, it becomes as numerous as 
the house-flies in a grocer's store in the latter 
part of the summer?" Our readers can, we 
think, now answer all these questions without 
difficulty. Truly says Charles Darwin, that 
with every organism on the face of this earth 
there is a perpetual Struggle for Existence. 
The Willow-apple Sawfly is striving every year 
to fulfil the great law of Nature— " Increase and 
multiply and replenish the earth." In its 
efforts in this direction it is more or less checked 
and controlled every year by the three distinct 
Guest-insects that, in order to occupy for their 
own greedy purposes the snug little house and 
home of the poor gall-making larva, and feed 
on the delicate pulp pi*ovided with such careful 
forethought for its use, put it ruthlessly to 
death. The Guest-insects, as well as the Gall- 
maker, are in their turn checked and controlled 
by different Parasites. And all of them, 
whether Gall-makers, Guest-insects, or Para- 
sites, are preyed upon to a very considerable 
extent — especially after they have left the gall 
and are flying around for purposes of love, or 
food, or enjoyment, or the search of suitable 
homes for their future progeny — ^by Cannibal 
Insects, by various Birds, and by different kinds 
of insect-devouring reptiles, such as Snakes, 
Frogs and Toads, or insectKievouring Mammals 
such as Skunks, Shrew-mice and Bats. Can 
any one wonder that, in so complicated a sys- 
tem as this, the balance occasionally oscillates 
a little one way or the othei;? To us, instead of 
our being astonished at the fact that certain in- 
sects — such for example as our Northern Army 
Worm— occur in certain years in exorbitant 
profusion, it seems like a perpetual miracle that 
so very few disturbances occur in the great 
System of Nature ; and that species do not con- 
tinually eat up and annihilate species, year after 
year and century after century, till at length 
there remains nothing but one vast Bloated 
Bug, who will finally die of starvation, because 
all his compatriots have been already swept 
from off the face of this green earth, and not a 
single bug now remains for him to prey on. 
* It is very true that, in the case of Insects, we 
do not know for certain that many distinct spe- 
cies may not have been annihilated by natural 
causes within the last few centuries ; for ento- 



mology, as a science, dates only from the days 
of Linuffius or about a hundred years ago ; and, 
even at the present day, what we know aboat 
the Natural History of Insects is but as a drop 
in the ocean when compared with the vast illim- 
itable unknown. But let us i*ecur to those 
larger animals, such as Birds, which are only 
about one-fiftieth a« numerous in species as In- 
sects, and consequently do not cover so extensive 
a field ; and which, from their far larger size, have 
been studied much more carefully than Insects, 
and for a very much longer time. So far as we 
are aware, there are but two Birds — the Dodo 
of the Mauritius and the Great Auk of the 
Arctic Regions — which within the memory of 
man have become extinct; and even these, as 
there is every reason to believe, have perished 
from off the face of this earth, not through the 
attacks of any of the inferior animals, but 
through the unintermitting persecutions of 
Man. Reasoning, therefore, from analogy we 
may infer that scarcely any insects have become 
extinct within historic times; for, from their 
generally very minute size and their occurring 
usually in such immense swarms, it is impossi- 
ble for Man, with all his boasted pre-eminence 
as the King of the Creation, to wage a war of ex- 
termination against them. So true is it that— 
within the ver>' limited epoch reached by human 
records — although the individual is annually dy- 
ing, the species maintains a permanent foothold. 
The Great Author of Nature took as much 
pains — ^and we desire to be understood here as 
speaking in no irreverent spirit— in making the 
apparently insignificant little Sawfly whose his- 
tory we have been tracing, as in building up a 
Whale or an Elephant. Its habits are to the 
full as interesting and instructive as those 
of any of the larger animals. Its structure, 
when examined with the aid of proper glasses, 
is seen to be as complicated and wonderful even 
as that of Man himself. And yet the majority of 
mankind go through life with their eyes shut to 
this little microscopic world of wonders, and look 
down with contempt, forsooth, upon those who 
have devoted half their years to the study of such 
trifling little objects! Why? Simply because 
a Bug is smaller than a Bear I As if it could 
ever be beneath the dignity of the Creature to 
study those organisms, which it did not dero- 
gate from the power and majesty of the Creator 
to call into life by the fiat of his almighty will! 
As if, because a whale is a thousand times as 
bulky as a man, therefore its history is a thou- 
sand times more worthy to be carefully investi- 
gated than that of man himself I As if, because 
Daniel Lambert weighed one thousand pounds. 



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therefore he was philoBophically a far more in- 
teresting object than the poet Pope, who 
weighed only about a hundred pounds I As if 
a sunflower was more deserving of our admira- 
tion than an orange blossom ! As if we ought 
to make a i>et of a vulture rather than of a 
mocking-bird ! 

J' 

The Willow-egg Gall. 
{Salicis <mtm, Walsh). 

On examining pai*ticular bushes of the Heart- 
leaved Willow in the middle of the summer, 
and especially such as seem to be in a diseased 
and stunted condition, it will be noticed that 
many of the twigs have one or more round or 
oval swellings, fh)m one-third to one-half an 
inch in length, projecting from their sides, such 
as are shown in Figure 31. If we cut into these 
swellings in the summer, their internal sub- 
stance will be found to be whitish and fleshy 
like that of an apple; but [Fig. si] 

by the autumn the apple- 
like pnlp is converted into 
a reddish-brown sponge 
with many transverse fis- 
sures at right angles to the 
axis of the twig. By dis- 
secting down at any time 
to the original surface of 
the twig, a longitudinal 
slit will be discovei-ed, ^x^rrrrmm 
about one-fifth of an inch '"^'^'^^^IZ?'''^ 
long, manifestly produced ^ 

by the saws of the female 
Sawfly that generates this 
gall. This species of Saw- 

^ i. • 1.1- 'J Colors— Green, with pale- 

fly comes out m the mid- brown scales. 

die of the preceding April, and produces 
the future gall by depositing in the slit which 
she has cut with her saws a single egg, ac- 
companied by a drop of the peculiar poison 
secreted by each species of gall-producing 
Saw-flies. If one of these swellings, known 
as the Willow-egg gall, is cut into about the last 
of August, the larva that has hatched out from 
the egg will often be found imbedded in the slit, 
and already more than one-tenth of an inch 
long, of a pale-yellowish color, with three pairs 
of ^-ae legs and seven pairs of pro-legs, and a 
very pale dusky head having the usual lateral 
dark eye-spots. At this date, and even us late 
as the first week in the succeeding March, many 
fhll-sized galls will be found to be still solid 
and uneaten by any larva, no doubt fi-om the 
egg having failed to hatch out; thus proving 
that it is the drop of poison deposited along 



with the egg by the mother Sawfly, and not the 
action of the jaws of the young lai'va produced 
from the egg, that generates the gall. About 
the middle or latter end of the April of the fol- 
lowing year after the formation of the gall, the 
perfect Fly, after passing through the usual 
pupal stage, bursts forth from the interior, which 
by this time has been reduced to an irregular 
hollow filled with the larval excrement or 
" frass," as it is technically termed. This fly 
belongs neither to the genus {Nematiis) which 
has four submarginal cells (Fig. 7, page 16), 
nor to the genus (Pristiphora) which has three 
submarginal cells with the cell next the body 
very long (Fig. 11, page 20), but to another 
genus {Euura) which has three submarginal 
cells with the cell next but one to the body very 
long. But as we have dwelt at considerable 
length upon this somewhat dry subject on page 
20 of this volume, we need not repeat here what 
we have already said. With the exception of 
this curious difTcrence in the structure of the 
wing-veins, the figure of the Native Currant 
Worm Fly, given on page 20, will represent 
with sufficient accuracy the Willow-egg Sawfiy 
{Euura S. ovum, Walsh), except that the gen- 
eral color of the latter is honey-yellow in the 
female and greenish white in the male, instead 
of black in both sexes, and except that the size 
is a little smaller and the body much less robust. 

The Willow-bud Gall. 
{Sal ids gemma, Walsh). 
For a long time, iu the course of the winter 
and early iu the spring, we had noticed here and 
there on particular twigs of the Humble Willow 
(Sallxhumilis) — a dwarf species which grows 
on the driest uplands — particular buds preter- 
naturally enlarged in the manner shown in 
Figure 32 at b 6, buds of the natural size being 
represented at a a a. On examining into such 
enlarged buds, we found most of them reduced 
to a mere hollow shell, with a round pin-hole in 
it, through which some larva must have made 
its exit. A few such buds, however, which 
had evidently not been depredated on by any 
insect, instead of being filled by the noi-mal 
downy embryo leaves, contained a homogene- 
ous grass-green fleshy matter. Here then was 
a riddle to be solved I What made these buds 
swell 60 prodigiously? What converted the 
organized downy leaves into a mass of green 
pulp showing no signs of any organization? 
What insect had disappeared through the pin- 
hole, probably in order to transform under the 
surfftc^ of the earth? For several years the 



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enigma remained without solution. At length 
we came across several of these Willow-bnd 
galls early in October, and discorered that at 
that period they contained many i^^«- 32.] 
of them a single 20-footed worm 
(Fig. 32 c, enlarged) y of a green- 
ish-white color, the head tinged 
with dusky and with the usual 
dusky eye-spots. From other 
galls the worm had ali*eady es- 
caped to go underground ; and in 
a few, in which the egg had ap- 
parently failed to hatch out, the 
whole interior was a solid mass 
of grass-green pulp; while in all 
the others the gall itself was a 
mere hollow shell containing \\ 

more or less * ' frass." Manifestly, 
therefore, from the characters fi<)<^ 

of the gall-inhabiting larva, it 
would produce some kind or 
other of Sawfly. But to what 
species and to what genus would 
this Sawfly belong? Hero was ^^^^^^^^ 
another ric^le to be solved I We^. r^^, ,,^ 

, * . Color: That of the 

therefore placed several of the natural bud. 
unbored galls in a breeding-vase, with some 
moist earth at the bottom oi it. Shortly af- 
terwards the laiTte boi'ed their way out, and 
burrowed a few inches underground, where 
they spun a thin whitish silken cocoon, to 
which many particles of dirt were externally 
attached. In the succeeding May there came 
forth from under the earth of the breeding-vase 
both sexes of the Willow-bud Sawfly {Euura 
s. gemma, Walsh), which proved to belong to 
the same genus as the Willow-egg Sawfly, but 
to diff'er from that species by the size being 
considerably smaller and by the general color 
being black instead of pale.* 

Since, as has been already stated, a few Wil- 
low-bud galls may be found in October and in 
the following winter and spring, unbored by 

ronour N. 



•In his Pi 
nroi 



Paper on our N. A. Sawflles (Tran*. Amer.Ent 
Soe., 1, p. 79), Mr. Norton considers Euura t. gemma, 




absoiutely nothing, e.xcept that several specimens, received 
by him from nobody knows whom, are said to have l)een 
o;iptured on some species or other of the twenty-two willows 
found in the United States . In his description of orbitalU he 
endeavors to comprehend both sexes under the same general 
formula; and in this fUtile attempt, as almost invariably 
hapiiens in species where the sexes differ considerably, the 
description itself becomes indefinite, inaccurate and sloppy 
Thinking as we do of the "Law of Priority, " we hold that 
a name based upon a complete and accurate description 
which distinguishes the two sexes, especially when it is ac- 
companied by the fhll history of the habits of the species in 
all its stages, ought to take precedenceof a name based upon 
a previously published sloppy description, and upon an un- 
known number of mere aabinet specimens received ttom 
Tom, Dick and H*rry, the larval history of which speci- 
mens must remain unlcnown until the day of Judgment 



any larva, but of the full natural size, we may 
draw the same conclusion as to this gaU being 
caused exclusively by the drop of poison depos- 
ited along with the egg by the Mother Sawfly, 
as wo previously drew in the case of the Wil- 
low-egg gall. Philosophically, this is an im- 
portant point to be cleared up ; because certain 
authors have supposed that it is nothing but the 
hungry gnawings of the gall-making larva 
which in all cases originate the gall. It may 
be so, and we ourselves believe that it is so, 
with certain groups of gall-makers, such for 
example as the (rail-moths; but with these two 
species of Sawflies, and probably with all gall- 
making Sawflies and Gallflies, it most certainly 
is not so. 

There is a Guest Gall-gnat {Cecidomyia orbi- 
talis? Walsh) which infests the Willow-bud 
gall ; but we know but little of its Natural His- 
tory, and probably the reader has ali*eady heard 
as much as he cares for about the habits of that 

very remarkable group— the Guest-insects. 

• ♦ • 

TOADS IN GARDENS. 
The Journal des Connaissances Medicales 
states that of late years French horticulturists 
have followed the example of the English ones, 
and peopled their gardens with toads. These 
reptiles are determined enemies of all kinds of 
snails and slugs, which it Is well known can, in 
a single night, destroy vast quantities of lettuce, 
carrots, asparagns, etc. In Paris toads are sold 
at the rate of two fi-ancs flfty centimes a dozen. 
The dealers in this uninviting article keep it in 
large tubs, into which they plunge their bare 
hands and arms, without any fear of the poison- 
ous bite to which they are supposed to expose 
themselves. Toads are also kept in vineyards 
whei'e they devour during the night millions of 
insects, which escape the pursuit of nocturnal 
birds and might otherwise commit incalculable 
damage on the buds and young shoots of the vine. 

m-^-m 

SCIENTIFIC SYMBOLS. 
We repeat, for the benefit of our new subscri- 
bers, that the sign S is used in natural history 
as an abbreviation for the woi*d male, the sign 
$ for female, and the sign 9 for neuter. Since 
in insects the sexes of the same species are often 
quite dissimilar, we shall frequently use these 
signs with our illustrations, as an index to the 
sex of the insect figured. In astronomy the first 
sign denotes the planet Mars, and the second 
the planet Venus. The sign $ has been known 
for centuries by the name of " crux ansata,*' or 
the cross with the handle to it, and occurs pro- 
fusely on old Egyptian monuments. 



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51 



BNTOMOIiOGICAL JOTTINGS. 



[We propose to publish from time to time, under 
the above heading, such extracts from the letters of our 
correspondents as contain entomological Incts worthy 
to be recorded, on account either of their Hcientiflc or 
of their practical importance. We hope our readers 
will contribute each tneir several mites towurds tbe gen- 
eral ftind, and in case they are not perlcctly certam of 
the names of the insects, the peculiarities of which are 
to be mentioned, will send specimens along in order 
that each species may be duly identified.] 



Onion Maggots — FranlcUn, iV^. Y,, Aug, 0, 
1809. — In April I sowed in my garden twenty- 
five square rods to onions. In June I discov- 
ered that the onion maggots were working 
badly in this patch, and threatened to destroy 
the whole crop. I determined to fight them, 
and accordingly I provided myself with a 
trowel and two convenient vessels which I 
could carry in one hand ; and having filled one 
vessel with young onions (thinnings), I passed 
over the whole patch, digging out eveiy aflfected 
onion and setting a sound one in its place. The 
affected onions were put into the empty vessel, 
and afterwards destroyed by burning. This 
work was twice repeated, though the first trans- 
planting was much more onerous than the sec- 
ond and third. I have reason to believe that 
the maggots travel from one onion to the next 
in the row, especially in the early part of the 
season ; for I have observed that if an affected 
onion is left in the ground, the next one to it 
will soon be destroyed, and so on. Later in the 
season, when the onions become larger, there is 
no necessity for the maggots to travel from one 
to another, and consequently at that period 
they do less mischief than in June when the 
onions are small. Jas. H. Parsons. 

Chinch Bvus—Summerfleldy St. Clair county y 
la.y June bthy 1869.— If our farnupprii^M 
only take your paper, they would in six months' 
time make one thousand per cent, on (he in- 
vestment. Just as you predicted in No. 9 of 
the Entomologist, tlie recent heavy rains that 
we have had, ft-om the oOth of May to the 4th 
of June, have operated splendidly upon the 
Chinch Bugs. A few days before these rains, 
if you kneeled down and looked near the roots 
of the wheat, every particle of root seemed to 
be full of life. Now it is quite a different thing. 
Last year I had a piece of corn adjoining a 
wheat-field. As soon as the wheat was cut, the 
great army of Chinch Bugs immediately com- 
menced moving upon the corn-field. In spite 
of ploughing and ditching, I lost three acres of 
com out of the fifteen that there was in the 
whole piece. Col. Fred, Hecker. 



Cicada Notes— ikincflw^er. Pa,, Aug. 14, 1869. 
—Quite a number of Periodical Cicadas were 
both seen and heard round here the present 
season. A single specimen dropped from an 
oak tree on a gentleman's coat-sleeve, in Duf- 
fey's Park, near Marietta, in this county, on the 
4th of June, but it made its escape before I 
could secure it. In this city quite a number 
were seen and heard, and also a few secured in 
localities where they were most abundant last 
year. One gentleman dug up quite a number 
of the pupsd in the early part of May, which 
he used for fishing-bait, and they did not differ 
in any respect from those that were dug up, or 
came up of their own accord, last season. I 
regret that I had not an- opportunity to observe 
whether the two kinds, that appeared last 
season, made their appearance this season. 
The prunings which some fhiit trees received 
last season, on the whole, were much more 
beneficial than injurious. With all my efforts, 
I have not yet been able to learn of a single 
well-authenticated case of Cicadas stinging any 
one in this county, although there had been 
some idle, iiTesponsible reports to that effect. 
So the whole subject, so far as this locality is 
concerned, will, I suppose, have to be postponed 
for sixteen yeai*8 at least. Let others meet the 
question then, for in all human probability I 
shall have run out all my sands of life before 
that period arrives. S, S. B. 

Gigantic Root-Borer— P/a<<«6wr^, Jtfb., Oct, 
13, 1869. — The Gigantic Boot-borer, as described 
on page 231 of your first volume, is destroying 
a good many of our apple grafts, set last spring. 
The root not being large enough for them to 
work inside of it, they eat out about one-thii*d 
of the bark and hollow out the rest of the root. 
Our nursei*y is on prairie, broken in the fall of 
1867. I am told there are a great many of them 
plowed up in breaking prairie. I cannot, I 
think, be mistaken about the identity of the 
species, for your figure is so good that I I'ecog- 
nized it immediately, and they differ greatly 
from the common White Grub so called — the 
larva of the May Beetle. Wm. C. Holmes. 

[We have an article already wiitten which 
will throw some light on Uiis matter, bat which 
will perhaps be crowded out of this number. — 
Eds.] 

Tent-Caterpillars — Old Wtstbury, L. /., N, 
Y.J June Qth, 1869. — How we do enjoy the im- 
munity fVom caterpillars' nests this spring I We 
have only seen five of them this year; in other 
years we have often destroyed more than five 
hundred. Isaac Hicks. 



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Notes on the Tarantula-killer — Glen- 
wood, Mo.y Sept, 25, 1869. — I send you herewith 
a specimen of an immense blue wasp with gol- 
den glossy wings, which I found a lew days 
ago in my vineyard at Glenwood, and which 
from its unusual size attracted my attention. 
It flow quite sluggishly, and after alighting on a 
cluster of grapes, immediately proceeded to 
cut into a berry with its enormous nippers, 
binking iU head well into the fruit. It would 
then attack another berry, and, if left unmo- 
lested, would soon destroy an entire bunch of 
fruit. AVhat was to me most remarkable, I 
observed that the wasp was attended or fol- 
lowed by a bevy of four or five honey bees, 
who seemed to understand that the wasp made 
an incision for their benefit into the delicious 
fruit. Chas. Peabodt. 

[The wasp is a specimen of the Tarantula- 
killer (Pepsis formosa, Say), which we illus- 
trated at Figure 101 of our First Volume. It 
will be remembered by most of our readers, that 
the Tarantula of Texas (Vol. 1, Fig. 91) was 
last year found in several difierent parts of 
Jefierson County, Missouri, and it is gratifying 
to know that it is there accompanied by the same 
enemy which attacks it in Texas. We have 
lately obtained two additional specimens of 
this Tarantula-killer, the one captured at Hema- 
tite and the other at Eureka in Missouri ; and il. 
is an interesting and suggestive fact that, while 
the Tarantula was captured in 1868, its deadly 
Digger-wasp enemy should be found the year 
following; for they are both of very rare occur- 
rence so far North. — Eds.] 

Grassshoppers — Franklin, iV^. Y., Aug. Gth, 
1869. — As to grasshoppers, we have fewer this 
season than last. After five weeks in the hay- 
field, I noticed at length during the last week 
one small gi-een grasshopper, and perhaps half 
a dozen small brown ones not over half an inch 
in length; I also found in my garden a single 
rusty-brown i-oad grasshopper. The scarcity of 
this scourge of the West, and of other common 
insect-s, makes it somewhat expensive raising 
poultiy here this year. But **it is an ill wind 
that blows nobody any good." The haymakers 
find it a great relief this season not to be obliged 
to pull off their shoes every five minutes in 
order to pick out the smashed grasshoppers. 

Jas. H. Parsons. 

Horse-hair Snakes 1 — Washington, D, C— 
Horse-hair worms are often found attached to 
aquatic plants in brooks or ponds in the North- 
ern and Middle States, and probably also in all 
the States. D. L. Dix. 



Grape Cubculio— j5a«> HiU, near Spring- 
field, lU,, Sept, 13, 1869.— A great man> of oar 
grapes were destroyed this year by a curcu- 
lio. In the latter part of July I gathered a 
handful — mostly Concords — which had been 
punctured, and placed them in a glass tumbler, 
with some sandy soil in the bottom. In about 
a week I found in the glass several small white 
larvae. On the 27th of August I found in the 
soil two small beetles, which I send you. 

You professional entomologists must not 
think too hard of the farmers and fruit-growers, 
for paying so little attention to the study of 
insects and the making of collections ; for my 
experience is that, with all my conveniences in 
the way of collecting-apparatus and preserving- 
cases and the like, I can make very few addi- 
tions to my cabinet ; and as for noting habits, 
&c., with any great degree of accuracy, it is 
almost impossible for any one whose time and 
mind are otherwise much employed, to watch 
and record an insect through its most important 
changes. 

That the circulation of the American Ento- 
mologist may be extended, until it is known and 
appreciated in every reading farmer's house- 
hold, is the sincere wish of 

Phil. M. Springur. 

[The beetle sent was the Grape Ourculio 
(CosUodes incBqualis, Say), described and fig- 
ured by the Senior Editor in his First Annual 
Report.— Eds.] 

Army Woksl— Hannibal, Mo., Sept. 29, 1869. 
— The Army-worm disappeared from this sec- 
tion of country in five days after you left (June 
12th) . In ihe corner where we saw them thick- 
est, being oppressed with famine behind and 
our entrenchment in front, they tumed on and 
devoured each other, the larger eating the 
smaller, and sometimes two making a meal off 
one and the same unfortunate. I did not see 
them kill each other. It may be that the living 
attacked only those already dead. I saw live 
ones caiTying about dead ones in their jaws 
like a pig with an ear of corn, as though to 
avoid the others and to enjoy their meal alone. 
There were a gallon or two of heads left in that 
corner. A. E. Trabuk. 

Royal Horned-caterpillar— TToMtn^ion, 
D. C, Sept, 30, 1869.— This remarkable cater- 
pillar, figured in No. 12 of your first volume, 
was found this season, and has been found 
heretofore, in the District of Columbia; while 
the perfect insect has been secured by Dr. East- 
man—the Physician of the Government Hospital 
for the Army and Navy. D. L. Dix. 



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53 



The Skunk as a Tomato-Wobm Destroyer 
St. Joseph, Mich., Oct. 14, 1869.— I want to 
speak a word for the much abased auimal we 
all so mach dislike to come in contact with, 
known sometimes as the '^ Essence-pedlar," 
bnt more commonly as the Skunk. My tomato 
Tines (some four hundred) and potato vines, 
with the exception of the * Teach Blows," 
were covered this year with the Tomato Worms. 
The tomatoes, although repeatedly cleared of 
them, were finally completely stripped of 
foliage; but yet the worms held on. All at 
once the worms began to disappear, and soon 
there was not one to be seen. At the same 
time, there were found numerous holes among 
the plants, and fresh ones every day, about 
6 inches deep, dug by some animal. I had 
often noticed in the evening the odor of a 
skunk, and the tracks of that animal were dis- 
tinctly seen. Now I am satisfied that the skunk 
has proved himself a valuable friend, for by his 
well known habit of feeding on worms, grubs, 
etc., he has completely rid my grounds of 
this nuisance, even bun*owing in the earth for 
the worms that had gone into winter quarters. 
We say most emphatically, don't kill the skunks. 

L. P. Haskell. 

Bad Bugs — Charleston , Coles cmmty. 111., 
June 8, 1869.— The prospect for a large crop of 
apples is gi*owing beautifully less every day. 
Trees that were loaded with young fruit two 
weeks ago, are now in many instances almost 
stripped by the Codling Moth. The Cut Worm 
[White Grub? — ^Eds.] is doing much mischief 
in our county; especially is this the case in 
fields that have recently been meadows. One 
man had eighty acres of corn cut smooth by this 
insect last week; in other cases the amount 
destroyed ranges from five acres up to forty. 
The Army Worm (genuine) and the Chinch 
Bug walk through our meadows and our fields 
of com and of spring wheat, as if they owned 
the soil, making clean work as they go. • 

M. C. McLain. 

White Grub Fungus — Vineland, JS". J., Aug. 
11, 1869. — In the spring of 1865, when 1 was 
botanizing in Benton county, Iowa, I saw great 
numbers of the common White Grub with the 
curious fungus growing out of their mouths. 
There were literally thousands of them scat- 
tered over quite a tract; yet in no instance did 
I ever see one of these ** sprouts " with the 
least shade of green color ; they were all of 
them white at the base, gradually deepening 
into a purple color at the tip. 

Mrs. Mary Treat. 



Army Worms — Benton, Franklin county, 
HI., June 10, 1869.— The Army Worms are 
destroying about all the pastures in this vicin- 
ity, but confine themselves chiefly to redtop 
grass; they have also destroyed considerable 
corn. I have myself twenty acres of redtop; 
and unless they stop working upon it inside ot 
two weeks, it will be entirely ruined for hay. 
There are a few stalks of timothy and clover 
among my redtop ; but the worms have eaten 
all the redtop from around them, and left tlie 
timothy and clover scarcely touched. The 
woiins confine themselves to the lowest part of 
my pasture, where the grass is the largest. They 
work upon the gi'ass along the edge of the field 
of winter wheat, but the wheat itself they have 
not up to this time touched. A. A. Hyatt. 

The Plum Curculio — Chrayson, Ky,, Sept. 
27, 1869 .—Touching the Plum Curculio, I may 
state that, having occasion to build a heu-house 
where a plum tree stood, instead of removing 
the tree I enclosed the trunk and trimmed ofl* 
the bi*auches to the roof. Result: I have for 
two years past gathered perfect fruit from the 
tree, and have not found one specimen stung 
by any insect. A temporary hen-coop con- 
structed under another plum tree the past sea- 
son partially succeeded, whilst the trees not so 
protected lost all their fruit by the curculio. 

John C. Bayler. 

Asparagus Beetles— OW Westbury, L. I , 
N. Y., June 6th, 1869. — I learn from the aspar- 
agus-growers of Oyster Bay, that the Aspara- 
gus Beetle — owing to their carelessness in not 
cutting everything down and making clean 
work last year — is becoming more plentiful 
again. But I believe they can keep the insect 
under control, if they ai*e not too careless. The 
culture of asparagus is largely increasing in the 
vicinity of New York, and large quantities are 
again reshipped to Boston and neighboring 
cities. Isaac Hicks. 

Scarcity of the Corn-worm and Boll- 
woRM — Pickens' Station, Miss., Aug. 1, 1869. — 
The Corn-worm — the species which eats the 
silk and the end of the ear, and which you say 
is the same as the Boll-worm — is quite scarce 
this year, and singularly enough the Cotton 
Boll-worm is also very scarce. A very warm 
dry spell, about the time corn silked out last 
year, is supposed to have killed them. Last 
year the ravages of the Boll- worm were fearful 
in this section. This year we hope for a little 
rest, and exemption from the scourge. 

B. H. Brodnox. 



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INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE-YINE : No. 3. 

The Achemon Sphinx. 
iPkilampelui achemon, Drury.*) 
We herewith represent another large Grape- 
vine-feeding insect, belonging to the great 
Sphinx family, and which may be popularly 

[Fig. 33] 




Colors— Green, yellow and brown. 

known as the Achemon Sphinx. It has been 
found in almost every State where the Grape is 
cultivated, and also occurs in Canada. It feeds 
on the American Ivy (Ampelopsis quinqutfolia) 
with as much relish as on the Grape-vine, and 

[Fig. 8*.] 




Color— Brown. 

seems to show no preference for any of the 
different varieties of the latter. It is, however, 
worthy of remark, that both its food-plants be- 
long to the same botanical Family. 
The full grown laiTa (Fig. 33 a) is usually 

[Fig. SiJ.l 




Color*— Pink, giay and brown. 

found during the latter part of August and fore 
part^fJSeptember. It measures about 8 J inches 

•The synonyms for this insect arc Sphinx Crantor, Cramer 
and Pholu» crarUor, Hiibncr. The genus Philampeltu— 
meaning literally • 'fond of the vine' '—was erected by Harris 
to include this and another species, which also feeds on the 
Grape-vine and which we shall describe in our next num- 
ber. We adopt Harris's name as being appropriate, and 
best known to the American reader. 



when crawling, which operation is effected by 
a series of sudden jerks. The third segment is 
the largest, the second but half its size and the 
first still smaller, and when at rest the two last 
mentioned segments are partly withdrawn into 
the third as shown in our figure. The young 
larva is green, with a long slender reddish horn 
rising from the eleventh seg- 
ment and curving over the 
back, and though we have 
found full grown specimens 
that were equally as gi-een 
as the younger ones, they 
more generally assume a pale 
straw or reddish-brown col- 
or, and the long recurved 
horn is invariably replaced by a highly pol- 
ished lenticular tubercle. The descriptions 
extant of this worm are quite brief and in- 
complete. The specimen from which our draw- 
ing was made, was of a pale straw color 
which deepened at the sides and finally merged 
into a rich vandyke-brown. A line of VLfeuiUe- 
morte brown, deep and distinct on the anterior 
part, but indistinct and almost effaced on the 
posterior part of each segment, ran along the 
back, and another line of the same color con- 
tinuous, and with its upper edge fading gradu- 
ally, extended along each side. The six scol- 
loped spots were cream-colored; the head, 
thoracic segments and breathing-holes inclined 
to fiesh-color, and the prolegs and caudal plate 
were deep brown. The worm" is covered more 
or less with minute spots 
which ai'e dark on the back 
but light and annulated at 
the sides, while there are from 
six to eight transveree wrink- 
les on all but the thoracic and 
caudal segments 

The color of the worm, 
when about to transform, is 
often of a most beautiful 
pink or crimson. The chrys- 
alis (Fig. 34 6) is formed 
within a smooth cavity under 
ground. It is of a dark shiny 
mahogany-brown color, sha- 
greened or roughened, espe- 
cially at the anterior edge of 
the segments on the back. 
Unlike the Hog-caterpillar of the Vine, describ- 
ed in our last, this insect is everywhere single- 
brooded, the chrysalis remaining in the gronnd 
through the fall, winter and spring months, and 
preducing the moth towards the latter part of 
June. We rather incline to believe however that 



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there may be exceptions to the rule in southerly 
latitudes, and that in such latitudes it may some- 
times be double-brooded ; for we have known the 
moth to issue near St. Louis during the first 
days of August, and have this veiy year found 
two worms in the same locality as late as the 
25th of October, neither of which was quite 
full grown, though the leaves on the vines \4p0n 
which they were found had almost all fallen. 

In Hock Island county, in North Illinois, out 
of three larvae that we had in our breeding- 
cages in 1868, every one of them developed into 
the moth state in the first few weeks of the Au- 
gust of the same year ; and we heard several 
years ago of one lai*va developing the same sea- 
son in the adjoining county of Henry. Appa- 
rently such premature development of Sphinx 
moths is a well-known occurrence among the 
different European species. For Chas. Darwin 
remarks that *^ a number of moths, especially 
Sphinx moths, when hatched in the autumn out 
of their proper season, are completely barren ; 
though the fact of their barrenness is still in- 
v<»lved in some obscurity."* 

The moth (Fig. 35 c) is of a brown-gray color 
variegated with light brown, and with the dark 
spots, shown in our figure, deep brown. The 
hind wings are pink with a dark shade across 
the middle, still darker spots below this shade, 
and a broad gray border behind. We once had 
an excellent opportunity of observing how it 
bursts open the chrysalis shell, for while we 
were examining a chrysalis, the moth emerged. 
By a few sudden jerks of the head, but moi-e 
especially by friction with the knees of the 
middle pair of legs, it severed and ruptui*ed the 
thin chrysalis shell, and the very moment the 
anus touched the ruptured end, the creamy fluid 
nsually voided by newly-hatched moths was 
discharged. 

We have never found any parasite attacking 
this species, but its solitary habit and large size 
make it a conspicuous object, and it is easily 
controlled by hand, whenever it becomes unduly 
numerous upon the grape-vine. 

•See Variation of AnimaU and Plantt^ etc., II, pp. 157-8, 
Eiiglith Edition, and the references tliere given in the foot- 



Cdrculios and Bose Bugs. — The Vineland 
(N. J.) Horticultural Society, having deter- 
mined, if possible, to rid their place of these 
pests, offered eight prizes to those who should 
destroy the greatest number dnnng the season. 
It appears by the reports of the committees to 
award the prizes, that the parties applying for 
them had destroyed 9,289 curculios and 120,000 
rose bugs. — Country Gentleman, 



SWARMS OP LADYBIRDS. 

We learn from English exchanges, that count- 
less millions of Ladybirds have appeared in 
Kent and Sussex, and have even extended their 
flight to London. Streets, roads, buildings and 
dresses of persons moving in tlie open air were 
covered with them. At Ramsgate, Broadstairs, 
and surrounding country, they were so thick 
that the ground seemed covered with red sand ; 
and children, for amusement, gathered them in 
paper bags in large quantities, and in one place 
men were found shoveling them through the 
gratings into the sewer. These insects appeared 
to be moving westward, and they presented a 
front of several miles. It is currently believed 
that these immense swarms came from the Con- 
tinent across the channel; but Mr. T. South- 
well, of Norwich, in the October number of 
Ilardtcicke^s Science Gossip, argues (and we 
think rightly) that they could not possibly have 
crossed the channel. It appears that both the 
beetles and their larvae had been unusually nu- 
merous in England in gardens, and more espe- 
cially in hop-yards, where they saved the crop 
which was once threatened by the Hop-louse, 
and it is easy to understand that their onward 
movement in search of fooil, would cause them 
to congregate on the sea shore. Sti-angely 
enough, we cannot glean from any of the ac- 
counts that we have seen, what particular spe- 
cies it is that has thus swarmed, or whether 
more than one species is concerned. 

- - — ^-•'^- ~ 
THE SQUASH BUG DOES NOT TOUCH THE WHITE 
BUSH SCOLLOP. 

Our friend, Major E. S. Foster of Bushbei-g, 
Mo., planted, last spring, side by side, two long 
rows of squash vines, the one i-ow consisting 
entirely of the "Hubbard," and the other of the 
**White Bush Scollop*' variety. We were much 
surprised to find, that while the common Squash 
Bug (Coreus tristis, DcGeer) had almost en- 
tirely ruined the plants of the former variety, 
and had furnished almost every leaf with a batch 
of eggs, it had left untouched those of the latter 
sort. Should further experience prove that this 
immunity is general, the knowledge of the fact 
will be invaluable to the squash-gi*ower, for the 
Squash Bug is one of his very worst enemies. 

We will state right here, for the benefit of 
tliose who are ti*oubled with this pest, that one 
of the most effectual methods of destroying it, is 
to lay down pieces of board along the rows. 
During the night time the bugs congregate 
underneath the boards, and in the early morning 
they may be killed by wholesale. 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Sl'IENTIPIC PHRASEOLOOY. 

[Trandlate<t fVnm Le NatwralUte Canaditn , No. 4] 

Every day wo hear formal complaints made 
against the nomenclature adopted in science ; and 
yet this nomenclatnre is a necessity. Doubtless, 
we ought not to misuse it, and make a silly dis- 
play of words which will be understood by but 
very few persons, especially if we are writing 
to popularize science. For above all things, 
a writer ought to express himself so as to be 
understood. Every time, therefore, that we are 
treating of a plant or an animal that has a popular 
name, we must not hesitate to make use of that 
name, because we may be sure that it will be un- 
derstood more surely and more readily than any 
other. But we wish that the scientific name like- 
wise should be always mentioned along with the 
popular name, in order to avoid mistakes . For it 
will sometimes happen that such and such a 
plant, or such and such an animal, bears such 
and such a popular name in one place, and 
such and such another popular name in another 
place. Thus, in the distnct of Trois-Uivieres, 
humble-bees (fiombus) ai*e '* humble-bees," and 
horse-flies, (JLabanus) are ** horse-flies." The 
people there know perfectly well how to distin- 
guish the one from the other. They know that 
the humble-bee has got four wings and a sting 
in its tail, and that the horse-fly has only got 
two wings, and has no sting in its tail. On 
the other hand, in the district of Quebec, 
people do not know ho w to distinguish between 
these two genei*a. No matter whether the in- 
sects have but two wings, oi*whether they have 
as many as four wings, they are called indis- 
ci-iminately ** horse-flies." We may judge then 
if it is easy to understand folks when they talk of 
the manners and habits of one animal, and use 
the name that properly belongs to another ani- 
mal. For instance, if a Quebec man proceeds 
to say atTrois-Rivieresthat *'hehas found a nest 
of horse-flies" in the ground, and that there was 
a good deal of honey in it, the Trois-Riveres folks 
will laugh in his face, because there they know 
very well that horse-flies do not make any nests, 
and that they never produce any honey. Just 
such a mistake as this was actually made not long 
ago by the Gazette desCampagnes, Speaking of 
the Flea-beetles {Hattica) that infest cabbages, 
turnips, etc., and intending to say that, when 
spent ashes were thrown upon them, they might 
be seen jumping in all directions, instead of 
calling them ** Flea-beetles," which would have 
been correct and would have been understood 
by the whole world, it called them " Plant-lice " 
(aphis)! What an absurd blunder! the idea of 



plant-lice jumping I Why, there is still more 
difierence between a flea-beetle and a plant^-loase 
than there is between a dog and a turkey. 
Now, if in speaking of this bii*d, whatever name 
we chose to give it, we were to say that, as it 
walked about, it lifted up one leg and wetted 
every post that it came across, judge what 
astoqiBhment we should produce I Both in the 
district of Quebec and in that of Trois-Rivieres, 
they commonly call the little yellow beetles with 
black stripes (Z>ia^o^tca vittata) which infest the 
leaves of melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, etc., by 
the name of '^plant-lice," and the flea-beetles by 
the name of '^ earth-fleas." In fact, in Canada 
we are almost completely bare of recognized 
popular names for animals, especially so far a8 
regards insects, of which there are scarcely a 
score that have special names appropriated to 
them. Our compatriots who speak the English 
language are scarcely better ofi* in this respect 
than we are. Amongst them, almost all insects 
are called either ** flies "or "bugs; it is "the 
cucumber-BU«," " the potato-BUG," " the rose- 
BUG," etc., and a man that hunts after all kinds 
of insects is nothing but a " BUG-hunter." 



HOGS vs. CURCULIO. 

[From the Rural New Yorker, Aug. 28, 1869.] 

In the Bural of July 81, L. L. Fairchild calls 
for experience and facts under the above 
heading. 

Hei^e is my experience, which satisfies me 
that hogs are the best plum cultivators: — ^1 
bought a farm that had some twenty very fine 
plum trees on it. In spring they would bloom 
full, and when the fruit was about half grown 
all would fall ofl", which was roallv vexing. I 
threatened to grub them up as cumberers of the 
ground ; but this was protested against, saying 
may be they will ripen next year. 

I wanted a lot to feed hogs in, and the plum 
orchard was right where I wanted them, but I 
was persuaded to fence in only a part of the 
trees, which was done in early spring. All the 
trees blossomed full, and when the fruit was 
about half grown the trees out of the hog lot 
played their old tricks; all the fruit fell ofi*; but 
the' trees in the hog lot did not shed their fhiit, 
though the hogs had almost dug them up by the 
roots. The trees grew well and the fruit also, 
and every tree haa to be propped up. The fruit 
ripened, and was excellent. 

The next season the fence was changed, and 
run around all the rest of the trees in the orch- 
ard, and all included in the hog lot without a 
protest. All produced ripe fruit for years. 

This was only accidental ; but it is experi- 
ence, and to me is pi*oof enough. I advise all, 
in setting plum trees, to set them where they 
can have their hogs run. Others have tried the 
experiment, and can testify to the same result*. 
Hogs will save plums. G. G. 

Union Citt, Ind., 1869. 



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ff*The popular reader, who generally ob- 
jects to the long crack-jaw scientific names of 
insects, will find that we always when possible 
give the plain English names of such insects as 
we have occasion to refer to, adding in a paren- 
thesis (printed in italics) the Latin or scientific 
names. To the entomologist, these last names 
are an absolute necessity^ because it is only 
through the use of them tiiat he is enabled to 
know, with the requisite scientific precision, 
what particular species we are talking about. 
To the general reader, they need not bo any 
stambling-block ; for he will always find that in 
onr columns he can skip over the parenthesis 
that contains them, without interfering in any 
wise with the full and complete meaning of the 
sentence. By adopting this plan we aim to 
snit as far as possible both parties ; namely, the 
scientific maa who is never satisfied unless he 
knows the scientific appellation of the insect 
that we are treating of, and the popular stu- 
dent, who is generally annoyed and disgusted 
by stumblinji: upon Latin phraseology which he 
neither understands nor cares about. 



BEDBUGS. 
In New York, the other evening, there was a 
learned dissertation on the subject: ^' Bedbugs, 
and their remarkable tenacity of life." One 
asserted of his own knowledge that they could 
be boiled and come to life. Some had soaked 
them for hours in turpentine without any fatal 
consequences. Old Hanks, who had been list- 
ening as an outsider, hei'e pave in his experi- 
ence in corroboration of the facts. Says he: 
" Some years ago I took a bedbus^ to an iron 
fonndry, and dropping it into a ladle where the 
melted iron was, had it run into a skillet. Well, 
ray old woman used that skillet pretty constant 
for the last six years, and here the other day she 
broke it all to smash; and what do you think, 
gentlemen, that 'ere insect just walked out of 
his hole, where he'd been hiyin* like a frog in a 
rock, and made tracks for his old roost up stairs. 
Bnt," added he, byway of parenthesis, "by 
George, gentlemen, he looked mighty pale."— 
2few York Republic, 

INSECT DESTROYrNOASSOCIATIOxN. 
Association^ of this kind are being started in 
New Jersey^ with a view to the moi-e success- 
ful cultivation of apples, pears, peaches, etc. 
The object is to adopt a plan which will work 
to clear orchards of injnrious insects of every 
kind. It 18 held that if evjry fruit-grower will 
adopt some established means to rid his or- 
chards of these insects, and sedulously and hon- 
estly attend to it, the culture of friiit will be 
made a certainty and the profit^ibleness of it will 
satisfy the reasonable demands of every one. 
It is farther held that all farmers and cultiva- 
tors of fruit will be forced to come into the 
measure on the principle of self-interest: that 
is, they must either destroy the insects or fail of 
snccess.-— 63^crwkin^ot£m Tel^raph. 



ON OUR TABLE. 

Besides our regular exchanges we find on our 
table the following publications, which we are 
obliged to notice in the most curt manner, on 
account of our limited space : 

Record of American Entomology for the 
Year 1868, Edited by A. S. Packard, Jr., M. D., 
Salem, Mass.— Naturalists' Book Agency. — A 
work that has been greatly needed by American 
Entomologists. This initiatory number is gotten 
up in good style, and is just what it purports to 
be, namely, a Year Book of the Progress in 
American Entomology during 1868. Dr. Pack- 
ard has made a good beginning, and we hope 
he will keep the ball rolling fi*om year to year. 
No one interested in the study of insects can 
afibrd to do without this Record. Price $1.00. 

The Canadian Entomologist. — We are 
pleased to learn of the success of this little con- 
temporary. It will be found of great intei*est 
and value, to the American as well as to the 
Canadian entomologist. The number of pages 
of reading matter has lately been doubled, and 
each issue is embellished by a cover. As wiUi 
our own journal, the second volume of the 
Canadian Entomologist is to end with the year 
1870. Subscriptions i*eceived by the editor. 
Rev. C. J. S.Bethune, Credit, Ontario, Canada. 
Price $1.00. 

Transactions of the American Entomologi- 
cal Society, Vol. 2, No. 3. — ^This number has 
been unexpectedly delayed by difficulties in 
preparing the plates. It is freighted with inter- 
esting and invaluable matter, and we only wish 
that the Entomologists of this country would 
support it moi'e liberally. (See advertisement on 
the inside of cover.) 

Seventh Annual Report of the State 
Board op Agriculture op the State of 
Michigan. — Lansing, Mich, 1868. From San- 
ford Howard, Secretary. 

The American Exchange and Review. — 
A monthly Miscellany of Useful Knowledge 
and General Literature. Philadelphia. $3.60 
a year. 

The Occidental. — A monthly Journal of 
Popular Homoeopathy. St. Louis, Mo. $1.00 
per annum. 

Annual Report of the Board of Regents 
OF the Smithsonian Institution for the tear 
1868.— Washington, D. C. From the Secretary. 

Proceedings and Transactions of the 
Nova Scotian Institute op Natural Sci- 
ence, Vol. II, Part ir. Halifax, N. S. 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The Butterflies of North America — with 
Colored Drawings and Descriptions, by 
Wm. H. Edwards. Published by the American 
Entomological Society, Philadelphia. — Part 4 of 
this magnificent work has been received. It 
contains descriptions and plates of Argynnis 
leio, Behr., Colias Eurythemej Boisd,, CoUas 
Keewaydin, n. sp. Thecla Ontario ^ Edwards, 
and Limenitis Weidemeyerii, Edwards; to- 
gether with the continuation of the Synopsis. 
Price $2.50. Orders should be sent to E. T. 
Cresson, 518 S. Thirteenth St., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Annals of Bee Culture for 1869— Being 
a Bee-keeper's Year Book — From D. L. Adair, 
Editor, Hawesville, Ky. This is a very neat 
little pamphlet of 64 pages, and treats of many 
subjects that are of vital importance to the Bee- 
keeper. As the editor well remarks, a publica- 
tion of this kind is needed to collect in small and 
convenient compass the advancements now 
being made each year in the art of Apicul- 
ture. We wish Mr. Adair success, and would 
suggest that a full index of the subjects treated 
of, would add value to the next number. Sub- 
scriptions received by the editor. Price 50c. 

Illustrated Catalogue of Grape Vines — 
Isidor Bush & Sons, Bushberg, Mo. — The best 
catalogue of the kind that we ever knew to be 
published in the West. It is well illustrated 
and full of practical information. The authors 
have evidently endeavored to make it valuable 
and interesting regardless of cost. They clearly 
have no special axe to grind, and in their ctforts 
to establish a reputation as Grape growers and 
propagators, we wish them every success. 

Good Health — A monthly Journal of 
Physical and Mental Culture. Boston, Mass. 
$2.00. 

The Rural Carolinian, Chai-lestou, S. C. — 
A new monthly agricultural Journal of excel- 
lent appearance. $2.00 a y^ar. 

Missouri Dental Journal — A monthly de- 
voted to the specialty of Dentistry. St. Louis, 
Mo. $3.00 a year. 

Second Annual Beport of the State 
Board op Agriculture of Nebraska. — From 
R. W. Furnas, President. 

The Minnesota Monthly. — ^D. A. Robert- 
son, Editor and Proprietor, St. Paul, Minn. 
$2.00 a year. 

Condition and Doings of the Boston 
Society of Natural History. Boston, 18C9. 

Grape List op the Cliff Cave Wine Co. of 
St. Louis, Mo., C. W. Spaulding, President. 



A Guide to the Study of Insects — By A. 
S. Packard, Jr., M. D., Salem, Mass. Parts 
VII, VlII and IX of this work have been 
received, and are equal in value to those parts 
which have preceded them. Part VII concludes 
the Diptera and commences the Coleoptera. 
Part VIII continues the Coleoptera, and Part 
IX contains the Hemiptera and commences the 
Orthoptera. Each Part 50 cents. We shall 
probably noHce this work at gi*eater length 
when once completed. 

Illinois Horticultural Society. — We have 
received from the Secretary, W. C. Flagg, a 
circular calling attention to the Fourteenth 
Annual Meeting of this Society, which will be 
held at the Court House in Ottawa, on Tues- 
day, Wedriesday, Thursday and Friday, De- 
cember 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th, 1869, com- 
mencing at 9 o'clock A. M. on Tuesday. 

The Chronicle— University of Michigan. 
$2.50 a year. 

American Journal of IIom<eopathic Ma- 
teria Medic A — Philadelphia. $2.00 a year. 

Beloit College Monthly — ^Bcloit, AVisc. 
$1.50 a year. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Notice. — Such of our correspondents as have already 
sent, or may herealter scud, small colleclious of in.secU 
to be named, will please to inform us if any of the 
species sent are from other States than their own. 
Lists of insects found in any particular locality arc of 
especial interest, as throwing li^ht upon the geograph- 
ical distribution of species. But to make them of real 
value, it is requisite that we know for certain, 
whether or not all the Insects in any particular list come 
fVom that particular locality, and if not, from what 
locality they do come. 



Locust Borer — Julian Baghj, Cedar Fori:, Mo. — 
The prettily banded black and yellow beetle, found on 
your Locust trees, is the common Locust Borer {Arho- 
palutsrohinui'jFoersler.) It is a $ specimen, and as the$ 
of this species is absolutely undistinguishable from the 
$ of ^. 2^^cfus, Drury, which attacks Hickory, and 
comes out in June, we are guided simply, in our decis- 
ion, by the fact of yoUr finding it on Locust in the 
month of September. (See on this point our answer to 
AV. W. Buttertield on page 148 of Vol. 1.) 

Cocoon found on Carpet — A. A, Hilliardy 
Brtffhton, Jlh. — The cocoon found embedded in your 
parlor carpet, was that of some unknown moth. The larva 
was doubtless a vegetable-feeder, and had simply crawl- 
ed into your room and made use of the carpet to help 
build its cocoon. All manner of material is used by 
different caterpillars for the external covering of their 
cocoons, not excepting hard wood. 

Directions for mailing- boxes for preserving- 
insects.— If ** Subscriber,*' St. Louis, Mo., will send 
us his name and address we will send him printed 
directions. 



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SadAle-BacK Ijwtrw a.— Geo, T. Cost, Fairfield, 
Gre^ Co., Ohic—ThQ worms you found on Indian 
Com, devouring the blades and silk, are the larva; of 
the Saddle-back Moth {Empreiia gtimuha, Clem.) — the 
f^me as that spoken of on page 32 of our last number 

Ct'iR. ST.] 




Colon— Green, brown and crc*ra-color. 

under the head of Stinging larv^. As we are ever 
and anon receiving this species, we present herewith 
figures of It for future reference. (Fig. 30, a, back 
view; i, side view.) 

SIllL Spid.er»—Gto. Howe, M. D,, Ponte a la Ilache, 
Jjd. — The two spiders whose habits you so well des- 
cribe, are not sexes of the same species, but are very 
distinct one from the other. The very dark brown spe- 
cies witli the upper part of the head-thorax and sun- 
dry spots on the abdomen silvery white, and the three 
hiud pairs of thighs for the moi>t part of a very light 
brown, is Epeira riparui ^ Ilentz. The light brown spe- 
cies, chiefly characterized by the long narrow abdomen 
and the two tufls or whorls of short dark stiff hairs on 
each of the six larger legs; but which also has the 
head-thorax more or less silvery -gray above, and the 
abdomen regularly spotted and speckled with the same 
color, is the Xephila plumipes of Knoch. It is the spe- 
cies on which Prof. B. G. Wilder made some experi- 
ments with a view to obUiin textile material from its 
sspinnerets, and you will find it figured in the Proceed- 
ings of the Boston Society of Natural Ilistory, Volume 
X, page 210. 

C, W, iipauU'uyj, Kirkwood. Jfo.— The spider sent by 
you is the same Epeira riparia^ Hentz, spoken of above, 
£iitomolog:ical Iforks — S, W. Cowles, Oliaco, 
y. r. — There is no work that we know of, either pub- 
lished or in course of preparation, which gives the spe- 
cific characters of all our N. A. beetles. The descriptions 
of very many will be found in Say's Entomoloijy ^ a work 
in two volumes, containing the Entomological writings 
of Thomas Say, and published in 1859 by Balliere Bros, 
of New York. Very many other descriptions are scat- 
tered through the Proceedings of the Boston Society of 
Natural Ilistory, of the Philadelphia Academy of Nat- 
ural Science, and of the American Entomological So- 
ciety, while still others have been published by Euro- 
pean authors. Neither Mclsheimer's catalogue, nor 
Le Conte'8 which is yet unfinished, will help you to 
identify the species. Morris's Synopsis, so far as it 
goes, will help you to determine many of your Lc- 
pidoptera. The Eudryas larva w^hich feeds on Epilo- 
hium colorutum, or Purple-veined Willow-herb, is in 
all probability E, unto Iliibner, though we cannot 
iell positively unless you send specimens, either living 
or in alcohol . 



Insects named — A. H. R, Bryant ^ Clarhsville, 
Texas. — The two large brown cocoons formed by im- 
mense green worms which you found on your apple 
tree, but which afterwards fed on ** Red Haw,*' are 
the cocoons of the Cecropia Moth {AUacus Cecropia, 
Linn.) The large hairy ant-like insect of a black color, 
with the forehead, upper part of thorax, and two 
broad bands on the abdomen, of a deep blood-red, is 
Mat ilia eoccinea^ Linn. That with wings is the ^ and 
that without wings the $. You say that **the former 
appears to be nearly always on the wing, and the latter 
as much so on the run, stopping ever and anon to 
grabble for food.'* You further remark that they are 
commonly called ** Cow-killers," but do not give any 
reason. Have they ever been known to kill cows? The 
sting of the $ is said to be very severe; but as with all 
Wa.«ps, Bees and Ants, the (^ has no sting at all I 

A neur Bee Enemy—/". Brewer, Waynesmlle, Mb. 
—The flattened larva which you caught in the act of 
eatino: a bee near a hive is the larva of some Ground- 
beetle. The pitchy black horny plates above, the 
softer whitish lower surface with various sized shiny 
black spots, the 4-jointed antennie and maxilla n/ palpi, 
the 2-jointed labial palpij the exarticulat« cercus spring- 
ing from each upper side of the terminal segment, the 
stiff anal proleg, but above all, the 2-jointed lobe of 
the maxillary palpi— all indicate its carabidous na- 
ture. Wo suspect it will produce some t»pecies 
of JIarpalus, and if we succeed in breeding it we 
will inform you of the fact, and at the same time 
illustrate this larva. We doubt whether it would 
show any preference for the honey-bee over other in- 
sects. The Ground-beetles are voracious and general 
feeders, and will eat almost aiiy soft-bodied insects they 
can get hold of. 

Xbousand'lGgrgred Worms — J. W, Merchant, Car- 
thage, J/i**.— None of the Thousand -legged Worms are 
known to be poisonous, though there is an enormous 
Hundred-legged Worm {Scolopemlra castan^fa'ps)^ which . 
is found in the 6-outherly regions of N . A. and may pos- 
sibly occur in your State, the bite of which is very 
poisonous. This last species is C or 7 inches long, of a 
dark green color with a chestnut-colored head; audit 
has 42 legs, or 21 on each side. We have handled with 
impunity hundreds of times all the different kinds, 
whether of the Thousand-logged or of the Hundred- 
legged Worms, which we meet with out North; and 
one of the former group {Jalus rwirgimitus. Say), is over 
tlircc inches long. We have this summer found two dis- 
tinct thousand-legged worms {Julus <£' Polydtsmas) bur- 
rowing into strawberries near Rock Island, Ills., but 
only in very small numbers. The itlca of their being 
''poisonous^* is entirely without foundation. We 
should have no more objection to eat a strawberry with 
one of them inside It, than we have to eat a cherry 
with a Curculio larva inside it. And yet those that we 
found in strawberries were as long as those that 
your neighbors met with in the same situation, 
namely, one inch. 

Caterpillar of Cecropia ITIotli — J. Ji. Bowman , 
Kirl'icoodf J/rt.— The gigantic green caterpillar sent by 
you, was the larva of the Cecropia Moth {Attacus Ce- 
cropia, Linn.). See page 20 of last number under the 
same head. 



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Cabbag'e 'Worms— Wm. C. Jlolmet, Piatt sburg, Mo, 
— The g^en worm which has been destroying the cab- 
bages in your neighborhood, is in all probability the 
larva of the Southern Cabbage butterfly {Pieris proto- 
2ic€y Boisd.) At least we know that this is the most 
common insect found on the cabbage in your locality; 
but as you describe it simply as a ** green worm," we 
cannot decide positively, because there are several otlier 
womw of a green color which also attack that plant. 
At Figure 87 a, we represent the larva of the South- 
erly, w.] 




Culor»-(a) GreenUh-bluo, yellow and blmck; (&) JIght Uulsh-gny. 

ern Cabbage butterfly; at & the chrysalis, and at Fig- 
urc 38 the $ butterfly. The cT dlflfers remarkably 
from the $ , and in our next number we shall present 

triK. 88.] 




Co1or»-Black and white. 

his portrait, together with an illustrated account of the 
two other common butterflies belonging to the same 
genus (Pieris), which at present attack the Cabbage in 
difl'erent parts of the United States. One ol these, 
known as the Rape Butterfly {Pieris rapce, Schrank), has 
of late years been introduced from Europe, and has 
been rapidly spreading westward from the Atlantic sea- 
board, while the armies of the Colorado Potato Bug 
have been marching in the opposite direction, towards 
tlie sea. Thus, while there is every reason to believe 
that we shall, in a few years' time, give to our Eastern 
brethren the greatest and most destructive insect foe of 
the Potato; they seem determined to pay us back in our 
own coin, by sending forth into the "West the greatest of 
cabbage pests. The only known way to destroy these 
Cabbage worms is to pick and kill them either by hand or 
chicken-power, and to catch and kill the butterflies 
which are constantly hovering over the plants during the 
sunshiny days of summer and autumn . 

Tlie Rape Butterfly— t/b«. JF. Chase^ Jlolyole, 
Mass.— The two white butterflies which were taken in 
Bangor, Maine, are ^ and $ of the Rape Butterfly 
(PiVm rapa, Schrank), a recent importation from 
Europe. We shall illustrate this insect in our next 
issue. 



Bad packiiiir—^. C. Beard slee, PainetvUle, Ohio.— 
The green larva, marked with brown at each end of its 
body, and with a large round brown patch on the 
middle of its back , and also with sprangling horns at 
each extremity which sting like a nettle, is the Saddle- 
back caterpillar {Empretia sfimuhay Fig. 36). It feeds 
on a great variety of trees, besides Indian com on 
which you found it, and last year we met with it on 
Sumac. The Sphinx lan'a found on grape-vine is pro- 
bably Charocampa pampiMitrix,o\XieTyi\%Q\inoyin tinDar' 
apsa myron, a fUll account of which appeared in the last 
5^0. of our Magazine; but when it reached us, owing to 
your bad packing, it was dead, dried up and rotten. Lar- 
vae ought by rights to be packed in a tight tin box, along 
with some of their appropriate food, which as well as 
the lan'ae will then keep moist. But if you are obliged 
to pack them in a pasteboard box, which always suffers 
the moisture to evaporate from it, it is making matters 
ten times worse to put in drj' paper to All up the empty 
space instead of moist leaves. If correspondents only 
knew how much bad packing added to our labor in 
identifying Insects, they would take a little more pains 
to follow the printed directions, which have been re- 
peatedly inserted in the Entomologist. To recognize 
insects, when in the condition in which they frequently 
reach us, is as diflicult a task as to recognize a corpse, 
after it has been afloat for three long summer months in 
the waters of the Missis.sippi. 

•* Grand Daddy Longr-Leff* "— Wm. R. Howardf 
Fortyth, Mo.— The long-legged Spider, which is com- 
monly known in your vicinity by the above name, is 
doubtless some species of Phalangium: but as there are 
some fifteen or more described N. A. species, we could 
not properly refer the species you speak of without 
seeing specimens. These long-legged spiders arc like- 
wise popularly known as "Han'cst-meri*' and ''Grand- 
father Gray Beards' * in some parts of the country. They 
all have similar habit<t, being carnivorous and seizing 
their prey very much as a cat seizes a mouse ; but they 
differ from other spiders in that they bodily devour 
their victims, instead of sucking out their juices. The 
fact then , of your one night noticing a *• ' Daddy Long- 
legs ** pounce upon a Honey-bee, which happened to 
come near it, is not to be wondered at. Yet it may be 
considered as an exceptional occurrence, and we should 
advise you to encourage, rather than destroy these long- 
legged spiders, because they are known to devour great 
numbers of Plant-lice, and Mr. Arthur Bryant, of 
Princeton, Ills., has found them devouring the lar^-a 
of the Colorado Potato-bug. 

Borer In Apple Tirig— <7. C. Bracletty Lawrence, 
Kansas. — The borer in the apple twig sent is not, as you 
suppose, the larva of the Apple-twig Borer {Bostrichus 
hicaudatus. Say), which bores into the twigs in the 
beetle state only ; but is evidently the larva of some long- 
homed beetle. It resembles in every respect the larva 
of the Parallel Longhorn{Etaphidionparallelum, Newm.), 
which we have bred from both apple and plum twigs, and 
it will in all probability produce that beetle. The hole 
at the axis of the leaf- bud, which connects by a bur- 
row through a side-shoot, with the main chamber in 
the twig where re^ts the larva, was evidently made by 
that larva while younger. The Parallel Longhorn 
bears a very close resemblance to the Oak Pruner {£. 
vUlosum, Fabr.), which you will find figured on pag^ 98 
of Harris's It^jurious Insects. 



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61 



Crrai^e^riiie Ijeaf-g'alls — W. T. Ifeildrvp, Harrii- 
^^, Pa .—The grape-galls you send are the ^nme as 
those which we figured on page 248 of our first volume . 
In each freshly -formed gall you will find from one to 
Tour oraoge-colored mother-lice, a number of shining 
oval whitish eggs of very minute size, and often a num- 
ber of young six-legged ]ar\-fe scarcely bigger than the 
eggs, and of the same whitish color. Almost as soon 
as the Uu^'se hatch out, they stray ofi" through the partly 
open mouth of the gall on the upper surface of the leaf, 
and found new galls either on the same or on a younger 
leaf. Afler a time, and when their stock of eggs is ex- 
hausted, the mother-lice die; and the galls inhabited 
by them then gape widely open at their mouths and bc- 
eome gradually flattened and obliterated. Thus, upon 
a grape-cane, the galls upon the oldest leaves will be 
empty, while those on the young thrifty ones will be 
swarming with inhabitants; and as fresh leaves put out, 
these are successively ** occupied and possessed * ' by 
the enemy. The gall is formed, as with all those con- 
structed by Plant-lice, by Bark -lice, or by Mites, by 
one or more young larv se stationing themselves on the 
upper surface of tlie leaf, and irritating it with their 
pointed beaks until it bulges out in an unnatural hollow, 
inside which the larvs remain. Finally, as the larva; 
grow to maturity, the hollow becomes a fleshy green 
sack, the mouth of which is almost closed up . The 
mother-lice then lay eggs, and the same old cycle of 
phenomena is repeated again and again, till winter 
sets in. 

Thej«e galls are peculiar to the wild Frost Grape ( TtY/* 
ofrdifoiia) of which the Clinton is a cultivated variety, 
anda^ not found upon the >Iorthem Fox Grape ( VHia 
lahnata) from which our tame Catawba, Isabella and 
Concord are derived. This accounts for the latter va- 
rieties not being infested by these galls. Perhaps the 
most effectual remedy would be to give up growing 
Clintons for a crop; but it you do grow them there is no 
known remedy but to pluck ofl' the infested leaves and 
bum them. The old leaves, with empty galls, may just 
as well be left on the vines. 

RIaple-iroriiifl — IT, K, Vichroy, Champaign, Jll. — 
It is often said that the foliage of our maples is entirely 
exempt from the depredations of worms. To a certain 
extent this is true, but it is not universally true. We 
have known maples badly stripped by the striped green 
lanra of one of our most beautiful moths {^Dryocampa i-u- 
hicvnda), and there is a large larva covered with silky 
yellow hair and with five slender pencils of black hairs 
projecting from among the yellow ones, which gener- 
ally feeds on maple leaves and produces a fine gray 
moth {Acronyda amei'icana). The gigantic apple-green 
lana, as big as a man's thumb, which you found feed- 
ing on Silver Maple {Acer dasycarpum) is that of the 
same Polyphemus moth, which we figured in No. 7 of our 
first volume ; and we have received it from a variety of 
other quarters as infesting difierent kinds of maple, 
though the books do not record the fact of its inhab- 
iting this genus of trees. You remark that you have 
also found the larva of the Cecropia moth feeding on 
maples; and this larva too we have lately received from 
Kveral other sources as feeding on the same trees upon 
which it occurred with you, and in some Instances strip- 
ping them bare when of small size. It is remarkable 
that, in the case of this larva also, the books are equally 
silent on the subject of its being ever found on maples. 



Colon— Black- 

brown and 

whiUch. 



raelanclaolj Chaffer in Apples— «/oAn F. FuUon, 

Petersburg, Ills. — The beetle which you find quite fre- 

CFi|(. SO] quently boring a hole in your apples is 

\ J the Melancholy Chafer, {Euryomia melaw 

VMLl choUca, G. & P.) herewith illustrated 

^^t (Fig. 39.) 

ff^^BS^ Worms boring' in Cncnmbere — W, 

i^^Ht -B. Ransom, St, Joseph, Mich. — The worms 

^ ^^ * which suddenly made their appearance 
the forepart of September, boring into 
your cucumbers and musk -melons from 
the outside, are evidently—judging from your descrip- 
tion — the same species mentioned on page 31 of our last 
number under the same heading. As stated in that 
paragraph, they produce the Neat Cucumber Moth 
{PhacelUtra nitidalis. Cram.) 

Ijilac Borer — T. J. Freeman, Bethany ^ Mo. — The 
10-footed yellowish-white worm, which has been boring 
into and destroying your lilac bushes, was dead when 
it reached us, but we have little doubt that it was 
the larva of a moth which is well known to attack the 
Lilac, and which was named jE^tria \Trochiliwfn\ syrin- 
ges by Harris. We have ourselves never bred this 
moth, but a $ specimen is in our possession wiiich 
was bred fh)m Lilac by our friend Charles Sonne, of 
Chicago, and which had bored through the heart of a 
branch over an inch through. This insect is closely 
allied to the common Peach- borer and still more closely 
to the old-fashioned Grape-borer. We should recom- 
mend the application of soft soap to the trunks and 
larger limbs of your lilac bushes in the early part of the 
season, to prevent the $ moth from depositing her eggs. 
Still , we have but faint hopes that soap would produce 
this very de^sirable result; for although this substance, 
when applied about the last of May, aflfords perfect 
security against our two common Apple Borers, which 
are Beetles, we have experimentally ascertained that it 
aflbrds no protection whatever against the common 
Peach Borer, which is a Moth, not a Beetle, and as we 
said just now is closely allied to yoiu* Lilac Borer. 

Burying- Beetles— </&«. JI, Oshom, Oshkoshy Wis, 
—Your boys * * having killed a striped snake about two 
feet long, were surprised on looking for it the next day 
to find half its length in the earth. Upon pulling it 
out they noticed two of these bugs, which had evidently 
dug the hole and drawn the snake in. The snake was 
left about a foot from the hole, and the next day was 
found drawn back into the hole its whole length, the 
hole having been extended so as to admit of it. ' * The 
two beetles sent were (^ and $ of the Margined Bury- 
ing-beetle iKecrophorus marginaius, Fabr.) which is one 
of our most common species . The burying-beetles all 
have the habit of burying dead animals, such as birds, 
mice, snakes, etc. , and two or three of them will often 
accomplish prodigious feats of this kind In a given time, 
when their small size is taken into consideration . Their 
direct object in thus burying such carrion is the multi- 
plication of their kind, by providing food for their 
young; but indirectly, in their character of scavengers, 
they are of great benefit to man by ridding the atmos- 
phere of that which would pollute his nostrils and 
threaten his health. They should never be ruthlessly 
destroyed . 

The large brown snout- beetles, speckled with white, 
which you shake from your plum trees along with the 
common Curculio, are ffylobias stupidusy Sch. 



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'WIreivornis In Potatoes— TT. R. Shelmire, 
ToughhiTuimon, Petm. — The elongate, cylindrical, horny, 
mahogany -colored worms nearly an inch long, that 
bored up so badly your crop of Mercer Potatocd, are a 
very common species of wire worms. We hnvo reason 
to believe that this particular kind produces a Click - 
l>eeUe knowa as M^lanotus incertuf^ Lc Contc. There 
are scores of diflorent kinds of Click-beetles, and on 
page 4J) of our first volume you will find one of them 
{¥\g. 50), and by the side of il the larva from which we 
bred it(Kig. 51). Most of them breed in rotten wood; 
but there ui*e a few that devour living vegetable matter 
and are grc:it pests to the farmer, egpocially in newly- 
broken land. In such land wo have known them to 
destroy the young corn-plants to a ginevous extent, 
gnawing laterally into the stem just under the surface 
cf the ground. 

Your neighbor is quite right in saying, that if these 
wonn-eaten potatoes arc used for seed next year, they 
wilt produce wormy potatoes, that is to say, provided 
you plant potatoes with the wire-worms still in them. 
For these wire-worms live several years In the larva 
state, and having six good legs of their own they 
would readily migrate from the infected potato-sets on 
to the young growing potatoes. You must not sup- 
l»ose, however, that wire-worms could br<*ed wire- 
worms; for it is not till the larva has developed into the 
Click -beetle that it becomes capable of propagating its 
species. Sowing six bushels of salt to the acre is said 
by one of the be.^t fanners in England, Alderman Mechl, 
to destroy all the wire- worms In the salted ground. 
There are no doubt plenty of yours remaining in your 
old potato ground; for this species does not by any 
means feed exclusively on potatoes. On the contrary, 
it Is a very general feeder, and we have met with it in 
all kinds of situations, for example, in an asparagus 
bed, with no potatoes growing within ten roils distance. 
We know of no mode but hand-picking to destroy the 
wire-worms in your potatoes, so that the potatoes can be 
used for seed . It is. as you remark , a singular but by no 
means an unprecedented fact, that these insect.s took 
the Mercers and did not touch the Goodrich potatoes 
that were growing alongside. The Colorado Potato 
Bug and the striped Blister-beetle are equally select in 
their tastes. Other such cases were collected by us on 
page 160 of our first volume. 

Insects named— e/. F. Waters, Spriiigfield, Mo. — 
The insects found on apple are as follows: No. lis the 
larva of some small moth. It closely resembles that of 
the Rascal Leaf-crumpler {Phycita nehulo, Walsh), but is 
evidently distinct. No. 2 is a species of Limacodes or 
slug-caterpillar, totally unknown to us. If we breed 
the perfect moth we will report l\irther. No. 3 is the 
lana of CharuttUrun arUfunator, Fabr. , a bug chiefly 
distinguished by the terminal half of the third joint of 
its antennae being somewhat ovally dilated and flatten- 
ed. The mature bu^ looks very much like the larva you 
sent, except that it has wings. 

Girdled Pear T«rlgr»— 7*. A, Throp, Troy, JUs.— 
The nine pear twigs were, as you rightly suppose, am- 
putated so neatly by the beetle which you send . This 
beetle is a large ($ ) and rather dark variety of the com- 
mon Twig-glrdler {Oneideres cingulatuHf Say), of which 
we gave an illustrated account on page 76 of our First 
Volume. 



Insects named— j^. T, Dale, YtUotc Sprtntja, Ohio, 
—The insects came in fair condition. No. 1 is Diealutt 
dilataluny Say. No. 2, P(ero$tichu$ adoxus. Say. 
No. 3, Bradycellug dichroutt, Dej. No. 4, (8 specimens) 
are all different forms of Atwrnala varians, Fabr. No. 
5, Aaomala hinofata, Sch6n. No. 6, Chrygochut aura/tt*, 
Fabr. No. 7, Hippodamia glacialU, Fabr. We have 
found this species the present year preying on the eggs 
of the Colorado Potato Bug, and in consideration of its 
good services, we honor it by adding its ** photo" 
(B^ig. 40) to our album of friendly bugs. No. 8, 
[Fig. 40.] Hippodamia parenthens, Say. No. 9, 
*-^^^<^ (iaieruca no(ata,Tiihr, No. 10 same as 
.../^HV, 4&5. No. 11, Alindria cylindrica,l^oof[. 
y^^\ ^o A2, U lof?M impre/tsa, ^chh. No. 13, 
Coior»-or«nfe, which vou Say ** Is fVom Georgia, where 
^im'^'ior'.*** it is cjilled the * Cabbage bug, » and where 
it is found by thousands on cabbage and turnip 
plants," is Stra^hia hitttrionica, Hahn, an account of 
which with figures we shall shortly publish. No. 
14, Eitnjomia melancholica G. & P. (Sec Volume 1, 
Figure 23). No. 15, which ** feeds and deposits \i» 
eggs on the leaves and young twigs of Sumach {Rhu* 
glahra)'*^ is Jihpharida rhoift, Forster, which we re- 
ferred to in our first volume, page 235. No. 16, 
PferoMfichu8 6cuIp(ttft,\jCC. No. 17, Torofvs eylindricoUu, 
Say. No. 18, Ilarpalus erythroput? Dej. No. 19, JIarpalvtt 
penn/iylranieuft, De Gcer. No. 20, A/Ufmafa lueicola, 
Fabr. (Darkvar.) No. 21, same as No 5. No. 22, 
same as No. 4. No. 23, Serica tftipcrtina. Say. No. 
24, Strangalia h'nfoln^ Say. No. 2.% Sf rant/alia /a ftulica. 
Ncwm No. 20, Httoemis cinerta, Oil v. No. 27, 
Stfuocorus TilloBv*, Fabr. No. 28, taken on Rkta 
toj-icodfiidron , is Saperda puncticoUis, Say = trigeninwta , 
Randall. No. 29, Acnurodera pulchella, Hbst, No. 30, 
I^ptura n if (hit. Forst. 

Tomato-Feedlngr XVornk—A. C. Davis , Farina, 
jUs.—T\\G greasy grayish worm, characterized chiefly 
by a series of triangular black spots along the back, 
each segment with two spots, both of which arc 
[Fig. 41.] edged on the outside with a white line, 
while there is an indistinct light line be- 
tween them (Fig. 41) and a much more 
distinct one along the breathing- holeij at 
each side— is the larva of a moth which 
may be known by the popular name of the Spider-wort 
Owlet Moth {Prodmia commelince, Sm. and Abb.) This 
moth has the front wings variegated with gray, brown 
and yellowish -white, and the hind wings pure white 
with the extremities of the ner>'es and the outer border 
dark brown. We have bred this moth from worms 
which fed with equal relish on Cabbage and Tomato, 
while Mr. Abbot found It on Liver- wort and Pea. It 
may therefore be considered a very general feeder. The 
species varies greatly in appearance both in the larva 
and perfect states. The worms are found ftill -grown as 
early as the fore part of Jidy, and the moths issue from 
the latter part of that month to the latter part of Sep- 
tember. 

Cocoons off Ichneumon Flies — Carrie MUckell, 
South Pa»8y UU. — The mass of little white cocoons on 
the large Tomato worm which you send are formed by 
the larvae of a small parasitic Ichneumon Fly (genus 
Microgaater) , and the flies had mostly issued on the way 
hither. (See Figure 15 in our last number). 




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Gall on Spotted Toiich-iiie*not— Pre?/. A. N. 

FfftUisSf CotmU Uniteriityf Ithaca , N, Y. — The succu- 
lent green globular galls, which you And on the 
Spotted Touch-me-not {Impatims /aha), and which 
contain numerous deep orange colored larvie , have been 
briefly described {CtddomyiaimpatientisyO,^.) by Os- 
ten Sacken, but the gall-gnat is as yet unknown . The 
larva went into the ground soon a(t«r their receipt, and 
we hope to obtain the fly A*om them in due time. Succu- 
lent galls perish so easily that they cannot well be pre- 
serve, so we have made the accompanying drawing 

CFlK.42] 




CoIor»— Orccu and oranxc. 

(Fig. 42) of this Touch-me-not gall, a showing the 
entire gall, h a cross-section, with the cavities in which 
lie the larva*, and c the breast-bone of the larva highly 
nugnified. This breast-bone is almost clove -shaped, 
.!« shown in the figure. For the benefit of the rest of 
our readers we quote that part of your letter which re- 
fers to the color and growth of the gall : 

I have examined a number of galls very carefully, in- 
Hndingsome in their ft'esh state some 'time ago, and 
always find some touches of color, orange usuallv— in 
some instances quite bright— on the end of the gall op- 
posite the stem, but the prevailing color is green . I 
judge the greater part of the gall is composed of the 
«tem immediately under the flower. The position of 
the bract would indicate this. But I find on the end 
of the gull where the flower should have been, a num- 
ber of /o/i/2r«o«« />/a/<'«, which are not easy to luvount 
for except they be regarded as abortive remains of the 
flower. These plates are the colored part ol the gall. 

UaknoYVii JjWLTTm—J. M. ffarrold, Salem ^ JS\J,— 
The small white wooly worms which ** in proportion 
to their size will aflford a larger * staple' than either a 
Cotswold or a Southdown,' ' are the larvso of some 
moth. They were dead when they reached us, and we 
shall not be able, in consequence, to breed the perfect 
insect. They may possibly be the young larvae of the 
Rabbit Moth (Lagoa operculars y Sm. & Abb.) spoken of 
on page 29 ot our last number, in answer to H. A. 
Green of your State; but we incline to believe that 
they belong to a closely allied specie?* {Lugoa pyxidi/era, 
Sm. & Abb.) 

Blood-snclLiiiv Cone-nose— />. B, Wa^tion, St. 
Louis, Jfo.— 'The bug sent by you is the Blood-sucking 
C<me-noae {Conorhimtt aanguiduga, Le Conte.) See Vol. 
1, Fig. 74. 



fig's* on a Grape-cane — J. CochraM, Haranna, 
His.— in no one of their four stages are insects so diflicult 
to identify as in the egg stage. The reason is simple. 
There are so few characters to distinguish one egg from 
another; and moreover, but very few species are 
known and described in the egg state. We can often 
Identify a squashed beetle or a s^iuashod moth ; but a 
s(iuashed egg is almost always beyond our abilities. 
Hence tlie row of eggs attached to a grape -cane, which 
you send us wrapped up in paper and enclosed in 
your letter, without any other protection from the 
heavy hands of Uncle Sam's P. O. clerks, might just as 
well have been kept at home. We really are tired to 
death ol continually repeating to our correspondents 
— besides our standing **2^otice" to that eflcct— that 
specimens should be enclosed in some kind of box or 
other, in order that they may reach us in recognizable 
order. Is there no drug-store at Havanna? Are there no 
gun-caps for sale there? or do the druggists there retail 
their pills, and the gunsmiths their gun-caps, loose over 
the counter and without any package to hold them? Do 
pray, Mr. Cochrane, try and do better for the future I 

Gregarious l¥lllo^r l¥orni«— &. C. Jirackett, 
Latcrencf, Kansas, — The pale yellow worms— marked 
with three slender black lines along the back, and three 
other black lines each side, but characterized chiefly by 
two black warts close together on the top respectively 
ol the fourth and eleventh segments — which you found 
feeding on your **New American Weeper, * ' are the lar- 
vae of the American Spinner (6^^«^^a Amtricana, Ilarr.) 
These worms are gregarious, remaining closely hud- 
dled together, in swarms of twenty or more, within a sort 
of cocoon formed of leaves. They are found on poplars 
as well as on willows, and seem to bo especially pai*tial 
to the common cotton wood. You will find an illus- 
trated account of this insect in Harris's Ii\)uriouH In- 
sects. 

Caterpillars named— (?. W. CopUi/, Alton, His, 
—The worms that have been so common, folding up the 
leaves of the Black Locust, are the larva? of the Titynis 
Skipper {Eudumvs tityruSf Fabr.), spoken of on page 
27 of our last number in answer to T. W. G. of 
Georgetown, Ohio. The worm, which you call the 
** Mock-eyed worm,'' is the larva of tlio Trollus 
Swallow-tail {PapUio troilus, Linn .) . It feeds on Sassa- 
fras and Prickly Ash. 

W. i>. Butter, Webster, Mo. — Your worm on Sassalras 
is the larva of the same Troilus Swallow-tail, spoken ol 
above. 

Insects Named— Z^-i G. Safer, Flizabeth, Ind.— 
The large hairy wingless insect known in your locality 
as the ** Stinging Ant,*' and which has only been 
known there for about ten years, is the same Mutilla 
coccinea, Linn., ($) which was spoken of on page 32 of 
our last number in answer to Dr. M. M. Kenzie, of 
Centreville, Mo. The large " hornet ' ' with pale rust- 
colored wings and black abdomen marked with pale yel- 
low, and which you say is quite rare in your part of the 
country, is the Handsome Digger Wasp {St has spe- 
ciosus, Drury), figured on page 129 of our First Volume. 

Range of the Rear-Horse— T. T. Chambers, 
Covington, Ky. — The Rear-horse {Mantis Carolina, 
Linn.), is known to range as far North as Lat. 40'^. We 
have no doubt but they would live in your part of the 
country. 



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Beetles ikm.nke4l.—Edw . P. Allii, Jfilwauleey Wis, — 
No. I Aphodius fimetarius Fabr. (Europe). No. hi A. 
(jranariut (Europe). No. 2 OntkopTiagus hecaU, Panzer 
(^ $ . No. 3 IHneutes near americanus, Fabr. No. 4 
Amaraohesaf Say, "So. SI A. impuncticoUu, Stty. No. 
30 A, near impuncticollis. No. 6 AcUius fratemus $, 
Harris. No. 6 Agonoderut palltpes, Fabr. No. 7 Ifar- 

pains /annus, Say. Nos. 10 & 12 Harp. . No. 23 

//. erythropmy Dej. No. 24 H. pennsylvanicus^ Dej. 
No. 51 H, herhivaffus, Say. No. 50 If, near ht^rhivagus. 
No. 8 Anisodactylus carhon^irius, Say. No. 22 ^. halti' 
morensis. Say. No. 58 A. rusticuSf Say. No 9 Hister 

. No. 13 JI, americanus, PaykuU. No. 38 //. ah- 

hreviatuSjTahr, T^o. 11 Dytiscushyhridus, Axihi. No. 
14 Platynus placiduSj Say. No. 15 PI. mdanarius Dej. 

No. 18 PL cupHpennis, Say. No. 19 PI. . No. 

16 Bembidium hwidum, Lee. No. 17 Merimis IceviSf Ollv. 
No. 20 Cklcmius pennsylvanicvsy Dej. No. 21 Elaphrus 
ruscarius, Say. No. 25 DlplocJiila oUusa t Lee. No. 28 
D, impressicollis, Dej. No. 29 D, laticollis, Lee. No. 
26 Pterostichus stygicus, Say. No. 47 Pt, mufus, Say. No. 
54 Pt. desidiosusy Lee. No. 27 Poicilus chalcU^ft, Say. No . 
32 Clerus nigripes, Say. No. 83 Trichius ajinis^ G. & P. 
No. 34 Mordella lineataf Helsh. No. 35 Notiophilus 
semistriatuSfSay, "So. S6 yotorus anchorayKentz, No. 
37 Cistela serkeay Say. No. 40 Gyrinus analis, Say. No. 
39 Dark variety of 40. No. 41 Cicindela repanda, Dej. 
No. 42 C, 12-gutfafa, DcJ. Nos. 43 & 48 C. »pUndtda, 
Hentz. No. 44 Dacne htros. Say. Nos. 45 & 68 Tenehrto 
molUor, L. (Europe). No. 46 Parandra hrunnea, Fabr. 
No. 49 Xylopinus arUhracinuSf Kuoch. No. 52 Plafycerus 
d€pressusy hec No. 53 CsrUronipus calcaratus,Yahr. No. 
MDiapertshydni, Fabr. No. 59. Nyctohatts petmsyhanicusy 

Dej. Several of the above arrived in very bad 

order. If you will send good specimens of Nos. 9, 10, 
19, 30 & 50, we will try and determine them specifically. 
In a difficult genus, it is oflcn impossible to determine 
the species with the requisite precision ftom one or two 
poor mutilated specimens. 

The Royal Horned-caterpillar— Z>r. />. L. 

Phares, WoodviUe, Miss —In Vol. I, No. 12, (p. 230) 
we said that this insect * * is quite scarce even as far 
south as Bushberg, Mo., Brighton, 111. , and St. Louis, 
Mo.'' We intended it to be inferred ftom this .state- 
ment, that still further south it was by no means so 
scarce. You understand us to mean exactly the con- 
trary, and inform us that it is not uncommonly met 
with in your neighborhood in latitude 31o 80'. As 
others may possibly make the same mistake, we think 
it best to say here in so many words, what it was that 
we really intended to be inferred from our language, 
namely, that this insect is much more abundant in 
southern than in northern latitudes within the limits of 
the United States. 

Aquatic eggm—W. 0, Hishey, Minneapolis ^ Minn.^ 
The round white semi-transparent eggs, about 0.03 
inch in diameter, which you found attached to a stick 
of wood that had been underwater, are most probably 
those of some air-breathing Water-snail, belonging to 
such genera as Planarbis etc. They bear a striking re- 
semblance, except in size^ to those of the lai^e brown 
snail commonly met with in English gardens, which 
Uist in the days of our boyhood we used often to find 
in masses a litUe below the surface of the earth. We 
know of no aquatic insect that lays such eggs. 



Insects nmnke^—S. V. Summers, M. />., ^. Lows, 
Jfo.— Your insects areas follows: No. 1, Mantis Caro- 
lina, Linn. $ . No. 2, Conorhinus sanguisuga, Le 
Conte. (See Vol. l,*Fig. 74). No. 8, CMasnius sen- 
eeus. Say. No. 4, Scarites sullerramus, Fabr. No. 5, 
GaUrita janus, Fabr. No. 6, Pairohts longicomis, 
Say. No. 7, Pterostichus sculptus, Lee. No. 8, 
Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus , De Geer. (See Vol. 1, 
Fig 55). No. 9, Trox punctatus, Germ. No. 10, Oodes 
cvprmis, Chaudoir. No. 11, Agonoderus paUipes, Fabr. 
No. 12, Bembidium nitidulum, Dej. No. 13, Pla- 
tynus S'pundaius, Lee. No. 14, larva of No. 90. 
No. 15, Diedrocephala moUipes , Say. No. 16, Arciia 
[Spilosoma] virginica, Fabr. No. 17, Hippodamia macu- 
lata, DeGeer. (See Vol. I, Fig. 86.) No. 18, Dia- 
hrotica tUtata, Fabr. (See Vol. IT, Fig. 19). No. 19, 
Diahrotica ll-pundata, Fabr. (See Vol. I, Fig. 168.) 
No. 20, Hippodamia conoergens, Guer. (See Vol. I, 
Fig. 39.) No. 21, lar\'a of Arma spinosa, Dallas. No. 
22, Tetchy s pulchellus, Ferte. No. 23, Bemhidium near 
^-maculatum, Linn. No. 24, c? of No. 1. No. 25, 
HaUica cucun\eris, Harr., (See Vol. I, Fig. 19). No. 
26, Tettigonia [Erythroneura] vitis, Harr. We should 
like further specimens of No. 23. 

Hair-ivorm or Halr-snalLe — £, If. Kin^, West 
Liberty, Iowa. — The insect you send is the pupa of one 
of our green Meadow Catydids — perhaps Orchelimam 
Tulgare, Harris, perhaps Orch. glaherrimum, Burmeis- 
ter; but as in this genus there are a great many closely 
allied species, most of which are either entirely undes- 
cribed, or so briefly described that the same descrip- 
tion will apply equally well to half a dozen distinct 
species, we should not like to speak positively as to the 
species to which your pupa belongs. **The long 
thread-like appendage ' ' issuing fh>ra the upper sur- 
face of its abdomen, is a Hair-worm {Gordius), re- 
specting which parasitic genus see the Answer to E . 
Baxter on page 57 of our First Volume. In a future 
article we shall illustrate this remarkable group of in- 
testinal worms, which has long been known to infest 
diflferent kinds of Catydids and Grasshoppers. The 
popular belief that these wonns are animated horse- 
hairs is, of course, a simple delusion. Thanks to your 
careful packing, the specimen reached us in excellent 
order . 

Dalilia Stalls Borer— 6\ C. Broadhead, Pleasant 
Hill, Mo, — The two worms which were found in Dahlia 
stalks, and which <^ seem to have entered when quite 
young and passed up, eating the pith out of the main 
stem," are the common Stalk Borer {Goriyna nitrla, 
Guen.), which we have so often referred to and which 
we figured twice in our first volume (Figs. 11 and 140.) 

Parsnip Urorm — Jno, Adams, Gray Corner, Maim. 
— The worms found by you on Parsnip lai*t July, were 
the larvae of the common Asterias Swallow-tall {Papilio 
Asterias, Cram.) 



ERRATA IN VOL. 2, NO. 1. 

On page 27, column 2, line 13 from bottom, for * *Gold 
Gilt-beetle" read **Gilt Gold-beetle." On page 31, 
column 1, line 30, for ^ * Gulopteron" read ^^Calop- 
teron.'* On page 31, column 1, line 41, for **No. 8 
pin' ' read * *No. 18 pin. ' ' On page 32, column 2, line 
10, for ^'Gasteracautha^^ read * ' Gasteracantha.* * 



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VOL. 2. 



ST. LOUIS, MO., DEC. AND JAN.— 1869^70. 



NO. 3. 



TUBUSHED MONTHLY BY 

II. I»- STTJI>I*STr SB 00-, 

104 OLIVX BTBXBT, 8T. LOUIB. 



TEBMS Two dollars perannam inadvanoe. 



EDITED BY 

C £Z .A. XI ILi S S v. miLiB^X', 

So, 2S1 North Main Street, St. Louis, Mo- 

IN MEMORIAM. 

It becomes oar painful daty to record the 
death of Mr. Walsh, the Senior Editor of this 
Joarnal. The news of his demise caused many 
a breast to heave with unfeigned and heartfelt 
grief, not only in America, but in many por- 
tions of Europe ; but on no one did the shock 
fall 80 suddenly and unexpectedly as on the 
writer. 

On Friday, the 12lh of November, he started 
in excellent spirits on his usual morning walk 
to the post office, and on his return, while walk- 
ing toward Moline, on the track of the Chicago 
and Rock Island Railroad, he suddenly noticed 
the passenger train for Chicago slowly nearing 
him. Stepping aside, he continued his way on 
what he supposed was a side-track, which how- 
ever proved to be the track down which the 
train in reality came, though he did not discover 
his mistake until the engine was close upon 
him. He now had no time to get off the track, 
and with great presence of mind, flung himself 
bodily as far away as possible, (vith the inten- 
tion, as he afterwards related, of saving his 
body at the expense of his limbs. Unfortu- 
nately his left foot got caught and terribly man- 
gled. The engineer succeeded in stopping the 
train before the drive-wheels of the locomotive 
had touched the foot, and Mr. Walsh was taken 
on board and carried back to the depot, whence 
be was conveyed to his home. Immediately 
after the accident, according to his own state- 
ment, he was so unconscious of pain, that he 
actually did not knr>w that his foot was smashed 
until he attempted to i*aise himself. It was a 



matter of some surprise among his acquaint- 
ances, how 80 proverbially careful a man should 
allow himself to be thus overtaken ; but in all 
probability his mind was entirely occupied and 
absorbed at the time, in the contents of a letter 
which he had opened and was reading. The 
engineer was ringing the bell and driving quite 
slowly, and it was so customary for persons to 
walk along the track, and step off in time, that 
he did not dream of stopping until it was too 
late. Mr. Walsh consequently took pains to 
publish an article exonerating him ffom all 
blame. 

Doctors Gait and Truesdale were summoned 
to the house, and found it necessary to ampu- 
tate the foot above the ankle. Mr. Wai^sh also 
insisted on this operation, which was immedi- 
ately performed with great success. Mr. Walsh 
bore the amputation remarkably well and soon 
became quite cheerful, displaying his facetious- 
ness by declaring in the most philosophical 
spirit, that nothing more fortunate could have 
happened to him. "Why," he would say to 
his grieving wife, "don't you see what an 
advantage a cork foot will be to me when I am 
hunting bugs in the woods: I can make an ex- 
cellent pin-cushion of it, and if perchance I lose 
the cork from one of my bottles, I shall simply 
have to cut another one out of my foot." 

On the day of the amputation, he pat up in 
his bed and penciled to us a letter which was 
written in such a sanguine and cheerful mood, 
that we felt no apprehension as to any fatal 
result from the accident. This letter was the 
last we ever received from poor Walsh, and 
though written under such trying circum- 
stances, was yet characterized by much grit 
and humor. It commenced witht " I have been 
fool enough to get my left foot smashed," and 
after dwelling at length on matters pertaining 
to the illustrating of his next State Report, con- 
cluded with: "Adieu, Yours ever, the 99th 
part of a man!" 

For a few days he did exceedingly well, and 
the amputated limb commenced to heal. Daring 
these days he was quite bright and cheerful, but 
suddenly he grew uneasy, and it became evi- 
dent that he had sustained internal injury, 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



probably in throwing himself so violently away 
from the engine. He lingered but a few daysi 
and finally expired on Thanksgiving Day, the 
18th of November. His mind was remarkably 
clear up to within a few hours of his death, 
and when the physicians informed him that his 
life was rapidly drawing to a close, he became 
perfectly calm and resigned to his fate ; thank- 
ing his numerous friends over and over again 
for their kind attention, and declaring that ho 
was ready to die — that he had lived beyond the 
average lot of mortal man, and that he ought to 
be, and was contented. Indeed, though not a 
church member, nor professing any religious 
faith, he met his fate with the calm dignity 
which befits one who has honestly labored to 
leave the world better for his having lived in it. 
During his last moments he dwelt wanderingly 
on entomological subjects, and finally expired 
so quietly that considerable time elapsed before 
those around him could feel assured that his 
spirit had really departed. On account of the 
severe storm which was sweeping over the 
Northwest at the time, and which precluded 
telegraphic communication, we were not per- 
mitted to be at his death bed, but those fViends 
who were present declare that they never knew 
any one who bore a more perfect expression of 
life in death. 

The funeral sei*vices took place on Sunday, 
the 20th, at the Baptist church in Rook Island, 
and the large congregation there assembled, and 
the unusual interest manifested, evidenced the 
very general respect in which Mr. Walsh was 
held, and the sincere regret that was felt at his 
loss. In the course of some appropriate and 
impressive remarks that were made on this 
occasion by Dr. Davis, he paid the following 
well merited compliment to the deceased: 

Mr. Walsu was the friend of social progress 
and of law and order; believing that all men 
are born free and equal, and are all entitled to 
certain inalienable rights, among which are life, 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He was a 
strictly temperate man, himself abstaining to- 
tally from ardent spirits, and was decidedly 
opposed to their unrestrained sale or use. Clear 
and distinct in the formation of his sentiments, 
he was bold and fearless in declaring and in 
defending them. He has left behind him a 
name and a reputation that will longberemem- 
bei'ed and respected. We shall no more behold 
his rapid walk along our streets, nor bear the 
well known tap of his staff upon our sidewalks. 
No longer will his vigorous motions among us 
bear testimony to the activity and energy of an 
intellect . that tired not by age or was ever 
fatigued by constant employment. ♦ • ♦ 

Mr. Walsh came to this country a stranger 
from Old England— England, which, with all 
her faults, and faults she has, we still should 



respect and love. Here his alien birth and edu- 
cation presented no obstacle to his progress. 
He asked for no peculiar privileges, he sought 
for no special favors. Entering the arena of 
life, he relied upon what he was and what an 
acquaintance with him would prove to others 
he possessed, for success and distinction. 

He has not toiled in vain. Success and repu- 
tation attended him, and he has been and will 
be no less respected and distinguished because 
Old England instead of Young America, was 
his birth-place. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

When the calamity that befel Mr. Walsh was 
known around, the people of this city and vicin- 
ity united ih one general lamentation; and 
when the intelligence of his death was spread 
abroad, all felt that a great public loss had been 
sustained, a public cidamity had befallen this 
city and land. And though he is to be borne to 
the grave with none but his beloved and res- 
pected wife to attend him as chief mourner — 
all, all our hearts are dressed in the habilimente 
of mourning. Better, far better than' to be at- 
tended to the grave by a community in mourn- 
ings though but few relations and kindred unite 
in the solemnities, than to be followed to the 
tomb with hosts of kindred and relations, en- 
shrouded in all the pomp and circumstance of 
mourning, and none but they, and hardly they, 
to feel any loss. 

This city, this community, sympathize with 
the bereaved, the afflicted widow, and with one 
heart commend her to the support and grace of 
that compassionate Grod, who has said, '' Leave 
thy widows with me." 

And thus has this truly great man in his spe- 
cial department of science, been abruptly taken 
from our midst I Inscrutable, indeed, the ways 
of Providence must seem, when such a man is 
called away at the very time of his greatest 
glory — the moment of his greatest success ! In 
the prime of his intellectual vigor, and not yet 
beyond the age from which much might have 
been expected, he would doubtle&s, had his life 
been spared, have accomplished more for the 
good of the world, would have achieved far 
greater fame, and would have attained a much 
more exalted position during the ten years to 
come, than he had done in the whole past course 
of his life. We are not stepping beyond the 
bounds of truth in asserting that Mr. Walsh 
was one of the ablest and most thorough Ento- 
mologists of our time ; and when we consider 
his isolation from any of the large libraries of 
the country, and the many other disadvantages 
under which he labored, we are the more aston- 
ished at the work he accomplished. He was 
essentially original and sui generis; everything 
about him was Walshian, and though he had 
some of those eccentricities which frequently 
belong te true genius, and though he made many 
enemies by his bold, outspoken manner, and his 
hatred of all forms of charlatanism ; yet those 
best acquainted with him know what a deex>- 



•^- 



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67 



feeling, tender and generous heart lay hidden 
beneath the rough and uncouUi exterior. Mr. 
Walsh leaves no offopring, nor has he any 
relatives in this country; but fortunately his 
bereaved widow, who has our heartfelt sympa- 
thies in her distress, has connections near Rock 
Island. 

Benjamin Dann Walsh was born in Frome, 
Worcestershire, England, on the 2l8t of Septem- 
ber, IdOA, and was therefore in his sixty-second 
year. He graduated at Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge, and his parents intended that he should 
enter the ministry ; but he was not theologically 
disposed, and naturally had sach a strong hatred 
of hypocrisy and of everything that had the 
semblance of wrong, that^udging from what 
he has told us — the inconsistent conduct of some 
of the coUegiates who were studying for the 
ministry, in all probability pi'ejudiced him 
against the church. At all events his tastes and 
inclinations were of an entirely different char- 
acter from those which are necessary to make a 
minister of the gospel. We can learn but Itttle, 
even from his wife, of his career in England, 
but we know that he there published a bulky 
pamphlet on University reforms, almost all the 
suggestions in which he lived to see practically 
carried out. He also wrote for Blackwood and 
other English periodicals, besides newspaper 
articles without end, and in 1837 published a large 
octavo volume in London, entitled <' Walsh's 
Comedies of Aristophanes." This volame is in 
many respects remarkable, embracing as it 
does the '^Acharians," the '^Knights" and the 
''Clouds," translated into corresponding Eng- 
lish metres. There are many passages in this 
work illustrative of that same forcible style and 
utilitarian logic, which so characterized his En- 
tomological writings. 

This work was to have been completed in 
three volumes, but, owing to some difficulty 
with the publishers, we believe none bat this 
one volume was ever issued. 

Mr. Walsh married in England, and came to 
America in 1838. All his relatives are in Eng- 
land, and he has yet living five sisters and 
three brothers. Of the latter, Thomas Wm. 
Walsh, M. D., still resides at Worcester; J. H. 
Walsh (" Stonehenge ") is the present editor 
of tbe London Fieldy and the well-known author 
of one of the best works on the horse in the 
English language ; while the third brother, F. 
W. Walsh, is a clergyman and schoolmaster. 

Upon arriving in this country, he went into 
Henry county, in Illinois, and purchased a farm 
of three hundred acres, near Cambridge, the 
county seat, where he determined to retire 



in great part from the world, and lead the 
life of a philosopher. He soon became thorough- 
ly devoted to this country, and never once re- 
turned to England or expressed any desire to 
do so. He remained on the farm for upwards 
of thirteen years, leading a very secluded life, 
and associating but little with his neighbors, from 
the fact that there were few, if any of them, who 
were his equal in intellect, or could appreciate 
his learning. Yet he was thoroughly Demo- 
cratic in his ideas, and had no false pride what- 
ever: he did, as far as possible, all his own work, 
even to making his own shoes and mending his 
own harness. Finally, a colony of Swedes 
settled in his neighborhood, and, by damming 
up the water at Bishop Hill, produced so much 
miasma in the vicinity, that very much sickness 
prevailed there. His own health in time be- 
came impaired, and at the suggestion of M. B. 
Osbom, of Rock Island, he removed to that city 
in 1851, and entered into the lumber business. 
He earned on this business about seven yeai*s, 
during which he found time to publish much 
fugitive matter in newspapera, principally on 
political topics, always affixing his signature, 
and scorning even the appearance of deceit. 

In politics he was a Radical Republican, hat- 
ing all forms of slavery and oppression. As late 
as Grant's campaign he was a member of the 
Tanner's club of Rock Island; and we shall 
never forget the enjoyable hours we spent with 
him at some of the meetings of the club, where 
one forgot his real age in contemplating his un- 
usual good spirits, activity and vigor. In 
1858 he suspected that the City Council was 
cheating the city, and though no politician, he 
ran for Alderman for the express purpose of 
getting at the books, and of thus being enabled 
to investigate the matter and publish the facts. 
Such a course naturally made him many ene- 
mies, and he was waylaid and his life threatened ; 
but he succeeded in getting elected, and after 
exposing the frauds, and thus accomplishing his 
pui'pose, he resigned. In the same year he 
retired from the lumber business with some- 
thing of a competency, and built a row of 
buildings on Orleans and Exchange streets, 
known as "Walsh's Row." 

Up to this time, though he had formerly made 
a small collection of insects in England, he had 
paid no attention to Entomology in this country. 
But as soon as the buildings were erected, he 
devoted himself entirely to this, his favorite 
science. Thus his Entomological career dates 
back scarcely a dozen years, but how faithfully 
and perseveringly he labored, the record of 
those years abundantly testifies. The first pub- 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



lished accoant that wo can find of Mr. Walsh 
as an Entomologist is in the report of a lecture 
which he delivered before the Illinois State Hor- 
ticuHnral Society at the Bloomington Conven- 
tion, in January, I860. He there spoke extem- 
pore for two hours, displaying that rare faculty 
which he possessed of communicating his ideas 
in such a manner as to please and hold the popu- 
lar ear. The reporter of this lecture, whom we 
take 10 be Mr. C. D. Bragdon, at the present time 
one of the editors of Moore's Rural New Yorker y 
states that he became so intensely interested, that 
his hand refused to move his pencil. After this 
time he became a regular contributor to the Prai- 
rie Farmer, of Chicago, Ills., and also wrote for 
a few other agricultural journals, such as the 
Illinois Farmer of Springfield, Ills., the Valley 
Farmer of St Louis, Mo., etc., etc., his aim 
throughout being to rouse the agriculturists to 
a sense of the immense losses they sustain from 
the depredations of injurious insects, and to 
impress upon them the necessity of a more 
general knowledge of the habits of these little 
foes. From 1862 to 1866 we find about a dozen 
scientific papers from his prolific pen, scattered 
through the Proceedings of the Boston Society 
of Natural History, and through those of the 
Philadelphia Entomological Society. These 
papers are all characterized by great freshness, 
originality and accuracy, and they will forever 
redound to his honor, and in our minds will be 
more and more appreciated as the true workings 
of Nature are better understood. Mr. Walsh 
was a school-mate with Darwin, and though he 
took up the latter's work on the Origin of Species 
with great prejudices against the development 
hypothesis, yet he became a thorough convert 
to Darwinism after he had once studied it. 
Throughout these papers he consequently brings 
forward a great number of facts in support of 
this theory, and his remarks on Phytophagic 
Varieties and Phytophagic Species bear diroctly 
on this subject and have done much to help us 
to a clear understanding of the term species. 

In October, 1865, the Entomological Society 
of Philadelphia commenced the publication of 
a monthly bulletin entitled the Practical Fnto- 
mologist. This little journal was edited by the 
publication committee of the Society, consisting 
of E. T. Cresson, Aug. R. Grote and J. W. Mc- 
Allister. Very soon, however, Mr. Walsh was 
added to the list, as Associate Editor from the 
West, and he finally became sole Editor of the 
second volume, the publication being discon- 
tinued in September, 1867. So well had he 
succeeded in opening the eyes of the people of 
his own State to the vast importance of Eco- 



nomic Entomology that the State Horticultural 
Society at last petitioned the Legislature to ap- 
point a State Entomologist, and accordingly at 
the biennial session of 1856-7 a bill was passed 
authorizing the appointment of such an officer 
with a salary of $2,000 per annum, the appoint- 
ment being vested in the Governor, by and 
with the consent of the Senate. At the special 
session held in June, 1867, the Governor sent 
in, on the llth of that month, the name of Mr. 
Walsh for confirmation, but the Senate post- 
poned all action upon it till the next regular 
biennial session in the winter of 1868-9. Mr. 
Walsh, however, at the earnest solicitation of 
many of the leading Agriculturists and Horti- 
culturists ot the State, went on and discharged 
the duties of the office, and trusted to the future 
liberality of the Legislature to reimburse him 
for his work. As Acting State Entomologist 
ho issued his First Annual Report for 1867« 
which was published as an appendix to -the 
State Horticultural Transactions for that year. 
In September, 1868, in conjunction with the 
writer, he started the American Entomologist. 
We shall so miss his ripe experience, and his 
help, that the task of continuing this journal will 
be trebly hard. Indeed, so well satisfied are 
we that his place can never be entirely filled, 
that did we consult our own pleasure we should 
not undertake the task alone, for we have other 
pressing duties. But in memory of our departed 
friend, and in justice to our numerous readers, 
we shall continue our labors, and though the 
Entomologist may never be edited so ably, yet 
with the assistance and sympathy of its patrons, 
we may hope to make it as useful in the futuro 
as it has been in the past. 

We had hoped to accompany this number with 
a steel plate of Mr. Walsh, but could not very 
well wait till it was finished. We shall present 
it in our next number, accompanied with sev- 
eral resolutions that have been jMissed by differ- 
ent societies. Mr. Walsh was rather sparing 
of his own portraits, and we know of but one 
good one in existence: this liberality on our 
part, will therofore be appreciated by our read- 
ers, and especially by those who wero most 
intimate with the deceased. 



17 For the benefit of our new subscribers 
who did not receive the August number, we 
will state, tJiat the second volume of the Amer- 
ican Entomologist is to end with the year 
1870. This fact will explain the apparent in- 
consistency of making one number cover two 
months. 



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69 




APPLE-LEAP "CLUSTER-CUPS." 

There is a peculiar kind of oraDge-coIoi*ed 
fnngasy which we have noticed for a long time 
to be exceedingly abundant in particular sea- 
sons on the leaves of 
the wild crab {Pyras 
coronaria). On the 
upper surface of the 
leaf it appears early 
in the season as a 
largeorange-colored 
blotch ; and some- 
what later in the 
year, if the under 
surface of the leaf is 
examined^ it pre- 
sents the appear- 
ance of Figure 43.* 
If we apply a moder- 
ately powerful lens 
to the little circle of 
dots exhibited in 
this drawing, we 
shall see that each 
dot, when snfflcient- ^-•"■■--O"-*'. «"> "^"'« "•««"»'•. 
ly magnified, is a little miracle of vegetable struc- 
ture, and looks very much like one of those Sea 
Anemones (Actinia) , with which the popular eye 
has now become sufficiently familiarized through 
such elegant little works as the Seaside Studies,^ 
In Figui'e 44 we give a view ot one of these 
magnified dots, several scores of which go to 
compose the complete circle shown lu Figure 43 
It will thus be seen that each 
dot forms a regular cylinder 
of great beauty, with an ap- 
erture at its summit fringed 
with long transparent hairs, 
which are very sensitive to 
moisture and curl up when 
wetted so as to close the ai>- 
ertare. Inside the cylinder, 
under a good microscope, we 
may discover a mass of 
grains, which are technically termed '^ spores," 
and though they are much simpler in their 
structure than the true seeds of Floweriug 
Plants, they yet perform precisely the same func- 
tion in nature, that is, tlie reproduction of the 
species. This particular group of parasi tic fun- 
guses are known in English as ** Cluster-cups," 
and tne particular species that we now have 

•We reproduce UiU, as well as the following figure, iVom 
aa exoeUent Article on this subject in the American Agricul- 
tvrUt for December, 1868, to which we are also indebted lor 
several of the details given herewith. 

tSee SeMid£ Studie* in Natural Hittory, by Mrs. E.G. 
Agassis and A. Agassis, page 8, figures 8, 4 and ft. 



[Vig. 4t ] 




Color-~Orangi>. varioil 
with brown-black. 

minute bi*ownish 



to deal with may be called the ^'Apple-leaf 
Cluster-cup " ( CEcidium pyratum^ Schweinitz) . 

As we have already said, the native home of 
our Apple-leaf Cluster-cup is on the indigenous 
crab of North America; bnt like many such 
parasitic growths it has acquired the habit of 
attacking one or more imported plants, which 
are closely allied to the species which in the 
first instance it must have exclusively infested. 
Four or five years ago we received fh>m J. 
Wood, of Marietta, Ohio, specimens that had 
been found on the leaves of the common Apple- 
tree; and the American Agriculturist lately 
received such from T. W. Sparkman, of Clifton, 
Tenn., with the following statement: << This 
disease has prevailed among some trees in this 
vicinity several years ; it gradually gets woree, 
and the trees fail until they at length die. One 
of the worst ti-ees is a wild Crab Apple. There 
are a great many limbs attacked and some of 
the apples." Lastly, we have been informed 
by Mr. McLane, of Charleston, Central Illinois, 
that in 1869 his Fall Rambos were so ftill of these 
Cluster-cups, that more than one-half the leaves 
were infested by them ; and that in consequence, 
although the fruit was partially perfected, it 
dropped off prematurely in a more or less de- 
fective condition. 

From the recorded history of Noxious Fun- 
guses and Noxious Insects, we may consider it 
as by no means an improbable event, now that 
this indigenous ftingus has acquired the habit 
of attacking an imported plant, that it will 
transmit that habit, by the Laws of Inheritance, 
to its descendants, and thus eventually, by the 
multiplication ol individuals possessing the 
newly-acquired taste, become a great pest to 
the Fruit-grower. It is well, therefore, to put 
our readers on their guard against this little 
pest; for although, strictly speaking, such mat- 
ters belong to the Botanist rather than to the 
Entomologist, yet by a kind of tacit consent the 
study of our Funguses has been bandied about 
"from pillar to post" among the different 
Specialists in Natui-al History, till like Noah^s 
dove it can scarcely find any resting place for 
the sole of its foot. 

As to remedies against this Parasitic Dis- 
ease: Whenever an entire apple-tree has be- 
come badly infested, it would be advisable to 
cut it down and burn it, before the infection 
becomes widely disseminated. If only a few 
leaves or a few boughs are attacked, they should 
for the same reason be gathered by hand and 
burnt; but in doing this, care must be taken to 
perform the operation before the little cups, 
from which these '^Cluster^nps" take their 



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name, have perfected their spores so as to dis- 
semioate the evil. We have made no notes of 
the precise time of the year at which the Apple- 
leaf Cluster-caps attain maturity; but, so far 
as we recollect, it is some time in the month of 
July. The be«jt practical rule will be to destroy 
them as soon as ever the rings begin to develop 
on the lower surface of the leaf; and if there 
are any infected Crab-trees growing in the 
vicinity of the Orchard, they should be cut up 
root and branch without the least compunction, 
and nnceremoniotisly subjected to the purgation 
by fire. 



GALLS AND THEIR ARCHITECTS - 2(1 ARTICLE. 

[OOMTDTUKD FBOM PAOB rirTT. 3 

[In our last number we commenced a second 
article on ''Galls and their Architects," des- 
cribing some of the galls made by Saw-flies. It 
was our intention to continue this article 
through several numbers, so as to embrace cer- 
tain galls made respectively by Gall-flies, Bee- 
tles, Moths, Psyllas or jumping Plant-lice, Gall- 
gnats and Mites, and thus give our readers 
an idea of all the different groups of gall-making 
insects. Mr. Walsh had already written the 
article which appears below, and at the time of 
his fatal accident was working at, and had 
nearly completed, another on **Galls made by 
Beetles," which will appear in our next. We 
shall endeavor, to the best of our ability, to 
complete the series, as nearly as possible in the 
same manner intended by Mr. Walsh.] 

Galls made by Gall-flies. 
[Order nymenoptera^ Cynips Family.) 

In our former Article, we described and illus- 
trated three different galls made by insects be- 
longing to a genus (Cynips) which peculiarly 
infests the diffierent kinds of Oak. We propose 
in this chapter to give the history of two other 
oak-galls produced by this genus of Gall-flies. 
There is a distinct genus {Rhoditea) belonging 
to this same Family, which exclusively attacks 
the Rose; and another (Dicutrophtis) which 
conflnes itself almost entirely to the Bramble; 
besides a fourth {TribaUa) which originates a 
very curious many-celled gall on the tubers of 
the common Potato. Indeed, with the excep- 
tion of the Gallgnats (Cecidomyia)^ which are 
quite cosmopolitan in their tastes, almost every 
genus of gall-making insects peculiarly afflects 
some particular genus of plants ; or — to express 
the same fact in different language — every group 
of gall-makers found upon a partioulai* group 



of plants has certain structural peculiarities 
which distinguish it from allied groups found 
on other groups of plants. In illustration of 
this general law, we shall towards the close of 
this chapter describe and illustrate a new and 
perfectly distinct genus of Grall-flies, a single 
species of which we have discovered to generate 
a <' monothalamous " or one-celled gall on a 
plant (Lygodesmia juncea) peculiar to the 
Northwest. 

Upon the old-fashioned theory of every spe- 
cies, whether of animals or of plants, having 
been created at the beginning of some geological 
epoch, with exactly the same organization and 
coloration and habits tijat it retains to the last 
day of its existence upon this earth, it seems dif- 
flcult to account for such a state of things as the 
above. For example, there are already about 60 
described N. A. species of the genus of Gall-flies 
( Cynips) that affects our different Oaks. Every 
one of these forms galls upon some kind or other 
of Oak, while not one solitary species attacks 
any other plant. Similarly in Europe there are 
about 100 species belonging to this genus, every 
one of which with perhaps a single exception is 
exclusively confined to the Oak. Why should 
this be so? Why should not at least a few of 
these 160 gall-makers be found upon other plants 
besides the Oak ? The old school of philosophers 
can only reply, that it is so because Nature has 
seen fit that it should be so. To parody the 
language of Shakspeare, 

They have no reason but a woman's reason ; 
They think that ii is so, because it it so. 

On the other hand the new school of philoso- 
phers will reply that it is so, because myriads 
of ages ago a single primordial Gall-fly took 
to forming galls upon some species or other of 
antediluvian Oak ; and that from this one spe- 
cies have gradually and slowly originated by 
hei*editary descent, through the instrumentality 
of continual slight changes in their organization 
and consequently in their habits, the 160 distinct 
kinds of Gall-flies that at the present day form 
distinct galls upon the many distinct kinds of 
Oak that exist on either side of the Atlantic. 
Upon this hypothesis we can sec at once why 
these 160 Gall-flies all inhabit the Oak, and are 
not distributed with some approximation to 
uniformity among our Beeches, Birches, Pop- 
lars, Willows, Ashes, Elms, Hickories, Walnuts, 
Hackberries, Hazels, Witch-hazels, Sumacs, 
Dogwoods, Pines, Grape-vines, False Indigos, 
Roses, Brambles, Thorns, Plums, Cherries, 
Basswoods, Maples, and Box-elders — all of 
which twenty-four genera of woody plants are 
to our personal knowledge infested by some 



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kind or other of gall-makers, and cannot there- 
fore be physically incapable of bearing galls. 
The reason is simple. Their ancestors inhabited 
some kind or other of Oak in some old Palaeozoic 
epoch millions of years ago, and by the Laws 
of Inheritance transmitted the same habit to 
most of their descendants. Upon the same 
principle the progeny of the ancient black race 
of men that inhabited Ethiopia in the days of 
the Pharaohs, is foand in that very same region 
up to the present day. 

Which of the above two explanations of a 
most corions and interesting phenomenon be 
the more rational or intelligible, our readers 
mnst judge for themselves. 

The Wool-sower Gall. 
{Quereus senUnatcry Harris.) 

The three Willow galls produced by Saw- 
flies, that we have already treated of in this 
Article, are all '' monothalamoas." The two 
Oak-galls that we are now about to describe are 
both of them " poly thalamous " or many-celled ; 
that is, each gall contains an indefinite number 
of distinct cells, each of which is inhabited by 
a single gall-making larva. In the Wool-sower 
gall (Fig. 45 a, sectional view), these cells 

[Fig. 45.] 




Color— Light baff. 

may be seen in the middle of the gall, and 
are little pip-like bodies having much the ap- 
pearance of a canary-seed, one of which we 
represent enlarged at 6, so as to show the hole 
through which the perfect fly has made its exit. 
The reader can form a tolerably good idea of 
the shape and make of this fly, by referring to 
the drawing given in our first Volume (page 
104, fig. 81) of an allied gall-fly, which however 
is thrice as large and which differs further from 
the Wool-sower Gall-fly by the wings being 
much marked with brown-black. 
The Wool-sower gall is met with exclusively 



on the White Oak, and like the Oak-fig Gall to 
which we formerly referred (Vol. I. p. 101) is, 
not a bud-gall, but a true twig-gall, gi-owing 
early in the spring out of the bark of the twig 
itself. Mr. Bassett {Proc, Ent, Soc. Phil., II, 
p. 331) broaches the theory that the Wool-sower 
gall and Osten Sacken's Q, operator gall are 
not twig-galls, but true bud-galls, and that 
" their cells are modified leaves, the silky fibres 
covering them being only a monstrous develop- 
ment of the pubescence always, obseiTable on 
young leaves." But Ist: As to the Oak-fig 
gall, we have already recorded the fact that 
'' this mass of subglobular galls about the size 
of peas is clustered densely around the infested 
twig, without in any wise interfering with the 
normal development of the budsJ^ (Ibid, VI. 
p. 275.) We may remark by the way that we 
have recently found the Oak-fig gall upon un- 
doubted Bur Oak (Q, macrocarpd), although 
it had been previously supposed that it never 
occuiTed except on White Oak (Q, alba), 2d: 
As to the Q. operator gall, we ascertained 
long ago that it is a deformation, not of the 
twig, nor of the leaf-buds, but of the male 
flower of the species of Oak, upon which alone 
we have hitherto met with it, namely the Black 
Oak (Q. tinctoria); for the Black-jack Oak 
(Q, nigra), upon which Osten Sacken first dis- 
covered it, does not grow in North Illinois. 
Even on this last oak Osten Sacken records the 
fact that his gall occurred exclusively ** on 
young fiowering branches." (Ibid, 1, p. 266). 
8d: As to our Wool-sower gall, if the cells 
were a deformation of the buds, we should 
surely find them gathered into two distinct 
groups around the bud on each side of the oak- 
twig that gave origin to them, as in the gall 
which is next to be noticed ; whereas ihey ai-e 
always evenly distributed around the axis of 
the twig. Besides the pip-like cells to which 
we have already referred, it is composed of little 
else but a mass of whitish, spongy wooly mat- 
ter, the external surface of which is of a pretty 
rose-color early in the season, but towai-ds the 
middle of the summer assumes a rusty brown 
shade. At every period of the year the outside 
of the gall is invariably studded with numerous 
conical projections or teeth, which are very 
characteristic, though our engraving scarcely 
shows them as pointed as they are in nature, 
and Dr. Fitch's figure omits them entirely. The 
perfect Gall-fiy comes forth about the end of 
July, and the female must then, after coupling 
with the males, puncture such White-oak twigs 
as she judges to be suitable for her purpose in 
a very great number of adjoining points, drop- 



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piDg an egg along with a minute drop of poison 
into eacli puncture. Until the following spring 
these eggs always lie dormant, as in many other 
such cases ; for Dr. Fitch is altogether wrong in 
asserting that there are two distinct broods of 
Wool-sower Gall-flies every year, generating 
two distinct sets of galls.'^ We have examined 
hundreds of these galls at all seasons of the 
year; and never yet did we find one at a later 
period than the end of July, that was not bored 
up, empty and untenanted. In fact, it is not 
often that they remain on the twigs through the 
winter; for when ripe they are attached so very 
slightly to the twig upon which they gi'ow, that 
they can readily be slipped up and down like 
the beads of a rosary, and the least lateral jerk 
displaces them entirely. 

The Leafy Oak-gall. 
( Quercus frondosa f Bassett. )t 
This gall, the immature stage of which we 
herewith present a drawing (Fig. 46 a), has 

[Fig. 46.] 




Color— Orecn . 

for many years been a puzzle to ns ; and even 
now jts^history is not yet completely developed, 

•New York ReporU, Vol. II, §315. 

t We are not quite sure that our gall is identical with the 
one described by Mr. Bassett under the above name; but we 
incline to believe that it is . The descriptions of gall-making 
insects that this author has published are generally pretty 
f\ill, accurate and reliable; but most of the notices that he 
ffives of the galls themselves are curt, indefinite and unsatis- 
factory to a most distressing extent. In this particular case 
he does not vouchsafe to tell us upon how many specimens — 
whether one or one himdred— his description is based; he 
does not sa;r one word as to the size of the gall; he overlooks 
the fact of Its often containing more than one cell; he omits 
the fact of the matured cells dropping to the ground; and he 
describes his gall as * ' a cone-like body, covered when 

{^reen, and often when dry, with a dense rose-like cluster of 
raperiectly developed leaves;"' after which he goes on to 
speak of the cell . Any one not familiar with this gentle- 
man's style would suppose that he was talking of a solid con- 
leal gall; like the Pine-cone Willow-gall (Vol. I, Fig. 82), 
with a number of leaves growing out of it. The best mat we 
can do, under the circumstances, is to guess that he is say- 
ing one thing and meaning another thing. . But as we are not 
Yankees, like Mr. Bassett, who can be certain that we are 

0UK3BINO RIOUT? 



though we have examined hundreds of speci- 
mens of it. When mature it often attains a 
diameter of two and a quarter inches, and the 
modified leaves of which it is composed are then 
much longer and proportionally much wider 
than they are at first, so that instead of being 
what the botanists term ^Manceolate" they be- 
come '* oval," with their tips usually acute> and 
occasionally with a more or less well-developed 
acute tooth projecting from one side of the leaf. 
Just as, in the case of the Pine-cone Willow- 
gall,* although the leaves of the willow upon 
which it grows are always sharply toothed upon 
their edges, those of the gall itself are never 
toothed at all, so in the case of this Leafy Oak- 
gall the leaves of wWch it is composed ai*e 
never roundly many-lobed, as are those of the 
different oaks upon which it occurs. They are 
further anomalous by veiy generally lacking 
the rib vein found in the normal leaves of all 
oaks. So singular veiy frequently is the influ- 
ence of the gall-making insect upon the vegeta- 
tion of the plant which it attacks I 

In a mature Leafy Oak-gall which we now 
have before us, some of the leaves of which it is 
composed are nearly one and a half inch long 
by half an inch wide; and those that are smaller 
are proportioned nearly in the same way. The 
gall is developed after the summer growth of 
the tree is completed; and the axillary bud, 
which otherwise would not burst until tlie 
spring following, is forced, by the punctures of 
the Gall-fly, to develop prematurely in the re- 
markable manner illustrated above. Such galls 
as are of small size contaia but a single cell 
(Fig. 46 6), which though its shell is thin is tol- 
erably hard and diflftcult to crush — but the larger 
ones often cover three, four or five such cells ; 
inside this cell reposes the lai-va, as shown in 
the figure, and the characters of the larva indi- 
cate it unmistakably to be that of some Gall-fly 
or other, although it has not as yet been reared 
by any one to the perfect fly state. By parti ng* 
the leaves of the gall, the tip of the greenish 
white cell may be seen imbedded among them; 
and singular to relate, about the middle of the 
autumn, when the gall becomes mature, the 
cells are gradually disengaged from their leafy 
matrix and drop to the ground, where no doubt 
the larva will pass the winter more agreeably 
among the masses of dead leaves which accu- 
mulate in such situations, than it would do if 
it were exposed aloft to the stormy blasts and the 
cold driving sleets of the dead season of the 
year. In all probability the future Gall-fly bursts 
forth from its snug retreat some time in the fol- 

•See Ambr. Ent. I, p. 105, Fig. 82. 



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lowing spring or summer ; but on this matter we 
can at present only jadge from analogy. We may 
add that we are acquainted with an andescribed 
Haekberry-gall, formed by a gall-gnat, where 
the cells drop to the groaud when mature pre- 
cisely as in this gall which is formed by a Gall- 
fly. 

So rapid is the development of the Leafy 
Oak-gall, from the time when it first begins to 
appear to the time when the cells that contain 
the larva drop to the ground, that up to 1869 
we had never seen anything but the empty gall. 
We have ourselves met with it in Northern Illi- 
nois both on Bur Oak and on White Oak ; and 
Mr. Bassett of Waterbury, Conn., found it upon 
the Chinquapin Osk (Q.prinoides). We have 
also received specimens from Mr. McAfee of 
Freeport in North Illinois, and others from B. 
H. Brodnox of Pickens' Station, Miss.; so that 
it would seem to be pretty generally distributed 
throQghout the Union. Oak-bushes that have 
been badly infested by this gall present a sin- 
gular appearance in the following winter and 
spring; Uie empty galls turning black, losing 
the tips of many of their leaves, and looking 
then more like an army of great hairy black 
caterpillars, curled up in repose all over the 
naked twigs, than anything else to which wc 
can compare them. In 1866, fi*om ignorance of 
the true history of this gall, speaking of it as 
the Oak-cabbage gall (Q. hrassica, Walsh MS.), 
we erroneously assumed it to be the work of 
lome unknown Grall-gnat, many species of which 
group of insects originate galls on different kinds 
of oak.* At that period we had bred fVom it 
Bine specimens of a Guest-sawfly (Nemattis 
querdcolay Walsh), which like certain other 
gnest-flies is remarkable for being to all exter- 
nal appearance absolutely undistinguisbable 
from a true gall-making insect {Netnatus s. pU 
itfm, Walsh), that produces a leaf-gall on a spe- 
cies of Willow. And yet, though externally 
andistinguishable, these two Saw-flies differ 
notably in their habits, the Gall-maker always 
learing its gall and going undergi*onnd to pass 
into the pupa state, and the Guest-fly remaining 
in the Leafy Oak-gall all through the winter, 
and not coming out in the fly state till May or 
Jnne of the following year. So little depen- 
dence can we place upon the decisions of mere 
eloset-naturalists, relative to the identity or dis- 
tinctness of species I For in this, as in several 
other such cases enumerated by us, it is impos- 
sible for any one to tell the difference between 
the €hill-maker and the Guest-fly ; and yet it 

•See a Paper on WQlow Galls in Proe. Bmi. Soc. Phil. VI. 



would be as absurd to suppose that the two 
form but one species, and that one and the same 
species is sometimes the architect of its own gall 
and sometimes spunges upon ti*ue gall-making 
insects for a nidus for its future offspring, as it 
would be to imagine that the European Cuckoo, 
or our North American Cowbird, sometimes 
builds a nest for itself and sometimes surrepti- 
tiously deposits its eggs in the nests of other 
birds. 

The Lygodesmla Pea-galL 
( Lygod€$mke pitum , new species . ) 

There is a rush-like plant about a foot high, 
with slender sprangUng stems and a few rigid 
lance-shaped leaves, which inhabits Nebraska 
and the regions to the east and north of that 
territory, and is known to botanists as Lygo- 
destnia juncea. On the stems of this plant there 
often grows a profusion of round or oval pea- 
like galls, ranging in diameter from J to i an 
inch, such as are represented in the annexed 
Figure 47. In the autumn each of these galls 
contains, in a central cavity about 
one-tenth of an inch in diameter, a 
fat yellow legless maggot, with a 
large round head and robust jaws 
tipped with black. Except the cen- 
tral cell, the rest of the gall consists 
of a dense whitish spongy matter, 
which ultimately becomes so hard 
as to be peneti-ated with some diffi- 
culty by the thumb-nail. About the 
middle of the following May there 
eats its way out of the gall, through 
a small pin-hole (Fig. 47, a), a 
black Gall-fly about one-eighth of 
an inch long, which scarcely dif- 
fers in general appearance from 
the Oak-plum Gall-fly (Vol. I. p. 
104, Fig. 81) except in being so 
much smaller and in lacking the 
dark shade on the front wings. This Gall-fly is 
entirely new to science, and, as wo have already 
explained, it is especially interesting because— 
growing as it does on a group of plants not 
hitherto known to be infested by Gall-flies — it 
presents structural charaetei*s diffei*ent from 
those found in any other Gall-fly. In other 
words, a new genus has to be established to 
receive it, besides giving the characters separ- 
ating it from any other species belonging to the 
same genus, which may hereafter be discovered. 
But as such details as these are only of interest 
to the scientific reader, we shall throw them 




Color—Opaque 
aab-gray. 



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into the form of an Appendix — to be " skipped " 
at discretion by the general reader. 

APPENDIX TO THIS CHAPTER. 

Osten SackcQ has repeatedly complained— and with 
very great Justice too— of the exceedingly slovenly man- 
ner in which certain European authors have attempted 
to define and limit the multiplicity of new Cynipidous 
genera which they have thougnt fit to establish.* (Proc. 
Ent. Soe, Phil,, TV. p. 838. etc.). In our paper on 
Gj^ips (Ibid,, II. pp. 46&-9 and 4T7-8) will bo found, 
first, the characters which in our opinion separate 
OynipidcB from Figitida, and secondly those which 
separate the Gull-making Gall-flies ( Cynipida psenide*) 
from the Guest Gall-flies {Cvnipida inquUina). We 
will now give a Synoptical Table of those genera of 
Oynipidapsenid^s found in N. A., which we consider 
to be sufficiently distinct to be classified as anything 
more than subgenera. In such matters as these, opin- 
ions of course will diflfer; but we have always thought 
that a good reliable Svnoptical Table of genera is worth 
far more to the scientific student than one hundred times 
the same space occupied with mere generic circumscrip- 
tionsy fUll of tautology and indefinite platitudes. 

N. A. GENERA OF CYNIPID^ PSENIDES. 

A. The second Abdomnutl joint (counting the peduncle a> the flrit) rery 

larse; the reft quite mnali mmI mb-equAl. 

1. Tenttml ralve female moderate. Oynips, on Oak. 

S. Yeiitral valre female enonnooalr cloo- i •Dt,,^!*^. _. d^,^^ 

gate, homy and ehlnlnR JBhodltee. on Ro«>. 

B. The 9d abdominal joint moderate; the reet i 

■mailer and sub-equal. ( Ventral TalreSTribalia, on Potato. 
<biiale nearly as in »^kodlu»)., \ 

C. T1i« 2d and 8d abdominal Joint* lane, theSd 

rather snuller than the second; the rest 
mueh smaller and sub-equal . 
1. SdjointotantenxuB longer than 4th...... Dlastroplius, 

on 
S. 3d joint of antennc shorter than 4th....Antiitropliusn. g. 

on Ohrmmab. 

D. Abdominal joints 2—7 sub-equal ,^ Iballs, habtts anknown. 

AMTISTROPHUS, U. g. 

Infests Lygodeimia (Family Oompotita) and differs as 
follows fh>m Diatirophui, a genus infesting Bramble 
{RvhuB) and occasionally the allied PotetUiua (Family 
MosacecB) :— 1st. The 3d joint of the antennae is much 
shorter than the 4th, whereas not only in Dicutrophug, 
but in all othei Oynipida known to us, Joint 8 is longer, 
and often very much longer than joint 4. 2d . Both trans- 
verse veins in the front wing are fUUy as slender as the 
other veins, almost entirelv colorless as well as the other 
veins, and not margined by any cloud whatever. 8d. 
The radial area is more elongate, but otherwise similarly 
shaped; and as in Dia^rophus cuseuiatformis o. s. (but 
not in D, nebulotut o. s.) the areolet is obsolete. 

Antistrophui I, pisum, n. sp. $ Black. Bead opaque, 
confluentfy and almost microscopically punctate, the 
face with very fine and short appressed pubescence; 
color, a dark rufo-sanruineous, very rarely on the occi- 
put verging upon bhick. Antennae 4-5th8 as lonff as the 
body, 13-jointed, joint 4 longer by }4 than joint 3, Joints 
5—12 very slowly shorter and shorter, joint 18 as long as 
11 and 12 put together; the two basal Joints almost 
always black, the rest of a dark ruto-sanguineous color. 
Thorax opaque, confluently and almost microscopically 
punctate; the purapsidal grooves distinct and acute, 
the dorsal one obsolete on its anterior i^, and with an 
abbreviated longitudinal groove on eacn side of it, ex- 
tending from the collare half way to the scutel. Scutel 
Ui^e and inflated, directed upwards and backwards, 
its tip widely rounded and with a slight medial emar- 
ginanon; the normal basal fovese shallow and almost 
confluent, and covering about }4 of its upper surfiice. 

* Giraud, as stated bv Osten Sacken, reared what he has 
described as a Diattrophu$ from a gall growing on the Com- 
positous plant Centaurea icabiaa. {Verh, Zool. Bot, 
Ge$eUtch, Wien,, 1859, p. 368.) We strongly suspect that 
this gall-fly belongs in reality to our new genus AntUtro- 
phut. The genus Phanacit of Foerster, of which a single 
species, Ph, centaurecB^ has been * * reared from the stalks 
or CtiUaurea scabiota ** by that author, as quoted bv Osten 
Saoken, is apparently a niest-fly, and is probably Inquili- 
nous on Giraud' s so-called DuutrophtUf which was des- 
cribed three years after Foerster published. (See FerA. 
d'Rheini. Vereintfur Naturk,, XVft, p. 146, 1866.) 



Collare very often, and sometimes the pleura and me- 
sonotum, and occasionally the tip of the scutel, mord 
or less rufo-sanguineous. Ahdomen shining and pol- 
ished; "ventral valve" rectanguUr at tip, with only 
a very minute apical thorn, thin and semitransparent 
and of a pale rufous color. < * Dorsal valve '' distinct, 
but never showing the ovipositor projecttng from \U 
tip. Zeas bright rufo-sanguineous. WiMs hyaline; 
veins and cross- veins scarcely tinged with brown; the 
radial area frilly thrice as long as wide, with the 2nd 
transverse v^ attached to it scarcely l-6th of the way 
to its tip. Cubitus obsolete at its origin (torn the Ist 
transverse vein. All the lon^tudinal veins nearly, but 
not quite, attaining the margin of the wing.— Length $ 
0. 12-0. U inch. 

The (f difllers from $ only as follovirs:— 1st. The head 
is scarcely ever, and the thorax never, tinned with rufo- 
sanguineous. 2nd. The antennae are luUy as long a» 
the body, 14-Jointeil, Joints 1—4 a^ in $ , joints 5—13 
very slowly shorter and shorter, joint 14 a trifle longer 
than 13. 3rd. The legs are of a darker and duller color, 
and the hind tibiae are obscurely tinged with dusky to- 
wards their tips.— Length e^ 1.10—0.11 inch. 

Described from 29 rf , 34 f , which came out May 12th— 
26th, 1869, from galls kindly sent us in the preceding 
March by E P. Austin of Omaha, Nebr. We had pre- 
viously bred a few specimens cf 2 of the same insect in 
the spring of 1808 fh>m galls gathered by ourselves on 
the rlains of the West from the very same plant. Ac- 
cording to Dr. Asa Gray {Manual, 4th coition, page 
xcv.) this plant also grows in Wisconsin, where no 
doubt the same galls may be met with upon its stems. 



CABBAGE BUTTERFLIES. 

BY CHA8. 8. HINOT, B08T0X, MASS. 

There is a certain groap of butterfles known, 
scientifically, by the name of FieriSj to farm- 
era as " Garden Whites " or " Cabbage batter- 
flies." They are easily recognized by the fol- 
lowing characters: The wings are generally 
white, with inconspicaous black markings, and 
occasionally with green or yellow underneath ; 
they are very broad and have no scallops or 
indentations in the margin; the hindwings in 
outline resemble an egg. '' The feelers (palpi) 
are rather slender, but project beyond the bead ; 
the antennae have a short flattened knob. Their 
flight is lazy and lumbering. The caterpillars 
are nearly cylindrical, taper a little towards 
each end, and are sparingly clothed with short 
down, which requires a microscope to be dis- 
tinctly seen. They suspend themselves by the 
tail and a transverse loop, and their chrysalids 
are angular at the side and pointed at both ends.'' 
(Harris). 

This genus is interesting, though disagreeably 
so, to every farmer, for the different species are 
very destructive to various vegetables: among 
others cabbages, nasturtium, mignionette, caoli- 
flowers, turnips, and carrots. We propose now 
to notice only two of the species, as that number 
will serve to indicate the habits of the whole 
genus — which every farmer should be.fhmiliar 
with, so that he may be able to recognize and 
destroy such dangerous foes. 



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The first, species we shall mention is the Bape 
Butterfly (Pieris rapcRy Schrank, Fig. 48). 
This insect has been the occasion of some little 
speculation and great interest to our New Eng- 
land and Canadian entomologists, inasmuch as 

[Fig. 48.] 




Colors— Black and white. 

it has been introduced to this country from 
England, and is probably one of the most per- 
fect instances on record of any insect being im- 
ported from one country to another and becom- 
ing completely naturalized in its new quarters. 
There does not seem to be the slightest doubt 
that this is the English species. It was proba- 
bly introduced in 1856 or '57. It was first taken 
in Quebec in 1859, and in 1863 it was captured 
in large numbers by Mr. Bowles in the vicinity 
of that city. As the eggs are laid on the under- 
sides of leaves, it was probably introduced in 
this form, the refuse leaves being thrown out 
of some ship ; after which the larvse hatched, 
and finding themselves in the neighborhood of 
their food, ate and fiounshed . Being, moreover, 
hardy little fellows, they were perfectly able to 
endure a change of climate. In 1864 it had 
spread about forty miles from Quebec as a cen- 
tre; in 1866 it was taken in the northern parts 
of New Hampshire and Vermont ; in 1868 it had 
advanced still farther south, and was seen near 
Lake Winnepesaugee ; and finally this last sum- 
mer it was taken around Boston, Mass., and a 
few stray specimens in New Jersey. There 
seems to be no doubt that this destructive in- 
sect will, in a few years, spread over the whole 
of temperate North America; for the other spe- 
cies of the genus have an extensive geographi- 
cal range, and not being particular as to its 
food, it will have no difficulty on that score. 
Indeed, the larva and pupa seem to have an uu- 
Qsnal power of accommodating themselves to 
circumstances, — ^for instance, Mr. Curtis, in his 
Farm Insects of England, states that the cater- 
pillars have been found feeding on willow. 

Now let us look at the larva (Fig. 49 a), and 
inhabits. It is one and one-half inches long; 
pale green, finely dotted with black ; a yeUow 
stripe down the back, and a row of yellow spots 
^ng each side in a line with the breathing 
holes. In England and arouud Quebec it has 




Colors — (a) pale 
irreen: (b) yel- 
lowish-brown . 



done immense damage to the cabbages and other 
CmcifersB {Cress Family) by boring into the 
very heart of the plant, instead 
of being content with the less 
valuable outer portion, as some 
other species are. On this ac- 
count the French call it the 
"Ver du Coeur," or Heart- 
woim. When about to trans- 
form, it leaves the plants on 
which it has been living, and 
fastens itself on the underside 
of some stone, plank, or fence- 
rail, where it changes into a 
chrysalis in the middle or latter 
part of September, and in 
this stage it hybernates, pro- 
ducing, in New England at least, the perfect 
insect early in April- The chrysalis or pupa 
(Fig. 49 6), is variable in color, being some- 
times yellowish-brown or yellow, and pass- 
ing thence into green, speckled with minute 
black dots. The brood of butterfiies that emerges 
from the pupa state in the spring lays eggs 
shortly afterwards, and these eggs produce cat- 
erpillars, which in their turn change to chrysa- 
lids in June, and in seven or eight days more 
the butterfly appears, which again lays its eggs 
for the second brood, which, as before stated, 
hybernates in the pupa state. 

In the perfect butterfly the body and head are 
black and the wings white, marked with black 
as follows : In the female (Fig. 48) a small space 

[Fig. 50.] 




Colors— Bl»ok and white. 

at the tip and three spots on the outer half of 
the front wings and one spot on the hind wings ; 
beneath one spot on the front wings, but none 
on the hind wings, Which are commonly yel- 
lowish, sometimes passing into green. The male 
(Fig. 60) has only one spot above and two be- 
neath on the front wings, and a black dash on 
the anterior edge of the hind wings. There is 
a variety of the latter sex which has the same 
markings, but differs from the type in the ground 
color being canary yellow. Curiously enough, 
this variety has been taken both in this country 
and in England. 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



These batterflies occasionally assemble in 
great numbers. At one time a flight crossed 
the English channel from France to England, 
and such was the density and the extent of the 
cloud foimed by the living mass, that the sun 
was completely obscui*ed for a distance of many 
hundred yards, from the people on board a ship 
that was passing underneath this strange cloud. 
The Potherb Butterfly {Pieris oleraceay Boisd., 
Fig. 61), is the next species to be descnbed. 

[Fig. 51.] 




iittiiiajji'Maasiii;/! 



Colors— Black and white; Vi) green. 

It has a very wide range, reaching rai-ely as far 
south as Pennsylvania, extending eastward to 
Nova Scotia, and at least as far west as Lake 
Superior, while in the north it is found as high 
up as the Great Slave Lake in the Hudson's Bay 
Company's ten-itory. This butterfly has a black 
body ; the front wings ai-e white, marked above 
with black at the base, along the front edge, and 
at the tip ; the hind wings are white above and 
lemon-yellow beneath, but without markiugs 
except a few black scales at the base. 

About the last of May numerous specimens of 
this species may be seen over cabbage, radish 
or turnip beds, or patches of mustard, where, on 
the underside of the leaves, it deposits its eggs. 
These are yellowish, nearly pear-shaped, longi- 
tudinally ribbed, and one-fifteenth of an inch 
in diameter, and are laid seldom more than two 
or three together. In a week or ten days the 
young caterpillars are hatched ; in three weeks 
more they have attained their full growth, which 
is an inch and one-half long. Beiug slender and 
gi*een (see Fig. 51, a) they are not readily dis- 
tinguished from the leaves on which they live. 
They taper a little toward each end, and are 
densely covered with haii*8. They begin to eat 
indiscnminately on any part of the leaf. When 
they have completed the feeding stage they quit 
the plants and I'elire beneath palings, etc., where 
they spin a little tuft of silk, entangle their 
hindmost feet in it, and then proceed to form a 
loop to sustain the front part of the body in a 
horizontal or vertical position. Bending its 
head on one side the caterpillar fastens to the 




surfiEice, beneath the middle of its body, a silken 
thread, which it carries across its back and se- 
cures on the other side, and repeats this. opera- 
tion nnti] a band, or loop, of sufficient strength 
is formed. On the next day it casts off the cat- 
[Fig.52.] erpillar skin and becomes a 
chrysalis (Fig. 62). This is of 
a pale green and sometimes of 
a white color, regularly and 

Color8-Gr^n.whitefl"«^3^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^*^^' ^® 

and biaciK. gides of the body ai*e angular, 
the head is surmounted by a conical tubercle, 
and over the forepart of the body, corresponding 
to the thorax of the included butterfly, is a 
thin projection, having in proflle some resemb- 
lance to a Roman nose. The insect remains in 
this stage for ten or twelve days, when the but- 
terfly appears. 

In the last of July and first of August, these 
insects may be seen in large numbers depositing 
their eggs for a second broody which wintering 
in the pupa state, produces the perfect insect the 
following May. 

This butterfly varies considerably. There are 
never, we believe, perfectly white specimens, 
though often nearly so. Again, some specimens 
have very faint indications of spots arranged as 
in P. rapce; but on the underside are found the 
widest limits of variation, for not only do the 
tips of the front wings become distinctly green- 
ish, or lemon-yellow, and the veins of that por- 
tion bordered with gi*ayish scales, but the hind 
wings may also have the ground color distinctly 
greenish, lemon-yellow, or whitish, and the 
veins display gray scales on each side. 

By taking advantage of the habits of these in- 
sects, they might be nearly exterminated. If 
boards are placed among the infested plants, 
about two inches above the ground, the cater- 
pillars when about to change will resort to them, 
and there undergo their metamorphoses. They 
may then be collected by baud on the underside 
of the boards and destroyed. As the butterfllies 
aro slow fliers, they may be taken in a net and 
killed. A short handle, perhaps four feet long, 
with a wire hoop and bag-net of muslin or 
mosquito netting, are all that are required to 
make this useful implement, the total cost of 
which need not be more than fifty or seventy- 
five cents. The titmouse is said to eat the larvae, 
and should therefore be protected and encour- 
aged. 

The Sonthem Cabbage Butterfly. 
[As the Southern representative of the genus, 
we will briefly add an illustrated account of the 
Southern Cabbage Butterfly (Pieris Protodice, 



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Boisd.) Mr. S. H. Scudder, from an examina- 
tion of a large number of specimens, found that 

[Fig 53 ] 




Colors— Black and white. 

this bntterfly enjoys a wide geographical range, 
^^ extending from Texas on the southwest, Mis- 
souri on the west, and the mouth of the Red 
River of the North on the northwest, as far as 
Connecticut, and the Southern Atlantic States 
on the east."* But while the species is scarce 
in the more northern States, it abounds in many 
of the southern States, where it takes the place 
of the species described in the above paper. It 
often proves exceedingly injurious, and we 
learn from one of our Mississippi exchanges 
that '' there were last year thousands of dollai's' 
worth of cabbages devastated and ruined by 
worms in the neighborhood of Corinth." We 
are furthermore told, that cabbages could not, 
in consequence, be had there even at ten cents 
per head. The "worm " referred to, was doubt- 
less the species under consideration. It abounds 
in many parts of Missouri, and especially in the 
truck gardens around large cities, where it 
proves quite destructive to the cabbages. 

[Fig. 54.1 




Colors— (a) Greenish-blnc. yellow and black; {b) light 
blubQ-gray. 

The larva (Fig. 54 a), may be summarily de- 
scribed as a soft worm, of a greenish-blue color, 
with four longitudinal yellow stripes, and cov- 
ered with black dots.f When newly hatched it 

•See Proo Best. Soc. Nat Hist., YIII, 1861, p. 180. 

t We annex a fUU description of this larva for the benefit 
•>r our scientific friends : Average length when fhll grown 
1 U inches. Cylindrical. Middle segments Urgest. Most 
eommon ground-color green verging onto blue; sometimes 
ei««r pole-blueaad at others deep Oidijgo or pniplish-blue. 
Each segment with six transverse wrinkles, of which the 
int and fourth are somewhat wider than the others. Fonr 



is of a uniform orange color with a black head, 
but it becomes dull brown before the first moult, 
though the longitudinal stripes and black spots 
are only visible after said moult has taken place. 
The chrysalis (Fig. 54 6), averages 0.65 inch 
in length, and is as variable in depth of ground- 
color, as the larva. The general color is light 
bluish-gray, moi*e or less intensely speckled 
with black, with the ridges and prominences 
edged with buff or with fiesh-color, and having 
larger black dots. 

[Fig. 55.1 




Colors— Black and white. 

The female butterfly (Fig. 53), as was stated 
in our last number, (p. 60) differs remarkably 
trom the male which we represent at Figure 55. 
It will be seen, upon comparing these figui'es 
that the $ is altogether darker than the (f. 
This sexual difference in appearance is purely 
colorational, however, and there should not be 
the difference in the foi*m of the wings which 
the two figures would indicate, for the hind 
wings in our c5^ cut, are altogether too short 
and rounded. 

This insect may be found in all its different 
stages through the months of July, August and 
September. It hybernates in the chrysalis 
state. We do not know that it feeds on any- 
thing but Cabbage, but we once found a <; 
chrysalis fastened to a stalk of the common net- 
tle, (Solanum carolineTise) which was growing 
in a cemetery with no cabbages within at least 
a quarter of a mile. Before concluding this ai^ 
tide, we cannot too strongly urge upon our west- 
em readers to do all in their power to prevent 
the advent of the Rape Buttei*fly in their midst. 
It is more to be dreaded than any of the othera, 
and by stringent measures may easily be pre- 
vented from gaining a foot-hold in any locality. 
Be on your guard ! — Ed.] 

longitudinal yellow lines, each equidistant from the other, 
andeach interrupted by a pale blue spot on the aforemen- 
tioned first and fourth transverse wrinkles. Traces of two 
additional longitudinal lines below, one on each side imme- 
diately above prolegs. On each transverse wrinkle is a row 
of various sized, round, polished black, slightly raised, pi- 
liierous spots; those on wrinkles one and four being largest 
and most regularlv situated. Hairs arising from these spots, 
stiff and black. Venter rather lighter than ground-color 
above, and minutely speckled more or less with dull black. 
Head same color as body ; covered with black piliferous 
spots, and usually with a yellow or orange patch each side 
—quite variable. The black piliferous spots IVeqaently have 
a pale blue annulation around the base, especially in the 
darker specimens. 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



THE CHEESE-FLT. 



WI Lli A RD . 



[t'rom the Western Raral of August lU, 1808.] 

Most dair>inen understand pretty well the 
habits of the cheese-fly. Many, however, do 
not know how to provide against its depi'eda- 
tions. Some people profess to be fond of skip- 
pery cheese, and regard it as an index of what 
the English understand as "a cheese full of 
meat," that is, rich in butter. And it must 
be confessed that the cheese-fly has great parti- 
ality for the best goods in the curing house. 
They do not so readily attack your " "White 
Oak," and skim-milk varieties, hence the notion 
that cheese aflV^cted with the fly is rich in but- 
ter is not so far out of the way. 

It is an old adage that ^' there is no account- 
ing for tastes," and whatever may be the mer- 
its of skippery cheeses the demand for them is 
exceedingly small. Indeed, they usually go to 
the pig-pen or the ducks as food for a lower or- 
der of creatui'es than man. Immense losses are 
sustained every year on account of skippery 
cheese. Sometimes thousands of pounds in 
factories are tainted in this way, and the cheese 
has to be sold for what it will bring, while a 
portion is not unfrequently so badly affected 
that it has to be thrown away at the factory. 

The primary cause of skippery cheese, of 
course, is want of care. Cheese in hot weather 
should be closely examined every day. They 
require to be turned once a day in order to facil- 
itate the curing process. The bandages and 
sides are to bo rubbed at the time of turning in 
order to brush off or destroy any nits of the fly 
which may happen to be deposited about the 
cheese. If there are cracks in the rind, or if 
the edges of the bandage do not flt snugly, they 
shoula at once be attended to, since it is at these 
points that the fly is most likely to make a safe 
deposit of its e^gs. The cracks and checks in 
the cheese should be filled up with particles of 
cheese that have been crushed under a knife to 
make them mellow and plastic. When once 
filled, a strip of thin tough paper oiled and laid 
over the repaired surface will serve as a further 
protection of the parts. The cheese in the 
checks soon hardens and forms a new rind. 
Deep and bad looking checks may be repaired 
in this way so as to form a smooth surface 
scarcely to be distinguished from the sound 
parts of the cheese. It is a great mistake to 
send cheese that have deep checks or broken 
rinds to market. For, in addition to their lia- 
bility to be attacked by the fly, they have the 
appearance of bein^ imperfect, and are iustly 
regarded with suspicion. A few such cheeses 
in a lot will injure the whole, causing a larger 
depreciation in price on the whole lot than if 
the imperfect cheeses had been separated from 
the i*est andj sold by themselves for what they 
would bring." 

Some dairymen think that a darkened curing 
room is best for cheese and at the same time is 
the best protection against the fly. We think 
this is a mistake. Cheese cures with the best 
flavor when it is exposed to light, and besides 
it can bo examined more minutely from time to 



time, and freed from any depredations of 
skippers. 

August and September are generally the 
worst months in the year to protect the cheese 
against attacks of the fly. Some years the 
trouble is greater than others, and varioos 
means have oeen resorted to for the pnrpoee of 
avoiding the pest, such as rubbing the cheese 
over with a mixture of oil and cayenne pepper. 
These things generally do not amount to much, 
and are not to be recommended. The best pro- 
tection is cleanliness, sharp eyes and good care 
of the cheese. Whenever a lodgment of skip- 
pei*s has been made, they must at once be re- 
moved. Sometimes it will be necessary to cat 
down into the cheese and remove the nest with 
the knife, but if the colony is young and small 
in numbers, a thick oiled paper plastered over 
the affected part so as to exclude the air, will 
bring the pe^ts to the surface when they may be 
removed. The oiled paper should again be re- 
turned to its place and the skippers removed 
from time to time, until all ai'e destroyed. 

If skippers begin to trouble the cheese, the 
best course to be adopted is to commence at 
once, and wash the ranges or tables on which 
the cheese is placed with hot whey. This will 
remove all accumulation of grease and nits 
about the ranges, giving a clean surface which 
does not attract the flies. If the cheeses also are 
washed in the hot whey and rubbed with a dry 
cloth, the labor of expelling the trouble from 
the curing rooms will be greatly facilitated. 
We have seen this course adopted with entire 
success in many instances, when much time and 
labor had previously been employed without 
effecting the desired object. 

Keep the ciring room clean and sweet; see 
that the cheeses have a smooth rind, that the 
bandages ai-e smoothly laid at the edges ; tarn 
and rub the cheeses daily, and there need be no 
trouble from the cheese-fly. 

[Note by the Edftob. — It is only unprofes- 
sional readers who will need to be told, that the 
Cheese-fly (Piophila casei) is one of the numer- 
ous noxious insects that have been imported 
into this country from Europe — that it is a small 
black fly less than half the size of a common 
House-fly, and belongs to the great Order of 
Two-winged Flies (Diptera) and to the great 
M'lsca family in that Order, the same Family to 
which also appertain the House-fly, and onr 
various Meat-flies and Blow-flies — that the 
female deposits her eggs exclusively on cheese — 
that these eggs soon afterwards hatch out and 
produce whitish maggots called *• skippers," 
because these maggots have the remarkable fac- 
ulty of taking their tails in their mouths and 
then by suddenly releasing their hold skipping 
to a distance of several inches— that when fall 
grown the '^ skippers " have their skins con- 
tract lengthways, harden, turn of a mahogany 
brown color, and assume an oval form techni- 
cally called '' a coarctate pupa " — ^and that from 
these pup83 the winged flies soon afterwards 



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burst forth, destined to coaple together, and by 
laying fresh eggs in other cheese prodnce suc- 
cessiTe generations in the same unvarying cycle 
of changes. As with House-flies and Meat-flies, 
the breed is propagated from year to year by a 
few fortunate individuals securing in the fly 
state some uncommonly snug and secure place 
by way of winter-quarters, the great majority 
of the last autumnal brood falling victims to 
their various cannibal foes or to the inclemency 
of the weather. Hence we see at once why all 
these insects are far less numerous in the early 
part of the summer, than they are towards the 
autumn; for being all of them many-brooded, 
and laying a very large number of eggs, the 
breed of them naturally, under favorable con- 
ditions of warmth, increases in a fearfully 
rapid geometrical progression as the summer 
advances. 

We have said that the Cheese-fly breeds exclu- 
sively in cheese, because that is the only sub- 
stance in which the larva is at present known 
to occur. But of course, before man became 
so civilized as to take to manufacturing cheese, 
it must have inhabited some analogous sub- 
stance — a peculiar kind of fungus for example — 
which perhaps existed only in very small quan- 
tities and was scattered widely over a large ex- 
tent of country. Hence, under such circum- 
stances as these, it was probably, like many 
other such flies, only to be met with in very 
small numbers. It is the manufacturing cheese 
in great quantities, and especially the concen- 
trating the cheese in a few localities, instead of 
scattering it broadcast over the whole country, 
that affords such facilities for the great multi- 
plication of the species. But as we have enlarged 
more ftilly upon this last point in our Article on 
the Increase of Noxious Insects, we need not 
dwell upon it here.] 



THE HARLEQUIN CABBAGE-BUG. 

{Strachia hutrumica, Hahn.) 

Cabbage-growers in the North are apt to 
think, that the plant which they cultivate is 
about as badly infested by insects as it is pos- 
sible for any crop to be, without being utterly 
exterminated. No sooner are the young cab- 
bages above ground in the seed-bed, than they 
are often attacked by several species of Flea- 
beetles, one of which, the Wavy-striped Flea- 
beetle, we figured and illustrated in all its 
stages in the 8th number of our First Volume 
(pp. 158-9). By these jumping little pests the 
sc^-leavos ai-c frequently riddled so full of 



holes that the life of the plant is destroyed ; and 
they do not confine themselves to the seed- 
leaves, but prey to a considerable extent also 
upon the young rough leaves. After the plants 
are set out, the larva of the very same insect is 
found upon the roots, in the form of a tiny 
elongate six-legged worm. Through the oper- 
ations of this subterranean foe, the young cab- 
bages, especially in hot dry weather, often 
wither away and die; and even if they escape 
this infiiction, there is a whole host of cut- 
worms ready to destroy them with a few snaps 
of their powerful jaws; and the common White 
Grub, as we know by experience, will often do 
the very same thing. Suppose the unfortu- 
nate vegetable escapes all these dangers of 
the earlier period of its existence. At a more 
advanced stage in its life, the stem is burrowed 
into by the maggot of the Cabbage Fly {Antho- 
myia brassicce) — the sap is pumped out of the 
leaves in streams by myriads of minute Plant- 
lice covered with a whitish dust (Aphis bras- 
»ic<B) — and the leaves themselves are riddled 
full of holes by the tiny larva of the Cabbage 
Tinea (PltUdla cruc\ferarum), or devoured 
bodily by the large fleshy larvaB of several dif- 
fei-ent Owlet-moths.* Nor is this the end of 
the chapter. The Cabbage-fly, the Cabbage- 
plantlouse, and the Cabbage Tinea were long 
ago imported into this country from Europe. 
There is a still more savage foe to the cabbage, 
that is just beginning to make his way among 
us from his native home on the other side of 
the Atlantic. One of the White Butterflies 
(Piens rapcB, see Figures 48 and 50 in this 
number) that in Europe are such a plague to 
the Cabbage grower was introduced acciden- 
tally into Canada some six or eight years ago ; 
and already it is spreading into the United 
States in all directions with giant strides, hav- 
ing up to this date occupied and possessed the 
more northerly parts of New England, and as 
we learn from Dr. Hoy of Milwaukee, Wiscon- 
sin, being now tolerably common in his neigh- 
borhood. 

[Fig. 56.] 
Colors—Sblnlng black and bright yellow. 

Severe as are these inflictions upon the North- 
ern Cabbage-grower, there is an insect found in 
the Southern States that appears to be, if pos- 
sible, still worse. This is the Harlequin Cab- 

* MsmeitrA picta, Plutia precationU^ another PliMia, and 
two or three different Agrotidiaru. 



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bago-bag (Strachia histrionica, Hahn, Fig, 
56), 80 called from the gay theatrical Harlequin- 
like manner in which the black and yellow col- 
ors are an*anged upon its body. The first 
account of the operations of this very pretty but 
unfortunately very mischievous bug appeared 
in the year 1866 from the able pen of Dr. Gid- 
eon Lincecum, of AVashington county, Texas, 
and were printed in the Practical Entomologist 
(Vol. I, p. 110). His remarks are to the fol- 
lowing effect: 

The year before last they got into my garden, 
and utterly destroyed my cabbage, radishes, 
mustard, seed turnips, and every other cruci- 
form plant. Last year I did not set any of that 
Old -r of plants in my garden. But the present 
year, tliinking they had probably left the pre- 
mises, I planted my gai*den with radishes, mus- 
tard, and a y&riety of cabbages. By the first of 
April the mustard and i-adishes were large 
enough for use, and I discovered that the insect 
had commenced on them. I began picking 
them off by hand and tramping them under 
foot. By that means I have preserved my 434 
cabbages, but I have visited every one of them 
daily now for four months, finding on them 
fmm thirty-five to sixty full-gi-own insects 
every day, some coupled and some in the act of 
depositing their eggs. Although many have 
been hatched in my garden the present season, 
I have suffei*ed none to come to maturity ; and 
the daily supplies of gi-own insects that I have 
been blessed with, are immigrants from some 
other garden. 

The perfect insect lives through the winter, 
and is ready to deposit its eggs as early as the 
15th of March, or sooner, if it finds any crucifonn 
plant large enough. They set their eggs on 
end in two rows, cemented together, mostly on 
the underside of the leaf, and generally from 
eleven to twelve in number. In about six days 
in April — four days in July — there hatches out 
ivotti these eggs a brood of lai^vae resembling the 

gerfect insect, except in having no wings. This 
rood immediately begins the work of destruc- 
tion by piercing and sucking the life-sap from 
the leaves ; and in twelve days they have ma- 
tured. They are timid, and will run off and 
hide behind the first leaf-stem, or any part of 
the plant that will answer the pnrpose. The 
leaf that they puncture immediately wilts, like 
the effects of* poison, and soon withers. Half a 
dozen grown insects will kill a cabbage in a 
day. They continue through the summer, and 
sufficient perfect insects survive the winter to 
insure a full crop of them for the coming season. 

This tribe of insects do not seem liable to the 
attacks of any of the cannibal races, either in 
the egg state or at any other stage. Our birds 
pay no attention to them, neither will the do- 
mestic fowls touch them. I have, as yet^ found 
no way to get clear of them, but to pick them 
oft* by hand. 

It appeal's from this statement that there are 
at least two broods of the species every year, 
the first hatching out in April and the second 
in July; and as it is said that only 16 or 18 days 



elapse from the deposition of the egg to the 
mature development of the perfect bug, it is not 
improbable that the species is in reality many- 
brooded. The eggs, of which we have speci- 
mens now before us, are about 0.03 inch in 
diameter, barrel-shaped, and of a greenish-white 
color with two broad black bands encircling the 
staves of the baiTel so as to look exactly like 
hoops. To afford a passage to the young larva, 
one of the heads of the barrel — the one, of course, 
that is not glued to the surface of the leaf — ^is 
detached by the beak of the little stranger as 
neatly and as smoothly as if a skillful cooper 
had been at work on it with his hammier and 
driver. And yet, instead of employing years in 
acquiring the necessary skill, the mechanic that 
performs this delicate operation with unerring 
precision, is actually not as yet born into this 
sublunary world I 

Hitherto it had been generally snpposed by 
entomologists that the Harlequin Cabbage-bug 
was confined to the most southerly of the Sonth- 
ei*n States, such as Texas and Louisiana; and 
it had consequently been called by some '' the 
Texan Cabbage-bug," instead of translating the 
scientific name and calling it, as we have done, 
'Uhe Harlequin Cabbage-bug." In September, 
1867, however, we received numerous living 
specimens from Dr. Summerer, of Salisbury, in 
North Carolina ; and from his account it seems 
to be as great a pest in the gardens of that State 
as Dr. Lincecum describes it to be in Texas. 
Hence the species is most probaby to be met 
with, in particular localities and in particular 
seasons, throughout the Southern States, at 
least as far north as Tennessee and Arkansas ; 
and we should not be surprised if a few spe- 
cimens were eventually to turn up in Southern 
Illinois, and in Southern Missoun. 

It is said that no criminal among the human 
race is so vile and depraved, that not one single 
redeeming feature can be discovered in his char- 
acter. It is just so with this insect. Unlike the 
great majority of the extensive group (SctUel- 
lera Family, Oi*der of Half-winged Bugs) to 
which it belongs, it has no unsavory bedbnggy 
smell, but on the contrary exhales a faint odor 
which is rather pleasant than otherwise. TVe 
have already referred to the beauty of its color- 
ing. As offsets, therefore, to its greediness and 
its thievery, we have, first the fact of its being 
agreeable to the nose, and secondly the fact of 
its being agreeable to the eye. Are there not 
certain demons in the gai*b of angels, occasion- 
ally to be met with among the human species, 
in favor of whom no stronger arguments than 
the above can possibly be urged? 



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TOE DROP-WORM AOAIX. 

Dear Sir: — I read your account of i he Drop- 
worm {Thyridopieryx ephemercbformis) with a 
great deal of iuterest, which iu ihc maiu cor- 
responds with my own experience, but I here 
are Bome facts, in connection with ihis insect, 
which eeem to have escaped your observation, 
or which differ in some measure from mine. I 
commenced my observations in 1849, nnd con- 
tinned them for two or three year?*. A large 
linden tree grew near the window of the room 
in which my observations were made, some of 
the branches reaching quite to the window-sill, 
and this tree must have had some thousands of 
this insect upon it. In this situation, the young 
insects came forth from the follicle, from the 
2*>th to the 30th of May, each one letting itself 
down by a separate minute silken cable, and they 
formed their first cone-shaped cases out of the 
epidermis of the bark on the branches. Those 
that were excluded iu my room, formed Ihem 
ont of lime on the walls, leather on the backs of 
some of my books, and straw-matting on the 
floor. Some of the females, that were not im- 
pr^nated by the males, did leave the follicle 
entirely J without ovipositing, and had a feeble 
power of locomotion, on a plain horizontal sur- 
face, moving two or three inches during the 
coarse of half a day. This was done by elonga- 
tions and contractions of the body, maggot-like, 
but less active. Immediately when the males 
evolve from the pupa, in a state of natui-c, their 
wings are not glassy, except a very small por- 
tion near tlie outer margin. They are opaque, 
being covered with a dark coating of the mealy 
substance which distinguishes the Lepidoptera, 
but they soon become transparent, by the action 
of flight. Those that evolved iu confinement 
were nearly always glassy, especially after they 
had attempted to make their escape. The late 
Major LeConte confirmed this observation of 
mine by his own experience. Again, have you 
ever witnessed the male in the act of impreg- 
nating the female? I have, in at least twenty 
instances, and in no case, immediately, after ho 
withdrew his abdomen from the follicle of the 
female, did her body protrude from the pupa- 
Hum. It had the T-shaped opening on the top 
of the thorax, but the entire body of the female 
remained within it. The act of protrusion was 
always simultaneous with the act of ovi posi- 
tion. In fecundating the female, the male in- 
troduces his abdomen into the opening at the 
lower end of the sack, as far as his wings will 
admit it, and he remains thus from fifteen to 
twenty minutes. It is true that the abdomen 



of the male is capable of a great elongation, but 
by stretching it artificially to its utmost exten- 
sion, I never, by measurement, could reach any 
way near the anal extremity of the female, which 
you know is, at this time, at the opposite end 
of the sack, and which, according to your quo- 
tation from Harris, would be utterly impossible, 
unless there existed a long thread-like sexual 
organ— fully the length of the whole extended 
body — sufficiently attenuated to pass between 
the body of the female and her pupa skin. I 
have never discovered such an organ, although 
I am not prepared to say positively that it, or 
something analagous to it, does not exist. My 
impression is, that it is not absolutely necessary. 
The female is so exceedingly simple in her 
structure, that fertilization is made possible by 
the mere ** overshadowing influence" of the 
male, made at the only vulnerable point of con- 
tact, which is through the T-shaped opening on 
the thorax. I have had the denuded females and 
the males boxed up together, but there seemed 
to be no recognition between them, but as soon 
as I introduced the follicle of an unimpregnated 
female, a male would discover it, and couple 
with it almost immediately. 

I published a long paper, containing my ob- 
servations on this insect, in the Fenna, Farm 
Journal in 1853 or 4, calling the attention of the 
people to it, and suggested the simple remedy 
you did. Some five or six years afterwards it 
was republished in the Farmer and Gardener, 
and subsequently also in a weekly paper in this 
city, but it appears to me that the people don't 
read, or immediately forget what tliey read, for 
some seasons the insect becomes still very de- 
structive, and they ** don't know what to do 
about it." S. S. Katiivon. 

Lancaster, Pa., Dec. 1, 1809. 



THE HATEFUL, OR COLORADO GRASSHOPPER. 

{Caloptenu$ upretugf Ubler and Walsh.) 
C. V. Riley— i>ear Sir: J^ summary of my 
investigations in regard to the Hateful, or Rocky 
Mountain Grasshopper (Caloptenus spreius), 
during my recent trip through Colorado and 
New Mexico, may be interesting. But you are 
aware that it takes several years to study 
thoroughly the habits of any insect, especially 
of one as widely distributed and variable in its 
habits as this grasshopper. 

I will first give the /ac^« which came under 
my own observation. But to do this with any 
degree of completeness, I shall Y ave to i*epeat a 
portion of what is already written in my ** Notes 
on the Agriculture of Colorado." 



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Jane 17, 1869, 1 met with (hem at St. Joseph, 
Mo., in the perfect state, where they were suf- 
ficiently numerous, even in the city, to darken 
the walls of the hotel at which we stopped. We 
arrived very early in the morning, and then 
they appeared to be somewhat torpid ; yet when 
those in the grass were disturbed by the hogs, 
which were feeding upon them, tJiey hopped 
about quite briskly. Swarms of them, as I was 
informed, had been flying over that section for 
a week previous to our arrival. Here, as at 
most points were I found them, I gathered spe- 
cimens. Considerable rain, as you remember, 
had fallen during the previous month, the sea- 
son being unusually wet. 

I saw none at Omaha next day, but as 
I had no time to look for them, I cannot 
state positively as to their presence at this 
point. 

At Cheyenne (June 20-29) I saw the laiT8B 
and pupae in considerable numbers, but after 
search of several days succeeded in finding two 
or three in a perfect state. 

At Laporte, on Cache-a-la-Poudre (July 1-2), 
I saw very few, although I searched carefully 
both the bottoms and ridges. Yet next day, 
on Big Thompson creek (twenty miles soutl ), 
I found them somewhat numerous, in the per- 
fect state, apparently fresh from the last moult- 
ing. From this point to Clear Creek but few 
were observed. At the latter point (July 7-14), 
they were in moderate numbers, undergoing 
their last moulting. The earJy oats here had 
suffered from the attacks of grasshoppers, but I 
am satisfied this could not be attributed wholly 
to any one species, as several were about equally 
numerous. 

From Denver we moved westward into the 
mountains (July 15-27), where I found the 
narrow valleys and canons — after ve had passed 
the first range — swarming with them in the 
perfect state. Often, when the wind blew 
moderately, they filled the air, looking like 
large flakes of snow. I traced them not only 
along the canons as far west as Berthoud Pass, 
but up the mountain rim of Middle Park to its 
crest, above the perennial snows that fringed its 
summit. Here, too, I found them quite active 
on the 9unny and windward side of the crest 
where it was bare. And strange as it may 
appear, on the top of one of the highest peaks 
in the vicinity of the Pass I saw a pupa quite 
active. Also on the surface of the snow I pro- 
cured specimens of the pei'fect insect alive, 
though benumbed with cold. I was informed 
by a gentleman who crossed the range a little 
farther south a few days previously, that as he 



was coming over, he saw a bear and cub on the 
snow eating grasshoppers. 

During our journey southward from Denver 
to Santa Fe (Aug. 6— Sept. 7), I observed this 
species in limited numbers at vanous points 
along our route, which was near the base of the 
mountain, but not in greater abundance than 
other species. There were also sections of con- 
siderable extent where none were seen, other 
species replacing them. For example, on the 
plains bordering the Arkansas, the unwieldy 
Bracki/pepltts magnus, Girard,* was often the 
most abundant species. 

On the more elevated plateaus, or mesas, other 
smaller and more active species were found most 
numerous. 

One or two large areas of dry parched land 
I found almost entirely free from grasshoppers. 

I noticed that where Artemisia or Obione 
chiefly covered the gi'ound, as is often the case, 
the Hateful Grasshopper wac seldom seen. But 
in such spots, from Canon City south, another 
small gi-een species is found in abundance. 

lieturning north from Santa Fe by way of 
Taos and through St. Luis valley and South 
Park (Sept. 14-30), I saw occasional individuals 
throughout the whole distance, yet at no point 
was this species (C sprelus) numerous. 

Perhaps I ought to remark in this connection, 
that the Oedipoda corallipes, Hald., was found 
at a few points, viz., in moderate numbers about 
Cheyenne ; a few on the ** Divide " between the 
South Platte and Arkansas ; and on each side 
of the Raton Mountains. 

The statements received from citizens along 
our route in regard to the habits and history of 
the ** Hateful Grasshopper" were so indefinite 
that but little knowledge was gained thereby. 
These statements were doubtless coiTect and 
and honestly made, but failing to distinguish 
sharply between species, and as to dates, etc., 
were of so general a character that they added 
but little to what was already known. The 
articles of Messrs. Bycrs and Devinny in the 
Entomologist of January, 1869, contain the 
substance qf all 1 thus received. 

I am not acquainted with Mr. Devinny, but 
Mr. Byers, the able Senior of the Colorado 
News J and one of the proprietors of the 
noted Hot Springs of Middle Park, is undoubt- 
edly well posted in regard to the history and 
habits of this insect in that section. Yet while 



•The ffi'een variety or species (B. rfrctcerw, (Tharp.) and 
the redaish-brown (B. magnus) were found together. I say 
** variety," because 1 am inclined to think they belong to 
the same species. I doubt very much whether any difference 
will be found between the alcoholic specimens. It is po6« 
sible that the Mexican insect of Charpentier differs from this 
green variety. 



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83 



I agree with him in regard to the facts, I must 
demnr to some of the conclueione he draws 
therefrom, in his article on page 94 of your first 
volume. 

"The greater the heat the more they flourish," 
18 true with most grasshoppers. And as a gen- 
eral thing the drier the season the more abund- 
ant will the troublesome species become. My 
information accords with Mr. Byers' statement 
that the greatest injury is done by the broods 
hatched on the plafn?. It seems to be a general 
undci^tanding in that section that when a heavy 
fall swarm comes down from the mountains, 
the next spring brood will be numerous and 
destructive. But the inference he draws from 
this fact, to-wit, that its native home is not in 
the canons of the Uocky Mountains, but the hot 
parched plains and table lands, is not legiti- 
mate. 

1. As shown from facts stated in his own ar- 
tick. It is not likely that an insect whose native 
breeding place is the hot parched plain, would 
often be seen flying across the cold snowy peaks 
around Middle Piirk, a hundred miles distant 
from the nearest western plain of this character. 
It is al-o strange that the worst visitation of an 
insect, native to the hot parched plains in the 
latitude of Denver, should come from the val- 
leys of the Upper Missouri, six or eight hundred 
miles farther north, along the Rocky Mountain 
range. It is apparent that Mr. Byers' theory 
will not agree wilh his facts. 

2. As shown by rny own observations. The 
present year (1869), as will be admitted by all 
observers, was not a migratory season with them 
in Eastern Colorado, hence they would be seen 
in their normal condition, or nearly so.* By 
reference to my notes as given above, it will be 
seen that while they appeared in comparatively 
femall numbers on the plains, they were abun- 
dant and active in the mountain canons. 

I camped in the valley immediately cast of 
the snowy lim of the Middle Park, near Ber- 
thoadPass, for six days (July 21-27). This is 
a narrow valley with a snow-capped range on 
each side; the bottom, as marked near the mar- 
gin of the clear cold creek, nine thousand five 
hnndred feet above the level of the sea. Here 
day after day I watched these insects rising and 
filling the air like flakes of snow in a winter 
storm. Turning their heads against the wind 
as they arose, they were borne backwards by 
the wind, which seemed to be their only method 
of making long flights. Hence I think Mr. 

•I iiseame as granted that the enormous development of 
*nT specie* of insect, as the 3ligratory Locust, Army Worm, 
He., arc al>errations from their normal condition, «uperiu- 
<lacedby a combination of favorable influences. 



Byers is correct in saying that " their coarse is 
directed by the prevailing winds more than by 
any other influence." And as he says, each in- 
dividual seemed to move on its own account 
and not in concert, the atmospheric and other 
influences inducing them to rise at the same 
time. The strokes of their wings, together with 
the wind — when not too strong — has a tendency 
to carry them upwards. Rising to the tops of 
the ranges with the local current, here they 
enter into the upper current, which, moving 
generally in an easterly direction, carries them 
over on the plains. If the upper current is 
strong and cold it has a tendency to chill them, 
and if they pass close to the summit as they go 
over the range, the flexure of the upper portion 
dashes many of them on the snow which is 
found in such places. "Whether the heavier 
atmosphere on the low plains enables them to 
direct their course or not, is perhaps, a matter 
yet undetermined. 

The pupa which I saw on the crest of the 
range, and about irhich I am not mistaken, (I 
think I saw others), shows that they hatch out 
at great heights. Numbers both'of larvsB and 
pupae were seen on the mountain side. I traced 
this species up the self-same rim, of which Mr. 
Byers speaks, step by step to the snow, decreas- 
ing in numbers, of course, as I ascended, but 
active to its very margin, and even above it on 
the crest, and that there might be no mistake I 
gathered specimens. I also searched carefully 
for other species, but found very few specimens, 
and these low down in the valley; though 
on the ridges around the Boiling Spnngs, near 
Colorado City, I found another species more 
abundant than the sprttus. This latter species 
I found in but few places, and always on 
elevated points, and when it was present the 
spretus was absent or very scarce. 

I will call attention here to a remark made by 
Say which bears on the subject and con Arms 
the statement in regard to broods hatched ex- 
terior to the mountains. It is found in his 
report of Hemipterous Insects collected during 
Maj. Long's Expedition, under Gryllus bivit- 
tatus (Ent. Le C. II., 238). *-This species, 
with several others, occurred in great numbei*s 
near the mountains, and on one occasion we 
observed this species, with several others, 
ascending to a great height in the air as if to 
commence a migration to a remote region." 

I am clearly of the opinion that the native 
abode and breeding place of this insect is in the 
mountain valleys and canons, and that in Colo- 
rado the direction of its flight is governed by the 
wind. It is also certain that those seen at St, 



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Joseph June 17, did not come from the moun- 
tains or even from Colorado. The various states 
of advancemet in growth at difTei-ent points 
without regard to latitude, elevation, or climate, 
show that the broods are local, or were local 
the present year. Their invasions of the coun- 
try east of the Rocky Mountains, as given in 
the December (1868) number of the Am, En- 
tomologist, 1820, 1856, 1857, 1864, 1866, 1867, 
and 1868 (Taylor, Smithsn. Rep. 1858 adds 
1855), show that they are not governed by any 
regular periodic habit or influence. Observa- 
tion shows that ordinarily their habits on the 
plains are very similar to those of the Red- 
legged Grasshopper (C femiir-j'ubrum, De 
Geer). I am inclined to the opinion that damp 
seasons are unfavorable to their developm<»nt 
(but I will not take time at present to give my 
reasons for this opinion). 

Do they cross the plains from the mountaitis 
in one season? Or, does the same swarm travel 
this distance? I cannot answer positively. No ; 
yet I am of the opinion that they do not. But it 
may be asked, " Upon what do you base this 
opinion?'' 1. The opinion of those in Colorado 
with whom I conversed on the subject (yet it is 
but an opinion) is that no one brood travels 
more tlian thirty to fifty miles. 2. The distance 
is so great that it raises the presumption they 
do not, which must be rebutted by some proof, 
which, so far as I am aware has not been fur- 
nished — unless their appearance in Kansas from 
the west be taken as such proof. 3. As they 
depend upon the wind — near the mountains — 
to carry them, it is very likely they depend upon 
it on the plains. And as they are really battling 
against the wind during the flight, their progress 
is somewhat slow. Hence it would require a 
long-continued series of favorable winds to 
bear them so great a distance. (Be it remem- 
bered I have seen them flying only in the moun- 
tains, and on the plains near the base of the 
mountains). 4. If they alight on the plains, as 
they often do in the mountains when the wind 
suddenly ceases blowing, coming down like a 
pebble, their wings would be worn out by the 
cacti and rough plants, long ere they had 
traveled five hundred miles. 5. The swarms 
which come from the mountains to the plains 
near the base certainly do not proceed far east- 
ward. What reason then have we for believ- 
ing the next brood arising from their eggs will 
enter upon so long a journey? 

But this matter cannot be settled until more 
facts have been obtained. 

There appear to be several varieties, varying 
from a straw-color to a dark bi*assy or greenish- 



brown, the head and sides of the thorax often 
almost black, yet I'etaining all the other mark- 
ings. Age appears to deepen the color. 

Yours, etc., truly, C. Thomas. 

DeSoto, IU« 

• ♦ • 

AN ENT0M0L0UI8T CAUGHT NAPPING. 

Americans, most of them having been raise 
in a timbei*ed country, naturally consider Uiat 
he normal condition of the earth is to be cov 
ered by forests of trees. Hence we can scarcely 
take up a scientific journal, without finding 
some ingenious new theory to account for the 
existence of our western prairies. These phi- 
losophers forget that, in the interior of Austra- 
lia, on the Pampas of South America, and in the 
great African Sahara, you may travel for thou- 
sands of miles without seeing a single ti-ee; and 
that it is no more the nonnal condition of the 
eai*th to be covered by a dense gi-owth of woody 
plants, than it is to be covered by a dense growtli 
of herbaceous i)henogamous plants, or a thick 
carpet of lichens and mosses. To eveiy soil and 
climate a peculiar vegetation is appropriated; 
and it is as ridiculous to say that trees arc the 
natural and normal growth of the whole surface 
of the earth, as it is to maintain that twelve is 
the normal and natunil number of a juiy. 

•It is amusing to see how men who live in a 
gi*ass countiy hold precisely the contrary 
doctrine to that held by those who have 
been reared in a timber country. *^ Grass 
especially," says the English entomologist, 
John Curtis, **is the natural cx)VEKing of 
THE SOIL, which has been increasing in depth 
and bulk from the creation." (Farm Insects, 
p. 498). If Curtis had not been better in- 
formed in entomology than he seems to be in 
botany, his works would not find so many i-ead- 
ers as they do. Entomologists and other special- 
ists will generally find it the safest course not to 
meddle with subjects that they do not under- 
stand. ** Let not the cobbler go beyond his last." 

THE PROGRESS OP THE POTATO BUG. 

An interesting account of the Colorado Potato 
Bug {Doryphora lO-lineata, Say), is given in 
some of the former numbers of the American 
Entomologist. It states that, starting east- 
ward from the Rocky Mountains in 1859, this 
insect had already in 18G8 reached the south- 
west corner of Michigan, and Danville in Indi- 
ana, about the centre of that State ; making its 
average annual progress about sixty-two miles. 
Another writer says that " the southern columns 
of the grand army lagged far behind the north- 



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era columns." Last summer (1868), to ray own 
knowledge, it had reached the sonth shore of 
Lake Superior, northwest corner of Michigan, 
where it abundantly manifested its presence in 
its asual destructive attacks on the potato. I 
have since learned that between the Potato Bug 
and the drouth of the early part of the season, 
the crop was well nigh ruined in that region. I 
shall not easily forget the appearance of one 
potato field I witnessed, on the lake shore, in 
northeastern Wisconsin, which was nearly cov- 
ered with those pests in both the larva and per- 
fect states. The lazy Indians, to whom it 
belonged, idly loujiging in the sun, and proba- 
bly ignorant of the noxious character of the 
insect, made not the slightest eflbrt to stay the 
work of destimction. 

Its march this summer (1869) through Mich- 
igan has been duly recorded, though, owing to 
various causes, not attended with the dire con- 
sequences anticipated, as the price of potatoes 
in Detroit would go to show, they selling here, 
last fall, at from thirty-five to forty cents per 
bushel. Uenrv Gii.lman. 

DcTKOiT, Michigan. 

A80-CALLED '• VULOAR ERROR' NO ERROR AT ALL. 

It is the common belief among farmers that 
barberry bushes sometimes cause rust in wheat ; 
and not long ago there was a very serious riot 
ill a certain county in Iowa, because one of the 
citizens persisted in growing barberries, to the 
great detriment, as was insisted on, of his 
neighbors' wheat crops. The above belief is 
referred to in the following extract from the 
Proceedings of the i^. T. Farmers' Club, Sept. 
Uth,1869: 

Influence of Certain Trees on Crops.— E, 
B. Seelyc, Hudson, Mich., says, in his opinion, 
rust in wheat is produced by the barljen'y bush. 

Dr. Trimble — This is an old tradition that I 
have heard from a boy, but there is no founda- 
tion for the belief. Kiist is produced by another 
class of causes. 

8. Edwards Todd — I am of the same opinion, 
bat I know there are hundreds of farmers who 
have a prejudice against the barbeny on this 
account, fiut I have seen the finest crops of 
wheat growing close beside the bush spoken of. 

It would seem, however, although the belief 
that barberry often causes a pai*ticular kind of 
rust on wheat has been for the last century very 
generally ridiculed by naturalists as a popular 
superstition, that for this once the naturalists 
are in the wrong and the poor despised and 
vilified farmers are in the right. Here is what 
r>r. Liitken of Copenhagen, Sweden, says upon 
this vexed question in the American Naturalist 
for December, 1868, (page 567) : 



Professor (Ersted continues his curious ex- 
periments, demonstrating that certain fungi, 
parasitic on different species of plants, and 
described as distinct genera and s])ecic8, are in 
reality only the alternate generations of one spe- 
cies, ♦ * * Yon will remember that the specific 
identity o( Puccinia fp*amin is a.nd Oidium be)- 
beridis was in the like manner demonstrated 
some years ago through the almost contempo- 
rary experiments of De Bary and CEii^tcd ; thus 
confirming the opinion for a long time fostered 
by farmers, but rejected as super-^titions by 
most naturalists (Sir Joseph Banks excepted), 
on the obnoxious influence of ihc Barberry on 
the grain-fields. 

** Bully for the farmers," we say! Scicntitic 
men are sometimes a little too apt to despise 
the observations of plain practical men as ** un- 
reliable and worthless." See for example Dr. 
Shimer's fling at the diflferent State Entomol- 
ogists for relying on the statements of mere 
** correspondents."* Now here, as it turns out, 
we have a clear case where the farmers are in 
the right and almost every naturalist has been 
in the wrong. Let us then humbly and meekly 
** confess the corn/ Probabh , if the farinei s 
would use the pen as often as they use the 
plough, we should have plenty more such cases. 

But we fear that we are ** stealing the thun- 
der" of the Illinois State Ilorliculturist by 
talking so long on the great mysterious Fungus 
Question. We shall, therefore, leave this mat- 
ter for his final decision, in the hope that he will 
take care to give the farmers ** a fair shake." 

•Trans, N. Ill Hort, Soc. 1867-8, p. 101. 

POISONOUS QUALITIES* OF THE COLORADO PO- 
TATO BUG. 

As corroborative testimony of the poisonous 
character of the Colorado Potato Bug (Z>. 10- 
lineata. Say), we quote the following from the 
Spring Valley (Minn.) correspondence of the 
Winona liepublican : 

A number of cases of poisoning from the 
loathsome potato bug have recently occurred in 
this vicinity, which I think are deserving of at- 
tention. As many persons are in the habit of 
killing these bugs by mashing thern with sticks, 
and sometimes even between their fingers, I 
will cite one particularly severe case, which, it is 
hoped, will serve as a warning to those who 
take either of the above " mashing" methods to 
rid themselves of these disgusting potato des- 
troyers. 

Mr. Calvin Huntley, residing about Ihne 
miles south of the village, has spent consider- 
able time during the past two weeks in his po- 
tato patch, killing the bugs that intesttlie vines, 
by mashing them between two flat sticks. One 
evening about a week since, he accidentally got 
some of the blood or juice upon his wrist. 
Thinking no harm would result therefrom, lie 
paid no attention to *it. On rising the next 
morning he experienced an itching sensation on 



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and abont the wnst, which had become swollen, 
and presented an inflamed appearance, extend- 
ing along the cords of the arm to the shoulder 
blade, beneath which a hard kernel had formed, 
in size nearly as large as a common hickory nut. 
The inflammation rapidly increased, and upon 
the particular spot where he had noticed the 
blood, there is a very painful sore, which looks 
as if it had been caused by the application of 
some rank poisonous substance. A hole has 
been eaten in the wrist, which is now quite 
deep, and is fast making its way to the bone. 
The whole arm is badly swollen and inflamed, 
and Mr. H. has placed himself under the charge 
of Dr. J. E. Whitman, of this place, who is en- 
deavoring to counteract the poison communi- 
cated to the system of the patient from the blood 
of the potato bug. 

It has long been admitted that the potato bug 
is a poisonous insect, but I apprehend the case 
of Mr. Huntley will tend to make all under 
whose observation this article may fall, still 
more caieful how they handle them in the fu- 
ture. There are a number of others here whose 
blood has become poisoned in the same manner, 
causing pimples to appear on the skin, which, 
however, are conflned to the hands, and are not 
seen on any other part of the body. 

Potato bugs can be killed with less trouble 
and danger, oy sprinkling the vines lightly with 
Paris green, which is also a deadly poison'. This 
is the most effectual means yet discovered of 
disposing of the potato bug, which has destroyed 
so many crops in the countiy. The eggs that 
have accumulated upon the vines will not hatch 
after an application of Pans green. Let those 
of our reaaei*s who are trying to raise potatoes 
try this plan, if they wish to realize anything 
from their ground and labor. 

We have lately received a copy of an essay 
read before the Cook County (III.) IIomoaDpathic 
Society, by Dr. E. M. Hale, in which many 
other authentic cases are given, of persons being 
poisoned by this insect. 



OP WHAT USE IS ENTOMOLOGY ? 

The subjoined extract is from a recent num- 
ber of the Canada Farmer: 

Not many years ago this was the question very 
commonly addressed to Entomologists and col- 
lectors of insects by those who chanced to find 
tliem engaged in theii favorite pursuit; and even 
now there are not a few who look upon the study 
as a mere wast« of time, or at best a harmless 
amusement. But — to use a favorite expression 
of the day — "public opinion is being educated 
up to a higher appreciation" of the importance 
of inseets to our welfare and comfort, and that 
too by the hitherto despised insects themselves. 
For what farmer can now think insects too in- 
significant to be worthy of notice, when he finds 
that one of the tiniest of them ruins his wheat- 
fields and robs him of hundreds and thousands 
of dollars ? What gardener but must confess 
that it is high time he knew something about 
insects, when his currant and gooseberry bushes 
are leafless and fruitless, his plum-trees a per- 



fect failure, his peaches nowhere, his cabbages 
no sooner planted than cut off*, his ^rape-vines 
desolated with myriads of foes — in lact, almost 
everything that he grows attacked, root, branch, 
leaf and trunk ? What orchardist but must ac- 
knowledge the power and restless activity of 
the borer in the trunks of his young trees, the 
caterpillars on the leaves, the bark-lice on trunk 
and branches, the worms in the very core of the 
fruit itself? What hop-grower but feels him- 
self by sad experience utterly at the mercy of 
the aphis and green caterpillar? What furrier 
but loathes the Dennestes and other beetle larvte ? 
What timber-merchant but has had to race with 
the pine-borer for the coveted fire-scorched track 
of the forest? What butcher but groans and 
perspires, even in chilly December, at the very 
thought of the blow-fly? What housewife but 
has been half-stifled with camphor and pepper 
in warding otf the clothes-moth from her treas- 
ured store? What — but we need uotgo on with 
the list, for who is there that has no complaint 
to make of trouble, loss, or annoyance occa- 
sioned by these tiny but omnipresent foes? 
Can then a study be pronounced useless or con- 
temptible, which has for its object the acquire- 
ment of accurate knowledge of the life and habits 
of all these myriad foes, and not only of them, 
but also of the thousands of useful insects be- 
sides? Until this accurate knowledge be ob- 
tained, we fight in the dark, and caimot tell 
friend from foe, but are just as likely to destroy 
our most useful ally as our most destructive en- 
emy ; and unless we are thoroughly acquainted 
with the life and habits of these pests we can- 
not apply a remedy with any certainty as to it« 
value or success. 



A NEW INSECTICIDE. 



M. Cloez, who is engaged at the garden of 
the Paris Museum — the world-renowned Jardin 
des Plantes — has invented what he considers a 
complete annihilator for plant-lice and other 
small insects. This discovery is given in the 
Eevue Horticole, with the endorsement of its 
distinguished editor, E. A. Carriere. To re- 
duce M. Cloez's preparation to our measures, 
it wiU be sufficiently accurate to say, take three 
and one-half ounces of quassia chips, and five 
drachms Stavesacre seeds, powdered. These 
are to be put in seven pints of water and boiled 
until reduced to five pints. AVhen the liquid is 
cooled, strain it, and use with a watering pot 
or syringe, as may be most convenient. We 
are assured that this preparation has been most 
efficacious in France, and it will be worthwhile 
for our gardeners to experiment with it. Quas- 
sia has long been used as an insect-destroyer. 
The Stavesacre seeds are the seeds of a species 
of Larkspur, or Delphinium^ and used to be 
kept in the old drag stores. Years ago they 
were much used for an insect that found its 
home in the human head, but as that has fortu- 
nately gone out of fashion, it may be that the 
seeds are less obtainable than formerly. The 
Stavesacre seeds contain Delphine, which is one 
of the most active poisons known, and we have 
no doubt that a very small share of it would 
prove fatal to insects. — American Agriculturist, 



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87 



ENTOMOLOGICAL JOTTINGS. 

[We propose to publish from time to time, under 
the above heading, such extracts from the letters of our 
correspondents as contain entomological facts worthy 
to be recorded, on account either of their scientific or 
of their practical importance. We hope our readers 
will contribute each their several mites towards the gen- 
eral ftind, and in case they are not perfectly certain of 
the names of the insects, the peculiarities of which are 
to be mentioned, will send specimens along in order 
that each species may be duly identified.] 

The Handsome Digger Wasp as a Horse 
Guard — Clarksville, Texas, Aug* 10, 1869.— I 
send you a large solitary wasp which is called 

[Figr 57] 




Colors—Black and Cream- color. 

hero the " Horse-Guard." They are true to 
name, for they play around horses and cattle, 
and catch the horse-flies, which they take to 
their burrows to feed their young. I dug out 
a nest this afternoon which had five horse-flies 
and but one lai-va. A. H. R. Bryant. 

[The specimen sent was the Handsome Dig- 
ger Wasp {Stizus speciosusy Drnry), a figui-e of 
which we reproduce above (Fig. 57) . It is the 
habit of Digger wasps to deposit but one egg 
in each of their burrows. The species in ques- 
tion has long been known to provision its 
nest with Gi"asshoppers, but we believe that 
uo species of the genus (Stizus) has hith- 
erto been recorded as using Horse-flies for 
tills purpose. There is, however, a more com- 
mon genus of Digger Wasps (Bembex) which 
does provision its nest exclusively with Atheri- 
cerous Diptera (Horse-flies, etc.), and as some 
species of Bembex are marked much like the 
ilaudsome Digger Wasp, we have our suspi- 
cions that Mr. Bryant has confounded these 
insects, and has sent us one that was not really 
doing this Horse-guard business. At all events, 
we shall be glad to hear from Mr. B.. again on 
this subject, because in a scientific sense it is one 
of great importance. We have strong faith in 
what has been called the Unity of Habits in 
insects, and the only two N. A. species of Sti- 
zus, the habits of which are known (grandis and 
tptciosus) provision their nests with Harvest- 
flies {Cicada) and Grasshoppers.] 



A "Locust Year" for Tennessee — Savan- 
nahy Tenn., Dec, 2, 1869.— While digging in an 
Indian mound to-day I unearthed three Cicada 
pupaB. They were about nine inches below the 
surface, and each had for himself a neat little 
room about the size of a quail's egg. All were 
as perfect and as lively as if just ready to shed 
their coats. J. P. S. 

[Unless the pupae seen by our correspondent 
were those of some species which makes an an- 
nual appearance, we strongly suspect them to 
belong to that brood of the 13-year Cicada which 
is to appear in 1872. This is the Brood V. of 
the Am, Entomologist (see Vol. I, p. 68), but is 
equivalent to Brood VII. of our Missouri Ento- 
mological Report, where, on the authority of the 
late Dr. Smith, of Baltimore, Md., it is recorded 
in De Kalb, Gwinnett and Newton counties, 
Georgia, in 1846 and '59 ; in the northern part 
of Tennessee also, in 1846 and '59 ; in the whole 
eastern portion of Mississippi from the ridge 
which is forty-five miles from the river, on the 
west, to the eastern boundary, in 1820, '33, '46, 
and '59; in Carrol Parish, Louisiana, in 1859; 
and in Philips county, Kansas, in the same year. 
The growth of this insect is so very gradual that 
the pupae appear full grown for several years 
before they really issue from the ground. We 
dug up a number in the fall of 1808, in Union 
county. Ills., which evidently belonged to this 
same brood, and will not consequently issue 
from the ground till 1872 ; and yet they could 
then scarcely be distinguished from such as had 
been dug up in other parts of the State in the 
spring of the same year, iand which were just 
ready to transform. — Ed.] 

Parasftic Mites on the House-fly — Vine- 
land, N, J,, Oct. 22c?, 1869.— I found a House-fly 
the other day almost covered with minute red 
parasites. They were under the wings, on the 
abdomen and legs, and even in the cavity of the 
mouth. I put the fly in a box, where it soon 
died. I then introduced another fly, and after 
a few hours, on opening the box, I found that 
many of them had fastened themselves to this 
second fly. I could see them distinctly with the 
naked eye crawling about the box, as well as 
on the fly. Mrs. Mary Treat. 

The Tomato-worm— Ft ne/awd, N, J,, Sept, 
2Uh, 1869.— The other day I found a full-grown 
tomato- worm (Sphinx 5-maculata) feeding upon 
Ground <Jherry (Pht/salis viscosa); and last 
summer I found one feeding upon Matrimony- 
vine (Lycium barbarum). This makes at least 
five different plants belonging to this Family 
that I have found this larva feeding upon. 

Mrs. Mart Treat. 



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Rocky Mountain Grasshopper cannot live 
IN Pennsylvania — Lancaster, Pa, — Early last 
spring (about the beglniung of March) some- 
body sent me, through the mail, a small box of 
grasshopper's eggs, from Leavenworth, in Kan- 
sas. They were whitish, oblong, and arranged 
diagonally in oblong pellet-like masses, covered 
with a dark-colored glutinous substance. There 
were probably five hundred in all. Some of 
these eggs I put in a small box, and others 1 put 
in a jar, half full of moist earth, which I set, in a 
sortofcon8ervatory,amoiig some plants. Those in 
the box hatched out a week earlier than those on 
the moist earth, although the temperaure of the 
two places was about equal. Of course all those 
in the box starved for the want of food. About 
the middle of March they made their appearance 
in the form of a very active little black grass-hop- 
per, which I took to be the young of the Rocky 
Mountain Grasshopper {Caloptenm spretiis, 
Uhler). Those in the jar were carried to the 
garden along with the plants about the first of 
April, whore the jar was accidentally upset, and 
the little "hoppers," about one hundred and 
fifty in number, all made their escape. But 
they, too, must also have all perished, for with 
my utmost vigilance during the whole summer, 
I never got a sight of a single one of them 
again. 1 conclude, therefore, that our cli- 
mate is ** unwholesome" to the Rocky Moun- 
tain species, altliough the Red-legged species 
(C femur-inibimm, De Gcer) lives and flour- 
ishes here. 

S. S. R. 

Tomato Worm Parasites — Cinnaminson, ^. 
e/".. Sept, 27, '69. — There is a species of fly (par- 
asitic) that is attacking the Tomato-worm in 
our vicinity in immense numbei-s. As many as 
forty or fifty of their cocoons may be seen fas- 
tened to the body of a single worm. The cocoons 
ai*e about the size of a grain of wheat, and at- 
tached by their ends. \_Migrocaster cocoons, — 
Ed.] They appear to exhaust the vitality of the 
worm very much, some of them being entirely 
dried up, while others are so weakened that I 
doubt if they ever pass through their transform- 
ations. These worms are very destructive and 
nearl/ loiin our tomato patches. But now they 
may be seen by hundreds and thousands covered 
with these white cocoons. The fly is doing its 
work more efFectually than a person could do it, 
for one-half the worms cannot be found, owing 
to the resemblance they bear to the plant; but 
llie fly appears to have hunted them all out, 
comparatively few having escaped. 

Chas. Parry, 



The Gooseberry Span-worm attacks the 
Black Currant— CrcrfiY, C. F., Nov. 6, '69.— 
On page 13 of your current volume, it is stated 
as a remarkable fact that the three diffei-ent Cur- 
rant and Gooseberry-worms, all of them attack 
almost indiscriminately the Red Currant and 
the Gooseberry, while they are none of tliem 
ever found upon our cultivated Black Currant, 
or so far as is known, upon our wild Black Car- 
rant. In 1868 my Black Currant bushes were 
rather badly attacked by the Span-worm larvae 
{Ellopia ribearioiy Fitch), but the Saw-fly larvfe 
did not touch them. I noticed this fact in the 
Canada Farmer of July 1, ^(y%. These Span- 
worm larvae have been very injurious to the 
Buffalo or Sweet-flowering Currant (i?. aureum) 
in this neighborhood during the last lew yeai-s. 
Numbers of these bushes wei*e entirely denuded 
of their foliage. They too were exempt from 
the attacks of the Saw-fly, though it ravaged 
Red and White Currant and Grooseberry bashes 
just alongside. I may mention that I have oft jn 
found larvae of the Span-worm upon v^ild Goose- 
berry and Carrant bushes in the woods, without 
however noticing the particular species of Goose- 
berry or Currant. C. J. S. Bethune. 

Grape-berry Moth — Shiloh, Ills,, Sept. 29, 
1869. — The Grape-berry worm is more numer- 
ous than ever. I have heretofore been in the 
habit of permitting my grapes to remain on 
the vines, until they had attained their utmost 
maturity; but I find that with this practice 
many of the worms escape/whilst if I gathered 
my grapes two weeks sooner, I should get most 
of the worms into the wine-press, and prevent 
them from propagating. As it is, I have the 
berries that drop olf the bunches picked from 
the ground with a great deal of labor, but find 
it impossible to have them all secured. I appre- 
hend too, tliat when I commence my late vin- 
tage many worms have already left the berries 
to change to pupae. An earlier vintage will 
give me an inferior wine, but a much larger 
quantity, and will enable me to destroy most of 
the worms. Adolph Engelmann. 

Polyphemus Moth — Vineland, y, »/., Aug. 
25th, 18G9. — The last week in July a fine large 
larva of the Polyphemus moth wound up, and 
on the I'lth day of August a splendid moth 
came forth from the cocoon. It fed and wound 
up in the open air, and only the day before it 
came out I cut the twig to which the cocoon 
was attached and brought it in, thinking that 
the pupa would remain as usual until next sum- 
mer, before its final development. 

Mrs. Mary Treat. 



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89 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE-VINE-No. 4. 

The Satellite Sphinx. 
{PhUampelut satellttia, Linn.*) 
Like the Achemon Sphinx, figui-ed and des- 
cribed in our last number, this insect occurs in 
almost every State in the Union. It also bears 
a strong resemblance to the former species, and 
likewise feeds upon the Ampelopsis as well as 
npon the Grape-vine ; but the worm may readily 
be distinguished by having fiyQ cream-colored 
spots each side, instead of six, and by the spots 
themselves being less scolloped. 

[Fig. 68.] 




lolorji— (a and h) cream-color and reddish-brown; (c) pale- 
green and pink . 

In the latitude of St. Louis, this worm is 
foand full grown throughout the laonth of Sep- 
tember, and a few specimens may even be found 
.as late as the last of October. The eggs of this 
species, as of ail other Hawk-moths (Sphinx 
family) known to us, are glued singly to the 
leaf of the plant which is to furnish the future 

'The synonyms tot this insect arc Sphinx lycaon, Cr:i- 
OKf; Pholtu lycaon, Iliiebncr, and DaphnipandonUf Uiieb- 
^^. We adopt Harris's nomenclature lor reasons already 
laren in a former number. Mr. A. lirote (Proc. Knt. Soc 
rhil, I, p. fiO), believes that the Sphinx lucaon of the au- 
tiiorg above quoted, is distinct from S. iatellitia, Linn., and 
would £ain * * eliminate ' * a third species I potticattu) . For 
wasons which it would be tedious to give here, we prefer to 
Kgvd lycaon as a variety of tatellitia. 



worm with food. When first hatched, and for 
some time afterwards, the larva is green, with 
a tinge of pink along the sides, and with an im- 
mensely long straight pink horn at the tail. 
This horn soon begins to shorten, and finally 
curls round like a dog^s tail, as at Figure 58 c. 
As the wonn grows older it changes to a red- 
dish-brown, and by the third moult it entirely 
loses the caudal horn. 

When full grown, it measures nearly four 
inches in length, and when crawling appears as 
at Figure 58 a. It crawls by a series of sudden 
jerks, and will often fling its head savagely 
from side to side when alarmed. Dr. Morns* 
describes the mature larva as being green, with 
six side patches ; but though we have happened 
across many specimens of this worm during the 
last seven years, we never once found one that 
was green after the third moult ; nor do we be- 
lieve that there are ever any more than five full- 
sized yellow spots each side, even in the young 
individuals. The specimen from which our 
figure was made, occurred in 1867, at Hermann, 
Missouri, in Mr. George Husmann's vineyard. 
The back was pinkish, inclining to flesh-color; 
the sides gradually became darker and darker, 
and the five patches on segments 6 — 10 inclu- 
sive, were cream-yellow with a black annula- 
tion, and shaped as in our figure. On segments 
2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, were numerous small black dots, 
but on each of the following five segments there 
were but two such dots. A pale longitudinal 
line ran above the yellow patches, and the head 
and first joint were uniformly dull reddish- 
brown. 

The most common general color of the full 
grown worm is a rich velvety vinous-brown. 
AVhen at rest, it draws back the fore part of the 
body, and retracts the head and first two joints 
into the third (see Fig. 58 b), and in this mo- 
tionless position it no doubt manages to escape 
from the clutches of many a hungry insectivo- 
rous bird. Dr. Morris, copying perhaps after 
Harris, erroneously states that the three ante- 
rior joints, together with the head, are retracted 
into the fourth, and Mr. J. A. Lintnerf makes 
the same false assertion. It is the third seg- 
ment in this species, as well as in the Achemon 
Sphinx, which is so much swollen, and into 
which the head and first two segments are i*o- 
tracted. 

When about to transform, the larva of our 
Satellite Sphinx enters a short distance into the 
giound, and soon works off* its caterpillar-skin 
and becomes a chrysalis of a deep chestnut- 

• Synopsis of N. A. Lepidoptera^ p. 177. 
tProc. Ent. Soc. PhU., III., p. 659. 



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brown, and very much of the same form as that 
of the Achemon Sphinx, figured in our last num- 
ber. The moth (Fig. 59) makes its appearance 
in June of the following year, though it has 
been known to issue the same year that it had 



pose of crawling out; usually, however, it sim- 
ply projects the front part of its body and 
crawls about without entirely quitting the case 
— carrj'ing its house with it. 
There are vaiious things recommended as a 



[Fig. 50] 




Colors — Light olive-gray and dark olivc-ffrocn. 



existed as larva. In this last event, it doubtless 
becomes baiTen, like others under similar cir- 
cumstances, as was shown in our last number 
(p. 55). The colors of the moth are light olive- 
gray, variegated as in the figure with dark 
olive-green. The worms are easily subdued by 
hand-picking. 



SOUTHERN NOTES. 

BY J. PARISH STELLE, SAVANNAH, TENN. 

Clothes-Motiis. — We have several species of 
clothes-moths at the South, some of which work 
all through the winter as far up as Corinth, 
Miss. They are all troublesome enough, bnt 
the individual most to be dreaded is of a light 
buff color {IHnea vestianellaf* Steph.), though 
we have another almost as bad ( Tinea tapet- 
zella, Linn.); that is nearly black, with the tips 
of its larger wings white, or pale gray. 

These moths generally lay their eggs on the 
woolen or fur articles they intend to destroy ; 
and when the lai-va appears it begins to eat im- 
mediately, making sad work in a very short 
time. With the haira or wool it has gnawed off, 
it forms a silken case or tube, under the protec- 
tion of which it devours the substance of the 
article on which it has fixed its abode. The 
tube has the appearance of parchment, is open 
at both ends, but furnished with kind of fiaps 
that the insect can lift at pleasure for the pur- 

•nuticella, Iluebner. 



protection against clothes-moths. One is to- 
bacco sprinkled among the clothes, another is 
gum-camphor, and still another capsicum or 
pulverized red pepper. Each of these arc 
good, no doubt, but they are rather objection- 
able to some on account of their unpleasant 
effect on the olfactories. I have found alum to 
be all that is required, without being the least 
offensive. In case of furs it may be pulverized 
and sprinkled into them freely; or it maybe 
dissolved in water and the liquid applied. The 
latttfi' mode is the best for most goods. An ar- 
ticle well sprinkled with strong alum water will 
never be injured by moths. 

Soot for Cabbage Worms. — I experimented 
last summer on the Southern Cabbage-worm 
(lavYSi o( Pierisjyrotod ice, Boisd.), and found soot 
to be a very good thing to prevent its ravages. 
The soot was taken from my chimney, and as 
I had burned a great deal of yellow pine, it 
was virtually lamp-black. Having first wetted 
the cabbage with a tine rose I sifted the soot 
upon them ; and, though it did not keep them 
entirely clear of worms, owing, I suppose, to 
the fact that I could not get it on all parts of the 
plants, I raised a very good crop, while not one 
of my neighbors matured a single head. The 
thing is worth trying, and in localities where 
pine soot cannot be had, I take it that common 
lamp-black would have the same effect. 

A Large Brood.— I "hatched" in Septem- 



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ber last, from the cocoons on one tomato worm, 
{Sphinx b-maculata, Haw.), two hundred and 
seventy-one small Ichnenmon flies ! If any per- 
son interesting himself in entomology can beat 
that for a single brood he may take the belt 
from me. 

The Squash Bug. — ^My last summer's expe- 
rience in this section with the Squash-bug {Co- 
reustristisy De Geer), showed no difference in 
favor of any variety of squashes. I raised the 
" White-bush Scallop " and found them to be 
as hard on it as on any other kind. 

The best means that I hit upon of saving my 
sqnashes from the pest, was to remove the earth 
from the i*oots of the plants as low as it would 
bear, and fill up with a mixture of dry ashes 
and salt. Without this precaution I found 
them going down into the ground on the under 
side of the vine, and working where I could not 
get at them. 

In addition to the salt and ashes application, 
I trimmed off all the leaves that touched the 
ground as soon as they came down, and spread 
them out under the plants, and upon examina- 
tion, mornings and evenings, 1 generally found 
about all the old bugs nicely housed away be- 
neath the leaves. I think leaves are far better 
to trap them under than boards or shingles. A 
decaying or wilting leaf seems to attract them; 
yon will usually find them on such leaves when 
looking over your vines. 



TOADS vs. BUGS. 



We make the following extracts fi*om some 
passages in Fogt's book ** On Noxious and 
Beneficial Animals," which are quoted at full 
length in the fourth number of Le Naturaliste 
Canadien. For the benefit of the American 
reader, we translate from the original French. 

" A remarkable fact has lately been published 
in the newspapers. There is actually a consid- 
erable commerce in toads between Fi-ance and 
England. A toad of good size and in fair con- 
dition will fetch a shilling [twenty-five cents] 
in the London market, and a dozen of extra 
qaality are worth one pound sterling [five dol- 
lars]. You may see these imported toads in all 
the market gardens where the soil is moist, and 
the ownei*s of those gardens even prepare shel- 
ter for them. Many grave persons have shaken 
their heads, when they heard of this new whim 
of the English ; but those laugh the best who 
langh the last. This time the English are in 
the right. I used to have in my garden a brown 
toad as big as my fist. In the evening he would 



crawl out of his hiding place and travel over a 
bed in the garden. .1 kept careful watch over 
him; but one day an unlucky woman caught 
sight of him and killed him with a single stroke 
of her spade, thinking that she had done a very 
fine thing. He had not been dead many weeks, 
before the snails ate up all the mignonette that 
formerly perAimed everything round that bed. 

"Toads become accustomed to. man, and do 
not appear to be incapable of tender sentiments. 
Evei*ybody has heard the story, which seems 
bon'owed from some old popular legend, of a 
toad which for thirty years lived under an espa- 
lier tree, and came out every evening, when the 
family was taking supper, to get his share of the 
meal like the dogs and the cats. The family 
shed tears on the day when an accident deprived 
that devoted servant of life. Some of my friends 
believe that, after having heaped benefits upon 
a toad, they have obtained from that despised 
animal evident proofs of gi*atitude. A certain 
Capt. Perry has told me that, in traveling 
through the interior of Sicily, he once found on 
the road a snake that was just about to devour 
a toad. lie killed the snake, and the toad went 
his way. Six days afterwards he returned by 
the same road. All of a sudden something hops 
along close behind him. It was his toad, who 
had adopted this mode of expressing his grati- 
tude towards his preserver, and who had posi- 
tively recognized him. **But, Captain,' I said 
to him, *how could you possibly identify the 
particular toad whose life you had saved? One 
toad is as like another toad as one egg is lik^ 
another egg,* * That is very true,' replied the 
Captain, * but he looked at me with such grate- 
ful eyes, that I could not doubt his identity for 
a moment.' " 

THE TOMATO-WORM AtSAIN. 

By way of specimen brick, we print here one 
of the many ridiculous paragraphs about this 
poor slandered and vilified Tomato-worm, with 
which the newspapers always abound at a certain 
time of the year. The accuracy of its Natural 
History is only excelled by the accuracy of its 
English Grammar. It will be noticed that in 
the last sentence there is a stray nominative 
case, " a tomato," looking about in vain for 
some verb with which it can agree. We scarcely 
know which to pity most, the nominative case or 
the Tomato-worm. And then think of that most 
absurd assertion, that the Tomato-worm — which 
has been well known to Entomologists for about 
half a century — '^was first discovered this 
season ! ! ! " 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The Tomato- Worm.— Dr. Fuller, at the cor- 
ner of Fayette and Montgomery streets, has in 
his office a Tomato-wonn measuring about five 
inches in length, and weighing about an ounce. 
It was taken from a tomato vine in his gai-den, 
and is udw securely enclosed in a glass bottle. 
It eats and disrests daily about twenty times its 
own weight "of tomatoes and tomato leaves. 
It cats constantly, except resting occasionally 
from one to two 'minutes at a time. This worm 
was first discovered this season y and is as poison- 
ous as the bite of a rattlesnake. It poisons by 
throwing spittle, which it can throw from one to 
two feet. This spittle striking the skin, the 
parts commence at once to swell, and in a few 
hours death ends the agonies of the patient. 
Three cases of death in consequence of this poi- 
son have recently been repoi*t^d. The medical 
profession is much excited over this new enemy 
to human existence. It is advisable for persons 
picking tomatoes to wear gloves. The question 
arises whether or not a tomato partly devoured 
by one of these vermin, and then afterwards 
eaten by a person, there may not be sufficient 
virus left upon it to poison the one who eats it? 
— Syracuse Standard. 

The question arises, whether or not, in a para- 
graph such as this, written by a silly igno- 
ramus and published by a sensationist Ed- 
itor, there may not be sufficient nonsense still 
undiscovered, to drive fifteen thousand fools 
crazy ? 

PARIS GREEX POISONOUS. 



[From a Letter ft-ora Dr. C. IIeuixg, Philad.] 

** In dusting vegetatfon with Paris Green, in 
order to destroy noxious insects, the greatest 
care ought to be taken that the wind may not 
carry it towards the person of the operator. 
The arsenite of copper is one of the slow but 
more dangerous poisons. Many people have 
been poisoned by sleeping in rooms papered 
with green paper; and this was caused by the 
very same stuff. It may even injure the soil, if 
used repeatedly. Small doses of arsenic alone 
have rather promoted the gi'owth of rye ; but 
arsenite of copper is much more virulent in its 
etfccts, and other cereals or crops may be essen- 
tially injured by it." 

AVe may add here, that a very thin dusting 
indeed with Paris Green, mixed with flour in 
order to reduce its strength, is sufficient to pro- 
duce the desired effect upon the obnoxious in- 
sects. If used too freely, it becomes injurious 
to vegetation. " Some of our potato vines and 
egg-plants," says Prof. A. J. Cook of the Michi- 
gan Agi-icultural College, " have been totally 
ruined by a too free use of Paris Green. We 
used one part of the mineral to five pails of 
flour." 



MR. WALSH'S SUCCESSOR. 

There is perhaps no more forcible exempli- 
fication of Mr. Walsh's individuality of char- 
acter, than the fact that it is difficult to find the 
proper person to fill his place. We are so far 
interested in this matter that we desire to see 
some competent person — some one who shall 
be a credit to the State of Illinois, appointed to 
fill the vacancy. Mr. Walsh had drawn two 
years' salary ($4,000), i. e., he had received pay 
to June 11th, 1869. He had, however, issued 
but one Report, and the Law requires an An- 
nual Report to be published. Why he did not 
publish a second Report when it was due, we 
cannot very well say ; but perhaps he did not 
understand the true reading of the Law. For 
about four months during the spring and sum- 
mer of 1869 he was quite sick, and too ranch 
prostrated to do anything; but he was in excel- 
lent health and excellent spirits for two or three 
months previous to the accident which caused 
his death. He had just got ready to go to work 
on his second Report, and his last letter to us 
was principally occupied with an enumeration 
of the insects he intended to treat of, and of the 
illustrations that would be needed. The most 
vigilant search amongst his manuscripts and 
papers, has failed to reveal anything written for 
this Report; but we know, both from corres- 
pondence and conversation with him, that he 
intended to add to this second Report a fully 
illustrated edition of his fii*8t, which was issued 
as Acting State Entomologist — the two to form 
one large handsome volume, with about three 
thousand dollars' worth of steel-plate illustra- 
tions. 

We recently had the pleasure of calling on 
Governor Palmer, at Springfield, in company 
wilh representatives of the Executive Comnut- 
tee of the Illinois State Horticultural Society. 
They all seemed to be of the opinion that the 
best course to pursue would be to defer appoint- 
ing a successor till the next biennial session of 
the Legislature, in the winter of 1870-71. But 
meanwhile to commission some person to carry 
out Mr. Walsh's intentions, as far as it is pos- 
sible with our knowledge of them, by publishing 
a Report on the Entomology of Illinois. If the 
proper steps are taken, a work on the noxious 
and beneficial insects of Illinois, equal in use- 
fulness and popularity to "Harris's Injurious 
Insects," might be prepared by the end of the 
year 1870. Our idea would be to republish 
his first Report with full illustrations, and with 
such additions and corrections as would be 
found necessaiy, and to add to it a second 



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Report. The two might be prefaced with a 
memoir of his life, accompanied by a steel 
portrait, and an appendix of such of his cor- 
respondence with noted men, as would be 
found pertinent, might be added at the end. 
With the proper editorial management and 
assistance, such a work would not only prove 
a lasting monument to Mr. Walsh's name, but 
it would be a credit to the State, and a great 
boon to the cultivators of the soil for all time 

to come ! 

• » • 

TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS. 

The death of our associate will necessitate 
some change in the character of this journal. 
Instead of the thought and experience of two 
individuals we shall strive to freight it with a 
diversity of opinion, and to this end we solicit 
communications from our numerous readers, 
both scientific and practical. We have already, 
in closing the first volume, announced our in- 
tention to pay liberally for all communications 
that we publish. We make this change in the 
character of the American Entomologist the 
more willingly, that we deem it a gieat fallacy 
to suppose, that because an individual becomes 
an editor, he therefore constitutes himself a 
dictator of opinion. We gave this journal a 
national name for the very reason that we 
wished it to bear a national character. It is 
devoted to the Entomology of the whole coun- 
try and not merely to that of tlie particular 
locality where the editor resides. 

By studying to counteract the injunes caused 
by noxious insects; by illustrating the ever 
interesting phases of insect life, and by close 
attention to scientific accuracy, we hope to 
make it invaluable and indispensable, first, to 
the practical farmer, fruit-grower or gardener, 
who is seeking for relief from the scourge of 
insect pests which injuriously affect his crops ; 
secondly, to the popular student of natural 
science, and lastly, to the purely scientific man. 

The publishers will spare no means to make 
the paper attractive in appearance, and the 
editor can safely promise to spare no labor to 
make its contents interesting and instructive. 
Let the readers but put forth a little effbi*t to 
properly support it by inducing their neighbors 
to subscribe, and they themselves shall reap the 
benefit. We already have the promise of con- 
tributions from many able writers on Entomol- 
ogy, and in this connection we would remind 
oar practical readei*s, that they should not defer 
sending for publication the results of their ex- 
perience and observation, because they are not 



able to rattle off the scientific names of the 
insects they write about. Wo shall always be 
glad to determine the particular species which 
accompany communications, and to make any 
other suggestions that may be found necessary. 
— -•-• ♦ — 
THE WALSH ENTOMOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 

Mr. Walsh's last will was executed about two 
years ago, and though in this will he dwells 
minutely and expressively on almost ever>^thing 
that could possibly be made to cause trouble to 
Mrs. Walsh — even to stipulating that no funeral 
outlay should be incurred beyond that necessary 
to decent burial — yet no disposition whatever 
is made of his Entomological Colleclion. His 
wife is made sole executrix of his affairs, and 
the disposal of the cabinet consequently rests 
with her. For our own sake, and for tlie sake of 
the numerous scientific friends of the deceased, 
who in future years would like to refer to this 
collection, either in person or through us, we 
were naturally anxious to secure the cabinet. 
We were conscious, however, that the State of 
Illinois had some claim to it, and knew further- 
more that it was Mr. Walsh's strict intention 
to prepare for that State a duplicate collection 
from it." We therefore, in our eflbrts to obtain 
it, besides making a cash offer, pledged our- 
selves so far to carry out Mr. Walsh's intentions 
as to prepare this duplicate collection for the 
State of Illinois. Whether or not we secure 
the collection, will depend ou whether Mr. 
Wm. B. Pettit, who now has charge of Mrs. 
Walsh's aflfairs, receives a higher bid than ours ; 
for we understand that it is to be sold to the 
highest bidder. We should not grieve if Louis 
Agassiz procured it, because it would then fall 
into the hands of Dr. Hagen, who was one of 
our associate's dearest friends, and who is 
moreover well able to apprccitite, take care, 
and make proper use of it. Nor should we 
greatly lament if it fell into the hands of Mr. 
E. T. Cresson, of Philadelphia, Pa., for there 
it would also be appreciated, and be of sei-vicc 
to the world. But we are averse to its going 
East at all, for the reason that Mr. Walsh was 
essentially a Western man, and was well aware 
himself of the difficulties under which the stu- 
dent of Natural History labored in tlie Western 
States, for the lack of just such collections to 
refer to. The State of Illinois can certainly 
afibrd to pay Mr. Pettit as large a sum as can 
any individual or any society, and we confi- 
dently expect, and sincerely hope that the Gov- 
ernor will see that it is secured. Wo would 
also counsel Mr. Pettit not to act rashly in 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



disposing of it to other parties, because it is 
stipulated In the law, that the State Entomolo- 
gist shall prapare a collection of the insects of 
the State to be deposited in the Museum of the 
Industrial University at Champaign. Action 
in this matter should not long be deferred by 
the State, for without the attention of some one 
who understands taking care of such a collec- 
tion, it will ^oon be rendered valueless by 
fungoid growths, mites, DermesteSy and other 
museum pe.-ts. 

There are probably eight or ten thousand 
species in the collection — most of them dupli- 
cated. They are mounted on the short English 
pins, for Mr. Walsh hated the very sight of, and 
never would adopt our modern Entomological 
])ins, which he termed ** German skewers." 
The specimens are all well dried, however, and 
remarkably well set. Let us hope that they 
will fall into such hands that they shall be pre- 
served for centuries to come, and redound to 
the honor and credit of him who toiled fo ardu- 
ously and yet so willingly to collect them — 
that long after we have followed their first 
owner, and have entered the Portals of Eternity 
with him, these insects may remain a lasting 
monument to his name, and that they may 
never become lost to the world, as have those 
of Thomas Say, and already some of those of T. 
W. Harris ! 



A STATE ENTOMOLOGIST FOR MINNESOTA. 

We are pleased to learn that at the late meet- 
ing of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society 
in Rochester, Minn., resolutions were passed 
earnestly recommending the Legihlaiure to pro- 
vide for the appointment of a State Entomolo- 
gist. We ho]>c their recommendations will be 
heeded, and that other States will soon follow 
the good example. Ev^ry State in the Union 
is cursed with some noxious insects peculiarly 
its own, and the greater the number of workers 
in the field, the more quickly shall we become 
masters of the situation. It is really surprising 
that in a great agricultural country like ours, 
subject to such serious insect depredations, so 
few of the Slates have appropriated the pittance 
necessary to the prosecution of proper Ento- 
mological studies ! 



ScTWe have to thank our numerous friends 
for their kind letters of condolence and sym- 
pathy in the loss of our associate. The many 
words of encouragement received will do much 
to lighten the t4isk that falls upon us. 



GpNow is the time for all those whose sub- 
scriptions expire with the fii-st of the year, to 
renew. Those who appreciate our efforts should 
strive to send along with their own, the name 
of some one or other of their neighbors. The 
effort costs nothing, and besides that satisfac- 
tion which every right-minded man feels in 
imparting to others useful knowledge, there is 
the reward which comes of having careful 
neighbors who fight their own insect enemies, 
and thus make it easier for you to subdue 

yours. 

• ♦ • 

r^r' There is yet avast and unexplored field 
for the Entomologist in the South. Our Soutli- 
ern brethi*en suffer from some of the most griev- 
ous inset foes, and their insect fauna is rich and 
diversified. We consequently take pleasure in 
announcing, that Mr. J. Parish Stelle, of Savan- 
nah, Tenn., is at work in the field, and will 
continue to send us the "Southern Notes" 
which he has commenced in this number. 



EP As the insect world is now, for the most 
part, wrapt in its hyperborian slumber, there 
are not very many questions for the "Answere to 
Correspondents" department; and as those 
questions which we have on hand do not re- 
quire immediate attention, we defer answer- 
ing them till next month, in order to make 
i-oom for other matter. 



1^^ To all persons interesting themselves in 
the American Entomologist we will allow 
twenty-five cents on every dollar, on all over 

five names which they send. 

• ♦ • 

r^ Remember, that every one who sends us 
five subscriber to the American Entomolo- 
gist, ia entitled to an extra copy free of chai*ge! 



LOCUSTS IN LNDIA. 



The recent foreign mails bring infoimation 
that a cloud of locusts of incredible volume has 
lighted upon the fairest portion of the western 
provinces of India, which were previously de- 
pended upon to make up for the recent famine, 
and restore plenty to dependent millions. Kice 
advanced twenty- five per cent, on the appear- 
ance of this plague, while a gloom has settled 
upon the country in anticipation of the des- 
truction of all vegetation wherever they might 
alight. It is hoped that these destroyers may 
be speedily destroyed themselves by the wind 
that sometimes carries them into the sea, or the 
calamity must reach a fearful height, and tax 
all the resources of the government to mitigate 
it. — Hearth and Home. 



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ON OUR TABLE. 

Dr. J. T. C. RatzebuFg's great works on 
** Forest Trees, their Diseases and Insect Ene- 
mies," and his work on " Weeds of Germany 
and Switzerland" — IHe Waldverderbniss (23 
Thaler, gold); Die Standortsgewcechse und 
IfnkrcRutef* DeaUcMands und der Schweitz (4i 
Thaler); and Die Waldverderber und Ihre 
Feinde (4 Thaler). — Some time since we re- 
ceived from L. Agassiz, through Dr. Hageu, of 
Cambridge, the foregoing splendid Grerman 
works for inspection and notice. These works 
have not their equal in the English language, 
and with their superb illustrations and vast fund 
of most desirable information, they should have 
a place in the library of every college where the 
German language is taught. We would especi- 
ally call the attention of the presidents of our 
diflfercnt agricultural colleges to these works. 
The price of the three will probably cost over 
$40.00 in America ; but, in order to introduce 
them into this country, the author has offered, 
throngh his booksellers, to make a liberal de- 
dnction when more than one set is ordered, and 
Dr. H. Hagcn, of Cambridge, Mass., has con- 
sented to receive subscriptions. The books 
were accompanied with the following notice 
from the pen of the last named gentleman, 
which we gladly make room for, as it contains 
valoable suggestions, and we have ouraelves 
only found time to hastily glance over the 
works : 

Wood, and forests which produce wood, form almost 
as important a part of the natural wealth of a country 
as do metals, coal, and other minerals. In some views 
wood is even the more important article, since without 
*pood no euJiure is possible or imagindbU. Wood cannot 
in dl cases be rephiced by iron or other bodies. Hence, 
we find that the regions which are entirely or in part 
destitute of wood never attain to a cultivated condi- 
tion (lai^e tracts of Africa, Asia, etc.)* while, on the 
other handy a superabundance of forests tonus an im- 
pediment to cultivation, as in many parts of Amerlci. 
It is only after the removal of this excess that cultiva- 
tion progresses rapidly . Where nature offers riches in 
great abundance, there the due standard of apprecia- 
tion becomes lost; and any one who has seen how the 
Mini»<ippi steamers, as well as the railroads in the 
£astand West, are often fed with timber that is valu- 
able for aU purposes, will admit that this is an abuse, 
or, in other words, that expensive materials are thus 
wasted. Every waste, however, brings Its consequence, 
and in time necessitates a supply at high rates. There 
can be no doubt that in a country densely covered with 
pristine woods, the clearing must precede cultivation, 
and this clearing has to be carried on in the most rapid 
and moat destructive manner, in order to prove profit- 
able for the moment. But then, afterwards a period is 
Mire to arrive when a stop has to be put to that devasta- 
tion, in order to forestall want. There can be no 



doubt that, in America, that time has como, or* has 
even been transgressed, though the fact has not yet be- 
come very palpable, for the reason that fVom other 
parts, which are still well timbered, plenty of wood 
can as yet be temporarily imported . A cessation of this 
destructive practice is to be anticipated from an in- 
creasing cheapness of coal as fUel for manufactories, 
railroads, and steamboats; but this cessation will come 
too late, in part, and generations to come will be sensi- 
bly affected thereby; for it is a well known and very im- 
portant fact that the same kind of timber that existed on 
a tract once cleared, cannot be Immediately produced 
again. Nature has managed it so that quite a number 
of processes of vegetation have to be gone through with 
before the original trees of the primeval forest can re- 
sume their rights. Under the tropics, as well as in 
high northern latitudes, this change is wrought in the 
course of a few generations, but in tlie intermediate tem- 
perate zones a much longer time is required. Moreover, 
the species that immediately succeed those which were 
cut down are always such as furnish inferior wood. In 
America, which Is endowed by nature with a great num- 
ber of species which afford the best wood for technical 
purposes, this fact, no doubt, becomes the more impor 
tant. It appears to me that the very excellence of 
American wood has essentially contributed to the rapid 
advancement of civilization . A great number of sk illed 
pursuits are thereby essentially favored, since the firm- 
ness and durability of its material admit of a delicacy 
and care in their elaboration which, in Europe, is ren- 
dered impracticable through the impei^ectiou of their 
wood. 

Add to this another circumstance— one which makes 
this discussion suitable for the purposes of an entomolo- 
gical paper : 

So long as nature alone is opeiating, it very rarely 
(or perhaps never) occurs, that extensive damage to 
plants and trees is wrought by insects or other animals. 
It is only after the natural relations are altered by hu- 
man agencies, as, cg.^hy the burning;^ down or clearing 
of entire tracts, or by a subsequent compulsory forest- 
culture, that noxious insects are multiplied in excess, 
and require the energetic attention and interference of 
mankind. We have lately had abundant proof of this 
in Germany. The well-known Pine Bombyx {Bombyx 
Monacha) had been harmless for about fifty yeaw, when, 
in 1852, it reappeared. For three years little attention 
was paid to it, and interference was not attempted until 
it had become too late. The result can only now, after 
the termination of the calamity, be f\illy estimated. 
From the Ural mountains through the entire width of 
Russia and Poland, and onward into the interior of 
Prussia, 175,000 square miles were, in those years, in- 
fested, and 56,000,000 cords of wood destroyed. In 
East Prussia alone (of the size of the State of Massachu- 
sett^i) 7,000,000 cords. I was myself an eye-witness to 
interminable trains of butterflies on their way in search 
of new breeding-places. In several cases they passed 
over sounds of fifteen miles' breadth in search of intact 
forests. 

I believe that, in America, there exists no indepen- 
dent literature on this subject, and no observations are 
on record. But it is quite plain that the experience of 
other countries can be made available. The climate of 
Europe is, in many respects, very similar to that of the 
most richly wooded northerly States of the Union . The 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



trees belong to the same genus, and several of the 
species are exceedingly similar to European ones. It 
is, hence, quite probable that many of the Insects iiyu- 
rious to our forests are also quite nearly allied to those 
of Europe. In Europe, there are the excellent works 
of Professor Ratzeburg, who, in his capacity of super- 
intendent of a foresters' university, has conducted his 
observations with untiring energy for forty years. Ilis 
latest works contain his experience in a condensed form. 
In the ** Waldverderbniss,'* etc., may be found all 
that the celebrated author has elicited concerning the 
growth and damage done to our trees through the 
agency of insects and other animals. Numerous wood- 
cutM in the text, and sixty-one plates of excellent exe- 
cution, adorn this work. It is highly interesting to see, 
in the figured portions of the forest , how the injury done 
by insects has changed the entire character of the land- 
scape. The physiological parts, based on microscopical 
studies, abound in new facts. The healing process that 
the diseased or injured trees go through, hiis not only a 
scientific interest, but also directly concerns the propn- 
etor. 

Ratzeburg* 8 works possess the advantage of being 
almost entirely made up of personal observation, though 
the author has also considered the contemporaneous 
and past literature on the subject. Their greatest, and 
as I think, most important value for America, however, 
consist in this: that they all put the practical point in 
the foreground. It is not merely theoretical instruction 
which is there given, but it is positively money; for it 
either eaves or mahee money. 

The sixth edition of his * * Waldverderber » ' (Hurt- 
ful Insects: Berlin, 1869. Jg«4 00, gold,) with ten ex- 
cellent plates, gives, in a popular fashion, a good and 
instructive account of such animals as interest the 
farmer, the forester, and the entomologist, and it is the 
best work of this kind. 

Closely connected with the above is an older work of 
his— ** Die Unkraeuter" (The Weeds), treating of one 
of the most important and interesting subjects for the 
agriculturist. I will here remark that more than two- 
thirds of the named weeds cover also the entire north 
of Ameiica, west to the Mississippi, and even farther 
west. 

Ratzeburg^s works are, no doubt, of the highest — of 
the greatest importance. It is my opinion that they 
ought not to be found missing in the library of any uni- 
versity, school of agiiculture, or similar institution. 
To the observing entomologist, they are positively in- 
dispensable, and for such the world-wide celebrity of 
the author renders every recommendation superfluous. 

Annual Report of the Bo.\iid of Rkgents 
OF TUE Univeksity OF WISCONSIN. — Fiom W. 
W. Daniclls, Trof. of Agriculture aud Analyti- 
cal Chemistry. 

List of the Nests and Eggs of Birds in the 
Museum of the Boston Society of Natural 
History. 

The American Sunday School Worker. — 
A new monthly journal, just fttarted by J. W. 
Mclntyrc, of St. Louis, Mo. 

Iowa AciRicuLTURAL Report for 18()8.— From 
J. M. Shaffer, Secretary. 

The Country Gentleman's Magazine— 
London, England. Sirapkin, Marshall & Co. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Information iv^anted— J^. A. Kendall , FUwd' 
liamy K H, —Ist : The insects seen by you last summer, 
darting so quickly and noiselessly among the flowers of 
your lilacs, were, judging from your description, the 
gigantic Carpenter Bee {Xylocopa Carolina, Linn.) You 
will find it figured and described on page 9 of our first 
volume. If you will send us specimens next year, we 
can decide positively; otherwise not. 2d: The "wasp- 
ish looking thing ' ' on the left hand side of our cover, 
is the $ of a long- tailed Ichneumon fly which may be 
popularly called the Lunate Rhyssa {Rhysta lunaior^ 
Fabr.) It is one of the largest of our Ichneumon flies, 
and attacks certain wood -boring larvae, and especially 
those of the Pigeon Tremex (Tremex columhay Linn), 
which infest our elms and sycamores. By means of its 
long ovipositor this large Ichneumon fly is enabled to 
reach the wood -borer in its hidden retreat, and to de- 
posit an egg in its body. The larva hatching from this 
egg eventually destroys the original wood-borer. Sd: 
The odd looking insect at the right of our cover, is the 
(^ of the common Stick-bug {Spectrum femoratum, Say), 
a vegetable -feeder of sluggish movements. It receives 
its popular name from the remarkable habit which it has 
of stretching forward its two front legs and its anten- 
na?, in the manner represented in that figure. It often 
remains a long time motionless in this position, so that 
it in reality looks very much like a dead stick growing 
from the tree or shrub upon which it happens to be. 
Its scientific name refers to the inunensely swollen 
middle thighs of the (^. For a fuller account of this 
singular insect, see Vol. I, p. 58. 

Insects named — Jos. E. Chase, Jlolyolce, Mass.— 
No. 1, Tttropium cinnamopterum, Kirby. Nos. 2 and 3, 
varieties of No. 1. No. 4, Boros unicoloTy Say. No. 5, 
Saprinus pennsylvanicuSjVvLy}s.. No. 6, Tenhrio moliiory 
Linn. No. 7, Fhilonthus hlandis, Grav. No. 8« Jfaliica 

nana. Say. No. 9, Ilarpalus / No. 10, dAat- 

tusvnicolor, Say. No. 11. Brachys oraia, Lee. No. 

12, Frionus imbricomis (small dimorphous form). No. 

13, Fhotinus neglectus, Lee. No. 14, Bryacaniha 10- 
pusttilata, Mclsh. No. 15, Haltica {Fhyllotrda) striolata^ 
Illig. No. 16, J^oda parmla, Dej. = ? ovata. Say. 
No. 17, Vhalcophana convexa, Say. No. 18, Fediacv>> 
suhjlahcr, Lee. No. 19, Aphrastus taniatus. Say. No. 
20, Caih'grapha muUipunctuta, Say. No. 21, Clytus hv 
coyoJius, L. and G. No. 22, Listroderes. No. 23, 6W- 
cophana picipes, Oliv. No. 24, Galeruca havnatica, Lee. 
No. 25, Saprinus assimilts, Er. No. 20, Hpdrochari* 
ohtusatus, Say. No. 27, Cohjmbetes h'gvttalus. Say. 
No. 28, IlydrophUus glaher, Ilbst. No. 29, Bercsm/ra- 
ttrnus^ Lcc. No. 30, Fodahrus rugulosus, Lee. We 
are indebted to Dr. Geo. H. Horn of Philadelphia, 
for the proper determination ol several of the above 
named insects. 

Biseasein Wlicat— ^. Z. Child, M, D.—Vie re- 
gret to say that the ears of wheat which you sent last 
summer, were retained so long in the publishers' oflice 
that nothing could be made of them when they were 
handed to us. In writing upon business matters al- 
ways address the publishers, but in writing on edito- 
rial matters, or in sending specimens, you should ts 
invariably address the editor. 



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VOL. 2 



ST. LOUIS, MO., FEBRUARY, 1870. 



NO. 4. 



FUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 

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104 OXJVX 8TBXST. 8T. LOTHB. 



TERMS ;. .Two dollars per annum In advanoe. 



CHAJKLBS V. R[LEY, Editor. 

THE GEOKOPIi MOTH. 

{Attacus Ceoropia, Linn.) 
We cannot recall a single insect which has 
been so often sent to us for determination as the 



Horned-caterpillar, which forms the frontis- 
piece to our first volume. The ground-color of 
the wings is a grizzled dusky brown with the 
hinder margins clay-yellow; near the middle 
of each of the wings there is an opaque kidney- 
shaped white spot, shaded more or less on the 
outside with dull red, and edged with black ; a 
wavy dull red baud edged inside with white, 
crosses each of the wings, and the front wings 
next to the shoulders are dull red with a curved 
white and black band, and have near their tips 
an eye-like black spot with a bluish- white cres- 
cent; the upper side of the body and legs are 
dull red; the forepart of the thorax, and the 
hinder edges of the rings of the abdomen are 
white, and the belly is checkered with red and 
white. There is considerable variation in the 



[Fig. 69,1 




Ck>lors~Grizzled dusky, brown, dull red, and white. 



Cecropia Moth. It is so conspicuous, whether 
in the larva, chrysalis or m3th state, that it 
rotdily attracts attention. The moth (Fig. 59) 
is really a moat elegant insect, and in our mind 
liteooadoalyiA apiaiMlor lotbatof tho Royal 



ground-color of individuals, some being quite 
dark and others quite light, but the female 
differs frbm the male in nothing but her larger 
abdomen and much amaller aoteunv or feelers. 
Xtiia inaeot lieloiiigsio Um aauiio famUy (J9om6|f-» 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



cidcB) as the well-known Silk-worm, and is, in 
fact, one of our very best native American Silk- 
wonns. The genus Attacus — meaning elegant — 
was fonnded by LinusBus, and our moth received 
its specific name from the same author. As 
Cecropia was the ancient name of the city of 
Athens, and as it has puzzled some naturalists 
to divine why Linnseus applied this name to 
our moth, we give the following explanation 
by Dr. Fitch: "The great legislator of this 
department of human knowledge, as he is ex- 
pressively styled by Latreillc, it Jias been fre- 
quently remarked, was endowed with a genius 
that few of his disciples have inherited, for 
selecting names for natural objects, which are 
most appropriate and happy. The idea which 
was present in the miud of Liuiioeus, when he 
named this splendid moth, we think is suffi- 
ciently evident. The Athenians were the most 
polished and refined people of antiquity. The 
moths are the most delicate and elegant of 
insects; they are the Athenians of their race. 
Cecrops was the founder, the head of the Athe- 
nian people. When the names of men were 
bestowed upon cities, ships or other objects 
regarded as being of the feminine gender, class- 
ical usage changed these names to the feminine 
form. The moths (PhalsBua) being feminine, 
and the name of Cecrops being more euphoni- 
ous in this form, probably induced Linnteus to 
change it in the manner he did. The name 
thus implies this to be the leader, the head of 
the most elegant tribe of insects, or in other 
words, the fii*8t of all the insect kind. What 
name more appropriate can be invented for this 
sumptuous moth?'' 

In regard to the generic name, we may as 
well state, that the genus Attacus has been 
badly cut up by modem systematists, as indeed 
have most of the old LinnsBan genera. In bot- 
au} it seems to have become the fashion to 
combine, and thus lessen the number of genera, 
and as this course gi'eatly facilitates study, in 
the great majority of instances, it were devoutly 
to be wished that our entomologists would em- 
ulate the example of their botanical friends. 
But it seems to have been the rage among cer- 
tain entomologists to split up the old genera, 
until, as in the present case, generic diflcrences 
have been based on what no one, who was 
not more anxious to further his own name 
than the true interests of science, would con- 
sider other than specific. The German Ento- 
mologist HUbner, in 1816, separated the genus 
Atta<ms into several genera, of which his Samia 
includes our Cecropia Moth. Ailer him, an 
English Entomologist, Duncan, constructed the 



genus llyalophoray to receive certain lai-ge 
moths with glassy spots in their wings (the 
word meaning literally "glass-bearer"), and 
had the carelessness to refer our ( lecropia Moth, 
which has no such glassy spots, to this new 
genus of his. More recently, Mr. A. R. Grate 
has erected the genus Plafysamia, which sep- 
arates our Cecropia Moth from that of the 
An-hindy Silk-woi*m (^. Cynthia) to which 
Hubner's original genus Samia is restricted. 
Yet it seems to us that no one but the roost 
inveterate "genus-grinder" would ever think 
of separating two insects which have so many 
points of resemblance. But as our views on 
this subject are very fully expressed in the arti- 
cle on " Scientific Nomenclature " in tlie first 
number of the present volume of the American 
Entomologist, we will not weary the reader 
with this rather unprofitable subject. Opinions 
IFig. 60!] will differ, and ever}' 

man will be properly 
judged by posterity 
for the opinions which 
he held while living; 
and it is only neces- 
sary to state that in 
order to simplify the 
arrangement, we have 
followed Harris's ex- 
ample, in using the 
older and more com- 
monly known generic 
names. 

During the winter 
time, the large co- 
coons of tills insect 
(Fig. 60) may be 
found attached to the 
twigs of a variety of 
different shrubs and 
trees. We have our- 
selves found them up- 
on Apple, Cheriy, 
Currant, BarbeiTy, 
Hazel, Plum, Uicko- 
TY, BlackbeiTy, El- 
derberiy. Elder, Elm, 
Lilac, Red-root, Ma- 
ple, Willow and Hon- 
ey-locust. This co- 
coon tapers both 
ways, and is invari- 
Coior-YeUowis'd-bPown. ^bly fastened longi- 
tudinally to the twig; it is formed of two 
distinct layers, the outer one, which is 
loose, wrinkled, and resembles strong brown 
paper, covering an inner oval cocoon corn- 




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99 



po6cd of the same kind of silk, but closely 
woven liko that of the common Silk-worm. 
Inside 



will 



be found the 

[FlK. 01.] 



large 




this cocoon 
brown chrysalis 
(Fig. 61). The co- 
coon of tlie large Po- 
lyphemus Moth (sec 
American Entomo- 
logist, Volume I, 
No. 7), which has loior-LiKhtbi-own. 

been called by Mr. L. Trouvelot, of Med- 
ford, Massachusetts y the <' American Silk- 
worm/' is rounded, and the silk is very 
closely and compactly woven : and though that 
of our Cecropia is not as valuable for utilitarian 
purposes, yet we have not a doubt but it will 
some day be propagated for the silk, which it 
produces ; and though it may not lay claim to 
the national title of THE American Silk-worm, 
it will nevertheless rank as second best, among 
those which are indigenous to this country. 

The following are some of Mr. Trouvelot's 
reasons, as communicated to us, for prefer- 
ring Polyphemus to Cecropia: 1st. The silk 
fibre spun by the latter is not so strong nor so 
glossy as that of the former. 2ndly. The cocoon 
of the latter being double, pointed, and open at 
one end, makes it unfit to reel, as the water of 
the bath in filling the cocoon would sink it to 
the bottom, a very unfavorable circumstance, 
since it would caiue the fibres of the dificrent 
cocoons to entangle and break every moment. 
3rdly. The larva of Cecropia is a very delicate 
worm to raise, it does not suffer handling, and 
when once feeding on a given species of plant, 
it does not readily bear changing to another, or 
even to a variety of the same plant. 4thly. It 
has the misfortune to be more generally attacked 
by birds and parasites, four-fifths of them being 
thns sacrificed, in a state of nature. We entirely 
concar in the first two reasons given, though 
until the silk of Polyphemus has been more suc- 
cessfully reeled off than heretofore, the second 
objection loses much of its force, since our own 
experiments would indicate that they both have 
to be carded. As to the last two objections, 
though they undoubtedly apply in Massachu- 
setts, where Mr. Trouvelot made his experi- 
ments, they will not hold true in the West: for 
we have always been more successful with in- 
door broods of Cecropia than of Polyphemus, 
aud with us the latter is fully as much subject 
to parasites as the former, as might have been 
uiferred from its comparative scarcity. 

In the month of May, in the latitude of St. 
Loois, and earlier or later the farther north or 
south we go, our Cecropia Moth issues from its 



cocoon, and there can be no more beautiful 
sight imagined, than one of these gigantic fresh- 
born moths with all its parts soft and resplen- 
dent. The uninitiated would marvel how such . 
an immense ci*eature had escaped f\*om the small 
cocoon which remains at its side, retaining the 
same form which it always had, and showing 
no hole through which the moth could escape. 
The operation — so interesting and instructive — 
can be witnessed by any one who will take the 
trouble to collect a few of the cocoons aud place 
them in some receptacle which has sufficiently 
rough sides to admit of the moth's crawling up, 
to hang its heavy body and wings while they 
dry and expand. The caterpillar has the won- 
derful foresight to spin the upper or anterior 
end of its cocoon veiy loosely, and when the 
moth is about to issue it is still further aided 
in its efforts by a fioid secreted during the last 
few days of the chrysalis state, and which is a 
dissolvent of the gum which so firmly unites 
the fibres of the cocoon.^ This fiuid is secreted 
from two glands, which open into the mouth, 
and as soon as the chrysalis skin is split open 
on the back, by the restless movements of the 
moth within, the fiuid fiows fi*om the mouth 
and wets the end of the cocoon, dissolving the 
gum, and softening the silk to such an extent, 
that by repeated contractions and extensions 
of the body, the moth is at last enabled to 
separate the fibres, and to thrust out its head 
aud unbend its front legs ; after which it rapidly 
draws out the i-est of its body, the mouth of 
the cocoon afterwards closing, by the natural 
elasticity of the silk. At this moment the body 
of the moth is much swollen and elongated, 
the wings are small, folded, and pad-like, aud 
the whole insect is soft and moist; but attach- 
ing itself to the first object at hand, where it 
can hang its heavy body and clumsy wings, 
the latter become expanded in about twenty 
minutes, and the superabundant fluids of the 
body sufficiently evaporate in a few hours to 
enable the insect to take wing. 

The eggs of the Cecropia Moth are 0.09 inch 
long, sub-oval, flattened, and of a pale cream- 
color, shaded with light brown, and they are 
deposited in small patches on the plants which 
are to form the food of the futui*e larvae. They 

"•IvTihc Practical Entomologitt, Vol. II, p. ft"i, Mr. WmUIi 
8a>v tit to deny the well-edtiiblished fact of the use of thU 
lluiil by Silk-worm moths and eaiieoialhr by our Cecmiiiu, 
styling the statement m the nonsense of^oloHet-nutiirttliots. 
Of course it I'equires no ^reat astuteness lo lieitseive that 
such a fact could be proved Just as well by a closet-natural- 
ist as by any other, and though we do not know that Mr. 
Walsh ever expresstKl any change of opinion in print, yet 
we confldently oelieve that he would have done so upon the 
first occasion that uresented; for he finally became entirely 
convinced that such a fluid Ih secreted, and freely acknowl- 
eilged his former error, as he was always ready to do in such 
cases. 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



are deposited in Jane, and hatch in from six 
to ten days after being deposited. The young 
woims differ so much from the mature ones, 
and undergo such great changes in appearance 
in the course of their lives, that we are sur- 
prised that no account is to be found of these 
larval changes in any of our entomdlogical 
works. "When first hatched they are entirely 
black, with the tubercles placed in the same 
position, but being larger at the base and with a 
narrower stem than in the more mature individ- 
uals, the upper and smaller end being crowned 
with a whorl of conspicuous stiff black bristles. 
After the first moult the body is of a deep 
orange color, with the tubercles and head black, 
and with longitudinal rows of black dots run- 
ning between them. After the second moult, 
a still greater change takes place: the body 
acquires a beautiful yellowish-green tint, the 
tubercles on the back are blue on seqnents 1, 
12 and 13; coral-red on 2 and 3, and yellow 
with black spines and a black spot on the inside 
and tmtside of the stem, on 4—11. Those at 
the sides are blue, and the head is of the same 
color as body. After the third moult, the black 
spots, except a row below the stigmatal row of 
tubercles, disappear; the tubercles themselves 
lose all black except the spines, and the head 
and body become delicate bluish-green rather 
than yellowish-green as formerly. After the 
fourth and last moult, the red tubercles near 
the head frequently become yellow, and when 
full-grown, the worm measures over four inches, 
and presents the appearance of Figure 62, the 
tubercles being respectively of the most delicate 
yellow and blue. Two weeks after the worm 
first began to spin, it changes to a chrysalis, and 
as already stated, passes the winter in this form, 
there being but one brood each year. 

[Pig. <».l 



Enclosed in the cocoon with the chrysalis was 
a kernel of corn, and Mr. Jackson was anxious 
to know how it got there. The only explana- 
tion we could give, was that the kernel bad 
perhaps been accidentally dropped by some 
bird, and had fallen through the meshes of the 
loose silk and lodged while the worm was yet 
spinning its cocoon. It is one of those singular 
coincidences which occur once in a life-time, 
and we mention it in this connection, simply to 
place the fact on record. 

Parasites of the Oecropia Moth. 
Last year our Oecropia worm seemed to be 
unusually numerous in many parts of the coun- 
try, but it very rarely becomes sufficiently so 
to prove. greatly destructive; though instances 
are on i*ecord of their having entirely stripped 
small apple trees. The principal reasoH is 

[Pig. 63.] 





Colors—Green, blue, yellow, and red. 



Color— Veil o wiah-brown . 

because they are such large and conspicuous 
objects, that they fall a ready prey to birds, and 
to numerous insect enemies. We will conclude 
this article by referring 
to a few of the more con- 
spicuous of the latter. 

The Long - tailed 
Ophion — (Ophion mac- 
rummy Linn.) — This 
large yellowish-brown 
Ichneumon fly (Fig. 63) 
is often bred from the 
cocoons in place of the 
moth which one expects. 
It is one of the most 
common parasites of 
this large insect, and the 



On the 20th of Mirch, 1867, Mr, J. A. Jack- 
son, of Gooding's Grove, Ills., brought to us a 
cocoon from whieh the moth had not yet escaped. 



females appear to be 
altogether more common than the males, for we 
have bred no less than seven of the former and 
not a single one of the latter sex. The female. 



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JOJ 



according to Mr. Troavelot, deposits from eig^ht 
to ten eggs upon the skin of her victim, and the 
yoQDg lame soon hatch from them and com- 
mence to prey upon the fatty parts of the worm. 
Bot as only one of the parasitic iarvsB can find 
food sufficient to mature, the rest all die from 
hanger, or else are devoured by the strongest 
one which survives them. At first one would 
suppose that this deposition of several eggs by 
the parent Ichneumon, where only a single 
larva can develop, is a striking instance of mis- 
directed instinct; but we find a similar prodi- 
gality throughout Nature, for every individual 
is so subject to disasters of one kind or another 
in its struggle for existence, that a provision of 
several ova is often necessary to insure the 
future development of a single one, just as we 
often sow several seeds of some particular plant, 
in order to insure the growth of a single one. 

After the Cecropia worm has formed its co- 
coon, the parasitic larva, which had hitherto 
fed on the fatty portions of its victim, now 
attacks the vital parts, and when nothing but 
the empty skin of the worm is left, spins its 
own cocoon, which is oblong-oval, dark brown 
inclining to bronze, and spun so closely and 
compactly, that the inner layers when separated 
have the appearance of gold-beater's skiu. If 
we cut open one of these cocoons soon after it 
is completed, we shall find inside a large fat 
legless grub (Fig. 64), which sometimes under- 

[Fig. 6*.] 




Color— Yellowish. 
goes its transformations and issues as a fiy in 
the fall, but more generally waiu till the fol- 
lowing spring. 

The Cecropia Tachina Fly. — ^The Ichneu- 
mon fly last mentioned usually causes a dwarfed 
appearance of the worm which it infests, and 
parasitized cocoons can generally be distin- 
guished from healthy ones by their smaller 
size. The larvae of the Tachina fly, which we 
now introduce to our readers, as parasitic on 
the Cecropia worm, seem to produce an exactly 
opposite effect — namely, an undue and unna- 
tural growth of their victim. In the beginning 
of September, 1866, we received from Rocktord, 
lib., an enormous Cecropia worm. It measurad 
over four inches, was a full inch in diameter, 
aud weighed nearly two ounces; but like many 
other large Hpecimens which we have since seeui 



it was covered with small oval opaque white 
egg-shells, clusters of four or ^ve occurring on 
the back of each segment, invariably deposited 
in a transverse direction. The skin of the 
worm was black where the young paraMtes 
had hatched and penetrated. This large wokui 
soon died aud rotted, and in about twelve days 
a host of maggots gnawed their way through 
the putrid skin. These maggots averaged about 
one-half inch in length, and in form were like 
those of the common Blow-fiy. The head was 
attenuated and retractile aud furnished with 
two minute curved hooks, and the last segment 
was squarely cut off, slightly concave and with 
the usual two spiracles or breathing-holes which 
this class of laiTSB have at their tails. Their 
color was of a translucent yellow, and they 
looked very much like little pieces of raw fat 
beef. They went into the ground and remained 
in the larva state all winter, conti*acted to pupas 
in the April following, and the flies commenced 



[Fig. 66.] 




Colon— Gray and black 
the Army-worm, 



to issue the last of 
May. This fly is 
the Exorista ce- 
cropia of our MS., 
or Cecroi)ia Tach- 
ina Fly, but as it 
diflers fi*om the 
Red-tailed Tach- 
ina Fly {Exorista 
militariSy Walsh, 
Fig. 66), which 
similarly infests 
other respect than 
tail entirely, or in 



m no 
in either lacking the red 
having only the faintest trace of it; and as 
in a lot of the militaris bi*ed last summer 
from Army-worms, we find considerable dif- 
ference in this I'espect, we prefer, rather than 
multiply species on such mutable grounds, to 
consider it as a variety of that species. We 
infer that this same Tachina fly attacks the 
Ceci*opia worm in widely different parts of the 
country ; for we have this winter received from 
Mrs. Mary Treat, of New Jersey, two dipterous 
pupsB which probably belong to this species, 
and which had also in the larva state infested 
a Cecropia worm. 

The Cecropia Chalcis Fly — (Chalets mariay 
N. Sp.*) — In May, 1869, we received tVoni Mr. 



*Chalci9 mariat N. Sp.— $ yellow, beaatiMly marked 
with black. Head, yellow with an arcuate black mark 
behind base of the antennie, connected with a line short lon- 
gitudinal black line leading to lower ocellus, and from 
tnence to posterior margin of occiput which is margined 
with black: urothorax with a medium black dot. Antennce 
(scape X 9 joints) 10-Joint«d; scape fUlvous with su|>erior 
edge black, flagellum dark brown or black. Thorax with 
large shallow close-set puoctores: mesothorax somewhat 
stnated transvertely, trllineiir with black, the three lines 



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V. T, Chambers, of Covington, Ky., numerous 
specimens of the hitherto undescnbed beautiful 
large Chalcis fly figured herewith (Fig 66), 

[Fig. «6.] 




Colors— Black and yellow . 

which he had taken from the cocoon of the 
Polyphemus moth, which is quite common, and 
issues as early as the middle of Februaiy in 
that locality. He says, "I was satisfied that 
the cocoon did not contain a living Polyphemus 
and therefore opened it. It contained so little 
besides these insects and their exuviae, as to 
suggest strongly the old idea that the caterpillar 
had been metamorphosed into them (as in a 
sense it had) . There were 47 of them, of which 
23 were females. As all the males, and some 
of the females were dead when I opened the 
cocoon, I think it likely that the former never 
do emerge, and perhaps but few of the latter; 
otherwise Polyphemus would soon be exter- 
minated." 

We can very well imagine that most of these 
Chalcis flies would die in their efforts to escape 
fi-om the tough cocoon of the Polyphemus, but 
it so happens that these same parasites have 
been found by Mrs. Mary Treat, of Vineland, 

connected by a transverse line which separates the prothorax 
Irom mesothorax, the middle line straight, the oiiter ones 
deeply impressed, approaching behind and connected ou the 
posterior raargm bv a short transverse Ihie, and then sud- 
denly divergmg on lateral suture of srutellum; a loniritndinal 
black dot on each side ovei- tegulro; scuteUura edged ante- 
riorly with black and with a central longitudinal black line- 
basal margin of raetathorax, with a spot on each extremeside 
and a large subtriangular mark on disk, black ; pleura* with 
two black lines on each side. Wingt hyaline Abdomen 
yellow with sometimes a faint tinge of green, black at base 
and tip, and each segment banded with black superiorly 
petiole yeUow. black at tip above. Legt yellow, the tare! 
inclining to ftilvous; a bmad line on posterior coxa? above 
and interior edge of femora and of tibiae, and tip of femora' 
black; the femora about as birge as abdomeji with over 12 
minute black spines on inferior edge. Average length 0.20 

(j differs In the less pointed abdomen, and somewhat 
longer petiole, in the scape of antenna: not being black 
superiorly and being much more robust; in the flairellum 
bcmg of the same color as scape, and in the coxa; having a 
black line both above and beneath. Ayerage length 15 
Described ftom lOcJ* 4 $ bred from Attacut polyphemtu and 
2 (SI $ bred from A. promethea. Variable In size, some 
(S<S being much lai^er than some ? $ . 

Say's amana, bred from a Thecla, In which no sexual 
difference Is mentioned, somewhat resembles the 2 of this 
specie, but differs from it principally In haying the thorax 
qnadrUlnear with black, the petiole black, the pleura black? 
with four yellow .spots, and in the thighs having six or 
eight prominent spines, the superior one divided Into three 
or four. 



New Jersey, to prey upon the Cecropia worm, 
from the cocoon of which they can much more 
easily escape. We take pleasure, therefore, in 
naming this pretty Chalcis fly in honor of that 
lady. The same fly also attacks the Promethea 
worm— another of our large native Silk-worms 
—and Mrs. Treat has had a similar experience 
with Mr. Chambers, of finding them dead in 
its cocoon. She has upon two occasions found 
cocoons with a dead Chalcis fly fast in the hole 
which it had eaten to make its escape; and 
upon cutting open such cocoons they were found 
literally packed with dead Chalcis flies. It 
would seem that they all make their escape 
through the hole made by some one of their 
number, and that if this particular one fails 
in the undertaking, they all perish rather than 
make holes for themselves. 

The Divorced Cryptus— (C7ryp^t« nuncius, 
Say; extrematia, Cresson).— Another Ichneu- 
mon fly infeste the Cecropia worm in great 
numbers, filling its cocoon so full of their own 
thin parehment-like cocoons, that a transverse 
section (Fig. 67) bears considerable resemblance 
'" to a honey-comb. The flies 

issue in June, and the sexes 
differ sufficiently to have 
given rise to two species. 
We have bred 7 ? and 29 ^ 
from a cocoon of the Cecro- 
pia moth, and 6 ? from one 
of the Promethea moth, all 
the males agi-eeing with the 
species described by Say as 
' nuncim* and all the fe- 

males agi-eeing with that described afterwards 
as extrem atis by Mr. Cresson. 

fro'^*^^'*^^ ^q' ™^"**®" whether his description was taken 

THE SPARROWS. 

The London Builder says: *'One hundred 
and eighteen Sparrows have been offered upon 
the altars of science. The consent* of the stom- 
achs of the victims have been examined, tabu- 
lated and recorded. Three culprite alone, out 
of this hecatomb, were proved by the unsparing 
search, guilty of having lived for the past four- 
and-twenty hours upon gi-ain. In fact, there 
were three tliieves out of the 118; all the other 
victims had worked, more or less, for their liv- 
ing. Beetles and grubs, and lai-vae of all obnox- 
ious kinds had been their diet. In 75 of the 
birds, infants of all ages, from the callow fledg- 
ling to the little Pecksy and Fiapsy that just 
twitter along the ground, hardly any but insect ' 
remains were detected." 




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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



103 



6ALL8 AND TIIEIR ARCHITECTS -2d ABTICLE. 

COOHTUrUBD FBOX VAQM tlVBSITT-rOVB. ] 

Galls Made by Beetles. 
(Order, Colsopteray Families Bupreniity Ourculio, etc.) 

The Raspberry Gouty Gall— (Rubi poda- 
gray new species.)— In th« spring of the year, 
when Raspberry and Blackberry patches ai-e 
being overhauled and pruned, many of the canes 
will often be noticed to swell out in particular 
places, (like a limb infested by the gout,) for 
the length of an inch or so, as shown in Figure 
68. Instead of being smooth and of a uni- 
form color, like the healthy [Fig. 68.] 
parts, the swelled pai*t of 
the cane, which is a true 
gall, always splits up lou- 
gitadinally into a great 
many short, rough, brown- 
ish slits, and on inspecting 
these gouty galls more care- 
fully, numerous little ridges 
will be observed, the gen- 
eral direction of which is 
round and round the axis 
of the cane. If the obseiTer 
takes his knife and cuts into 
the ridges just now describ- 
ed, he will find under each 
of them the passage-way of 
a minute borer, filled witJi 
the brown excrement which 
he has left behind him ; and 
either in these passage-ways 
or in the pith of the cane he 
will often detect the insi- 
dious little borer himself. 

(Fig. 69, b.) This borer is colo«-Th»t of the cane, 

a small, thread-like larva, with biuwn scales. 
of a ci-eamy white color, with the front part of 
its body much flattened out honzoutally, as in 
the common Hammer-headed Borer of the 

[Fig. 69.] 





Cok>i«~(a) brown; (6) whitish; (c) coppery-reel and black. 

Apple-tree, the head being small and retractile, 
with the jaws of a brown color, and the tail be- 
ing furnished with two long, slender, blunt- 
pointed, dark brown thorns or horns. When 



full-grown it ranges in size from one-half to 
three-quarters of an inch. Like most other 
borers, this one in the earlier stages of liis 
larval life burrows exclusively in the sapwood, 
thereby very generally — owing to the spiral 
course which he adopts-— girdling and killing the 
cane that he inhabits. The same cane often 
contains several of them ; and in that event the 
shape of the gall which they produce often be- 
comes very irregular. Towards the end of 
April in South Illinois, but probably rather later 
in more northerly latitudes, the larva penetrates 
into the pith, so as to be more secure fW)m his 
insect foes, and there transforms into the pupa 
state; and early in the summer, and sometimes 
even as late as the fore part of July, tlie perfect 
beetle emerges to the light of day. Although 
we do not know, by dji*ect observations, at 
what particular time in the preceding year the 
Raspberry Gouty-g«Il« originate, yet as the 
beetles come out in Jnno and July, we may 
infer by analogy that the sexes then immedi- 
ately couple, and that the female shortly after- 
wards deposits her eggs in or on the young 
canes, whence in the course of the same sum- 
mer there must necessarily hatch out the tiny 
young Iarv89 that are the architects of these galls. 
This beetle belongs to the same group (Bu- 
prestis family) as the well-known Hammer- 
headed Apple-tree borer, {Chrysohothris femo- 
rata), and another species which is peculiarly 
attached to the Cherry, (Dioerca divaricata). 
Indeed all the species of this extensive and 
beautiful group burrow in the wood of diflerent 
traes, each having its peculiar vegetable favo- 
rites ; and some of the largest, which in the beetle 
state considerably exceed one inch in length 
and are gloriously resplendent with burnished 
copper and gold, are in the larva state most 
grievous pests among our Pines and Firs. The 
genus to which our Raspberry Borer belongs 
(Agrilwt) differs from most of the other genera 
comprised in this Family by being of a very 
slender elongate shape, and by containing no 
species but such as are of quite a diminutive 
size, the largest of them being less than half an 
inch in length. Our species was originally des- 
cribed in the year 1801 by the German entomol- 
ogist Fabricius, under tlie name of the Red- 
necked Buprestis ( Agrilus ruflcollis), in allusion 
to the brilliant coppery color of its head and 
thorax, (see Fig. 69, r) ; but-^as very generally 
happens in such cases — this author was entirely 
ignorant of its larval history. At length in 
1846, that excellent entomologist. Prof. S. S. 
Haldeman, published to the world tlio fact of 
its destroying the stalk of the Antwerp Rasp- 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



berry, illnetrating his Article on the subject by 
fiprures;* thongb, so far as we can find out, it 
does not appear that he was acquainted with the 
frails that it forms, or, at all events, that he con- 
sidered the swellings produced by it as being 
what they undoubtedly are — ^true, genuine, un- 
mistakable galls. Finally in 1869, through the 
kind assistance ot Mr. J. B. Miller, of Anna, in 
South Illinois, who forwarded to us in the April 
of that year a bountif^il supply of these galls, 
we were enabled to trace tbe species through 
all its transformations, and to complete its 
larval history as a true gall-maker. The fol- 
lowing remarks by this gentleman on its habits, 
under date of April 80th, 1869, will, we are 
gure, be highly appreciated by the horticultural 
world : 

These borers infest the Philadelphia and Doo- 
little Raspberry and the Wilson Blackberry, 
but they are seldom found in the High-bush 
or Bigid-cane vaneties. Their habit,, as it 
seems, is to girdle the cane in the previous 
season, in order to kill it. If they succeed in 
this, they are all right; otherwise, they appear 
to ft*eeze out and die during ijtie winter, per- 
haps owing to the superabundance of sap which 
then surrounds them. In Blackberry canes this 
misfortune befalls them much more frequently 
than in Raspberry canes. I have heard many com- 
plaints during the last winter about the Doo- 
little Raspberries winter-killing: but I suspect 
that in reality it is this little borer, and not the 
cold weather, that has killed them. In fact all 
of mine that have perished, have perished entire- 
ly through this cause. 

* I fear that this fellow will become in time 
pretty troublesome here, if raspberry-growers 
do not take the proper means to get rid of him. 
My own plan is to cut the infested canes out 
and bum them, before the perfect insect emer^s 
from the pith ; for it is there, as you will readily 
perceive, that he retires to pass into the pupk 
state, most of them, as I observe, having trans- 
formed into that state during the last two weeks 
in April. 

Nothing can be more' scientifically correct, 
and, we may add, more practically important, 
than these last observations of Mr. Miller's, as 
to the best method of fighting this destructive 
little pest. From our own observations, we in- 
cline to believe that the Red-necked Buprestis 
is much more likely to trouble the Raspberry 
and Blackberry growers in southern than in 
northern latitudes. About eight years ago we 
noticed a very large number of their galls in 
our own Raspberry patch at Rock Island, in 
North Illinois. But although we gathered great 
quantities of them about the last of March, 
when we were pruning and thinning out the 
canes, and although we took the proper means 

q^arterllf Journal qf Science and Affricutture, 1846; see 
miso a pftTMnraph by tbe B«ne Mthor in the Ftsrm Journal, 
Vol.I.iTiS. 



for breeding the beetle therefrom, we did not 
succeed in rearing a single specimen to maturi- 
ty ; neither could we ever discover in succeed- 
ing years a single gall in this very same Rasp-^ 
berry patch, which contained about three or 
four dozen hills. Hence we draw the conclu- 
sion that, in ordinary seasons, the winters of 
North Illinois are destructive to the species. 

We may add that our Raspberries belonged to 
two distinct varieties of the imported European 
species {Bubus Jdasus)^ to which also appertains 
the Antwerp Raspberry which Prof. Haldeman 
found to be infested by the Red-necked Bu- 
prestis. On the other hand, Mr. Miller obtained 
his galls fW>m the Doolittle and Philadelphia 
Raspberries, which are cultivated varieties of 
our wild Blackcap Raspberry (J?, occtdentalis) , 
and some of them from the Wilson Blackberry, 
which is, we believe, a mere variety of the 
Common or High Blackberry (J?. vQlosv^). 
Thus it results that the same indigenous gall- 
making beetle attacks almost indiscriminately 
three distinct species of the same botanical 
genus (Rfibus) ; one of which, the Common Gar- 
den Raspberry, is an imported plant, while the 
other two, namely the Blackcap Raspberry and 
the Common Blackberry, are native Amer- 
ican citizens. For although in common parlance 
we speak of the Raspberry and Blackberry as 
distinct genera, all botanists agree in classify- 
ing them under one and the same genus. 

The Grape-vine Wound-gall. 
( VUie fmlnue,) 

In our former article on '^ Galls and their Ar- 
chitects," we described and figured two new 
galls on the Grape-vine, both of which are pro- 
duced by Gall-gnats. The gall which we are 
now going to talk about is generated, not by a 
Gall-gnat, but by a Snout-beetle, and was de- 
scribed by us for the first time, but without 
assigning any name to it, in the Missouri Agri- 
cultural Report for 1868 (pages 131-2). It first 
becomes visible upon the young canes, and more 
especially upon those of the Concord variety, 
towards the latter end of July, the Snout-beetle 
which produces it generally coming out in the 
fore part of that month. At first it is, as usual 
with galls, small and inconspicuous; but to- 
wards the end of the season it assumes the ap- 
pearance of an elongated knot or swelling, which 
is for the most part situated immediately above 
or below a joint (Fig. 70, a). Almost invari- 
ably there is a longitudiual slit or depression on 
one side, dividing that side into two checks, 
which generaUy have a rosy tint. Inside tbe 



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105 



gall resides the larva of the gall-maker—a little, 
footless, white, cylindrical grub, with a large 
yellowish head and tawny jaws. When full- 
grown in the spring of the fol- [p|g 70.] 
lowing year, this larva meas- 
ures 0.28 of an inch in length, 
and very much resembles that 
of the Potato Stalk-weevil, 
which we figured in Volume I, 
No. 2 (Fig. 12, a). Daring the 
latter part of June it trans- 
forms within the gall to a papa, 
which also very much resem- 
bles that of the Potato Stalk- 
weevil, differing principally in 
the wings and legs reaching 
down to iths the length of the 
body instead of but i as in that 
species. About two weeks af- 
terwards it changes into the 
Sesostris Snout-beetle (Bari- 
dius Sesostris, LeCoute), of 
which we present a sketch in 
Figure 71 .♦ This beetle is of a 
uniform yellowish-brown color, 
without any markings what- 
ever; and it differs from most"* coior-Groen 
Snout-beetles by being highly polished, and 
especially by the peculiar glassy undulating ap- 
pearance of the wing-cases. 

We t hink it highly probable that this Grape- 

•A8 regards the correct nomenclature of this beetle, it is 
allowed on all hands that up tr> December, 1868, the species 
wtw andescribed. In March, 1869, the Junior Editor de- 
scribed it, in the Missouri Agricultural ReiM)rt as quoted 
aboTe . under the name of ' 'Madam* vitU, ' ' and gave nearly 
tile same account of its larval and pupsl history as has been 
already presented to our readers. In December, 1868, or 
three months beiore the Junior Editor published his Report, 
I>r. John L LeConte, in a Paper "On the species of Bari- 
diuM inhabiting the United States/' published in Proc Acad. 
Nat. Sc. Phil., described it (page 364) under the name of 
• ' Bmridiu* Sesottrif . ' * Conseauently , Dr LeConce ' s specific 
name necessarily takes preccaonce of the Junior Editor's. 

In the paper on Baridius Just now referred to, it is stated 
that B Se$ottri» "depredates on grape-vine, producing the 
gall described by Mr Walsh as Vititcunnut.*' Now, the 
ttenior Editor recollects having sent specimens of the beetle 
to Dr. L^Conte in the summer of 1868, with an account of the 

SU that it generates; and in his private correspondence with 
at gentleman he may possibly have given some name or 
other, no matter what, to the gall itself He distinctly re- 
members, however, being soon afterwards favored by Dr. 
JjtConUi with a sight ot the Manuscript of the Paper on Bart- 
diuSy then nearly ready lor publication; and he can testify 
open oath to his having erased in pencil th« " Y ititcunnut ' ' 
that appeared there, and substituted for that name the one 
which we have adopte<l in this Article, namely " Vitit 
imhuiM,** In any case, no negative fact can be better 
established, than that the Senior Editor never described 
in print this gall under uny name whatever, as is errone- 
oufliy, and we doubt not unintentionally, asserted by 
the author of the Paper "on U. S. Baridiui ** Con- 
sequently, as the Junior Editor did not give any scientific 
name to this gall iu his Oflicial Report, and as a mere men- 
tion b^ Dr. LeConte of any particular scientific name- 
erroneously supuosed by him to have been given to this 
gall by the Senior Editor along with a proper scientific 
description— amounts, according to scientific etiquette, to 
just nothlnj^ at all; the name which we now for the first time 
give it, bemg authenticated by a lull description, must take 
precedence oi any other 

As to the generic name of this Snout-beetle, we acknowl- 
edge that we still have our doubts whether it be properly 
referable to Baridiiu rather tlian to Madarut: but since Dr. 
LeConte is confessedly the King of the Coleoptera iu this 
coantr}', we yield at once to his authority in this matter. 




vine "Wound-gall is caused, more by the punc- 
tures which the female beetle makes in deposit- 
[Fig. 71] 1"^ ^cr ^8^9 ^^^ by the drop of 
poison, which from analogy we 
may infer that she Instils ft*om her 
abdomen into the puncture along 
with the egg, than by the irritat- 
ing gnawings oi the larva. For 
frequently, in the one-year-old 
coi»n-8hbi7 7«i. cane, we have noticed that the 
lowuh-brown. jj^p^j^ j^j^^j burrowed two or three 

inches away from its original home in the gall, 
without its having caused a corresponding 
swelling in the part of the cane where we met 
with it. So far as we have observed, the 
Grape-wound Gall does not cause the death 
of the cane upon which it grows, nor to any 
material extent injure the vine upon which it 
grows.. Should such an event ever happen, or 
should these galls increase to any considerable 
extent, so as to become formidable to the Vine- 
grower, their further multiplication may be 
readily checked by cutting off and burnnig the 
infested canes at any time before the Snouts 
beetle leaves them in the forepart of the follow- 
ing July. 

We have noticed iu September, upon the leaf- 
stems of the common Virginia Creeper (Ampel^ 
opsis quinquefolid) y generally close to the leaf 
itself, a simple swelling opening externally with 
a large ragged discolored mouth. This is a 
true gall, and it is produced by what Dr. Le 
Conte considers as an undescnbed species of the 
very same genus of Snout-beetles (Madarus), to 
which we had ourselves originally referred the 
Sesostris Snout-beetle. This Virginia Creeper 
Snout-beetle (Madarus ampelopsidos, new spe- 
cies) is met with inside the gall in September, 
and it sc^ircely differs, so far as we can discover, 
from the Sesostris Snout-be^tle, except in being 
a trifle more robust, and of a uniform shining 
coal-black color, instead of yellowish-brown. 
As the Virginia Creeper belongs to the same 
botanical Family as the Gi-ape-vine, this, with 
us, was an additional argument for referring 
both these gall-producing insects to the SHine 
genus (Madarus), as we have done in the Mis- 
souri Entomological Report. For it is a very 
general rule that the same genus of gall-makers 
inhabits the same genus of plants, or at all events 
confines itself to such genera of plants as are 
very closely allied together. Still, as Dr. Le 
Conte has decided to classify the two insects 
under two different, but closely allied genera 
{Madarus and Baridius), we have, in defere,nce 
to his deservedly high authority, adopted his 
nomenclature. 



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The carious reader will perhaps ask, why Dr. 
LeGoQte gave to this Grape-vine gall-maker the 
name of " the Sesostris Snoat-beetle " (Baridtus 
Sesostris) . Sesostris was an ancient Egyptian 
king, who lived three or foar thousand years 
ago. What can he possibly have to do with a 
gall on an American grape-vine? Now, it so hap- 
pens that Dr. LeCk>nto refers us to a passage in 
Herodotus,* for the origin of this name " Sesos- 
tris." After a long and tedious search, we suc- 
ceeded at length in finding a copy of this most 
amusing old historian in the original Greek; 
and we find that he tells us that Sesostris sub- 
dued the whole world ages and ages ago — that, 
whenever he had fought against a brave nation 
and conquered them, he set up a marble obelisk 
with a short inscription stating that Sesostris 
had subdued such and such a people, and that 
they were brave men — and finally that^ when- 
ever he met with a nation that was too cowardly 
to fight against him, he set up another marble 
obelisk, with the corresponding inscription, that 
Sesostris had subdued such and such a people, 
but that they were effeminate and unmanly 
cowards. '*And," adds the gossiping old Greek, 
'^ in the latter case he always sculptured at the 
end of the inscription an emblematic symbol 
(aidota yuvatxo':), to stigmatize in the most 
significant and expressive manner their cfi*emi- 
nate unman liness.'* 

As Herodotus informs us that Sesostris snb- 
dued the whole world, may it not bo possible 
that the great Egyptian conqueror reached Nortli 
America with his victorious arms by way of 
China and Kamschatka? And that this pecu- 
liarly North American Gi*ape-wonnd Gall is a 
precious fragment of the ancient inscription, 
which he set up in this country thousands and 
thousands of years ago? Qufen sabef Wlio 
knows? 

•Book 2ncl, chapter 102. 



REPORT OP THE COMMITTEB ON ENTOMOLOGY. 

RBAD BY THE KDITOR BSFOKK TUE MldSOlKI STATK nOBTI- 
CCLTUKAL SOCIETY. 

In the preparation of my Annual Report, I 
have dwelt in detail on many insects that have 
attracted attention during the year, cither by 
their injuries or benefits. In that report numer- 
ous illustrations will be used to appeal to the 
eye of the reader, aud as it will be published in 
the same volume with your transactions, I deem 
it snperfinous at the present time to dwell on 
the natural history of any one insect. Permit 
me, therefore, to cursorily refer to a few of the 
prominent entomological events of the year, and 



afterwards to make a few generalizations, which 
it is hoped will prove of some little interest and 
value. 

The year 1869 may be set down as one in 
which our crops, as a general thing, have suf- 
fered less than usual ft*om insect depredations. 
At least such has been the case in Missouri, and, 
judging from extensive con*cspondeuce, the 
same statement would hold true of most of the 
northern and middle States of the Union. 

True, the army worm (Le^tcania unipuncta, 
Haw.), and the Grain Plant-louse (Aphis aveno', 
Fabr.), appeared in many parts of the State in 
sufficient force to do considerable damage, and 
these two insects may always be expected in a 
tolerably wet year that was preceded by a very 
dry one. But most insects, and especially those 
which affiict you as hoi*ticultnrists, have be- 
haved exceedingly well, though it is difficult to 
say whether we are to attribute this good beha- 
vior on their part, to the increased knowledge 
of their habits which has been disseminated 
among those who have to deal with them, or to 
the more potent and unalterable workings of 
Nature. 

The Chinch Bug, which in the dry summer of 
1868, committed such ravages upon our grain 
crops in many portions of the State, and espe- 
cially in the southwest, was scarcely heard of 
in 1869, after the copious rains which char- 
acterized the past summer commenced to 
shower down. The Apple Worm, or Codling 
Moth has been altogether less injurions than it 
was the year before, and in Adair, Buchanan, 
Cooper, Callaway, Cass, Lewis and Polk coun- 
ties, especially, and probably all over the State, 
our orchards have been loaded with fair fhiit. 
This result was predicted by the writer, and 
may be attributed principally to the scarcity of 
the insect, resulting from the partial failure of 
the apple crop in 1868; but in some part to 
the improved methods of fighting the foe. For, 
as in our civil strifes, we introduce improve- 
ments in the machinery which is to slay the op- 
posing armies, so in this progressive age, wo 
believe in introducing machinery to battle with 
our liliputian insect hosts, whenever it is avail- 
able. And the experience of the past year 
proves, that to destroy this insect, old pieces of 
rumpled rag or cai*pet placed in the crotch of a 
tree, are to be preferred to the hay-bands wrap- 
ped around it, because it requires altogether less 
time to place the rags in their place than to 
fasten the hay-band; and the worms which spin 
up in them can be killed by wholesale, either 
by scalding the rags or by pressing them through 
the wringer of the washing machine. 



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107 



Owing to the severe drouth of 1868, which 
was unfavorable to its successful transforma- 
tioos, that dreaded foe of the fruit-grower, the 
Plum Curcnlio, was scarce in the early part of 
the season, and our plum and peach trees set a 
filler crop than they had done before for 
years; but the subsequent moist weather was 
favorable to the underground evolutions of this 
little pest, and the new brood appeared in great 
numbers about the end of June and beginning 
of July, when they did much damage to stone- 
fhiit and some damage to pip-fruit by the gong- 
lugs which they made for food. As stated in 
an essay read before the State meeting of our 
niinoia horticultural fHends, I have discovered 
a little cannibal in the shape of a minute yellow 
species of Thrips, which destroys vast numbers 
of the little tnrk's eggs; and let us hope, that 
by attacking the Cnrculioin its most vulnerable 
IK>int, this Thrips may in the course of a few 
years reduce the numbers of the Curcnlio, as the 
ladybirds have done with the Colorado Potato- 
bug^ or as the minute mite {Acarua mali) is 
known to have done with the common Oyster- 
shell Bark-louse of the Apple. The eggs of the 
Apple-tree Plant-louse {Aphis malt) which last 
winter so thickly covered the twigs of the apple 
trees in many orchards, hatched and produced 
a prodigious number of lice as soon as the buds 
commenced to burst. In this immediate neigh- 
borhood they were soon swept away, however, 
by their cannibal insect foes, and by insectivo- 
rous birds, such as the warblers, etc.; but a 
physiological ikct connected with this insect 
has been developed this year by Dr. E. 8. Hull, 
the able Ulinois State Horticulturist, which is 
of such importance that I cannot pass it over 
even in this brief report. He has ascertained 
that we buffer from the injurious punctures of 
their little beaks long after the lice themselves 
have disappeared. In fact, he has proved to 
hid own satisfaction that the so-called <<scab" 
in apples, which prevailed to such an alarming 
extent last year, and rendered thousands and 
thousands of bushels valueless for market pur- 
poses, is actually caused by the punctui*es ot 
these lice. I said that the doctor had proved 
this matter ''to his own satisfaction," because I 
believe that caution requires that we should not 
consider it as an established fact until all objec- 
tions to it can be dispelled. Personally I have 
made no observations on this matter, but the 
ikets in the case all add weight to Dr. Hull's 
theory, if such it can be called. Hitherto the 
cause of the ''scab" on apples has been in- 
volved in mystery. It was supposed to have a 
fungoid origin ; yet an examination will show 



that the scabby appearance is not caused by any 
live fungus, but by arrested growth of the cells 
which have become corky and cicatrized. The 
importance of this discovery of Dr. Hull's, 
should it once be firmly established, cannot well 
be estimated; for when we have once ascer- 
tained the cause of a disease, it need scarcely 
exist any longer. By destroying the lice we 
shall prevent scabby apples, and experience 
teaches that they can be destroyed by a good 
syringing of tobacco water. We may expect, 
in this immediate vicinity, an almost total ex- 
emption from " scab " next year, for the apple 
trees are remarkably fk'ee from the minute 
black bead-like eggs of the Plant-louse with 
which they wero so thoroughly peppered a year 
ago. 

The Tent Caterpillar (Clmocampa Ameri- 
cana) was more abundant than usual in our 
orchards, and the Tent Caterpillar of the Forest 
(Clisiocampa sylvatica) also appeared in great 
numbers both on our orchard and forest trees. 

A worm which I have called the Pickle Worm, 
{Fhacdlnra nitidalisy Cram.), and which had 
never been publicly noticed before, appeared in 
immense numbers, and did great damage to our 
encumbers and melons by boring into the fruit, 
but as this insect, with others, will be fully 
treated of in my forthcoming Report, I will pass 
on to a more general subject. 

* * The pebble in the streamlet scant, 

Hay turn the course of many a riyer; 
The deW'drop on the infant plant, 
May warp the giant oak forever. ' ' 

In no department of science does the old pro- 
verb " prevention is better than cure,'' &pply 
with such force as in that of Economic Entomol- 
ogy. In my studies and observations I have 
often been struck with the fact that many of our 
very worst insect enemies have been introduced 
from abroad, and that if this subject of Econo- 
mic Entomology had been better understood 
and appreciated fifty years ago, and the proper 
measures had been taken to prevent the in- 
troduction of these pests, we should at pres- 
ent be free from the curse of the great 
majority of them. We have, indeed, plenty of 
native American insects, which have become 
great pests to the cultivator of the soil, on ac- 
count of the artificial state of things which he 
induces. In a state of nature, a given species 
of plant, in its struggle for existence, is scat- 
tered promiscuously over a certain extent of 
country, and the particular insect or insects 
which feed upon that plant, have to search for 
it over a comparatively extensive surface, and 
their multiplication is consequently restricted. 
But the pursuit of horticulture, for instance- 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



which may be sQccioctly defined as the assemb- 
ling in tracts of greater or less extent, of one 
species of plant at the expense and exclusion of 
others — caases the pai*tico1ar inflects which feed 
upon that plant, to multiply unduly, and wq 
have to use that same intelligence in subduing 
these insects which we employ in producing 
the artificial results wliich caused their increase. 
In the normal state of things insects never in- 
crease unduly ; but, on the contrary, always act 
as Nature's most faithAil servants, and accom- 
plish a most important work in her economy. 
Yet, for reasons explained above, they naturally 
become our enemies, and we should suffer fix>m 
the depredations of our indigenous species, even 
though no foreign ones bad been imported. But 
we have altogether more than our share of these 
insect depredators, and so truly is this the case, 
that insects which attract universal attention, 
and are considered as very serious evils in Eu- 
rope, would not be deemed worthy of notice in 
this country. There, if they loose one-fifth of a 
given crop, the whole community becomes 
alarmed ; but here the cultivator sometimes con- 
siders himself fortunate if he secures the half of 
his crop from insect ravages, and each State 
loses annually from fifty to sixty million dol- 
lars from this cause alone, though but four 
States have as yet made any attempt to pre- 
vent this serious loss. In order to bring this 
fact home to you, and to show why we suffer 
more than do our foreign brethren, I will read 
a paper, which I have prepared for the Ameri- 
can Entomologist upon '^ Imported Insects 
and Native American Insects." - 

[ This paper will be found in another part of 
the present issue.] 

The theory advanced in the above paper, may 
meet with some objectors, although I confi- 
dently believe in the inference there stated of 
the relative advancement and improvement of 
the flora and fauna of the two continents. But 
there is another reason why the insects which 
are imported into this country multiply at a 
prodigious rate, and soon acquire herculean 
power of doing harm, though they may never 
have stepped beyond the limits of propriety in 
their own native home — a reason too palpable 
and evident to savor of the theoretical. It is, that 
whenever an injurious insect is introduced in 
our midst, as a general rule the particular par- 
asite or parasites which kept it in check abroad, 
are not introduced with it. In consequence, 
the foreigners, unaccompanied by the usual 
gens d^aitnes, throw oflT all restraint and play 
the deuce with our crops ; just as the i-ats and 
mice will take possession of, and overrun a 



house, if not restrained by human or b> feline 
agencies. 

Sometimes, as in the case of the Imported 
Currant-worm, the noxious insects introduced 
^m the old world are attacked by native Amer- 
ican parasites, but as I believe the parasites of 
European nativity to be, as a rule, more 
energetic and vigorous than our indigenous 
ones, it would be advisable even in such a case, 
to import in addition such species as prey upon 
it in Europe. But in the case of the Wheat 
Midge which has actually flourished among us 
for almost half a century without a single parar 
site of any kind whatever infesting it from one 
end of the country to the other, it is sheer folly 
and culpable shiftlessness not to import among 
us firom the other side of the Atlantic some one 
or all of the three different Chalcis flies which 
are known to check it throughout all Europe. 
And so with other insects which are known to 
be unaccompanied with the parasites which 
attack them abroad. Years and years ago Dr. 
Fitch demonstrated in print the policy of such 
a step ; but bugs and bug-hunters are so very 
generally the subject of festive ridicule among 
the high and the low vulgar, that hitherto the 
recommendation of the State Entomologist of 
New York has met with no practical response. 

Now no one will fail to understand the force 
of the old proverb already quoted, after listen- 
ing to these facts. Let us profit by the expe- 
rience of the past, and while battling with those 
foes which are already in our midst, let us keep 
a watchful eye, and be on our guard ready to 
crush any new plague that may thi*eaten us, 
before it gets beyond control. Yes, but aay 
yon, how is this to be accomplished? Can it 
be done by the government? Yes, in some 
cases; as for instance in the importation of 
parasites, government aid should be solicited, 
[f, in 1860, when the Asparagus Beetle (Oio- 
ceris asparagi, Linn.) was first introduced on 
to Long Island, the Legislature of the State of 
New York had taken proper action in tl e 
matter, the insect might have been stamped 
out of the island at the trivial expense of a few 
hundred dollars, instead of being allowed to 
multiply, as it did, to such an extent as to 
occasion a dead loss of some fifty thousand 
dollars in a single county, and of spreading 
from the island into the adjoining country. 
Quite recently a weevil (Bruehus granarius) 
which does immense damage to peas and beans 
and some othei* plants in Europe, was intro- 
duced into New York in some pods which a 
certain gentleman presented to the New York 
Farmers' Club, and if the proper steps are at 



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109 



once taken y it may yet be prerented from spread- 
ing through the country. 

In Europe vast sums have been expended in 
founding professorships of Economic Entomol- 
ogy in the various agricaltural colleges, and in 
conducting elaborate experiments on the best 
means of checking and controlling these liny 
foes. But the entire sam expended by Con- 
gress or by our various State Legislatures for 
this purpose, from the Declai*aKou of Indepen- 
dence to the year of our Lord 1869, cannot 
exceed ninety or one hundred thousand dol- 
lars, or about one thousand dollars a year. Yet 
the annua] damage done by insects within the 
limits of the United States cannot be less than 
three hundred million dollars. ' Indeed, it is 
but quite recenrly that the people, from neces- 
sity, have awakened to the importance of the 
subject. We now have an Entomologist con- 
nected with the Department of Agriculture at 
Washington, and, with proper care, he can be 
of iue-ttimable service to the country, in pre- 
venting the inti'oduction of noxious insects. It 
is not noxious weeds alone, such as the Canada 
thistle, which are sent broadcast over the land 
by the distribution of uninspected seeds; but 
noxious insects are very frequently distributed 
io the same way. We have the highest author- 
ity, Dr. J. L. LeConte, of Philadelphia, for the 
statement, that before the Entomologist received 
hia appoinment, a noxious beetle, Bhizopertha 
punUay which has now become naturalized 
here, was originally introduced into this couu- 
try in wheat from the Patent Office. 

Therefore, there can be no doubt that much 
may be done at headquarters. That govern- 
ment aid cannot be of any avail in the great 
majority of instances, however, is equally ap- 
parent to those who have studied this question; 
and we must trust to a more thorough dissem- 
ination of such information as will enable each 
individual to protect himself. Much is being 
done in this direction by mean^ of State Re- 
portSy through the American Entomologist, 
and through our various agrioultural and hor- 
ticultural journals; but much yet remains to 
be done. We must bear in mind that by 
enlightening our neighbors, we are helping 
ourselves, and, as horticulturists, we should 
urge that more attention be paid in our col- 
l^;es, and especially in those of an Industrial 
nature, to the study of the Natural Sciences. 

In my First Report, I have shown how the 
Oystel^shell Bark-louse, though perfectly able 
to live in the northern part of this State, is yet 
ankuown there; and I tremble, lest some one in 
\ er ignaranoe alioaid Introdnoe thia 



dreaded plague of the apple grower into that 
section, from some Eastern or Northern nur- 
sery. Every tree received from a distance 
should be examined from "top to stern," as 
the ailors say, befoi*e it is planted, and all 
insects, in whatever state they may be, de- 
stroyed. There can be no doubt that many of 
our worst insect foes may be guarded against 
by these precautions. The Canker-worm, the 
diflferent Tussock-moths or Vaporer-moths, the 
Bark-lice of the Apple and of the Pine, and all 
other scale insects {Coccidm)^ the Apple-tree 
Root-louse, etc., are continually being trans- 
ported from one place to another, either in 
earth, on scions, or on the roots, branches, and 
leaves of young trees ; and they are all possessed 
of such limited powers of locomotion, that 
unless transported in some such manner, they 
would scarcely spread a dozen miles in a cen- 
tury. 

In the Pacific States fruit-growing is a most 
profitable business, because they are yet free 
from many of the fruit insects which so increase 
our labors here. In the language of our late 
lamented Walsh, "although in California the 
Blest, the Chinese immigrants have already 
erected their joss houses, where they can wor- 
ship Buddha without fear of interruption, yet 
no ' Little Turk ' has imprinted the crescent 
symbol of Mahometanism upon the Californian 
plums and Californian peaches." But how 
long the Califomians will retain this immunity, 
now that they have such direct communication 
with infested States, will depend very much on 
how soon they are warned of their danger. 
I suggest to our Pacific friends that they 
had better "take the bull by the horns" and 
endeavor to retain the vantage ground they 
now enjoy. I also sincerely hope that the day 
will soon come when there shall be a sulficient 
knowledge of this subject throughout the land, 
to enable the nation to guard against foreign 
insect plagues ; the State against those of other 
States, and the individual against those of his 
neighbors. 



SiLK-woRM Egos.— Two tons of Silk-worm 
eggs lately passed on the Pacific railroad fh)m 
California eastward, bound from Japan to 
France. They left Yokohama, Japan, Decem- 
ber 2. In this shipment were 78 packages 
valued at $800 per package. 



^r To all persons interesting themselves in 
the American Entomologist we will allow 
twenty-five cents on every dollar, on all over 
ilve Bamea wkiok they send. 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



IMPORTED INSECTS Ax\D NATIVE AMERICAN 
INSECTS. 

If wc cxamiue into the histoty^ a8 detailed in 
a recent number of onr Magazine, (pp. 15-22) 
of the Imported Currant Worm and the Native 
Currant Worm, we shall find a very curious 
state of things. These two insects both pro- 
dnce Sawflles, which are so closely allied to each 
other, that although they ai*e referred to dis- 
tinct genera by Entomologists, it may be 
doubted whether the genus (Pristiphora) under 
which the native species is classified be not a 
mere subgenus of that under which the im- 
ported species is classified. Reasoning a priori, 
therefore, we should expect to find a very great 
similarity in the destructive ppwers of these 
two worms, especially as each of them infests 
the leaves both of the Red Currant and of the 
Gooseberry. But what are the actual facts? 
On the one hand we see a Native American 
species — which must have existed here from 
time immemorial, feeding on our wild Goose- 
berries and perhaps on our wild Red CuiTant, 
and which yet has troubled onr tame Goose- 
berries and tame Red Currants so very slightly, 
that it cannot bo proved with absolute certainty 
to have ever done so at all, except in Rock 
Island Co., Ills., and in Scott Co., Iowa.* 

On the other hand we see a species, only 
introduced into this country from Europe 
some twelve years ago, which has already al- 
most put a stop to the cultivation of the 
Goosebeny and Red Currant throughout a 
large part of the State of New York, the 
northern borders of Pennsylvania, and the 
whole of Canada West, and is slowly but sure- 
ly extending itself in all dii'ections from the 
point where it was originally imported. What 
cau.be the reason of such a wide difierencc in 
the noxious powers of two such closely allied 
insects, feeding on exactly the same plants, but 
one of them indigenous to America and the 



*In Volume i5th of the Prairie Farmer ^ page 504, a cor^ es- 
pondent Arom Jeffer8on Co., Iowa, states that as early as 
Jane 11th, in the year 1S65, ' *a small greeu worm had taken 
the lion's share of hU currants and gooseberries " 'Ihis 
may possibly refer to the Native Currant Worm, which feeds 
upon gooseberry and currant leaves, but it more probably 
means the Gooseberry Fruit- worm {Pempelia groi9ulari<t, 
Packard,) which feeds npon the gooseberries anil cuirants 
themselves, and which may De found figured and described 
in our First Missouri Report, page 140. What a vast ftind 
of information is soientlflcally unavailable, simply because 
correspondents are so stingy with their pen, ink and paper. 
Again the editor of the Farmer$' Vnion, published at Min- 
neapolis, Minn. . says in a recent number of that paper, that 
several gai*dens in that vicinity have been for the past few 

Sears infested with the Curraut Worm, and that last year 
ley visited his own garden for the second time, having, the 
previous year, made sad havoc with the foliage before they 
were discovered. Now, as there are three perfectly distinct 
worms which attack the leaves of currant bushes, and as the 
editor contents himself with referring to *'Thb Currant 
Worm, ' ' the information he imparts is perfectly valueless 
to the Hntomologist, and the practical man may be led astray 
by the remedies suggested. 



otlier imported into America from Europe? 
Nor is this the only case of the kind. We cau 
point out at least three other such cases. The 
imported Onion-fly {ArUhomyia ceparum), of 
which we herewith present drawings, (Fig. 72, 
a, laiTa, b larva magnified, c fly magnified,) is a 




iJolors— (o and b) white; (r) ash gray, 

terrible pest to the onion-grower m the East, 
though it has not yet made its way out West. 
On the other hand, the Native American Onion- 
fly (Oftalis arcuata, Walker, Fig. 73,) which is 
a closely allied species and has almost exactly 

[Fig. 73.] 




Fig. 75.1 



\m 



Color- Whitish . Color— Blackish . 

the same habits, has only been heard of in one 

or two circumscribed localities in the West, and 

even there does comparatively but little dam- 

[Fig. 74] age. Again, the 

Imported Oyster- 
shell Bark-louse 

(Aspidiotus con- 

cki/ormiSy Fig. 74) 

is a far worse foe 

to the Apple and 

certain other fruit 

trees than our in- 

digenons Hanis's 

Bark-louse (ASp, 

ffarrisii, Fig. 76) 

though each of 

them infests the 

same species. Fi- 

ally, the imported 

Meal-worm beetle 

ColflT— Greenish , — , , . , . — ^ 

brown ; the enn ( TeneOnO fnolt- C..lor-Mnk-whlte ; the e«" 

under the •ciOe ^ under the Kftle blood-red. 

niiik-whrte tor) swarms "°"""»«"^»* 
throughout the whole United States, and U « 
great pest; while the Native American species 







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(Tenebrio obscurus) f which has almost exactly 
the same habits, belongs to the same genus and 
is of very nearly the same size, shape, and color, 
is comparatively quite rare among ns, and is 
scarcely known to our millers and flour- 
dealers. 

On a careful and close examination, it will be 
found that almost all our wo]*st insect foes have 
been imported among ns from the other side of 
the Atlantic. The Hessian Fly* was imported 
almost ninety years ago ; the Wheat Midge about 
half as long ago; the Bee Moth at the beginning 
of the present century; the Codling Moth, the 
Cabbage Tinea, the Borer of the Red Currant, 
the Oyster-shell Bark-louse, the Grain Plant- 
louse, the Cabbage Plant-louse^- the Currant 
Plant-louse, the Apple-tree Plant louse, the 
Pear-tree Flea-louse, the Cheese-maggot, the 
common Meal-worm, the Grain Weevil, the 
House Fly, the Leaf-beetle of the Elm, the 
Cockroach, the Croton Bug, and the different 
Carpet, Clothes and Fur Moths, at periods 
which cannot be definitely fixed. Even within 
the last few years the Asparagus- beetle has be- 
come naturalized in New York and New Jei'sey, 
whence it will no doubt spread gradually west- 
ward through the whole United States, while 
the Hape Butterfly, as shown in our last number, 
was introduced about a dozen years ago, and is 
rapidly spreading over some of the Eastera States. 
And only a year ago the larva of a cei-tain Owlet- 
moth, {Hypogymna dUpar)^ which is a groat 
pest in Europe both to fruit-trees and forest- 
trees, was accidentally introduced by a Massa- 
chusetts entomologist into New England, 
where it is spreading with great rapidity. It 
is just the same thing with Plants as with In- 
sects. We have looked carefully through Gray's 
Manual of Botany, and wc find that — exclud- 
ing from consideration all cryptogams, and all 
doubtful cases, and all cases whera the same 
plant is supposed to be indigenous on both sides 
of the Atlantic — no less than two hundred and 
THiRTT-THBEE distiuct spccies of plauts have 
been impoi-ted among us from the Old World, 
all of which have now run wild here, and many 
of which are the worst and most pei-nicious 
weeds that we have to contend against. In the 
U. 8. Agricultural Eeport for 1865 (pp. 610-519) 
will be found a list of 99 of the principal << Weeds 

•For the sake of the tcientiflc reader, we subjoin here, in 
their rcwular order, the scientific names of the Insects cata- 
logoed by their English names in the texts ofthis paragraph \— 
Ceeidomyia df$tructor, DtploiU tritici, GalUria cereana. Car- 
fiKma pomonella, PtutiUa eruciferarum, JEgeria tipu/iformit, 
AfpidiolM conchiformU^ AphU averue, A. brasfica, A. ribU^ 
A. maliy Piylla pyri^ Plophila cateiy Tenebrio tHolitor, Sito- 
fkUw granarius^ Mtuca domettica, Galeruca ccimarientU, 
BUUf orienialit. Ectobia aermanica, Tinea tapetzeUa, vet- 
tiameli; peilioneUa^ Ac.; Criocerii atparagi, Peirit rap€t and 
B^pogymna dhpw. 



of American Agricultui*e," by the late Dr. Wm. 
Darlington. Of this whole number no less than 
48, or nearly one* half, are species that have 
been introduced among us from the Old World. 
Among these wc may enumerate here, as the 
best known and the most pernicious, Butter- 
cups, (two species,) Shepherds' Purse, St. John's 
Wort, Cow-cockle, May-weed or Dog-fennel, 
Ox-eye Daisy, Common Thistle, Canada This- 
tle, Burdock, Plantain, Mullein, Toad-fiax, 
Bind-weed, Jamestown (Jimson) weed. Lamb's 
Quarter, Smart-weed, Field Garlic, Fox-tail 
Grass and the notorious Cheat or Chess. And 
to these we may add the common Purslane, 
which through some strange oversight has been 
omitted in Dr. Darlington's catalogue. 

It will be supposed, perhaps, since there are 
about as many voyages made from America to 
Europe as from Europe to America, that we 
have fully reciprocated to our transatlantic 
brethren the favors which they have conferred 
upon us, in the way of Noxious Insects and 
Noxious Weeds. It is no such thing. There 
are but very few American insects that have 
become naturalized in Europe, and even these 
do not appear for the most part to do any seri- 
ous amount of damage there. For example, on 
one or two occasions single specimens of 
our Army-worm Moth {Leucania unipuncta) 
have been captured in England; but the insect 
has never spi*ead and become ruinously common 
there, as it continually in particular seasons 
does in America. Our destructive Pea-bug 
(Bruchuspisi) has also found its way to Europe ; 
but although it is met with in England, and 
according to Curtis has become natm'alized in 
the warmer departments of France, Kirby and 
Spence expressly state that it does not occur in 
England ** to any veiy injurious extent," and 
Curtis seems to doubt the fact of its being na- 
turalized in England at all.* Again, the only 
species of White Ant that exists within the 
limits of the United States, (Termes fron- 
talis), has been known for a long time to be a 
guest at the Plant-houses of Schonbrunn in 
Germany ; but is not recorded to have ever as 
yet spi*ead into the surrounding country. As 
to our American meal-worm {Tenebrio obscu- 
rus), Curtis states that it has "been inti*oduced 
into England along with American flour, and 
that it is sometimes abundant in London and 
the pi evinces ;t but Kirby an4 Spence say not 
one woi*d about it, and it seenis to be confined 
to the English sea-ports and the places where 

•Kirby A Spence Introd. letter 6th { Curtis Farm In$ect$, 
p. 358. * 

\Farm Iiuecttf p884. 



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American flour is stored, without spreading 
into the adjacent districts. 

A very minute yellow ant, however, {Myr- 
mica mole8ta)j which is often very troublesome 
with us in houses, has, according to Frederick 
Smith, "become generally distributed and na- 
turalized" in houses in England; and Kirby 
and Spence state more specifically, that " it has 
become a great pest in many houses in Brigh- 
ton, London and Liverpool, in some cases to so 
great an extent as to cause the occupants to 
leave them."* As to our Chinch Bug, our 
Curculio, our Plum Grouger, our two principal 
Apple-tree Borers, our Canker-worm, our Apple- 
tree Tent-caterpillar, our Fall Web-worm, our 
Peach-tree Borer, and our other indigenous 
pests among the great Army of Bad Bugs, no- 
body ever yet found a single one of them alive 
and kicking on the other side of the Atlantic. 
And with regard lo Plants, the only two 
American plants that we know to have become 
80 firmly established in £arope as to be a nui- 
sance there, are an American aquatic plant, the 
common Water- weed iAnackaris canadensis) y 
which has choked up many of th& canals in 
England, and our common Horse-weed, or 
Mare's tail as it is called in the West, {Brigeron 
canadense)f which has spread from America 
nearly over the whole world. 

Since then, it can be demonstrated by hard 
dry facts, that American plants and insects do 
not become naturalized in the Old World with 
anything like the facility with which the plants 
and insects of the Old World are every day be- 
ing naturalized in America, there must be some 
cause or other for this singular state of things. 
What is that cause? It is, as we believe, a sim- 
ple fact which is pretty generally recognized 
now as true by modern naturalists, namely, that 
the plants and animals of America belong, as a 
general rule, to an old-fashioned creation, not 
so highly improved and developed as the more 
modernized creation which exists in Europe. 
In other words, although this is popularly known 
as the New World, it U in reality a much older 
world than that which we are accustomed to 
call the Old World. Consequently, our plants 
and animals can no more stand their ground 
against European competitors imported from 
abroad, than the Tied Indian has been able to 
stand his ground against the White Caucasian 
Race. On the other hand, if by chance an Amer- 
ican plant or an American animal finds its way 
into Europe, it can, as a general rule, no m'>re 
stand its ground there against its European 

•Smith in SUioton's Bntpm Amnual i&Hi, p. 70, Mid 1803 



competitors, than a colony of Red Indians could 
stand their ground in England, even if you gave 
them a whole county of land and an ample sup- 
ply of stock, tools, and provisions to begin with. 
For throughout Animated Nature, as has been 
conclusively shown by Charles Darwin, there is 
a continual struggle for existence, the stronger 
and moi-e favorably organized species over- 
powering and starving out from time to time 
their less vigorous and less favorably organized 
competitors. Hence it is as hopeless a task for a 
poor puuy old-fashioned American bug to con- 
tend against a strong energetic highly-developed 
European bug, as it would be for a fleet of old- 
fashioned wooden ships to fight against a fleet 
of our modem iron-clads. 

Let not ** Young America," however, be al- 
together discouraged and disgusted at hearing, 
that our Auimal and Vegetable Creation is more 
old-fashioned than that of what is commonly 
known as the Old World. The oldest geologi- 
cal formations, in which the remains of Mam- 
mals occur, contain the remiins of such mim- 
mals exclusively (Marsupialea) as bring forth 
their young only partially developed, and carry 
those young about with them in a pouch, till 
the day of complete development and physical 
" second birth " arrives. In America we have 
a single genus — the Opossums — that belongs to 
this antediluvian type. In the three ancient 
continents they have absolutely none at all. 
But if in this respect America is more old-fash- 
ioned than Europe, Austmlia is still more old- 
fashioned than America; for there almost all 
their mammals possess this remarkable peculiar- 
ity; so that if the American creation is some- 
what old-fogyish, that of Australia is the very 
concentrated essence of old-fogyism itself. Con- 
sequently, if Europe crows over us as alto- 
gether " behind the times," " Young America " 
can take its revenge by crowing over Australia, 
as the land of the Kangaroo and the Wombat 
and other such exploded absurdities of the 
Mesozoic epochs. 

♦-♦-^ 

^ Now is the time for all those whose sub- 
scriptions expire with the first of this year, to 
renew. Those who appreciate our efforts 
should strive to seud along with their own, the 
name of some oue or other of their neighbors. 
The effort costs nothing, aud besides that satis- 
faction wliich every rigUt-minded man feels in . 
imparting to others useful knowledge, there is 
the reward which oom)s of having careful 
neighbors who fight their owu inject enemies, 
and thus make it easier for you to subdue 
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BLADDER-PLUMS. 

For many years we have noticed in the iiiitl- 
(lle of June on particular trees of onr common 
wildplnm {Prunus americana), that many spe- 
cimens of tlic fruit were enlarged to tlirico their 
usaalsize and were uneven and wrinkled on tlieir 
external surface instead of being smooth and 
plumply rounded. On cutting into such speci- 
mens, they are found to be hollow and spongy 
iuside, instead of solid and fleshy; and almost 
cntii-ely detached from the exterior rind, there 
lies in the centre the juicy white stone which is 
foand imbedded in the flesh of the normal plum 
at this season of the year. On the closest ex- 
amination, we could never detect in these dis- 
eased plums any tokens of the operations of 
iustcts. 

On June 9th, 1868, A. Gilbert, of Tipton, 
Iowa, sent us two pressed specimens, similar 
to tliose which we had ourselves found on the 
Wild Plum, but gathei*ed from his own plum- 
orchard. He did not specify what varieties of 
plnm he had in cultivation, but he stated that 
with lum the disease commenced about four 
years ago, and has now taken almost complete 
possession of his ti*ees. Hence it wonld appear 
that, besides the Curculio, there is still another 
destructive i)e8t which the unfortunate plum- 
gi-ower has to guard against. Verily, this work 
of growing plums seems to be *^ the pursuit of 
frait under difllcnlties." 

AVe can guarantee that this bladder-like de- 
generation of the plum is not caused by any 
insect. What, then, does cause it, if insects do 
not? We answer that, in all probability, it is 
caused by a peculiar paitisitic fungus, which 
may, or may not, be identical with one which 
produces very similar effects in Europe. In the 
London ^^enodical called Science Gossip, for 
Aagnst 1st, 1869, we notice an observation that 
Bladder-plums, which are descnbed as being 
almost exactly like our American ones, are 
common on the Sloe or Blackthorn (Pninus 
spifiosa) in England, and that they are said to 
be caused by a Parasitic Fungus {Ascomyces 
deformans). The f\*uit presents none of its or- 
dinary succulent characters, the stone is not 
formed, and the ovule is more or less atrophied, 
while sometimes a second cai*pel is produced. 
From a recent article on Peach llot by Dr. T. C. 
llilgard of St. Louis, we learn that that gentle- 
man had had such si3ecimens sent him from 
Rarope by the distinguished botanist, Dr. G. 
Engelmann of St. Louis ; and that from their 
showing '< an empty, degenerated and inflated 
germ," they were popularly known there as 



*' fools." The tree on which they occuri*ed is 
said by Dr. Hilgard to be " P^^unus padxtSy'^ 
which Gray describes as a small Bird Cherry, 
which is occasionally planted in this country, 
and resembles the Choke Cherry, but bos longer 
and looser, and often drooping racemes, and a 
roughened stone. 

We have on one or two occasions received 
these *' Bladder-plnms " from correspondents 
in Missouri, and Dr. L. D. Morse, and Jno. H. 
Tice of St. Louis, both have found them on the 
wild Chickasaw plum; but Dr. Hull of S. Illi- 
nois, informed us some time ago that he had 
never met with them, and that he was entirely 
unacquainted with any such disease. Hence 
we infer that however destructive it may have 
been elsewhere, it has not yet made its appear- 
ance in Southern Illinois, and possibly may 
never do so. 

THE TRUMPET GRAPE-GALL. 

{VUis vUicola, O. S.) 

[Fig. 76. ] 




Color— Crimson. 

On page 28 of the present volume of the 
Amkkican Entomologist we presented the 
above illustration (Fig. 76) of this crimson 
Trumpet Grape-gall, and in answer to D. Mc- 
Clainc of Piennont, N. Y., stated that it was 
produced by a gall-gnat, and that it was dcs- 
scribed in our manuscripts under the name of 
Vitis lituus. Wo have since been informed by 
Baron Ostcn Sacken that this gull is his Vitis 
viticola, very briefly described in the " Mono- 
graphs of the Diptora of N. America," p. 202, 
as an '' elongated, conical, red gall, 0.25 to 0.3 
long; on the* upper side of the leaves of the 
grape.'' The gall will therefore be known by 
the last name, our lituKs being invalid. Refer- 
ring to this gall in a recent letter, Francis 



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Walker, of the British MnseuiD, informs us that 
an exci^esccDce of very similar form, but black 
in color, occurs on the leaves of the Lime tree 
(Tilia) in England; but that the character of 
the gall-maker has not yet been determined. A 
French naturalist has, however, detected mites 
in them, and we have little doubt but the galls 
are caused by these mites, for mite-galls of 
somewhat similar form, are common in mauy 
parts of this country on the Plum and Cherry, 
and we shall take occasion, ere long to describe 
and figure them. 

• ♦ • 

THE PARASITES OF THE HUMAN ANIMAL. 



The Itch Mite. 

(Acarus scab it i, Liuii ) 

[ In the fifth number of our First Volume, we 
gave, under the above caption, an account of 
the eight true insects that are parasitic on man, 
and briefly referred to some other ringed ani- 
mals, not classed with the true insects, which 
also prey upon him. Among these last is the 
common Itch Mite, a microscopic creature 
which causes that cutaneous disease — the com- 
mon Itch, ^ye find such an interesting accodnt 
of this parasite, by B. Joy Jefl'ries, A. M., 
M. D., of Boston, in iho January number of 
Good Health, that we transmit the article to 
our columns. — Ed.] 

[Fig. 77.] 




Color— WbltUh. 
Our chapter is headed by a magnified draw- 
ing of the little animal we arc to describe. 
It is about one-sixtieth to onc-scvcntictli of an 
inch iu length, just visible to the naked eye. By 
living in the skiu of man it produces the disease 
known as itch. To understand how to treat 
this troublesome affection intelligibly, we must 
first study the natural history of the animal, its 
habits and habitats. Before doing this, how- 
ever, it will be interesting and instructive to 
glance at the general history of this little crea- 



ture, called in English the Jtcfi-mite, and iu 
Latin, Sarcoptes hominis, or Acarus scabiei. 
There is strong evidence in support of the 
idea that some of the diseases spoken of iu the 
Bible as prevalent among the Jews were, iu re- 
ality, due to the ravages of the Itch-mite iu the 
skin. Probably, when mankind began to peo- 
ple the world, these insects began to people 
them, derived, by contagion, from the lower 
animals previously in existence. From a pass- 
age in Aristotle's *' History of Animals,'' it has 
been supposed that the insect was known to 
him as the cause of the itch. The old Arabian 
physicians, in their writings, mention it quite 
plainly — Aveuzoar, for instance ; but apparently 
we must come down to the twelfth century 
for indisputable reference to the Itch-mite, iu a 
work entitled ^' Physica,^^ written, curiously 
euough, hy Saint Hildegard, the Lady Superior 
of the Convent on the Knperts-Berg, near Biu- 
gen. From that time downwards, the insect 
has beeu seen and spoken of by the medical 
writers of the times, as Guy de ChauUac, Gra- 
lap, Benedictus, Paracelsus, Ambrose Pare, 
Scaliger, Fallopius, Joubeilus, Vidius, Scheuck, 
Uaffenrefier, Riolanus, Mouffet, and mauy oth- 
ere. The^e names carry us down to the early 
part of the seventeenth century, to Janseu's 
discovery of the microscope, in 1619. The 
knowledge of the use of the then primitive in- 
strument soon spread, and the Itch-mite was 
studied by it, the fli-st rough drawings of the 
animal being given by Hauptmann. Duriug 
this (the seventeenth) century, the various wri- 
ters on medical topics show more or less know- 
ledge of this mite. We will not, however, tire 
our readers by quoting their names. Some of 
them mention the custom, which has been a 
common practice fi-om that day to this, of ex- 
tracting the Itch-mite from the skin by meauu 
of a needle. Although, by this time, the mite 
had beeu depicted, and its association with the 
Itch disease recognized, yet it was not till 1687 
that Dr. Bonomo, of Leghorn, and Cestoni, au 
apothecary, studied our little friend in what we 
should now call a common-sense way, and thor- 
oughly exploded the old ideas, handed down 
from one generation to another, that the Itch 
disease was due to thickened bile, dfying of the 
blood, irritating salts, melancholic juices, and 
special fermentation — the presence of the Itch- 
mite, when admitted, being accounted for by 
equivocal generation. These observers saw 
and described the insects quite perfectly, found 
their eggs, and discovered the females laying 
them, and came to the conclusion that the Itch 
disease or scabies arose golely from the presence 



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of au animal which is incessaDtly biting the 
fikiUf and thereby causing the patient to allay 
the itching by scratching. They also explained 
the contagions character of the affection by the 
transferenceof the insects from one individual 
to another. Because Ihcso disoovorics wore 
true, they were denied and combated by the 
medical writers of those days; yet nearly one 
hundred and fifty years passed before any bet- 
ter natural history of the mite appeai-cd. King 
George ll.'s physician, Dr. Richard Mead, of 
Liondqn, reported Bonomo and Cestoni's obser- 
vations to the Royal Society, and published 
them in No. 283 of the " Philosophical Trans- 
actionR.'' 

We have given this little hintorical sketch to 
show how old the disease. is, and how old a 
knowledge of its cause is also. Notwithstand- 
ing, from that time to this (1869) there has not 
failed to exist medical men or naturalists who 
deny the connection between the disease called 
Itch and the Itch-mite. It is with medicine as 
with everything else in the world— denial of 
truth excites notoriety, so desired by the many. 

In view of what we have above said, it seems 
impossible to conceive that a coiTect knowledge 
of the Itch-mite should be, since Bonomo's 
time, repeatedly lost in some of the great cen- 
tres of medical teaching, to be again regained. 
In 1812, a prize was offered in Paris for the dis- 
covery of the little insect; and a certain apothe- 
cary named Gal^s took it, by exhibiting befoi*c 
a medical commission the Cheese-mite, Conse- 
qaently those who searched patients with Itch 
did not find this animal, and a prize was once 
more offered; and Raspail showed the Cheese- 
mite again, and, when the judges were satisfied, 
proved it was such, and exposed Galas' dupli- 
city. The cause of the Itch-mite had hencefor- 
ward its adherents and opposers; whilst, in 
various parts of the world, the lowest classes 
understood it, and the methods of its dest ac- 
tion : for instance, the old women in Corsica, 
wh3 picked them out with needles. Renucci, 
a natiTC of the Island, probab'y familiar with 
the^e old ladies' occupation, finally, in 1834, 
tanght the Parisian medical world how to find 
the Itch-mite; and, from that time to this, the 
insect and its ravages have been more thor- 
oughly and scientifically studied, and the liter- 
ature of the subject grown up into quite a der- 
matological library. In 1846, Dr. C. Eichstedt, 
of Griefswald, and Pi-of. Kmmcr of Kiel, inde- 
pendently discovered the male inite. We who 
now-a-days, have treated the Itch disease, and 
the natural history of the Itch-mite, naturally 
feel as if we knew pretty much all about it; yet 



so late as 1844, Prof. Hebra, of Vienna, gave 
the German physicians a knowledge or a new 
and teiTible phase of this insect's habits and 
habitats, in what is known as the Norwegian 
Scabies, the first recorded case having occurred 
in that country. And so it probably will always 
be in the evelr-advancing science of medicine, 
the present generation smiling at the errors and 
ignoi-ance of the preceding one. But when a 
truth, like the one mentioned of Hebra's, is dis- 
covered, then others are rapidly and constantly 
being found to confirm it. Other cases wera 
soon reported by observers in Grermany. 

We suppose, by this time, our readers want 
to know a little m )re about the insect itself, and 
perhaps have had hardly patience to read down 
so far to learn about the strange-looking animal 
heading our article. At present we include the 
Itch-mite in the special class of Acarinaj and if* 
our reaclers want to know more about the other 
members of this class, as the Sugar-mite, the 
Cheese-mite, etc., wo would refer them to an 
article in the September number of the Ameri- 
can Naturalisty by our friend A. S. Packard, 
Jr., who gives numerous and beautilul illustra- 
tions, accompanied by pleasantly told descrip- 
tions. Our aiiicle will fill up this chapter for 
the Acarm scabiei, or Sarcoptes hominiy or 
Itch-mite. The animal is tortoise-shaped. The 
head distinct from the trunk, with four pair of 
jaws. Eight legs, four in front and four behind. 
The larva has but six legs. Beside the legs ai*e 
long bristles. The male differs from the female 
in appeai*ance, as to the bell-shaped suckers on 
the ends of the legs, and also is not so large. This 
insect has been found, not alone in man, but in 
the skin of the horse, lion, lama, ape, Neapolitan 
and Egyptian sheep, and the ferret. It has been 
thought, also, that the mites found in many 
other animals ai*e the same as man's irritating 
companion, their growth being favored or re- 
tarded by their place of development, thus ac- 
counting for the apparent differences in shape 
and size. The Itch-mite lives in the skin, in 
little passages dug by itself, or, sometimes 
just beneath the epidermis or scarf-skin. 
These burrows the animal extends into the 
deeper layers of the epidermis, down to and 
into the true skin, or rete mucosum, as it is 
called. The Acarns moults three times, not, 
however, specially changing in fonii. The eggs 
are oval in shape, quite largo for the size of the 
animal, and may be laid by the female to the 
number of fifty. AVe give here three drawings, 
to show how the animal gets into the skin to 
form the burrows, now called "acarian fur- 
rows " by dennatologlsts. 



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Ill Fig. 78 the mite has got down beneath the 
epidermis. In Fig. 79 it has commenced dig- 
ging the burrow longitudinally , and the place 
(/) where it was in Fig. 78 has, by the gradual 

[Fig. 78.] 







[Fig. 70.] 






[Fig. 80.] 




growth of the cells, come up nearer to the 
surface of the skin. In Fig. 80, the point (/) 
has thus come up to the surface, whilst the mite 
has gone along further with its burrow. An 
animal, when it gets on to the skin, crawls till 
it finds a suitable soft place, when it tips on to 
its fore-lega, and commences to work its way 
in. The female, as she progresses, lays her eggs 
behind her in the burrow, and when exhausted, 
dies. These eggs will be seen, in a regular 
row behind the female, in the burrow, under 
the microscope with one hundred multiplying 
power. It is not settled how long it takes the 
eggs to hatch, — from seventy hours to six or 
seven days. Propably one egg is laid every 
day. Now, it must be remembered that the 
skin is constantly wearing off, and as constantly 
renewed by new growth from beneath; hence, 
as will be seen by theso illustrations, the eggs 
hatched in the furrow will come to the surface 
in time for the animal to escape from its shell 
when fully formed. The canals which the fe- 
male acari burrow, have generally a serpentine 
form, and are fh)m a twelfth to a quarter of an 
inch in length. They show on the surface of 
the skin a whitish dotted appearance, the dots 
corresponding to the eggs, — the female, as seen 
in the cuts, being at the blind eM i>fthe bun'oiv. 
Ignorance or forgetfulness of this fact has been 
the cause of the Itch-mite escaping detection. 
There will be a little pimple or vesicle on the 
skin over where the mite went in; and, as 
we see from these figures, the animal is not 



there, but off at some distance deeper iu the 
skin ; hence, if we open the little vesicle, or cut 
it out, the insect escapes us. The old women 
in Corsica, and other parts of the world, knew 
better, and with a needle dug out the acanis 
fi"ora the end of the burrow. A surer way of 
obtaining it, and the whole burrow, is to clip 
this ofi* with a fine pair pf curved scissors, com- 
mencing at the blind end where the mite lies 
buried. Of course a little experience is required 
to do this work successfully. Then, if we place 
this little lamina of epidermis on the micro- 
scope-slide, and a covering-glass over it, bnt 
without fiuid, we shall most likely find the 
female acarus and the eggs she has laid behind 
her. A magnifying power of sixty to one hun- 
dred times is quite sufficient. 

After this animal had been proved to be the 
sole cause of the disease called itch, medical 
men thought it was always necessary to find 
the mite to be sure that their patient had the 
itch. From the history above given, and ex- 
planations just made, we can see how natural 
it was that they should so often fail in this, and 
therefore conclude that their patient was not 
the victim of this animal parasite ; consequently 
he was not properly treated, and did not get 
well— Ae corUinued to itch. Hence, to account 
for this, and cover up ignorance, was invented 
the "Jackson itch," the "Seven-years' itch," 
and, lately, the "Army itch." We conclude the 
first did not derive its name from our former 
President, but was only popular during his 
reign. The second was ingenious, for if a 
patient was told he had the " seven-years' itch," 
he naturally concluded that he could not get 
rid of it in less than that number of years, which 
gave time for treatment. As time goes on, soap 
and water, and personal cleanliness, become 
more popular, hence the Itch-mite has become 
less and less common. In the old New England 
days it was the pest of the village-school, the 
town poor-house, and the city jail. During the 
rebellion, the great aimies, on the march and 
in the field, of course, had no opponunities for 
personal cleanliness, so as to prevent the con- 
tagion of the itch-diseaso, therefore it spread 
with great rapidity by contact, and the etTects 
©f the mite's presence in the skin would also 
be severe. The various army surgeons had 
not been accustomed to any such cases; they 
searched in vain for the insect, and, repeatedly 
failing to discover it, finally concluded there 
must be an itch-disease not due to the itch-mite, 
and called it the "Army Itch." Theso cases 
often were furloughed, and, in the cities at 
home, came under the care of those who, from 



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special 8tady of cntaneous diseases, were more 
familiar with the means of obtaining tlie para- 
site, as we have above described, when search 
for it always revealed the trne cause. 

This mite, in bun-owing into the skin, pro- 
dnces intense itching, and sometimes a vesicular 
cmption on the surface; but this is all. The 
intense itching, however, causes those infested 
to scratch themselves incessantly, night and 
ilay; and they consequently tear and lacerate 
tlie skin in every direction. The mite, as we 
said, needs a delicate part of the skin to dig 
into,— between the fingers, for instance, — and 
here the peculiar looking burrows are first 
sought for. The portion of the skin of the 
whole body particularly ravaged by this un- 
pleasant parasite are so definite, that those 
familiar with cutaneous diseases can, at a 
glance, say whether the patient has the itch. 
It must be remembered that several other dis- 
eases of the skin cause as bad itching as the 
Itch-mite ; but the special portions of the gen- 
I eral integument are, however, so marked to the 
practiced eye, that wo no longer feel any need 
of finding a mite in its burrow to establish our 
diagnosis and treatment. In fact, we might 
spend a long time in fruitless hunt, when the 
trouble has lasted sometime, or treatment has 
been attempted. 

We seem, perhaps, very precise and prosy in 
all this; but, duiing and since the war, so much 
scabies has been diflTused through our country, 
that many family physicians are called upon to 
treat what they have never before seen, and 
their want of immediate success should not tell 
against them. We only desire the community 
and physicians to understand that the Jackson 
Itch, the Seven-years' Itch, and the Anny Itch, 
are all due to the presence in the skin of one 
and the same animal, namely, the Acarus sea- 
biei, or Sarcoptes hominis, the Itch-mite depicted 
at the commencement of this article. 

How now, finally, can we get rid of our 
minut«, insinuating, and irritating friends ? 
They lie stored away beneath the hard layer 
of the scarf-skin ; this, therefore, must be Ve-, 
moved, in order to expose them; then some- 
thing fatal to them, but not hurtful to the skin, 
mast be bron<^ht in contact with them, and 
finally the excoriations and eruptions caused 
by the constant scratching must be pi-operly 
treated. The severity of these latter symptoms 
depend, of course, on the length of time the 
person had been affected; that is to say, upon 
the number of Itch-mites which are committing 
ravages upon liim, and partly on the degree of 
the ^cnsibilitv of the skin. As long as the 



person lives, the mite will flourish upon him, till 
it is destroyed by proper methods. In the illus- 
ti-ations (Figs. 78, 79, 80), the mite, as is seen, 
is quite deep in the scarf-skin ; our first efibrts 
towards treatment must thei*efore be to soften 
and break down or rub off this epidermis. 
Every one is familiar with the effect of the 
long-continued application of warm water and 
soap to the skin, how it swells up the scarf- 
skin, softens it, and renders it easily scraped or 
rubbed ott\ Therefore a person with this highly 
unpleasant trouble must first thoroughly soak 
himself in hot water, and rub ajl parts of the 
body which are the abodes of the mites with 
the strongest soft soap. This will be half an 
hour's work. The more delicate the skin, the 
shorter time required. Next, the common sul- 
phur ointment must be rubbed thoroughly over 
the body. This touches and is fatal to the Itch- 
mite, already exposed in whole or part by the 
buivows being broken down by the soft soap 
and hot water. If it does not produce too 
much irritation, the ointment might be left on 
over night, and removed by a hot bath in the 
morning. With a delicate skin, sulphur soap 
can be used instead of sulphur ointment. If 
one such application does not sufilce, it must 
be repeated. All the patent and popular medi- 
cines advertised lately, on account of the itch 
being so widely spread through the country, 
are pretty sure to depend for their success on 
the presence of sulphur, the smell of which is 
hid, more or less, by other ingredients. There 
are many other substances used by physicians 
to destroy this parasite. The above described 
method will be sure to succeed if thoroughly 
carried outy as of course a few mites left will 
soon multiply and again annoy the patient. 
Those who are out of the i*each of medicines 
and hot baths, may often succeed in getting rid 
of their minute.friends, by bearing in mind the 
general laws of treatment; namely, that the 
hard scarf-skin must be. softened and broke 
down, and afterwards whatever kills the acari, 
and does not hurt the skin, be applied. Neces- 
sity will bo the mother of invention. 

Nothing is more difiicult, or, in fact, dan- 
gerous, than to give medical directions to be 
followed by the community. We would most 
strongly advise any one sufiering from the rav- 
ages of this little pest to apply to a physician, 
and let him conduct the treatment. Those 
who make a specialty of cutaneous medicine, 
fortunately, nowadays, have a large choice of 
substances and methods of application, which 
can be adapted to the social condition, the 
degree of cutaneous sensibility, and the age and 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



sex of (he patients applying to them. This is 
of more impoHauce than wonid at first sight 
appear. It must l>e remembered that the skin 
is torn and lacerated by the victim's scratching, 
from which we have Hn artificial inflammation 
of the surface, to be always taken into consid- 
eration in our method of treatment. A thick- 
ski nnfd laborer needs very different applica- 
tions from a delicate child, or feeble woman. 
We therefore again caution against self-treat- 
ment. 

A single word in regard to the clothing. All 
nnder-clothes .should be washed thoroughly. 
Outside garments, contrary to the generally- 
received idea, do not need anything done for 
them. In the great hospital at Vienna, fifteen 
hundred cases are treated yearly, and no at- 
tempt at disinfecting the clothing is found 
necessary. The mite lives in the skin. It will 
therefore be seen that contagion comes from 
personal intercourse, particularly fi'Om hand 
to hand. The most high-bred, refined, and 
cleanly, are not exempt. Although thus highly 
contagious from the mite being passed from 
one -to another, yet students of medicine in 
contact with it rarely get the itch; and the 
writer has examined and handled hundreds of 
cases with impunity. 



A NEW BBAN-WBBVIL. 

BY S. S. RATHVOX, LANCASTKU, PA. 

{Bruchuti ob$o1ftu$, Say.) 
A new destructive insect belonging to the 
Bruchus family of Beetles has developed in 
Lancaster county within the last five yeare, 
infesting the ripe seed-beans. Dr. Jno. L. 
LeConte, after examination, is of opinion that 
it should be referred to Bruchus obsoletus of 
Say, " though there still seems to be some doubt 
upon the question.'' Dr. L. writes that he has 
had specimens of Bruchus raricornisy raised 
from beans and Cow-peas, but the speciejii under 
considei*ation differs from that, in having the 
feet, aud the base and last joint of the antennaB, 
black, whilst in raricornis they arc testaceous . 
Mr. Say describes B, obsoletus substantially as 
follows : " Length over one-tenth of inch ; body 
blackish cinereous, with a slight tinge of brown ; 
antenuse not deeply serrate ; thorax ranch nar- 
rowed before, cinereous, on each side a slight 
impressed dorsal line; base with the edge al- 
most angulated, central lobe almost truncate; 
scutel quadrate, whitish, longitudinally divi- 
ded by a dusky line; elytra with the interstitial 
lines having a slight appearance of alternating 
whitish and dnsln^; on the middle of the third 



interstitial line is a more obvious abbreviated 
whitish line; posterior thighs with a black 
spine, and two smaller ones." Say further 
remarks, that " the whitish or cinereous mark- 
ings are not very striking; on the elytra they 
may sometimes be traced into two obsolete 
macular bands.'' 1 had perhaps four or five 
hundred specimens under my observation, and 
found that whilst many of them agreed sub- 
stantially with Say's description, yet the lar^ger 
number differed. In some specimens the ante- 
rior and intermediate feet wei*e testaceous, and 
in very few was the scutel whitish. V^ery few 
seemed to be banded on the elytra. Say ob- 
tained his specimens in Indiana, from the seeds 
of a species oT Astragalus, a variety of "Milk- 
Vetch," in August, and in company with ^;ncm 
segnipes, one of the pear-shaped weevils. My 
specimens evolved in the months of June, Jily, 
August and September, from three varieties of 
the domestic bean ( Phaseelus) , commonly called 
''Cranberry," the "Agricultural," and the 
" Wi-ens-egg" beans, obtained from Mra. P. C. 
Oibbons, Enterprise, Lane. Co., Pa. The larca 
is a whitish footless grub, with a small brownish 
head, rather more than the tenth of an inch in 
length, and very similar in form to that which 
infests the pea and the chestnut. The pi-esump- 
tion is that this insect deposits its eggs in the 
young bean while it is green and in the pod, in 
the same manner that the i>ea-weevil does, with 
this very remarkable difference, that in the pea 
we usually find but one insect, and in many 
instances the germ remains intact, but in the 
bean we find from five to ten or more, in a 
single seed, and in the latter case they cannot 
possibly all germinate. I have not yet heard of 
this insect being found in any other locality in 
Lancaster Co. than the one above named. The 
tenant ft*om whom Mra. Gibbons i-eceived theae 
infested beans has been engaged in the beau 
culture for twenty-five years om the same farm, 
and never noticed these weevils until within 
the last two or three years, and only last year 
did their destructive character become conspic- 
uously apparent; for out of a small sack of 
seed-beans hung away, containing less than 
two quarts, she gathered nearly a teacup full 
of the weevils at planting time, in the early part 
of June, and had all been infested as those wei-e 
which she brought to me, she could have easily 
doubled the quantity. About five years ago 
Mrs. (ribbons received some seed-beans of the 
" Cranberry " variety, from Nantucket, Mass., 
and prior to that, she also received some from 
the Agricultural Department of the Patent 
OfWce, and with the one or the other of these, 



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the improssion is, that the weevils must liave 
been received — (he variety received through 
the latter being the ** Agricultural." As the 
Department of Agriculture imports seeds of 
various kinds, and beans among the rest, un 
opinion pi-evails that this insect may have been 
imported with the beans ; and whether they were 
brought from Washington City or from Nan- 
tucket to this county, this opinion may bo well 
founded In either case, although we may not be 
able to account for Say-s finding them so long 
ago in the seeds of the Astragalan, in Indiana. 
A known European bean-weevil is the Bruchus 
rufimanuSf Sch. ; but our insect, according to the 
following description from Stephens^ Manual, 
id plainly not the raflnianus: ** Oblong-ovate; 
black; thorax with a snowy spot before the 
scutellum; elytra spotted with white; base of 
tbeantennse and the anterior legs testaceous-red; 
hinder thighs with an obsolete obtuse tooth.*' 
Some have also supposed it to be identical with 
Bruchiisfabij which is another foreign " bean- 
weevil,'' but 1 have not access to a description 
of that insect, and I am therefore unable to say 
anytliing further in that i*e]atiou. Specimens 
i were also sent to Mr. Austin, a Coleopterist, of 
I Cambridge, Mass., and ho says the insect is 
qnite common in that State, and that the Ento- 
I mologists there have labeled it Brachus fabiy 
bat does not state upon what authority, or 
where a description may bo found. Stevens, in 
his '^Manual of British Coleo])tera,*' describes 
twelve species of Bruchu9y but/a6» is not among 
them; so that, it it is a foreign imx>ortation, it 
is most likely brought hither from the continent 
of Europe. 

Probably the most effective, if not the only 
i-emedy, to destroy this Bean-weevil, would be 
to subject the ripe beans, in Autumn, to a heat 
uot too intense to destroy germination, yet 
great enough to destroy the larva, or the vitality 
of the egg of the insect. Curtis, in his '' Farm 
Insects,'* says that the germinating powers of 
wheat is preserved at about 190 deg. of Fahrn., 
but that a lower heat, long continued, is moro 
effective than a higher degree applied only for 
a short period. Beans would probably not bear 
60 great a heat as grain, but, by oxperiment- 
iog, the safe mean may bo attained. It is also 
recommended that immediately after gathering 
the beans, they should be thrown into boiling 
water, and left in for one minute, as the young 
larva may then, by this means, be killed. As 
tu article of food, beans, infested with weevils, 
are known to be very unwholesome to man or 
beast. 
[We can find no notice anywhere of any 



European Bruchus fubi, Linn., and the author 
who is made to shoulder the name, would cer- 
tcrtainly never have committed the atrocious 
blnnder of writing/a6t for fabw. The nearest 
approach to It is Brachus vicue, Oliv., of which 
we have no description ; but all the other Euro- 
pean species of Bruchxis difler from this bean- 
weevil, of which Mr. Rathvon has been kind 
enough to send us specimens, and we therefore 
consider it indigenous, and rightly referred by 
LeConte to obaoletusy Say. It differs essentially 
from the European granarius, which will be 
found figured in our "Answers ^' in this num- 
ber, ai.d also ivom flavimanus, Schonh., both of 
which species Curtis found preying on English 
Broad-beans.* Mr. Jas. Angus, of West Farms, 
N. Y., sent us in the foropart of November 
numerous specimens of this same weevil, with 
the account which appears in our "Jottings fl-om 
Correspondents.'' There wero no less than U 
in a single bean, and many were still soft and 
white, while a f^yr wero in the pupa state. 
Many of these specimens disagree with Say's 
description in the points already mentioned by 
Mr. Rathvon, but as some of them accord veiy 
well with the description, and as Say does not 
mention how many specimens he examined, 
those difierences can bo considered only as 
variations. — Ed.] 

^Fann InBc^cttt, pp. 863-1. 



THE PLUM CURCULIO WILL DEPOSIT IN FRUIT 
WHICH OVERHANGS WATER. 

BY DR. I. P. TltlMllLE, OF NEW JER8KV. 

Much has been written about planting ft*u it- 
trees so as to lean over water, as a way of pre- 
venting the depredations of the Curculio. At 
the late meeting of the American Pomological 
Convention in Philadelphia, Dr. Underbill, the 
well-kown gi-ape-growcr at Crotou Point, New 
York, asserted boldly, when the subject of 
Plums was under discussion, that the fruit on 
his trees, planted so as to lean over the water, 
was never stung by the Curculio, 

It so happened that some members of the 
Convention who have investigated this matter, 
were not present when this strange assertion 
was made, or it would have been controverted 
on the spot. 

I feel that in the fight against insects injuri- 
ous to fruit, and especially against the Curculio, 
the first thing necessary to be done is to disi)e] 
the delusion which prevails so generally in the 
minds of the people, that thero is some other 
way than killing them. 1 have no more faith 
in planting over water, than in scores of other 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



plaus that have had their advocates. People t 
have had plums after \uing them, just as they 
have had wheu nothing has been used ; but all | 
these plans have failed when tairly tested. | 

On the 25th of July, 18G3, I was one of a I 
party to visit the vineyards of Dr. Underbill, | 
of Croton Point, on the Hudson River. That 
gentleman had solicited the appointment of a 
committee at a meeting of fruit-growers, to 
examine his mode of cultivating grapes. The 
visit was a most pleasant one. 

While here, we visited the Doctor's Plum 
ti-ees planted round an artificial pond. They 
stand at an angle of about 45 dcg., and so close 
to the edge of the bank that the gi*eater part of 
the branches ai'C over the water, so that when 
the fruit comes to maturity on these trees, a boat 
will be necessary to gather the greater part of 
it. In a very careful exaial nation of those trees 
liaving fruit on at this time, we found it badly 
punctured by the Curculio. On the plums high 
up on the trees, and especially on those branches 
leaning furthest over the water, it was impossible 
to see whether the crescent mark was there or 
not ; but wherever near enough to be examined, 
we could see no difference between those plums 
hanging over the water and those over the land. 
They were just as badly marked by the punc- 
tures of the Curculio as were the plums on some 
ti'ees at the neighboring station of Croton ; just 
as badly stung as in Newark and other places 
I had visited that year on purpose to see the 
extent of the ravages of the Curculio. Gentle- 
men who have often seen these trees other years, 
have told me that they have always had u sim- 
ilar experience. 

Dr. Underbill, like others, lias had crops of 
plums, and these crops have probably been 
ascribed to the circumstance that they ^rew 
over water ; and he believes that the merit of 
the plan is attributable to the sagacity or in- 
stinct of the insect: That she must not deposit 
her eggs in fruit so situated that it will fall into 
fvater. To cany out this theory, it would be 
uecessaiy for the Curculio to know that the 
plums in which she deposits her eggs will fall 
from that tree ; that if they fall into the water, 
the grubs they contain will perish; that if they 
fall on land they will be s(\fe. The question 
here arises — Has the Curculio such instincts, or 
such sagacity? 

In this world of wonders in which we live, 
there is nothing so wonderful as the instincts of 
insects. The impulses that control their actions 
ai-e strangely perfect. They ai'e no more likely 
to go wrong than a machine. We do not know 
what instinct is. We cannot define it. No 



matter how we put words together, they will 
give no adequate idea of what this blind Impulse 
is. We canuot weigh, measui*e, see, oi' feel 
what is called gravity. But it is that something 
that keeps the universe in order; that «ome^'n^, 
in the ordering of the Almighty ^ that prevents 
one world from jostling another, and creation 
from falling into confusion. 

Who can understand how the Cicada sep- 
tendecimy after passing nearly seventeen years 
underground, should come to the surface in the 
evening of a certain day of the month, with 
almost exaot regularity, generation after gen- 
eration, for centuries? How should a certain 
kind of wasp know, that wheu she builds a cell 
of mud for the reception of her egg, she must 
put in a supply of insects for food for the young 
that will be born of that egg, and that at a 
certain future day she must bi*eak open that 
cell, and give her young a fresh supply? Who 
teaches tlie neuter bee — that nondescript that 
cannot be a parent — how to fabricate a cell for 
the young of another? Such curious instances 
of the instincts of insects could be multiplied 
till they would fill a volume, and all would be 
wonderful — equally beyond our understanding, 
but all consistent with their wants, and in accord 
with the i-est of nature. Those who carefully 
observe these things will feel that they are in a 
world overruled by an Omnipresent Guide of 
all tilings. But the Superintending Guide that 
teaches the little Curculio to deposit her eggs 
in fruit where the future young will find food, 
would hardly give her an instinct to guard her 
against depositing that egg whore finiits Hover 
grow except on trees planted contrary to na- 
ture. 

We were told to-day that the tides wei-e some- 
times so low as partially to drain this poinl, 
and it was then the Curculio punctured Uie 
fruit over where the water should be. The 
same special instinct that would teach her to 
avoid the water, should also admonish her to 
avoid the danger of the tide- water mud, the one 
being as fatal to the futui-e grub as the other. 

Planting fruit trees in this way will certainly 
diminish the number of Curculios ; but as long 
as millions of young apples are permitted to 
lie undisturbed on the ground in the oix;hai*ds 
in the neighborhood, to bring forth tlieir vast 
armies for the next year, it will hardly be worth 
while to dig such ponds and plant trees round 
them in such an awkward position for the 
little good they would do. The embryo Curcu- 
lio in the fruit that falls into the water will 
perish undoubtedly ; but that water, or tlie fear 
of itj will not pi*event the pai*eut using that 



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fniit. Tbe teachings of instinct are so exact 
and nnvarying that one punctured plum over 
water explodes tbe theory; and if the theoiy is 
correct, a tab of water tinder a tree must pro- 
tect a column of plums of the tub's cii*cumfer- 
CDcc fW>m the bottom to the top of that ti-ee, 
and that certainly would be a curiosity with 
some of the light-colored, full-bearing varieties. 

It is not at all likely that many will plant 
trees in this way ; but as some have done so, I 
have been thus explicit on this point, to guard 
others against such an expensive and awkward 
way of trying to outgoiieral the Curculio, since 
reason and obsciTation teach us that it is of 
very little value. 

In order to add weight to my own testimony, 
1 copy the two following letters, which bear on 
1 his subject: 

Dr. I. F. Thimble— Dear &ir: I very well remem- 
ber our visit at Ci-otou Point, by request of Dr. Un- 
tlerhill, inado to **The Fruit-Growers' Club'' lor a 
'^eommittec" to examine his vineyards. Dr. U. 
e;$pedally called our attention to bis success of growiug 
plums over water, and of their not being attacked by 
the Curculio. ' 

The account you published soon after was true in 
every particular. I remember jDur picking oft plums 
and showing the crescent marks to all of tlie committee 
xs well as to Dr. Underbill himself. I remember also 
distinctly the Doctor's remark, that although they 
were stung ** the kit never hatched. ' ' 

I have visited the Doctor's plum trees since, and 
have seen tbe plums just as much punctured by the 
Curculio as in many other phices where the trees did 
not lean over the water. 

I know several others wHo planted trees to lean over 
the water, but the *♦ Little Turk ' ' did not favor them, 
tbtt I could discover. 

Truly, yours, R. AV. Holton. 

1UVEUSTR.1W, Dec. 32, '60. ^ 

Dr. I. P. Troiblk— i>«ir ^Sir: I have at last seen 
the person I spoke to jou about; his name is John 
llowlett, a florist of this city. Some few years since, 
on the phicc where he then resided, was a pond of 
water, and in the centre of the pond a small island just 
larre enough to grow a tree . On this island he planted 
a IMum tree, and a row of plum trees all around the 
pond on its edge. Persons then, as now, asserted that 
in such positions they would be tree Irom the dcpre- 
littions of the Curculio; but, as 3(r. Howlett has just 
remarked to me. it had not the least eft'ect; the Iruit 
was stung and dropped quite as mucli as anywhere 
else. In fact, he got no miit, and the plan wait a total 
failure, though Mr. Howlett is an excellent practiad 
^rdener, and linew well how to care for his trees. 
The varieties were the leading kinds, such as Colum- 
bia, Smith'8 Orleans, Imperial Qage, Washington, etc. 
llespectfully, Jno. Saul. 

Washixotox, D. C, Dec. 14, 'ee. 

HTTlierc is yet a vast and unexplored field 
for the Entomologist in the South. Our South- 
ern brethren suffer from some of the most 
grievous insect foe», and their insect fuuiia is 
rich and diversified. We consequently take 
pleasure in annonncingy that Mr. J. Parish 
Stelle, of Savaunal), Tenu., is at work in the 
field, and will continue to send us the '^ South- 
ern N<»te8 " which were commenced in the last 
nuiBi>er. 



THE GOAT-WEED BUTTERFLY. 

{PjpJiia glycerittm, Doublcday.) 
[Fig. 81.] 




Colon* — (<?) palcplMUCoiw-gret'ii; (/*) gi'U^ i^ll-;?rlell. 

There is an interesting and rare butterlly 
known to entomologists by the name of Pap/tin 
gll/cerium, which occurs in Missouri, Tcxa.«, 
and Illinois, and pcrhai)s in other southwestern 
States. It is an interesting species on account 
of the dissimilarity of the sexes, and of the posi- 
tion it holds among the butterfiics; and ns its 
natural history has never hitherto been recorded, 
we will brielly transci-ibo it from notes and 
specimens which were kindly fcnt to us la^t 
September by Mr. J. It. Muhlcmnn, of Wood- 
burn, lUs;, and from further facts cunimuni- 
cated by Mr. L. K. Hayhui-st, of Sedaliu, Mo. 

Dr. Morris, in his " Synopsis of the Lepidop- 
tera of North America," places this buttci-fly 
with the Nymphalis family, of which the Dis- 
ippus Butterfly (Nymphalis dinpjyus, Godt., 
A. E., I, Fig. 133) is representative. The 
larva, however, has more the form and habits 
of that of the Titynis Skipper (genus GonUoba), 
Avhile singularly enough, the chrysalis resem- 
bles that of the Archippus Buttei-fly (genus 
Danais), which we figured on page 28 of our 
first volume. 

The larva feeds on an annual {Croion capi- 
iatum) which is tolerably common in Illinois, 
Missouri, Kentucky, and westward, Avhere it 
is known by the name of Goat-Weed. The 
plant has a peculiar wooly or hairy whitish- 
green appeamnco, and in the month of Septem- 
ber its leaves may frequently be found rolled 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



up after the faBhion shown at the left of Figure 
81, with the larva inside. * This roll of the leaf 

[Fig. 82.] 




Colors— Coppc' I*}- reil and brown . 

is generally quite uniform, and is made in the 
following manner: Extending itself on the mid- 
vein, with its head towards the base of the leaf, 
the larva attaches a thread to the edge, at about 
one-fourth the distance fi-om the base to the 
point. By a tension on this thread, it draws this 
edge partly toward the opposite one, and fastens 
it there, being assisted in the operation by the 
natural tendency of the leaf to curl its edges 
inwards. Fastening a thread here, it repeats 
the operation until the edges meet, and then it 
proceeds to firmly join them nearly to the apex, 
leaving a small aperture through which to pass 
the excrement. During hot days the larva 
remains concealed in the leaf, and towards 
evening comes out to feed, though sometimes 
it feeds upon its house, eating the leaf down half 
way from base to point. It then abandons it 
and rolls up a new one. In the breeding cage, 
when placed in a cool shady room, the larva 
seldom rolls up the leaves, but feeds at random 
over the plant, and when at i*est simply remains 
extended on a leaf. From this we may infer 
that its object in rolling the leaves is to shield 
itself from the rays of the hot August and Sep- 
tember sun ; for the plant invariably grews on 
high naked prairies. 

The young larva has a large head, lai^ger than 
the third segment, which is the largest in the 
body. The head preserves its general form 
through the successive moults : it is light bluish- 
green, thickly covered with papillae of a dirty 
white color, and there are also a number of 
light orange papillae of a larger size scattered 
among them. The skin of the caterpillar is 
green, but the general hue is a dirty white, 
owing to the entire surface being very closely 
studded with white or whitish papillte with 
dark brown ones interspersed. These promi- 
nences are hemispherical, hard, opaque, shin- 



ing, and the larva feels rough and hai'sh to the 
touch. 

At each moult some of these papillte dis- 
appear, especially all the brown ones, the body 
increases in size so that the head is smaller than 
the third segment, the green color of the skin 
becomes more apparent, the body is softer to 
the touch, and the whole larva assumes a neater 
appearance. 

[Fig. 83.] 




Coluro->LigUt orange-bruwn and dark bro>^ii . 

Thus this larva has very much the same pe- 
culiar whitish glaucous-green color as the plant 
on which it feeds ; and any one who has seen 
it upon the plant, cannot help concluding that 
it furnishes another instance of that mimickry 
in nature, where an insect, by wearing the exact 
colors of the plant upon which it feeds, is en- 
abled the better to escape the sharp eyes of its 
natural enemies. When full-grown, which is 
in about three weeks after hatching, this worm* 
(Fig. 81, a) measures li inches, and althongh, 
as above described, the little elevations fre- 
quently disappear so that it looks quite smooth, 
yet sometimes they remain until the transform- 
ation to chrysalis takes place, as was the case 
with two which we bred. 

Preparatory to ti*ansformiug, it suspends itself 
by the hind-legs to a little tuft of silk which it 
had previously spun, and atler resting for about 
twenty-four hours with its head curled up to 
near the tail, it works off the larval skin and 
becomes a chrysalis. This chrysalis (Fig. 81, b) 

•From Ave fliU-grown specimens sent by Mr. Mahleman, 
we draw iii) the follt^wing dencriplion. Length 1 5:) inches. 
( ylindrlca! . ( reneral appearance shagreeneuf pale glaucoiu*- 
green , lighler above stigniftta than elsewhere. Ground-color 
of body clear gi een Thickly covei-ed with white papilla* 
or granulations, which are oiten interspersed with minute 
black or dark brown sunken dots. Head quite large (rather 
more than ^ as large as the 3rd Hegment) , nutant, subquad- 
rate, bilobed, granulated like the oodv, but with the black 
sunken dots more numerous, and having besides, several 
larger gi*anulations above, some fourol which ai'e generally 
black and the i-est fulvous; a row ot three very distinct eye- 
spots at the base of palpi; the tiiangular V-^^^P^ piece 
e.on^ated and well delined by a Ane black line, and divided 
longitudinally bv a straight black line; palpi and labnim 
pale, the latter large and conspicuous; jaws black. Neck 
narrow, constricted, green, smooth and retractile within 
first segment. Segments \—ii gradually larger and larger; 3 
to last gradually smaller. Stigmata ftilvous. Venter le8s 
thickly granulated than tergom. 



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is short, thick, rounded, and of a light green ; 
sometimes becoming light gray, and being finely 
speckled and banded with dark gray. The skin 
is so thin and delicate that the colors of the 
fatore butterfly which in two or three weeks 
escapes from it, may be distinctly seen. 

The male butterfly (Fig. 82) is of a deep 
coppery-red on the upper side, boi-dered and 
I>owdered and marked with dark purplish- 
brown, as shown in the figure. The under side 
is of AfeinUe morte brown with a greasy lustre, 
the scales being beautifully shingled transversely 
so as to remind one of that article of dry-goods 
which the ladies call rep ; while the bands which 
commenced on the front wings above, may be 
traced further* across the wing, and there is a 
transverse band on the hind wings, with an 
indistinct white spot near the upper edge. The 
female (Fig. 88) is of a lighter color than the 
male, marked with purplisli-brown as in the 
figure, the transverse bands being ({uitc dis- 
tinctly defined with very dark brown. The 
under side is verv much as in the male. 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE CtRAPE-VINE.-No. 5. 

The Abbot Sphinx. 

[Thyi'eitg Ahbofii, Swainson.] 

[Fig. Hi.] 





('4)Iors — lAsrvaf brown; moth, chocolate- brown and yellow. 

This is another of the large Grape-feeding 
insect8, occurring on the cnltivated and indige- 
nous vines and on the Virginia (-reepcr, and hav- 
ing in the full-grown larva state, a i>olished tu- 
bercle instead of a horn at the tail. Its habitat is 
given by Dr. Clemens, as New York, Pennsylva- 
nia, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Ohio; but 
though not so common as the Sphinx Moths des- 
cribed in former articles, yet it is often met with 
both in Illinois and Missouri. The larva which 
is represented in the upper part of Figure S4 va- 



ries cousiderably iu appearance. Indeed, the 
greund-color seems to depend in a measure on 
the sex, foi- Dr. Morris describes this larva as 
reddish-brown with numerous patches of light- 
green, and expressly states that the female is of 
a uniform reddish-brown, with an interrupted 
dark brown dorsal line and transverse striae. We 
have reared two individuals which came to their 
growth abodt the last of July, at which time 
they were both without a vestige of green. The 
ground-color was dirty yellowish especially at 
the sides. Each segment was marked trans- 
versely wi!h six or seven slightly impressed 
fine black lines, and longitudinally with wider 
non-impressed dark brown patc*hes, alternating 
with each other, and giving the worm a checkr 
ered appearance. These patches become more 
dense alon'^ the subdorsal region, where they 
form two irregular dark lines, which on the 
thoracic segments become single, with a similar 
line between them. There was also a dark 
stigmatal line with a lighter shade above it, 
and a dark btripc running obliquely downwards 
frem the posterior to the anterior poition of 
each segment. The belly was yellow with a 
tinge of pink between the prologs, aud tlie shiny 
tubercle at the tail was black, with a yellowish 
ring around the base. The head, which is char- 
acteristically marked, and by which this worm 
can always be distinguished from its allies — no 
matter what the ground-color of the body may 
be — is slightly reughened and dark, with a 
lighter broad band each side, and a central mark 
down the middle which often takes the form of 
an X- "^his worm does not assume the common 
Sphinx attitude of holding up the head, but 
rests stretched at full length, though if disturbed 
it will throw its head from side to side, thereby 
producing a crepitating noise. 

The chrysalis is formed in a superficial cell 
on the ground; its surface is black and rough- 
ened by confluent punctures, but between the 
joints it is smooth and inclines to brown ; the 
head-case is broad and rounded, and the tongue- 
case is level with the breast; the tail terminates 
in a rough flattened wedge-shaped point, which 
gives out two extremely small thorns from the' 
end. 

The moth (Fig. 84, below) appears in the 
following March or April, there being but one 
brood each year. It is of a dull chocolate or 
grayish-brew n color, the front wings becoming 
lighter beyond the middle, and being variegated 
with dark brown as in theflgure ; the hind wings 
are sulphur-yellow, with a bread dark brewn 
border breaking into a series of short lines on a 
fiesh-colored ground, near the body. The wings 



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are deeply scolloped, especially the fi*out ones, 
and tlie body is furnished with lateral tufts. 
When at rest the abdomen is curiously curved 
up in the air. 



SOUTHERN NOTES. 

BY J. PARISH SnELLK, 8AVAXXAII. TKNX . 

The Coming Cotton Worm. — ^We have a class 
of ci'oakers in the South — and I suppose every 
section has them — who arc continually trying 
to discourage' better and more useAil people 
than themselves, by predicting some serious 
calamity for the future, and pretending to base 
their predictions on certain unfailing signs and 
circumstances. In the spring they look at the 
crawfish holes and predict a fiightful drouth for 
the approaching summer — such a drouth as will 
i-ender all previous work on the plantations a 
mere waste of exertions. But the drouth fails 
to come, and they say nothing about the failure 
of a ^^sign;" in fact I am not sure but they 
forget all about it: they go on with their wise 
predictions, however. The corn-husk appears 
unusually thick in consequence of thei*e having 
been a good season, and there they discover a 
sign that has never failed— a remarkably early 
frost and the tightest winter on record is to be 
expected. It misses again — the next infallible 
sign turns up — some other most discouraging 
thingis predicted, and so it goes on, ad ir^nitum. 

At present our croakers ai'e prophecying ter- 
rible ravages from the Cotton worm (Anomis 
xi/Hna, Say), for the next season, and they are 
giving several i-easons for their position ; one 
of which is that the insect is peiiodical in its 
visits, like the Cicada^ and that 1870 is the year 
ibr its dreaded return on a large scale. 

Let me say to my Southern fnends that this 
is all a mistake. My experience has convinced 
me that the insect in question is not periodical, 
and that the fact of its appearing in greater 
numbers some years than others, may be attrib- 
uted simply to the character of the preceding 
winter. If you notice the matter carefully you 
will find it invariably the case that the cotton 
caterpillar is worse after a mild winter than 
after a sevei^e one, all of which is doubtless 
owing to the fact that frosts or freezes tend to 
destroy the chrysalis of the insect. 

Last winter was a severe one at the South, 
and the caterpillar was not so bad as usual; 
though I remember that early in the season 
there was almost a panic in some of the States, 
growing out of certain newspaper reports to the 
effect that tlie caterpillar had already appeared, 
and that there would be no cotton raised. The 



people looked over their cotton on reading tlie 
report, saw worms which they mistook for the 
dreaded caterpillar, and almost gave over in 
despair ; and as a consequence we have many 
pounds of cotton less to-day than we would 
otherwise have had. There were no cotton 
caterpillai'S anywhere in the South at the time 
the false report got into cireulation, and it all 
grew out of either ignorance on the part of 
reporters, or willful lyitig on the part of specu- 
lators. 

In this connection I propose giving a few 
simple rules' by which our planters — especially 
those who are new in the South— may identify 
the true Cotton caterpillar fh>m other compara- 
tively unimportant worms that appear among 
the plants. There is one known as the ^^ Grass 
worm" that looks very much like it — doubtless 
the very individual that caused the scai*e last 
season. There is sufficient difference in their 
appearance, however, to render it an easy task 
to distinguish them apart, when one knows 
where to look for the diffn^ence. The true Cot- 
ton woim has six front feet, two anal and eight 
ventral ; the two foremost of the ventral being 
very smaU, and having no apparent office to 
perform in the movements of the insect; while 
the feet of the Grass worm are all perfectly 
formed, and all brought into use when moving 
fh)m place to place. The Cotton worm bends 
itself up in order to move, something afler the 
manner of the span or measuring worm, while 
the Grass worm moves smoothly along simply 
by the action of its feet. These characteristics 
alone would enable you to distinguish the two 
worms, but there are still othere, one or two of 
which I may mention. The Cotton worm has 
a .habit of doubling itself up suddenly when 
disturbed, and springing some distance, whereas 
the Grass worm simply rolls itself up and lies 
motionless. When about to change, the Cotton 
worm spins a loose cocoon or web among the 
leaves of the plant, some distance from tlic 
ground, while the Grass worm goes into the 
ground witliout having first spun any web at all. 

There is a great difference in the appearance 
of the two moths, but I shall not take time to 
mention it in this article. They are not far from 
the same size, but while at rest the wings of the 
cotton moth lie back like those of an ordinary 
fiy, while those of the grass moth spread out 
after the usual manner of moths. The wings 
of the former are of a reddish-brown color, 
with a dark spot having a light centre in the 
middle of each, while the color •f the latter is 
a grayish-brown, clouded and barred with 
alternate light and dark shades. 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



125 



BNTOMOIiOOICAL JOnTOGS. 

[We propose to publish lh>in time to time, uuder 
the above heading, such extracts lh>m the letters of our 
correspondents as contain entomolog:ical facts worthy 
to be recorded, on account either of their scientiAc or 
of their practical importanco. We hope our readers 
will contribute each their several mites towards tbe gen- 
eral Ihnd, and in case they are not perfectly certain of 
the names of the insects, the peculiariUes of whidi are 
to be mentioned, will send specimens along in order 
that each species may be duly identified.] 

Beax-weevils— Tf^««^ Farms, N. Y., Nov. 1, 
•69,-1 enclose you a sample of beans to show 
you how thoroughly and effectually this little 
Tagabond is plying his time-imm€;morial avoca- 
tions ill the bean-patches in this quarter. Five 
or six years ago I had occasion to call on a 
neighbor, and in passing through the bam he 
pointed out to me a heap of threshed beans, on 
the floor, of the Early Mohawk variety, which 
be taid had been destroyed by bugs getting into 
them since they wei*e threshed. (?) A casual 
inspection showed that they were destroyed 
Bore enough. At least one-half of them were 
as badly infested as the sample I send you, but 
as I pointed out to him, the damage which was 
now an accomplished fact^ had been commenced 
daring the growing season, and the <' bugs'' 
wero now leaving the beans instead of entering 
Uiem. 

Next season I found a few among my own 
beans, and they have been on the* increase ever 
since; and this year my Yellow Six Woek 
variety are nearly as bad as my neighbor's re- 
ferred to above. They are nearly as bad this 
year on a pole variety, the 'Dutch Case Knife," 
as they are on the low growing ones. The small 
bhu;k bush variety, however, seems to have 
escaped them. If some check is not put to their 
ravages soon, the culture of beans will have to 
be given up here. Jas. Angus. 

[The weevil is the Bruchus obsoletw, Say, 
about which we publish an article from Mr. S. 
8. Rathvon, in another portion of this num- 
ber.— Ed.] 

Harmless PARAsrrES on the Larva of the 
Luna Moth— C'ovtwflr^on, Ky,, Jan. 21, '70.— 
Last summer I took, feeding on walnut leaves, 
a mature larva of Attmcus lunay upon which I 
connted about 22 eggs like those of a Tachina 
fly; but I did not breed any parasites, and I 
cAnnot conceive what became of them. Not 
only was there a black patch under each eggy 
bat under^ some I distinctly saw with a lens a 
nionte orifice by which the parasite had entered 
the integument of the Luna larva. There may 
have been a few more than 22 eggs, as I connted 
iliat number and then desisted from uncertainty 



as to whether some had not been counted al- 
ready. The larva became a pupa and about the 
middle of last May produced a very fine moth, 
which I now have. There was no room for 
mistake, as this larva, and one which I took a 
few days previously, and which had already 
'' spun up " when I took this one, are the only 
two Luna larvie that I ever saw, and both pro- 
duced the moths. I have met with no similar 
instance in my entomological reading, and I 
supposed that a parasite once in the body of its 
host, death invariably resulted. I can imagine, 
however, that one, or a few, parasitic larvie 
might perish at an early stage of their exist- 
ence without destroying the host ; but this would 
hardly happen with so many as there were in 
this instance, UQless the present parasite had 
made a mistake in depositing its eggs upon the 
Luna larva, so that its progeny consequently 
found an uncongenial habitat, and therefore 
perished. V. T. C. 

The Handsome Diggeb Wasp as a Horse 
Guard, again— CtorA:mi?«, Tenn.y Dec. 26thy 
1869. — Allow me to state in confirmation of my 
previous remarks, that I saw one of the speci- 
mens of the Handsome Digger Wasp which was 
sent to you, carry a Horse-fly into its nest. I . 
secured the wasp as it came out of its hole, then 
dug up the nest, which had five hoi*6e flies in it, 
and one half-grown wasp larva. I could pro- 
duce many witnesses to substantiate their habits 
as I have stated them. Not only do they catch 
Horse-flies, bat like the Bald-faced Hornet 
(Bembex fcuciata), they catch house-flies also, 
though I do not know whether they provision 
their nests with these last, nor have I ever known 
them to catch grasshoppers. 

A. H. B. Bryant. 



MR. WALSH'S POETRAIT. 

Our readers will be a little disappointed in 
not receiving with this number, the portrait of 
onr late associate, which was promised la^^t 
month. Bear with us yet a little while. A poor 
portrait is worse than none at all, and rather 
than hurry the artist, wo have decided to give 
him plenty of time, and to send the portrait 
with the next, instead of with the present num- 
ber of the Entomologist. 



17* Remember, that every one who sends us 
five subscribers to the American Entomolo- 
gist, is entitled to an extra copy free of charge ! 

• » • 

Erratum.— Page 101, colnmn S, line 25, for 
'C'ccfoptV read ^Cccropuif;' same column, note, 
for ^Chalcis mat*ia^ read 'Chaicis marifp." 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



QP'Iu order that the proper authorship be 
given to such new species or genera as* have 
been described in the Entomoixmjist, it becomes 
necessary, now that our associate is no more, 
to explain in some part, tlie manner in which 
the editorial department was conducted. It 
was so agreed between Mr. Walsh and our- 
selves, that in consideration of the time we 
devoted to the illustrations and to other general 
editorial work, he should furnish on an average 
two-thirds and we but one-third of the reading 
matter. In point of fact, the articles written 
under the editorial ** we," were made as con- 
joint as possible, by a constant interchange of 
individual facts and experience; and it was 
decided that, whenever either one of us wished 
to publish any discovery peculiarly his own, or 
to describe a new species in which the other 
had no interest — he should write under the 
individual signature of ** Senior Editor" or 
"Junior Editor." Thus, all descriptions ot 
new species that have heretofore appeai*ed in 
these colnmus under the editorial ** we," should 
be credited to " Walsh and Riley," and such as 
appear under the signature of cither one or the 
other separately, should be credited accoi*d- 

ingly. 

• ♦ • 

^^ We regret exceedingly that our book no- 
tices, and notices of exchanges, have been una- 
voidably crowded out of this number. 

• ♦ • — — 

, Missouri Kntomolo<.ical Hefoet. — In an- 
swer to several inquiries lately received, we 
will state that the First Annual Report of the 
State Entomologist of Missouri can be had, 
without plates, by sending fifty cents to C. W. 
Murtfeldt, Secretary of the State Boanl of Ag- 
rccuRure, G12 North Fifth street, St. Louis; or 
with uncolorcd plates and on superior paper by 
sending $1.00 to the editor of this Journal. 

ANSWERS TO'CORRESPONDEXTS. 

NoTiCK.r-Sucli of our correspondeuts a« have already 
Kcut, or may hereafter send, small colleclions of insects 
to be named, will please to inform us if any of the 
speeics sent, are from other States than their own. 
LlstH of insects found in any particular locality are of 
especial interest, as Uirowing light upon the geograph- 
ical distribution of species. But to make Uiem of real 
value, it is requisiK; that wc know for certain, 
whether or not all the insects in any particular list come 
from that particular locality, and if not, from what 
locality they do come . 

Scorpion In Kansas — IT, Alelset/, Otiatpa, Kan a. — 
The animal you send is a Scoi-pion— the Buthut* caro^ 
///liana* of Bcauvois— mentioned by l>r. (i. IJuceeum, 
on page 20.^ of the tirst volume of the American Xatur- 
alisty as a Texan species. You will find, by referring 
to page 50 of our first volume [i.'ol. 1, *. 1). that it often 
occurs in Missouri, but we were not aware before that 
it owHirred in Kansas. 



The Grain Bmclin* off £nropo Jnf t Imported 

—A. iS\ Fvlhtf Bidgewood, K, »/.— The weevils which 
wore found in some pods presented to the Farmers' Club, 

CFljf. «•] 




Co1or»— Black, irni.v and white. 

arc evidently the common Ruropean Grain Hnichus 
{Bnichui granarias). You say that the gentleman wlio 
presente<l the pods, gathered them from a tree in Swit- 
zerland . It were very much to be wished that be knew 
the kind of tree, and that he had had the good souse to 
examine the pods before he brought them to this coun- 
try. The seed-pod which you sent along with the beetles, 
looked to us very much like that of an Everlasting pea, 
but as it grew on a tree, It belongs in all probability to 
some species of Laburnum . The weevil was entirely 
new to us, and does not agree with any of tlie described 
N. A. species, and I>r. Geo. U. Horn, of Philadelphia 
(who now has charge ot Dr. l^eC-ontc's lai'ge collection 
of beetles), to whom we sent a specimen, pronounced 
it now to the collections there. Concluding^ therefore, 
that it was introduced from Europe, we had no diffi- 
culty, on comparing it with European descriptions, in 
recognizing it as their common Grain Bnichus. 

Now this weevil is a most unmitigated nuisance in 
Europe, whero it in a very general feeder; and .accord- 
ing to the facts set forth in the article in om- present 
number, entitled ** Imported Insects and Native Amer- 
ican Insects." it will prove even more ipjurious in this 
country, if it once gets foot-hold. You will therefore 
see the need of immediate action in the matter, in order 
that by a little vigilance wc may stamp it out of our 
midst. You may rest assured that we so efi'ectually put 
an end to those which were received here, that they 
will never more see the light of day. We ad\ise you 
to call the attention of the Farmers' Club to the article 
on Native and Imported Insects already referred to, 
and to the * * Report of the Committee on Entomology,' * 
Avhieh elsewhere appeare in this number. The Club 
should insist on the total destruction of every seed of 
this kind that has been distributed, for unless such 
action is taken, that body may do more harm in the 
introduction of one such insejt, than it can do good in 
the next twenty years. When the Swedlsli traveller, 

*E3H'LANATIONorFlGtTRR — a. perfect hcHlc. back view; 6. «•!«•, •Mr 
viewt 0. larvAt rf, pupa— nil hijihiy uiftfntiflcd . the MCoaumayinK outline 
»howinf(then«tiiiftr>ixe; «< nnd /. Infttated bmrni; 9, iin tnnwlf^ pea. 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



127 



Kalm, discovered spcciineus of our own indigenous 
•'Pea-bug '' {Bruchuspisi) ju«t disclosed in a parcel 
of peas which he had taken with him from America, no 
wonder he wan tlirown into such a trepidation, lest he 
should be tlio instrument of introducing so fatal an evil 
into hi* beloved Sweden; and the NY. Farmers' Club 
may expect the anathemas of the farmers of the coun- 
try, if, with the vulgar, they deem this Bug matter 
I>eneat4i their notice. 

In order that our rejhlers may become well acquainted 
with the appearance of this weevil, we present (Fig. s:») 
figures of iU different states, both magnified and natural 
size, as found in Curtis' s li\irm Insects, and (juote from 
the Mime author the following account of its habits : 

••This spocies, which is everywhere abundant as 
early as February on the furze when it is in blossom, 
infaal)itin<r also the flowere of various other plants in 
llie beetle state, as the Rhubarb, Meadow-sweet {Spi- 
itM f(lmaria), etc!., is a most desti'uctive insect in our 
IHia and bean tields, the larva' feeding in the seeds and 
sometimes destroying more than half the crop. They 
are exceedingly abundant in some part.s of Kent, where 
they often swarm at the end of May, and are occasion- 
ally found as late as August; indeed I killed one in 
November, imported with Russian beans, which had 
been alive since the end of September. It attempted 
to fly away in October; it then became torpid, but on 
warming it by a fire in the middle of November, it was 
as lively and active as in the height of summer, and I 
dare say would have lived through the winter. 

'* It is said that the female beetles select the finest 
peas to deposit tlieir eggs in, and sometimes they infest 
crops to such uu extent that tbey are eaten up by them^ 
little more than the husk being left. The various kinds 
of beans are equally subject to their inroads; besides 
the long-pods I have alluded to, I have had broad 
Windsor beans sent to me containing these Bnichi; and 
Mr. C. Tarsons transmitted me some horse-beans in 
the beginning of August, 1842, which were entirely 
destroyed by them. Mr. F. J. Graham showed me 
some seed-l)ean8 which were inoculated by these beetles 
to a great extent, and some of them were alive in the 
seeds; yet to any one ignorant of the economy of this 
pest, there would not appear the slightest external 
indication of their operations. I also received from a 
gentlemau residing in Norfolk a sample of seed -beans 
from Russia, for winter sowing, a large proportion of 
which Avas perforated by this Brachua. 

*^lt has already been intimated that as the beetles 
?enendly leave the germ uninjured, the vitality of 
infested seeds is not destroyed. I doubt, however, 
if they produce strong healthy plants; and from my 
own experience I have no doubt if peas and beans be 
M)wn containing the Bruchus ijianarius, that the beetles 
will hatch in the ground, and thus the cultivator will 
entail upon himself a succession of diseased pea and 
bean crops. Now to avoid this loss, the seed should be 
examined before sowing, when to an experienced eye 
tbe presence of these beetles will be discernible, where > 
to a common observer they would appear sound and 
good. The maggots, when arrivec) at tlieir fill I size, 
gnaw a circular hole to the husk or skin of the seed, 
whether pea or bean, and even cut round the inner 
sorface which covers the aperture, so that a slight 
prenure firom within will force this lid ofl"; these spots 
ve of a different color to tlie rest of the seed, generally 



having a less opaqui? appearance, and often are of a 
duller tint; on picking off this little lid, a cavity will be 
found beneath containing either a maggot, pupa, or 
beetle. »' 
liocnst Boror— »A. M. Shaffefj Fat rji tidy Iowa,— 
[FIr. w!.] The large yellow worms, variegated 
with light brown, which Mr. Jas. 
Eckert found imbedded in the com- 
mon Black Locust, are the larvse of 
the Locust Carpenter Moth (Xyltutus 
rohinnzy Peck), an insect which ha.s 
long been known to attack the Black 
Locust, and which has materially 
helped the more common borer, 
which is the larva of a beetle ( C/^w* 
roh/ntit) in killing our Locu.st groves 
throughout the country. We repre- 
sent herewith (Mg. 8<») for the benefit 
of the general subscriber, one of the 
female worms. It is not often that 
the sex of an in.«*ect can be foretold 
in the larva state, but there is such 
disparagement in size between the' 
male and female of this Carpenter 
Moth that it is easy to do so in this 
instance, the male worm being scarcely 
half as large as our figure. They spin 
their cocoons within the tree in the 
early part of the spring, and in time 
change to chrysalids (Fig. 87, $). 
Color- Yeii«»w. In the moth state, the dificrence be- 





Colur-UKht brown. 

tween the sexes is not conlined to size, for while 
the male (Fig. 88) is but two-thirds a« large as the 
female, he is characterized further by being of a much 
darker gray, and by having the hind wings of an ochre- 
yellow, while she has none of that color about 
her, (See Fig.8J).) The moths issue fi-om the trees 
[Fig. ««.] 




Color— Dark gray and ochrc-ydlow. 

during ilie last days of June and first days of July. 
Both sexes are quite difticiilt of detection, as they de- 
light to rest on old rough trees, Ihelr closed wingx 
nuich resembling a piece of rough bark. The worms 
are found more frequently in old trees than young, ami 
we believe it is for the very reason that the older trees 
attbrd the moths greater protection. The ovipositor of 
the female is extensile, the better enabling her to 
dei)osit her eggs in the deei> notches, and dark bottoms 



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128 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of croviceH. The eggs there elude detection, being of a 
dark-brown, inclining to purple. The young worms 
which hatch from them are also dark -brown, with large 
heads; they are active and <^mmenee spinning as soon 
:i8 they are bom. Luckily, this insect seldom l>ecomes 
numerous enough to cause serious alarm, as to combat 
it on a Urge scale would be dllBcult. Special trees may 




Culur— Llxht gtny. 

lie saved fi'uin its attacks by an application of soft soap 
as lar up tlie trunk as possible, about the end of June, 
:is it will prevent the moths depositing. At this time 
abo, the moths may be caught and destroyed from oft* 
trees already infested^ by visiting such trees early in 
the morning, for the nioths are then quite sluggish, 
having emerged fk'om the tree during the hight, leaving 
their empty chrysalis skins protruding half way out of 
the holes. This insect attacks the Oak as well as the 
Black Locust, and, judging Ttom specimens which we 
received a year ago fh>m Mr. J. Huggins, of Wood- 
bum, Ills. , it also infests the Crab-apple. According 
to Dr. Fitch, it is more common in Oak In tlie Eastern 
states than in Locust; but we have found it more 
partial to the Locust in the West. 

ECT^ *' Snowy Tree Cricket on Raspberry 
Canes— ■/. B. Root, Rochford, IIU.— The straight rows 
of punctures on your Doolittic Black-Cap Raspberry 
canes, the punctures contiguous to each other, with 
an egg placed slantingly across the pith leading fh>m 
c!ach, are made by the Snowy Tree Cricket {(Eeanihut 
nieeus, AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST, Vol. I. Figs. 88 and 
<)»). Though these eggs may be mistaken at fii*st for 
Avorais by the unskilled, yet no entomologist would 
ever mistake them for such. An egg— no matter how 
narrow or long it may be— can always be distinguished 
by its lacking entirely those articulations which arc so 
characteristic of all insect larva;, and of most other 
Avorms. The cane will be very apt to die above these 
deposits, and to prevent the increase of the insect, 
the infested canes should all be cut off and burned 
before spring. 

SpeUed RoTe«beetle— /. ff,, Woodburny Hit.— 
The large gray insect with short >ving- covers, which 
seemed to be very anxious to cover itself with filth, is 
the Spotted Rove- beetle {StaphUinm maeulosut, Gn-.) 
The Rove -beetles are voracious creatures, preying on 
decaying animal and vegetable matters. They are also 
found abundantly under heaps of putrescent plants, 
and, acting in tlie capacity of Scavengers, must be con- 
sidered beneficial. 



Raspberry Genty Gall— (7A<i«. CarpeiUtry KMy't 
Island f Ohdo.— The swollen, gouty api>eanuice of your 
[Fig. vi 3 raspberry and blackberry vim*s is 

caused by the Red-necked Agrllus 
( AgrUu9 rvficollU), You will find an 
illustrated article on the suLJect in 
the present number, under the same 
caption that heads this paragraph. 
We had never before found fyesh and 
living larvae, as the galls which wc 
hr.d heretofore received were too dry 
when they reached us. But your 
pdls came very opportunely, for we 
found three full-sized living speci- 
mens within thepi, and are thus en- 
abled to give a truer figure (Fig. »0) 
than tlmt given on page 103, and to 
add the following description for our 
scientific Mends : 

AGRILUS RUFICOLLIS — Zorra — 
Color pale-yellow, length O.Tio 
inch. Diameter (L05 inch. Some- 
what flattened, especially at sides, 
Coiur-whiiuh. the width nearly twice as Kreat as 
depth. A mfous vesicular dorsal line. Head brown; 
jaws black. Joint 1 about H wider than 2, and having 
a somewhat homy yellow patch above, shaped some- 
tliing like a kite; joints *2 and 8 ^ 1 in length; 4 as 
long as 2 and 3 together; 5—10 sub-equal and looffer 
than four: 11 half as long as 10; 12 swollen, somewhat 
homy below, and ending in two thorns, each >vith 
three blunt teeth on the inner edge. 

As little or no IVuit matures above these galls, which 
are often quite near the ground, it is very likely, as you 
suggest, that this cause of unflruitfulness is not sus- 
pected by the casual observer. All affected canes should 
be cut off below the galls and burned before spring. 

Parasitic Ceceens — G, C. Brachett, Lawrence, 
Aa/M.— The little masses ot light brown cocoons, aH 
soldered together (Fig. 01) wliich you find lying on the 



twg. w.] 



ground under your 
apple trees, arc the 
cocoons of a little 
parasitic Ichneu- 
mon fly. The fly 
comes very near the 



Color— Light brown. 

genus Mierogagter, but lacks the areolet, and will pro- 
bably have to foim a new genus; but for the present 
all that you are interested in knowing is, perhaps, that 
it is beneficial. It doubtless infests some worm which 
feeds on the leaves of your apple trees, and as Dr. 
Warder has sent us some of the same cocoons, taken 
likewise iVom your orchard, it seems to be quite coni- 
mon ^^1th you. It would interest us to know upo» what 
particular worm it feeds. 

TliePlffeea Trenex In Ap^\9— Jonathan Hug- 
i/ins, Woodburn, Ills,— The large four- winged fly about 
l}4 inch in length, with a black and rust-colored 
cylindrical body of the size of a common lead- pencil , 
and with a stout piercer at extremity, is a $ Pigeon 
Tremex {lyemex eolvmha, Ljnn.) Your finding her 
piercing an apple tree is a new fact, for though this 
insect is well known to attack oak and elm trees, it hab 
not heietofore been h»corded as occurring in apple trees. 
The Lunate Rhysa^that large Ichneumon fly figured 
on the left of our cover— seeks the larva of the Tremex 
in its hidden retreat, and by means of her long oviposi- 
positor^ deposits an egg in its body, which batches out 
and destroys the wood-borer. 



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THE 




VOL. 2. 



ST. LOUIS, MO., MARCH, 1870. 



NO. 5. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 
104 OLIVB 8TBBBT, 8T. I.01718. 



TERMS Two dollars per annum in a<lvance. 

CHARLES V. RILEY, Editor. 

MR. WALSH S PORTRAIT. 

Nothing perpetuates so well the memory of a 
departed friend as a good and life-like portrait. 
We may do our best to pen a truthful sketch of 
a man^s life, and yet fall far short of conveying 
a just and correct impression to those who 
never saw him in the flesh. A good portrait, 
however— phrenology or no phrenology — is at 
once the mirror of a man's character, and in a 
great measure his biography. In it the dead 
live again to near and dear ones, and by it 
future generations will judge a man more cor- 
rectly. The editor takes great pleasure, there- 
fore, in presenting the accompanying portrait of 
Mr. Walsh, and feels that it is the best tribute he 
has the power of paying to his departed associate. 

We are much pleased with tlie plate, for it 
is a good likeness. In it the wonted humor 
yet twinkles from those eyes which are now 
closed forever in the quiet rest of the grave, and 
the facetious smile yet lurks around those lips 
which are nevermore to utter word again ! 

As a fitting accompaniment to the portrait, 
we publish the following resolutions, fi*om 
amonflf several othei-s which we have received : 



'^Proeeedwjs of the London Branch of the Entoinolog^cal 
Society of Canuda, at a meeting held December 8, 1869. 
"The following resolutions were unanimously adopted : 
*^R€9olred, That Ave, the members of this society, 
have learned with deep regret of the sudden death of 
Benj. D. Walsh, Esq., State Entomologist of Illinois. 
We have long admired his zeal and earnestness in en- 
deavoring to advance entomological science, and we 
feel that our favorite study has lost in him one of its 
stauncliest supporters and advocates, and those of us 
who hail the privilege of his personal acquaintance, a 
warm friend. We tender our heartfelt sympathies to 
his bereaved widow and friends, and assure them that 
his labor of love, manifest in his many valuable contri- 
hutions to entomological literature, will ever be fondly 
cherished in our memories. 



** Resolved, That the Secretary be instructed to trans- 
mit copies of the above resolution to the widow of the 
late B. D. Walsh, and also to the editors of tlie Ameri- 
can Entomologutt and Canadian Entomologist, with a 
re(iuest to insert the same in their next issues. 

**G. M. INNES, President. 

** Edmund Baynes Reed, Sec'y and Treas. ' ' 



* * Extract from the Minutes of the Meeting of the American 
Entomological Society, lield January 10, 1870. 

'^Resolved, That this Society has heard witli the 
deepest regret of the great loss sustained by the science 
of entomology, in the death of our late member, Benj. 
D. Walsh of Rock Island, State Entomologist of Illniois. 

*^ Resolved, That tills Society hereby testifies to the 
great worth and scientific attainments of the deceased, 
whose pen was ever ready to defend, uphold and spread 
abroad the benefits derived from the popular study and 
knowledge of entomological science. 

^^Resolred, That the Corresponding Secretary be di- 
rected to transmit to the widow of the deceased a copy 
of these resolutions, as a slight expression of the sym- 
pathy of the Society with her In this great afillction . ' ' 

*^Preafnhle and Resolution passed by the Illinois State 
J/ortictdtural Society. 

"Whereas, We have learned with deep regret of the 
decease of Benj. D. Walsh, A. M., State Entomologist, 

^^Resolred, That in view of his scientific acquirements, 
which had secured for him a national reputation, his 
zeal in investigation, and his pmctlcal mode of com- 
municating his discoveries, wc consider his diratb, In 
the vigor of intellect, as a loss to the public not likely 
soon to bo repaired Arthur Bryant, Sr., 

'* Chainnan of Committee.- ' 



^^ Preamble ami Resolutions passed unanimously at the An- 
nual Meeting of the Kansas State Horticultural Society, 
" Preamble : It having pleased God to open the 
portals of eternity, and take from the earth— the great 
field of his usefulness— Boiyamln I). Walsh, State Ento- 
mologist of Illinois and senior editor of the American 
Entomologist, it becomes our sad duty, in reverently 
bov^ing to the divine behest, to admit the obligations 
under which the deceased has placed us, in common 
with the culturists of the W^est, by a patient, perseverr 
ing devotion of a lifetime to the science of entomology 
as applied to the highest material interests of this Associa- 
tion and the commonwealth of Kansas; therefore, be it 
^'Resolved, That we hereby formally express the sor- 
row inseparable from our great loss in the death of Mr. 
Walsh, in the midst of his great and increasing usefulness. 
*' Resolved, That this preamble and resolutions be 
spread upon the records of this Society, and that an 
authenticated copy thereof be transmitted to the widow 
of the deceased, and to C. V. Riley, Esq., surviving 
editor of the American Entomologist, 

♦* G. C. Brackett, 8ecretar}^*' 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



THE PLUM CURCULIO. 

{Conotrachelus nenuphar ^ Hcrbst.) 



A PAPKR RKAD BY TIlE EDITOR ItEFOKB THE ILLIX018 STATE 

IIORTI CULTURAL SOCIETY AT ITS FODRTKKNTII 

ANNUAL MEETING. 



[Fig. 92.] 




C 6 

Colore— (a and i») whitish; (c) brown, black andcltty-yoUow. 

Ladies and Gentlemen: You have invited 
me to read an essay on the Plum Curculio. I 
accepted the invitation with the intention of 
preparing an exhaustive paper on the subject. 
But the sudden death of my esteemed associate 
and your State Entomologist, the late Benj. D. 
Walsh, 80 completely upset ray arrangements, 
and so increased my labors, that I have found 
time only to substitute instead the following 
hasty notes. 

So much has been written on the habits of 
this one little insect, and on the best means of 
protecting our fruits from its injurious work, 
that one almost tires of repeating those estab- 
lished facts in its history which, at first thought, 
it strikes one that all interested should know.- 
But this is a bustling, shifting, progressive 
world, and there are yet some mooted points to 
be settled in the natural history of our Curculio. 

When an experienced man is taken from our 
midst, the fund of wisdom and the store of 
knowledge which he had accumulated during a 
long and busy life-time, are in a great measure 
buried with him. His younger followers profit 
as much as they can by his recorded experience, 
but they must necessarily go over the same 
ground which he had been over before. Facts 
in Nature will consequently have to be repeated 
for all time to come ; but it should be our object 
to reach beyond the facts already known, to 
obtain a knowledge of all things as far as the 
mind is capable of, and to delve still more deeply 
into hidden truths, so that by obseiTation and 
perseverance, we may be enabled to read aright 
the yet unread parts of that great recorded book, 
which was printed, paged, collated and bound 
by the fingers ol Omnipotence I Besides, there 
are actually many fruit-growers who do not 
know a Curculio when they see one. Thus three 



different correspondents have, during the past 
summer, requested a description of the little 
pest, because, as they contended, they were not 
acquainted with its appearance. And yet one 
of these gentlemen, as I afterwards ascertained 
-from personal observation, was, at the very 
time when he penned his question, suffering 
from injuiies caused by the " Little Tui*k." 

In this brief paper on the Curculio I shall, 
therefore, "^necessarily have to repeat many of 
the facts which were published in your own 
Transactions for 1867, and of those which may 
be found in the First Annual Report on the En- 
tomology of Missouri. 

Established Facts in the History of the Ourculio. 

In order to lay this question before you in the 
veiy clearest light, it will be best to divide this 
paper into two different parts. In the first part 
we will give only those facts which are estab- 
lished beyond all peradventure ; and in the 
second part, we will consider only those points 
upon which opinions differ. 

The Plum Curculio, commonly known all 
over the country as THE Curculio, is a small, 
roughened, warty, brownish beetle, belonging 
to -a very extensive family known as Snout- 
beetles (Curculionid.k). It measures about 
one-fifth of an inch in length, exclusive of the 
snout, and may be distinguished from all other 
North American Snout-beetles by having an 
elongate, knife-edged hump, resembling apiece 
of black sealing-wax, on the middle of each 
wing-case, behind which humps there is abroad 
clay-yellow band, with more or less white in 
its middle. For the benefit of those who are 
either fortunate or unfortunate enough not to 
be acquainted with the gentleman, I have pre- 
pared the above side sketch, which will give 
at a glance its true form, and obviate the neces- 
sity of further description and waste of time. 
(Fig. 92, c.) 

This is the perfect or imago form of the Cur- 
culio ; and it is in this hard, shelly, beetle state, 
that the female passes the winter, sheltering 
under the shingles of houses, under the old 
bark of both forest and fruit trees, under logs 
and in rubbish of all kinds. As spring ap- 
proaches, it awakens from its lethargy, and, if 
it has slept in the forest, instinctively searches 
for the nearest orchard. In Central Illinois and 
in Central Missouri the beetles may be found 
in the trees during the last half of April, but in 
the extreme southern part of Illinois they ap- 
pear about two weeks earlier, while in the 
extreme northern part of the same State they 
are fully two weeks later. Thus, in the single 



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State of Illinois, there is a difference of about 
one month in the time of the Curculio*8 first 
appearance on yonr fruit trees; and I hardly 
need remind you that the time will vary with 
the forwardness or lateness of the season. 

As we shall sec IVom the sequel, it is very 
important that we know just when first to ex- 
pect Mrs. Turk, and I therefore lay it down as 
a rule, applicable to any latitude, that she first 
commences to puncture peaches when they are 
of the size of small marbles or of hazel-nuts, 
though she may be found on your trees as soon 
as they are in blossom. To prevent confusion 
I will use the word "peach," not that her work 
is confined to this fruit, for, as we shall presently 
see, she is not so particular in her tastes, but 
because the peach is moi*e extensively /arrown in 
your State than are any of the other large kinds 
of stone-fruit. 

Alighting, then, on a small peach, she takes 
a strong hold of it (Fig. 92, d), and with the 
minute jaws at the end of her snout, maked a 
small cut just through the skin of the fruit. She 
then runs the snout slantingly under the skin, to 
the depth of one-sixteenth of an inch, and moves 
it back and forth until the cavity is large enough 
to receive the egg it is to retain. Then she turns 
around and drops an agg into the mouth of the 
cavity, and after this is accomplished, she re- 
sumes her first position, and by means of her 
snoot pushes the egg to the end of the passage, 
and afterwards deliberately cuts the crescent in 
front of the hole, so as to undermine the egg 
and leave it in a soil; of flap. The whole opem- 
tion requires about five minutes, and her object 
in cutting the crescent is evidently to deaden 
the flap, so as to prevent the growing fruit from 
crushing the egg. 

Now that she hasxompleted this task, and has 
gone off to perform a similar operation on some 
other fruit, let us from day to day watch the 
egg which we have just seen deposited, and 
learn in what manner it develops into aCurculio 
like the parent which produced it — remember- 
ing that the life and habits of this one individual 
are illustrative of those of every Plum Curculio 
that ever had, or that ever will have,an existence. 

We shall find that the egg is oval and of a 
pearly-white color. Should the weather be 
warm and genial, this egg will hatch in from 
four to five days, but if cold and unpleasant the 
hatching will not take place for a week or even 
longer. Eventually, however, there hatches I 
from the egg a soft, tiny, footless grub with a 
homy head, and this gi-ub immediately com. 
mences to feed upon the green flesh of the fruit, 
boring a tortuous path as it proceeds. It riots 



in the fruit — working by preference around the 
stone — for from three to five weeks, the period 
varying, as I have amply proved, according to 
various controlling influences. 

The fruit containing this grub does not, in the 
majority of instances, mature, but falls pre- 
maturely to the ground, generally before the 
grub is quite full grown. 1 have known fruit 
to lie on the gi'ound for upwards of two weeks 
before the grub left, and have found as many as 
five grubs in a single peach which had been on 
the ground for several days. When the grub 
has once become full grown, however, it for- 
sakes the fruit which it has ruined, and burrows 
from four to six inches in the ground. At this 
time it is of a glassy yellowish- white color, 
though it usually partakes of the color of the 
fruit-flesh on which it was feeding. It is about 
two-fifths of an inch long, with the head light 
brown; there is a lighter line running along 
each side of its body, with a row of minute black 
bristles below, and a less distinct one above it, 
while the stomach is rust-red, or blackish. The 
full grown larva presents, in fact, the appearance 
of Figure 92, a. 

In the ground, by turning round and round, 
it compresses the earth on all sides until it has 
formed a smootli oval cavity. Within this 
cavity, in the course of a few days, it assumes 
the pupa form, of which Figure 1)2, 6, will 
afford a good idea. 

After remaining in the ground in this state 
for just about three weeks, it becomes a beetle, 
which, though soft and uniformly reddish at 
first, soon assumes its natural colors; and, when 
its several parts are sufliciently hardened, works 
through the soil to the light of day. 

So much for the natural history of the ** Little 
Turk.'' Now let us mention a few other facts 
wliich it becomes us as fruit-growei*3 to know. 

The Curculio when alarmed, like very many 
other insects, and especially such as belong to 
the same great Order of Beetles {Coleoptera) , 
folds up its legs close to the body, turns under 
its snout into a groove which receives it, and 
drops to the ground. In doing this it feigns 
death, so as to escai>e from threatened danger, 
and does in reality very greatly resemble a dried 
fruit bud. It attacks, either for purposes of 
propagation or for food, the Nectarine, Plum, 
Apricot, Peach, Cherry, Apple, Pear and Quince, 
preferring them in the order of their naming. 

It is always most numerous in the early part 
of the season on the outside of those orchards 
that are surrounded with timber. It is also 
more numerous in timbered regions than on the 
prairie. 



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It can fly and does fly, especially during the 
heat of the day; so cottou bandars around the 
trunk, and all like contrivances, are worse than 
useless. 

It prefers smooth-skinned to rough-skinned 
stone-fruit. 

The Miner plum, otherwise known as the 
Hinckley plum, Isabel plum, Gilett plum, 
Townsend plum, Robinson plum; and other 
Tarieties of that wild species known as the 
Chickasaw plum {Prunus chtcasa), are less 
liable to its attacks than other kinds. 

Both the male and female puncture the fruit 
for food, by gouging hemispherical holes ; but 
the female alone makes the crescent-mark above 
described. 

Scarcely any eggs are deposited after the pit 
of the fruit has become hard. 

The cherry when infested remains on the tree, 
and the preventive measures that may be ap- 
plied to other fruits will consequently not hold 
good with this. 

The larva cannot well undergo its transforma- 
tions in earth which is dry or baked, and severe 
drouths are consequently prejudicial to its 
increase. 

It often matures in apples and pears, especially 
in early varieties, but in the great majority of 
instances the egg either fails to hatch or the 
young larva perishes in a few days after hatching. 

Many other facts might be cited, but in the 
foregoing remarks I have confined myself to 
that which I know, from ample personal experi- 
ence, to be the truth and nothing but the truth. 

Artificial Remedies. 
Now, gentlemen, it must be clear to you that, 
as practical men, this is all you need to know to 
enable you to fight and conquer this evil. Those 
mooted points which we shall presently consider 
are of great interest to the naturalist and to the 
scientific man, and although I do not quite 
agree with Dr. Trimble, that the hybernation 
of the Curculio, for instance, is practically of no 
consequence, yet the settlement of these ques- 
tions is not necessary to the carrying on of a 
successful warfare. "We need not necessarily 
understand the morphology of a plant in order 
to make it grow ; neither is it always necessary 
to penetrate into all the details of an insect's 
history in order to circumvent its injuries. You 
can fight Curculio without being a thorough 
Entomologist. The remedies are few. They 
consist of prevention, by destroying the fallen 
fruit which contains the grub, and by jarring 
down and catching and killing the beetles. 
There are a variety of means which can be em- 



ployed for destroying the grubs which fall with 
the finiit before they enter the ground. It can 
be done either by^hand or by stock. Hogs and 
poultry are of undoubted use for this purpose. 
In the article entitled " Hogs vs. Bugs," in the 
first number of the American Entomologist, 
abundant proof in support of this fact may be 
found, and I have, since that was published, 
obtained much additional proof of a similar 
nature, and am convinced that our Mend Or. 
Hull underestimates the value of these auxili- 
aries. Of course, the first year they are used 
they do not in the least decrease the number of 
beetles, but wherever they can be used, a mo:t 
beneficial efiect will be noticed the second year, 
and every yeai* afterwards. As stated in the 
article referred to, the practical difficulties in 
the way of carrying out the system of subduing 
fruit-boring insects by hog-power are : Ist, The 
necessity of having all the orchard laud under 
a separate fence, which of courae in many cases 
involves a considerable extra outlay for fencing 
materials. 2d, The necessity of giving up a 
practice, which is conceded by the most intelli- 
gent fruit-growers to be otherwise objectionable, 
namely, growing other crops, such as small 
gi'ain, corn, or small fruits, between the rows of 
trees in bearing fruit orchards. 3rd, The ne- 
cessity of giving up the fashionable theory of 
low-headed trees; for otherwise, if apple and 
peach trees are allowed to branch out like a 
currant bush from the very root, any hogs 
which range among them will manifestly be 
able to help themselves, not only to the wormy 
windfalls that lie on the ground, but also to the 
sound growing fruit upon all the lowennost 
boughs. 

The jarring process may be canned on in vari- 
ous ways, accordant with the extent of the 
orehard or the character of the trees to be jarred 
— always bearing in muid that a sudden jar, 
rather than a severe shake or knock, is neces- 
sary. There is no more thorough and expe- 
ditious way, however, than by means of Dr. 
HulPs Curculio-catcher. Eveiy member of this 
Society is prebably familiar with the appearance 
of this machine ; but, believing that a descrip- 
tion of it has never been published in your 
Transactions, I will give one in the Doctor's 
ow^i words. 

[A full and illustrated description of this 
machine will be found on page 22<) of our first 
volume.] 

I have noticed that where this Curculio-catcher 
has been constantly used the trees have su fibred 
serious injury from bruising, and would suggest 
that, by driving a spike (one with a shoulder to 



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133 



it might be manufactured for this express pur- 
pose) into each tree at the proper height, this 
trouble may bo easily overcome. This is more 
especially necessary with old and large trees, 
which do not vibrato so easily as do younger 
ones. Let us hope that the day is not far dis- 
tant, when this machine, or some improvement 
on it, will be in such general demand as to in- 
sure its manufacture by some of our implement 
dealers. It should be considered by all who 
wish to grow stone-frnit, as a horticultural im- 
plement, second only in usefulness to the plow. 
Before leaving this subject of remedies I will 
say that much can be done in a small way by 
crushing the egg with the finger-nail, or by 
cleanly cutting out the newly hatched larva. It 
will also suggest itself that, in planting an 
orchard with timber surrounding, the less valu- 
able vaneties should be planted on the outside, 
and as the little rascals congregate on them from 
the neighboring woods in the early part of the 
season, they should be fought persistently. It 
will also pay to thin out all fruit tliat is known 
to contain grubs, and that is within easy reach; 
while, wherever it is practicable, all rubbish 
and under-brush should be burnt during the 
winter. 

Au Appeal. 

The burden of this essay is to impress upon 
yon the utter futility of all oUier pretended 
remedies. One of our most eminent Easteiii 
horticulturists has honored you, gentlemen, by 
caUing you the most philosophical set of fruit- 
growers in the land. I want you to deserve 
this honor by showing your good sense in this 
Cnrculio matter. Tolerate no other methods 
of fighting this foe than the two above named. 
I am thoroughly satisfied that there is no other 
remedy, and the sooner we are all convinced of 
it the better. For over half a century the agri- 
cultural and horticultural press has been flooded 
with wondrous remedies, and yet, aside from 
the two methods already indicated, there are 
bat three out of the whole catalogue which have 
even the appearance of common sense, and 
these are altogether impracticable in an oi-chard 
of average extent. 

Lazy men may croak ; they may declare that 
the days of profitable fruit-growing are gone by, 
that fruit-growers are going to peidition, and 
that the Curcnlio cannot be conquered! But 
sensible men know better. Witness the commo- 
tion which one of the thousand proposed Cnrculio 
remedies recently produced among the members 
of the lately organized St. Louis Farmer's Club. 
A gentleman claims to have a remedy, which is, 



however, a secret, as he wishes to make money 
with it. Forthwith an exciting discussion takes 
place, and Col. Colman offers a million dollars 
for a remedy — ^a million dollars for a remedy for 
the Cnrculio! Now, what did these gentlemen 
mean by a remedy? If they had ever read their 
State Entomological Report they would have 
found one there given. But no: they look for 
some panacea, some placebo, some Aaron's rod 
wherewith to smite the hosts of the Cnrculio 
throughout the land with a single wave of the 
hand ! They might as well try to produce fruit 
without first planting and cultivating the tree 
which is to bear it, as to try to conquer the 
Cnrculio by any other but the rational means 
we have set forth. We do not now live in the 
age of miracles ; and if a man undertakes to feed 
five thousand persons on five loaves and two 
small fishes, he will fail most ignominiously in 
the undertaking. Just so long as we look for 
remedies of a miraculous nature, just so long 
will the Cnrculio retain the upper hand ; but as 
soon as we abjure all washes, fumds and patent 
applications to the tree, of whatever sort, ana 
confine ourselves to killing this little foe, either 
in the grub or perfect state, then shall wo be 
able to raise fruit free from its injuries. Our 
experiments should all tend in the direction of 
improving the methods of destroying the grub, 
and of jarring down and killing the beetle. In 
fact, the jarring of the trees and killing of the 
little rascals must henceforth be considered as 
part and parcel of stone-fruit culture. You may 
argue, and with I'eason, that, with the utmost 
diligence, you can never succeed in entirely 
subduing this enemy, for it will breed in the 
forest, will in some few cases perfect in the 
fruit that hangs on the tree, and will come in 
upon you from your neighbors. Granted, in 
like manner, you may cultivate your land year 
after year, so that not a single weed shall ever 
go to seed upon it, and yet you can never en- 
tirely subdue the weeds. But would you there- 
fore cease to cultivate, and let the weeds overrun 
you? It is useless to seek for good without 
evil, and the man who wishes to raise stone- 
fi-uit without fighting 4he Curcnlio ought to read 
Henry Ward Beecher's advice to him who 
wanted an easy place. 

The more united the effort to fight Curcnlio, 
the less work will there be for each ; but even 
where one determined man is surrounded by 
negligent and slovenly neighbors, he will be 
rewaixled for his efforts. If this Society could 
only devise some means to insure concerted 
action in this respect among its own members, 
a great point would be gained. The negligent 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



fruit-grower cannot be brought to duty by legis- 
lative means, but might not this Society, by 
resolution, make it obligatory on its members 
to light Curculio, if they grow stone-fruit, by 
voting itself plenary power to line Buch mem- 
bers as prove recusant? At all events, as we 
were advised last winter by ^Ir. L. C. Francis, 
in his excellent essay on the Plum, let us fight 
it out on the jarring line, if it takes all summer, 
and it will take all summer, for the trees should 
be jarred regularly, from the time the fruit is 
set until it is ripe. 

I have little patience with those persons who 
claim that fruit cannot bo protected from the 
Curculio by the jarring process; or that it will 
not pay to carry on the business when this work 
is necessary. As a general rule, such persons 
were never guilty of jarring a tree, or, if they 
were, they did not pursue the process system- 
atically. All who properly pursue it for a 
number of years arc sncccssiul. Judge Brown, 
Dr. Hull, and many other members of this 
Society, can attest the truth of this assertion. 
Dr. Trimble, of New Jersey, never once failed 
to obtaim a good crop of plums, apricots, and 
nectarines for ten successive years, though his 
more neglectful neighbors could not succeed. 
Ellwanger & Barry, of Kochester, N. Y., J. J. 
Thomas, of Union Springs, N. Y., and a host 
of prominent Eastern fruit-growers whom I 
might mention, all testify to its efficacy and 
success, when followed up year by year, and as 
to the cost, Mr. Parker Earle, of South Pass, 
in an able article in a recent number of the 
Rural New Yorker, demonstrated by the actual 
figures of those who had kept an exact account 
of the labor used, that it cobts a trifle less than 
eight cents per tree to run one of Dr. IIulPs 
machines during the Curculio season ! No one 
will claim that the crop is not worth saving at 
ten times such a cost! 

Natural Remedies. 
Dr. Trimble has lately communicated to me 
the fact that he has discovered a true parasite 
upon the laiwa of the Curculio. The sooner it 
makes its appearance in the West the better, 
for no such parasite has ever been detected here 
yet. It was well known that ants destroyed the 
grubs as they left the fruit to enter the ground, 
but up to 1868, no other cannibals were known 
to attack it. In the summer of that year, my 
late lamented associate, Mr. Walsh, discovered 
sevei-al which habitually prey upon it, namely, 
the larva of the Pennsylvania Soldier-beetle 
(ChauUognathtis jyennsylvanicus, DeGeer), that 
of an undetermined species of Lace-wing Fly 



(Chri/sopa), that of an unknown Ground-beetle 
(probably Jfarpalus pennst/lvanicusy De Geer), 
and the Subaugular Ground-beetle (Aspidi- 
glossa suba7igulata, Chand.) Those who wish 
All] descriptions, with figures, of these Curculio 
enemies, will find tliem in the October (1863) 
number of the American Entomolckjist. The 
Pennsylvania Soldier-beetle is evidently the 
most eflectual of the four, for its larva is fre- 
quently met with; while the beetle itself, with 
its yellow jacket and two broad black spots near 
the tail, is very abundant dunug the mouths of 
September and October, on many of our com- 
posite flowers, and especially on the golden- 
rods, spireas, bigonias, privets, and on carrot 
blossoms. It does no hai-m to the flowers, being 
content with the pollen which they afford, and 
it should never be ruthlessly destroyed. 

But I have this year discovered an insect 
friend, which, though far more insignificant in 
appearance, is yet more useful to us in checking 
the increase of the Curculio than are all the 
others put together. It is in the shape of a yel- 
low species of Thrips, of microscopic dimen- 
sions, the business of whose life seems to be to 
hunt up and devour the Curculio egg as soon as 
deposited. I had often wondered why so many 
Curculio eggs tailed to hatch, and was gratified 
last May to find the cause. A description of 
this Thrips would not edify you, and it sufices 
to state that the word Thrips is used in the 
Entomological sense, and not in the scnf^e which 
many horticulturists use it, as in speaking, for 
instance, of the Leaf-hopper of the vine. The 
illustration which I have prepared will give you 
an idea of the contour of these little animals. 
The species in question is yellow, and scarcely 
measures one-twentieth of an inch. Thus far I 
have only noticed it in two orchards near Sulphur 
Springs, Mo., and cannot yet tell to what extent 
it occurs elsewhere; yet who knows but this 
liliputian little friend may, in the course of a 
few years, rout the ubiquitous "Turk," by 
attacking him in his most vulnerable point, just 
in the same manner that the Ladybirds routed 
the Colorado Potato Bug iu many sections, by 
devouring its eggs ; or that the minute Acarus 
or Mite, described by Dr. Shimer as Acarus 
mali, and first noticed two years ago, has i*outed 
the Oyster-shell Bark-louse in many orchards? 
Verily, Nature's ways are so varied — so com- 
plicated, and the phases of animal life are so 
intricate — so pi^otea::, that this much desi|*ed 
result may yet be consummated. Only this 
year, a worm which I have called the Pickle- 
worm, and which was never before known to 
cut up such capers, has everywhere penetrated 



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135 



our melons aud our cucumbers, and prefents 
its ghastly self even in our choicest pickles. 
The "Struggle for Life" causes many a vacil- 
lation in the proportion of an insect and its 
parasite — the cannibal and its prey— and (he 
Little Turk may yet find his match in (his 
apparently insignificant ThHpa. 

Mooted Points. 

We will now briefly touch upon a few points 
on which there is difference of opinion, and 
which will, it is to be hoped, elicit discussion, 
and draw out (he opinions and experience of 
those present. 

There is conflicting evidence from diflerent 
authors, as to whe(hcr the ('urculio is single or 
double brooded each year, and as to whether it 
hybernates principally in the perfect beetle state, 
above gi*ound, or in the preparatory state, below 
ground; the very earliest accounts we have of 
the Plum Curculio, in this country, differing on 
the^Q points. Thus, it was believed by Dr. 
James Tllton, of Wilmington, Delawai-e, who 
wrote at the very beginning of the present cen- 
tury, and by Dr. Joel Burnett, of Southborough, 
and M. II. Simpson, of Saxonville, Massachu- 
setts, who both wrote interesting aiticles on the 
subject, about fifty years afterwards; that it 
passed the winter in the larval or grub state, 
under ground, and Harris seems to have held 
the same opinion. But Dr. E. Sanborn, of 
Andover, Massachusetts, in some interesting 
articles published in 1849 and 1850, gave as his 
conviction that it hybernates in the beetle state 
above ground. Dr. Fitch, of New York, came 
to the conclusion that it is two-brooded, the 
second brood winteiiug in the larva state in the 
twigs of pear trees ; wliile Dr. Trimble, of New 
Jersey, who devoted the greater part of a large 
and expensive work to its consideration, decided 
that it is single-brooded, and that it hybernates 
in the beetle from above ground, and he recently 
informed me that he still holds to the same 
opinion. Since the writings of Harris and Fitch, 
and since the publication of Dr. Trimble's work 
there have been other papers published on the 
subject. The first of these was a tolerably ex- 
haustive article, by Mr. Walsh, which appeared 
ia No. 7 of the 2nd Volume of the Practical 
Entomologist y in which he takes the grounds 
that the Curculio is single-brooded; though 
subsequently, on page 67 of his Firet Annual 
Report, he came to the very different conclusion 
tiiat it was double-brooded. In the summer of 
1867 I spent between two and three weeks in 
Southern Illinois, during the height of the Cur- 
culio season, and closely watched its mano&u- 



verings. From the fact that there was a short 
period about the middle of July, when scarcely 
any could be caught from the trees, and that 
aaer a warm shower they were quite numerous, 
having evidently just come onto! the ground, 
I concluded that the insect was double-brooded, 
and communicated to tlie Prairie Fairer of July 
27th, 1867, the passage to that effect, under the 
signature of ** V," which is quoted by Mr. Walsh 
(Rep., p. 67), as corroborative of its two-brooded 
character. Subsequent calculation induced me 
to change my mind, and I afterwards gave it as 
my opinion, on page 113 of the Transactions of 
this Society for 1867, that there was but one 
main brood during the year, and that where a 
second generation was produced it was the ex- 
ception. My reasons for this opinion may be 
found detailed in the Missouri Entomological 
Report. Finally, our friend, Dr. Hull, of Alton, 
Illinois, who has had vast personal experience 
with this insect, read a most valuable essay on 
the subject, before the meeting of the Alton (III.) 
Horticultural Society of March, 1868, in which 
he evidently concludes it is single-brooded, and 
that it passes the winter, for the most part, in 
the preparatory state, under ground ; and judg- 
ing from an article recently published by him 
in the Prairie Fanner, he yet inclines to the 
same belief. 

Now, why is it that persons who, it must be 
admitted, were all capable of correct observa- 
tion, have differed so much on these most in- 
teresting points in the economy of our Plum 
Curculio? Is there any explanation of these 
contradictory statements? I think there is, and 
that the great difficulty in the study of this, as 
well as of many other insects, lies in the fact 
that we are all too apt to generalize. We are 
too apt to draw distinct lines, and to create 
rules which never existed in Nature— to suppose 
that if a few insects which we chance to watch 
are not single-brooded, therefore the species 
must of necessity be double-brooded. We for- 
get that Curculios are not all hatched in one 
day, and, from analogy, are very apt to under- 
rate the duration of the life of the CurcuUo in 
the perfect state. Besides, what was the excep- 
tion one year may become the rule the year 
following. In breeding butterflies and moths, 
individuals hatched from one and the same batch 
of eggs on the same day, will frequently, some 
of them, perfect themselves and issue in the fall, 
while others will pass the winter in tlie imper- 
fect state, and not issue till spring; and in the 
case of a prangling green wonn that is found 
on raspberry leaves, and that passes the winter 
under ground, and develops into a four-winged 



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fly (Sdandria riM, Hams) iu the spiing, I 
have known a diffei-ence of three months to 
occar between the iFsnlng of the first and last 
individuals of the same brood, all the larvae of 
which had entered the ground within three 
days. Far be it from me to pronounce that 
there is no such thing as rule in Nature, and 
that we cannot, therefore, generalize ; I simply 
assert that we frequently draw our lines loo 
rigidly, and endeavor to make the facts come 
within them, instead of loosening and allowing 
them to encompass the facts. 

It was my intention to have thoroughly and 
forever settled these disputed questions the past 
summer, but owing to a lengthy sickness of 
Mr. Walsh, I was overwhelmed with other 
matters, at the very season in which the proper 
experiments could alone be made. Such obser- 
vations as were made, however, only confirm 
me in my previous opinion, that it is single- 
brooded as a rule ; but, in justice to Mr. Walsh 
I will say, that to the day of his death ho held 
the contrary opinion of its being double-brooded. 
It was on account of this difierencc of opinion 
between us, that we could never editorially 
touch upon the point iu the columns of the 
American Entomolooist; though we had each 
of us decided to come to an agreement, in ac- 
cordance with the facts to be elicited in discus- 
sion at this meeting. Alas! how inscrutable 
are the ways of Providence I He has been taken 
from our midst, and we shall nevermore listen 
to his bold, outspoken voice. . 

Dr. Trimble writes: " I have a friend, an ac- 
complished ornithologist (companion of Audu- 
bon), with whom I frequently convei^se. Once, 
speaking about quails, I spoke of their having 
more than one brood a year. He said, *did you 
ever see a bi*ood of quails, whether full-grown 
or half-grown, without the old birds with them ?' 
In thinking it over, I cannot remember that I 
ever did. The inference follows: the early 
broods of quails of this year, have the early 
broods the next year — the late broods this year, 
the late broods next year. Why not so with 
Curculios?' On broad principles it may be 
stated that insects difier iVom other animals in 
so far that they do not breed an indefinite num- 
ber of times in the course of their lives, but that 
the females perish soon after depositing their 
first and only batch of eggs. But although a 
great many insects occupy but a few hours or a 
few days in laying this batch of eggs, yet many 
of them require a much longer time. This is 
eminently the case with our Plum Curculio, and 
indeed with most of the insects in the same 
great Order of Beetles to which it belongs ; and 



I knew that Curculios which hybernated may 
be iound upon our trees even a few days after 
the first bred Curculios of the season appear. 
Again, few persons— even among those skilled 
in Entomology— arc aware of the wonderful 
infiuence produced upon insects by climate or 
by the character of the seasons. To illustrate: 
the Oblong-winged Catydid {Phylloptera olh 
longifolia, De Geer) in a state of Nature finishes 
depositing its eggs, and ceases its chirrup by 
the first of October in the latitude of St. Louis, 
and yet this very year, by keeping them within 
doors and feeding them on gi*een apples, I suc- 
ceeded in keeping several which I bad hatched 
from the egg, alive until the first days of Decem- 
ber ; and though everything was bleak and bare 
outside, and the Catydids had been swept off 
by the early frosts nearly two months before, 
i/€t these continued to deposit up to within three 
days of their death. No one with the knowl- 
edge of such facts, would for a moment doubt 
that in certain southerly latitudes, it is possible 
for the Curculio to be double-brooded, and yet 
be single-brooded in more northerly regions; 
for several instances of a similar nature in in- 
sect life, might be cited. But that it is single- 
brooded as far south as the southern part of 
the State of Illinois, I feel quite satisfied. The 
Curculios generated from those which wintered 
over, never lay eggs the same season they ai*e 
hatched; at least, no one has ever succeeded 
in making them do so, though the experiment 
has been tried by Dr. Trimble, Dr. Hull, Judge 
Brown, and myself. Indeed, all analogy con- 
firms the belief in its one-brooded character, 
for it is admitted that the Plum Gouger 
(Anthonomus prunidda, Walsh), the Apple 
Curculio {Anth, quadrigibbus, Say), the Pea- 
weevil {Bruchtis pisiy Linn.), and many other 
closely allied species produce but one brood 
each year, and it is with good reason argued, 
that if there were two generations of Curculios, 
late fruit would be covered with their crescents, 
whereas we know that such is not the case. 

As to the hybernation of the Curculio, it is 
only necessary to state, that I am positive that 
the beetles survive the winter, for I have fi'e- 
quently found them myself during this season 
of the year, under the rough bark of both fruit 
and forest ti*ees, and they have been found in 
like situations and under the shingles of houses, 
etc., by several other persons. Dr. Hull, on 
the contrary, believes tliat they pass the winter 
in the preparatory state, and records in so many 
words, that he has found the larvas in January 
at a depth of from fifteen to thirty-six inches, 
and that in April he has found both lai*V£e, pupas 



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137 



and beetles below ground . Now, I bave a good 
deal of faith in the accuracy of the Doctor's 
obeervations, and accept these statements as 
truth, the more willingly because the Four- 
humped, or Apple CurcuHo, which attacks our 
apples quinces and haws, does pass the winter 
in the larva state under ground. But had he not 
found the beetle in company with the laiTa? and 
pupce, I should not so readily have accepted such 
proof, but, like Oliver Twist, should ask for 
more ; for the larva? of several species of snout- 
beetles very much resemble each other, and we 
are all liable to make mistakes. Individually, I 
never found Plum CurcuHo larvae at ^greater 
depth below gix>und than six inches, and my 
efforts to find them in the winter under trees 
from wliich infested fruit had fallen during 
the previous summer, have so far been fruitless. 
As to whether the Cnrculio is the cause of the 
Peach-rot, there can be no qncstion whatever 
that it is greatly instrumental in spreading this 
dreaded disease. So much is this the case, that 
by protecting fruit in such a manner that no 
insects can get at it, you may in a great measure 
save it from rotting : and this is an additional 
reason why trees should be thoroughly jarred 
and protected from the Cnrculio. But I yet 
hold that the puncture cannot possibly be the 
first cause of Peach-rot. This is sufficiently 
proved by the tacts, that much of the fruit is 
punctured long before the retting season com- 
mences; that the fruit often arrives at perfect 
maturity, still containing the gnib ; that in cer- 
tain localities, and in favorable seasons, the rot 
is scarcely known, though the fruit is badly 
punctured; and, finally, that the ci*escent of the 
Cnrculio often (Indeed, in the gi'eat majority 
of instances) heals up entirely, thus precluding 
the idea of any poisonous effect attending the 
puncture. It might, with equal reason, be 
argued that the Grape-rots, the Potato-rot, and 
all the innumerable other rots are also caused 
by insects: but as I have already devoted all 
the time I can spai*e to this paper, although 
many interesting facts have not even been al- 
luded to, and as this matter does not properly 
come within my province, 1 leave it for the 
discussion of the more wise and experienced. 



17 To all persons interesting themselves in 
the American ENTo^roLOoiST we will allow 
twenty-five cents on every dollar, on all over 
awe names which they send. 

^r Should a number of the Entomologist, 
through whatever cause, fail to reach any of our 
subscribers, we will cheerfully send another one 
upon being informed of the fact. 



[Fig. 93.] 




i olor— Browuish- 
white 



LARVA] IN THE HUMAN BOWELS 1 1 

ONE OF MR. WAI^H*S POSTHUMOUS ARTICLES. 

On July 5th, 1869, ve received from Dr. J. 
T. Wilson, of Quincy, Ills., over a dozen of the 
curious fringed larvae, which we represent con- 
siderably magnified in the annexed drawing 
(Fig. 93). The circumstances under which they 
were found are detailed in the following ex- 
tract from Dr. Wilson's letter: — 

The specimens sent were 
discharged, along with sev- 
eral hundred others, from 
the bowels of one of my 
patients. Five months ago 
several hundred ot the same 
nondescript, but of much 
larger size, were discharged 
from the bowels of the same 
patient. Having no knowl- 
edge of this pai*asite, I sup- 
posed in the first instance 
that there must have been 
some mistake about the mat- 
ter, and therefore treated it 
with indifference. But on 
the second occasion, I satis- 
tied myself that they were 
really evacuated from the 
intestines. I am fully per- 
suaded that they multiply within the alimentary 
canal; yet I think that they must have been 
originally introduced through the mouth. I 
confess that they are a strange parasite to me, 
and I find they are equally so to all the medi- 
cal gentlemen to whom I have shown them. 1 
am veiy anxious to get all the information upon 
this subject that I can, and should like to learn 
all that is at present known about it. 

From the structure of these larvae, it is mani- 
fest that they belong to a section of a genus of 
Two-winged Flics, the Flower-flies {Antho- 
myia)y which section was many years ago sep- 
arated as a distinct genus (Homalomyia) by 
Bouchd. The true Flow^er-flies are named from 
the habit which the perfect Insect has of set- 
tling upon flowers; but in the larva state 
most of them feed upon living vegetable mat- 
ter, and are usually smooth soft whitish mag- 
gots, of an elongate-conical shape, with the 
head end tapered to a point and the tail end 
more or less squarely docked. It is to this 
group that the Imported Onion-maggot Fly 
(A. ceparum), the Imported Cabbage-maggot 
Fly (A. brassiccB)^ and an apparently indige- 
nous species which wo have described and 
figured as the Seed-corn Flower-fly (A, zece, 
Riley),* all of them belong. On the contrary, 
the larvae belonging to the other group {Homa- 
lomyia)y instead of feeding upon living vegeta- 



• Missouri fJn/ow. Report, ItGJ, pp. lM-0. 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



tion, wallow iu moist decaying matter, whether 
animal or vegetable ; and as in such situations 
they would be sometimes stifled for want of 
air, if they breathed through the spiracles or 
breathing-holes with which all aii -breathing 
insects are supplied, nature has replaced the 
spiracles by lateral ** branchiae" or gills, by 
means of which they are enabled, after the 
fashion of a fish, to extract the air from the fluids 
that surround them. On referring to our Fig- 
ure 93, b, the reader will see at once the structure 
of these curious gills, which, however, are by 
no means peculiar lo this genus of Insects, but 
occur in a great number of larvai that inhabit 
the water, for example iu those of the Mayflies 
{Ephemera family). These larvse difler further 
from those of the true Flower-flies iu the tail 
end being much less conspicuously docked, and 
in the body being considerably flattened, in- 
stead of plumply rounded in the shape of an 
elongate cone. It was probably in reference to 
this peculiar flattening of the body of the larva, 
that Bouchd gave to the genus the distinctive 
name of ** Fiat-fly" {Homalomy id) , fvom two 
Greek words which bear that meaning. 

In the perfect state — as sometimes happens 
with closely allied genera — the Flat-flies do not 
differ so materially in their structure and gen- 
eral appearance from the true Flower-flies as 
do the laiTa? belonging respectively to these 
two genera. Still, as the larval habits of these 
two genera differ so widely, and as the Flower- 
flies, in the original and more extensive signi- 
fication of the term, torm a very extensive 
group — authors having described no less than 
65 species of them as found in North America — 
we must consider the separation of this very 
large and unwieldy genus into two smaller 
genera as a judicious step. The minute details 
wherein the Flat-flies ditfer from the Flower- 
flies in the perfect fly State, as they would only 
fatigue the general reader, will be found in the 
foot-note.* 

"We have ourselves bred what Baron Osten 
Sacken, to whom we have forwarded specimens, 
thinks is in all pi*obability a true Flat-fly, from 
larvte very similar to those figured above, but 
scarcely more than half as large {Homalomyia 
prunii'ora). These larva* we met with in great 
abundance in a mass of tame plums so much 



•Through the kindness of Baron Osten Sacken, Meleani 
that Homalomyia is characterize<l by Schlner as having 
much narrower cheeks than Anthomyia, whence the head is 
more roundtnl and prejects let's on the underside of the eyes; 
and also bv the abdomen being less hairv . On comparing a 
species oi' Homaloimjia which, as will be stated hereafter, 
we have ourselves bred Irom the larva, with Anthomyia 
brassica, these generic distinctions are obvious, both the 
le^s and the abdomen in the latter being rather bristly than 
hairy . 



decayed as to become almost semi-fluid. The 
fly produced from them is only about one-fifth 
of an inch long ; whereas from the largest spe- 
cimens sent us by Dr. Wilson we might expect 
to raise a fly at least one-third of an inch longf. 
If, therefore, there was no other reason than 
this, we might be pi-etty sure that the two spe- 
cies are distinct. But, as the scientific reader 
will perceive from the descriptions given in the 
foot-note, there are other reasons for believing 
them to belong to separate species ot Flat-flies.* 

•ILoMALOMYiA Wi L80X I.— />a/*t>a- length when exteudetl 
0.37 inch; when contracted 0.2S inch, lix>m3| to 5 timet* ad 
longftswitle. Color pale-browiT, the sutures brown-black, 
but only when the botly is contracietl . Head entirely retrac- 
tile, with its anterior extremity slightly emargiuate, and 
with two minute black hooks on its inferior surlsicc. Bodjf 
U-joinled, and anal joint large and apjiai-ently composed of 
two confluent joints. The sutures in the contracted speci- 
mens forming a strongly elevated carina both above and 
b^low, but in those that aw elongated forming the usual 
impre^sed stria with a subobsolete carina in front of it. 
Joints 1—3 capable of being much elongat^-d when the head 
is exserted Joints 4—10 each with a pair of lateral, traD!»- 
vernely -arranged, llehhy, elongate-conical, bipectinate» 
branchial processes, each nrocess about one-third as loop as 
the bodj is wide, and the bipectinations, thejnselves a little 
spi'angling, basally at>out one-thinl as long as the processes, 
and gradually decn»asing in length towards the tip of the 
process. Joints 1— :i with only one such lateral process, 
which is shorter and shorter as each joint approaches the 
head; the llth or large anal joint with si.vsuch j>rocesses a 
little longer than any of the rest, placed one behind another 
at ixgular «U>tances all round the lateral suture. Joints 1 — 11 
each with a pair of small, transversely-arran/ed, dorsal, 
tubercular branchia?, which aiv slightly ciliated and about 
as wide as high on joints 4 — 10, but on 1— ;i are more and 
more subobsolete, as eiich joint approaches the head, while 
on 11 they are twice as high as wide and twice as long as on 
the preceding joints, and are placed on the anterior hall of 
the joint exactly in range with the two anterior lateral pro- 
cesses. Ventrally joints 4 — 10 are each t\imished with 
pseudopods, namely, two transverse rows of papUlse; the 
anterior row nearly attaining the lateral pi-ocesses, and 
having its pai)illaB almost confluent, so as to look like a 
transverse carina; the posterior row shorter, less distinct, 
and with papilla* not contiguous. On joint 11 the posterior 
row of j)apilla» is replac4.'d by the anus, which forms a very 
large elongate tubercle with an elongate impressed slit in it, 
and has a small tubercle on each side of it. — Described f^om 
4 contracted and 5 extende«l specimens, received, as stated 
in the text, from Dr. Wilson ofQuincy, to whom the species 
is dedicated. 

Homalomyia vnvy i\ on x.— Larva — Differs from the above 
onlv as follows:— Ist. The length when contracted is only 
O.lHinch, and is*alK)ut3| times as long as wide. 2nd. The 
sutures arc not brown-black when the body is oontract<*d. 
3rd. ITie sutures are never carinate. 4th. The lateral 
branchiie are fully half as long as the body is wide, and the 
bipectinations are subobsolete: as in WiUoni, those on the 
thoracic joints are proportionally shorter. 5th. The dorsal 
branchiie, when contracted, are about 2^ times as long as 
wide and blunt at tip; but when extended ai'e fully 4 times as 
long as wide, tnunpet-shapetl. almost acute at tip,*and closely 
resembling the lateral brancnise, towards the base they are 
slightly ciliate. As in TTtrtoni, those on the thoracic Joints 
ai'e not so much developed, and those on the anal Joint are. 
about one-lourth longer. 6th. The two transverse rows of 
papillse (pseudopods) on ventral Joints 4—10 are eaAi of them 
like the posterior row in Wilsoni. 7th. The anus is rather 
round than elongate.— Described fh)m two specimens out of 
a lot from which, xis hinted in the text, were bred Aug. 25th — 
Sept. ir)th 7 cf 7 $ Imagines 0.18— 28 inch long, both sexes 
of a nearly imiform gray color except that the basal i or i of 
the abdomen both above and below is of an obscure clay- 
yellow in $ , and in (j' is of a much brighter yellow with a 
black doraal line which is widely dilated before each suture. 
Such sexual distinctions seem to be not unusual in this group 
of flies; for Baron Osten Sacken infonus us that ' ' the sexes 
in Anthomyia generally differ very considerably in size and 
colorings. 

Homalomyia Lkidvi — Xflrrtf— .Judging from Dr. Leidy's 
brief description of a lan'a which, as will be subsequently 
stated in the text, was loimd on two occasions in the human 
bowels, and which— as he has given it no name — we have 
here for convenience sake designated as Leidyij is interme- 
diate in its characters between WiUoni and prunviora. In 
length it is said to be from 0.25 to 0.29 incn. The dorsal 
branchial seem to agree generally with those of pruiUvora, 



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We wUl now give sach recorded cases as we 
have been able to glean, of the occurrence of the 
larvffi of Flat-flies or other Two- winged flies in 
the human bowels, whether in this country or 
in Europe. lu Europe there are two species iu 
particular, respecting which such facts have beeu 
rccoi*ded, namely, the Puppy Flat-fly {Horn, 
canicularisy Meig.) and the Ladder-fly (Horn, 
9calaris^ Meig.) The larvae of the former are 
well known to occur normally in rotten vege- 
tables and decayed cheese, and the fly itself, 
fi'om its being often noticed iu houses, has been 
sometimes called ** The Lesser House-fly,'' 
though from the true House-fly (Musca domes- 
tied) it difllers by very conspicuous structural 
characters. The larvae of the Ladder Flat-fly 
ai-e met with in human excrements, and from 
their being often found in the putrid contents 
of privies, the fly itself hag frequently been 
characterized as **the Privy-fly." 

The llev. L. Jenyns, of Cambridgeshire in 
England, published 30 or 40 years ago a very 
detailed account of the larvae of the Puppy Flat- 
fly having been discharged from the intestines 
of a clerg>men.* Fallen records a similar case, 
though he thought that the larvjt might possibly 
belong to an allied species. f On the other 
hand, Westwood tells us that in two different 
medical works, one in the German and the other 
in the English language, the larvae of the Ladder 
Flat-fly are stated to have been found in the 
human body .J Several other European cases 
are on record, where the lai-vae of Two-winged 
flies have either been evacuated from the anus 
or vomited from the mouth ; but in most of them 
the genus to which they belonged cannot be 
accurately determined. In the United States, 
Dr. Leidy, as quoted by Dr. Packard,§ has re- 



forthey arc de.scribed as being similar to the laUral branch ia>, 
wbereas iu WiUoni they are mere tiilK'rcleH. In one very 
remarkable reuiwet; however, Leidyi differs both from Wit- 
som and from j»*M/itt7ora; for instead of the doi*gal branchiae 
on the anal Joint being Ktill longer and slenderer than those 
on the preceding abdominal Joints, they are stated to be mere 
'* prominent tubercles," and are erroneously considered as 
spiraclett. Again, in the arrangement of the ventral pseudo- 
pods. Leidifi seems to agree with IViUoni rather than with 
pnmtvora: for according to the description, each ventral 
segment has the anterior row of papillic cariniform, the 
carina apparently being considered as a ' * subdivision ' ' ol 
the s^poaent. As Eh*, l^eidy's description is short, and 
inaccesaible to many of our readers, we reproduce it here 
in full:— •* Larva 3-34 lines long, 1—1| lines broad; demi- 
elliptical, the articuli strongly marked, everywhere minutely 
shagreeneil; bo«Iy anteriorly subacute, posteriorly obtuse. 
Head bipnpillate, with a pair of hooks projecting' from the 
month. Articuli furnished dorsally and laterally, each with 
six long posteriorly divergent flexible compound si)ine8. 
Ventrml segments transversely subdivided, the posterior 
liubdivision fhmished with a transverse row of impilln?. 
Caudal artlculna dorsally sloping, furnished with a pair of 
prominent spiracular tubercles, and fringed with six spines. 
Anns Tentral .— Descrll>ed from 5 specimens . ' * (From Proc. 
Ac. yat. Sc. Philad. ISTjO, Biological department, page 8.) 

• T>ant. London Entom. Soc^ Vol 2nd. 
t Quoted Westw. Introd. II. p. .'>70, note. 
I Ibid, p. 571. 
i Guide to the Study, Ac. 367. 



corded a case where numerous lai*vaB, supposed 
to be those of some Flower-fly {Anthomyia) , 
were ^iven to him for examination by a phy- 
sician, who had obtained them from his own 
person. This physician, it is added, had been 
seized with all the symptoms of cholera morbus, 
and in his discharges he had detected numerous 
specimens of this, to him, unknown parasite. 
The above circumstances took place in the latter 
part of summer, and it was suspected that the 
laiTfiB had been swallowed along with some cold 
boiled vegetables. The very same kind of larva 
had been previously observed by Dr. Leidy iu 
another such case, which was likewit^e accom- 
panied by the ordinary phenomena of cholera 
morbus. On referring to tlie description of 
these larvae i)ublished by Dr. Leidy, we find 
that they are represented as having very nearly 
the same kind of lateral gills as those which we 
have figured above ; and they must consequently 
appertain to the Fiat-flies and not to the Flower- 
flies {Anthomyia), as was erroneously supposed 
by the author of the description. 

Of course, every one must perceive at once 
that a larva furnislied with gills, and not liable 
to drown when immersed in fluid or semi-fluid 
matter, would stand a much better chance to 
live and flourish in the human stomach, than a 
larva that breathes the air much in the same man- 
ner as we ourselves do. But there is authentic 
evidence that larvai which breathe through spi- 
racles in the ordinary manner, and not through 
lateral gills, have been voided either upwards or 
downwards from the human body. For Dr. Leidy 
has further reported* a case where a number of 
specimens, which appeared to be larvae of the 
Blue-bottle Fly, were given him by a physician 
as having been vomited from the stomach of a 
child; and Baron Osten Sacken has kindly in- 
formed us, that in the winter of 1868-9 some 
smooth Dipterous larvae were handed over to 
him by a New York physician as having been 
voided in the excrement of a child; and that 
from one of them he reared what was apparently 
a specimen of the common Ilouse-fly (Micsca 
domestica). So far as we are aware, this is the 
only case recorded by authors, where larvae dis- 
charged from the human body have been actually 
bred to the perfect Fly state. 

The question naturally i*ecurs here — ** How 
in all these numerous instances did so many 
larvae find their way into the human body?" 
Two opinions, as the reader will have noticed, 
have been expressed above as to this knotty 
problem; one by Dr. Leidy's friend, that all the 



*Proc. Ac. Xat. Sc. Philad , 1859^ Hiol<»gical Department, 
page 8. 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



larvae had been swallowed alive, along with 
sach vegetable food as had been introduced in 
the ordinary course of nature into the stomach ; 
the other by our friend Dr. Wilson, of Quincy, 
who expresses his belief that a few larvae had 
been introduced through the month, and that 
then after getting into the alimentary canal had 
increased and multiplied there. We must crave 
leave to differ from both these gentlemen. In 
the firet place, we can scarcely understand how 
lai'vae of such considerable size and of so soft a 
consistence could escape being crushed more or 
less by the human teeth during the process of 
mastication; and in the second place, although 
in the whole Class of Insects thei-e is a single 
most remarkable and exceptional genus (Mias- 
tor), belonging to the (iall-gnat {Cecidomyid) 
Family, which is known to propagate in the 
larva state, yet this is the exception and not the 
rule. For out of jibout a hundred thousand dis- 
tinct genera of Insects which exist in the whole 
world, no other genus, so far as the recoi^ds 
show, has the reproductive faculty developed 
until it reaches the mature or Perfect State. 
For these reasons, we incline to believe that 
laiTae discharged from the human body, in the 
manner recited above, must all of them have 
been originally introduced there in the egg 
state, and after reaching the stomach must have 
hatched out and fed upon the food taken from 
time to time into the stomach. No doubt, the 
great majority of eggs that are swallowed in 
this manner, even if they escape being crushed 
by the teeth, perish in the healthy human body, 
either before, or shortly after batching out, 
owing to the unnatural conditions to which 
they are necessarily subjected there, both as 
regards temperature, and want of air, and the 
pi'esence of that powerful chemical agent — the 
gastric juice. But in a diseased and abnormal 
body, it may, and doubtless does, occasionally 
happen, that the average temperature of the 
stomach is reduced much below the normal 
point, or that large quantities of gaseous matter 
containing oxygen are formed there, or that an 
insufficient supply of gastnc juice is secreted 
there ; and in such instances as these, the eggs 
may probably hatch out, and the young larvae 
may, without any material injury to their health, 
grow and reach maturity. 

It is not a very pleasant thing to have a 
stomach full of lively living maggots. Still, it 
should be borne in mind that, although such 
maggots may temporarily derange the health, 
there is no reason to suppose that they can ever 
cause death. Moreover, when more or less 
matured, such insects will always pass away, 



either dead or alive, by the ordinary modes in 
which such offensive matter is ejected from the 
human system; for it is utterly impossible that 
they can ever after developing into the perfect 
winged state, propagate their species among 
the semi-fluid contents of the alimentary canal. 
Consequently, unless a fresh supply of eggs is 
introduced into the stomach, the original gene- 
i-ation of maggots will soon disappear; for with 
almost all the diffei'ent larvae of Two-winged 
Flies that subsist upon decaying matter, whether 
animal or vegetable, the larval period is com- 
paratively quite short— say two or three weeks, 
or at most a mo.ith. 

The nature of the substances upon which the 
larvae usually discharged from the human body 
naturally feed — that is, decaying animal and 
especially decaying vegetable matter — indicates 
at once the maigier in which the eggs that 
produce these larvae gain admission into the 
stomach. Wo have already stated that wo have 
bred great numbers of a small species of Fiat-fly 
from rotten jiluras; and we may add here that 
the plums from which we bred the Fly were 
most of them only partially unsound when they 
were gathered and placed in the Breeding- vase, 
and that after they were placed there no living 
insect could possibly have gained access to them 
in order to lay its eggs upon them. Conse- 
quently, a good many of the eggs which after- 
wards produced the Winged FJat-flies mast in 
all probability have been deposited in the open 
air upon plums that were only partially un- 
sound — say with only a third or a fourth part 
of their flesh discolored and soft. Such f^it 
would be greedily devoured by many children, 
and by some grown persons who do not know 
any better. But we have ascertained by a some- 
what extensive experience in breeding insects, 
that fruit which is either wholly or partially 
decayed almost invariably contains great num- 
bers of the eggs of different Two-winged Flies, 
belonging to many different genera (Sciara, 
Scatopse, Drosophila, Ilomalomyiaf and Mas- 
cd), the larvae of which naturally feed upon such 
substances. When , therefore, such decayed fruit 
is introduced into the human stomach, these 
eggs, being excessively minute, will doubtless 
many of them pass uninjured into the body; 
and if that body happens to be in a diseased and 
unhealthy state, they will probably hatch out 
and develop into a whole generation of larvae. 

In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, per- 
haps, these intestinal larvae will be voided with- 
out being noticed by any one ; and the functional 
disturbance which they have caused will be 
attributed to cholera morbus, or summer corn- 



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plaint, or some other oue of those Diiinerous 
ailments which are especially prevalent in the 
summer season. And it will be only in the 
handredth case, that attention will be called to 
their existence among the forces; and even then 
probably not a hundredth part of such cases 
will be recorded in printed books, because most 
persons will be apt to confound together those 
larvffi which habitually live in decaying vegeta- 
ble matter, and the ordinary Intestinal Worms 
{Entozod), the native home of which is in the 
body of some animal or other. Taking eveiy- 
thiDg into consideration, we doubt whether, out 
of ten thousand cases, where the larva? of Two- 
winged Flies have existed in considerable num- 
bers in the human intestines, more tlian one 
single case has been recorded in print for the 
edification of the world by competent entomo- 
logical authority. And if this be a correct esti- 
mate, we may see at once how fearfully common 
such larvao must be in the bowels of that most 
patient of all military heroes — General Public. 
Moral. — Avoid eating decayed fruit, espe- 
cially if you are iu poor health, and from fruit 
which is only partially decayed pare away care- 
fully the unsound parts before you introduce the 
sounder portions into your stomach. Every 
entomologist knows what a pleasing pursuit it 
is to breed insects through all their stages in 
appropriate vessels ; but to breed them in one's 
own body is rather too much of a good thing. 



PLANT-LICE AND THEIR ENEMIES. 

Early in September 1 found my Chrysauthc- 
mnms badly infested with black plant-Iicc — 
the species most often attacking the Composite 
family of plants — and a few moments' observa- 
tion convinced me that this would be a grand 
opportunity to capture and study the vanous 
insects that visited them; and I concluded to 
sacrifice the plants, if need be, to this excellent 
opportunity of studying insects so close at the 
door. So, every pleasant day found me at my 
post, equipped with a low foot-stool for a scat, 
a good lens, and several glass tumblers in which 
to make my captures. 

In a few days I had taken over thirty distinct 
species of Ichneumons, among which were rare 
ones that would delight the heart of an Ento- 
mologist to see. Some of these Ichneumons 
were attracted merely by the sweets given out 
by the plant-lice, which they eject through two 
honey-tubes near the extremity of the body. 
Sometimes there will be quite a little shower 
of this honey scattered upon the leaves below, 
as I have frequently felt it falling upon my hand. 



Various insects are attracted by this honey, 
which they lick off* from the stems and leaves ; 
while others, such as the Syrphus-flies, come 
for the purpose of depositing their eggs along 
the infested stems, which eggs ai*e soon hatched 
into larvae that feed upon the plant-lice; and 
still others come for the purpose of depositing 
their eggs in these Syrphus-fly larvae. 

There were several species of these gaily- 
dressed Syi*phus- files very busy about the 
plants; and I soon found that they were not 
attracted by the sweets like some of the other 
two-winged flies, neither were they preying 
upon their neighbors, like some other tribes 
that visited here, but they were depositing their 
eggs along the stems infested with the plant- 
lice. And I resolved to experiment with these 
difiTerent species. So, cutting several stems of 
Chrysanthemums, that were neai'ly covered 
with the black lice, I placed them in a small 
glass jar of water for keeping fresh, and cov- 
ered the whole with a large oval glass. I then 
caught several of the flies and introduced them 
under the glass, where they blindly knocked 
their heads against the glass in the hopeless en- 
deavor to escape. But finding all such attempts 
fruitless, they were at length resigned to their 
fate, and quietly settled down and began to 
examine the plants, and deposit their eggs 
among the plant-lice. The eggs hatched in a 
day or two into very minute whiiish-looking, 
footless grubs ; and here in the midst of their 
food, all the gi*ubs had to do was to seize each 
a plant-louse, larger than itself, and, sucking 
out its juices, drop its lifeless body. 

These Syrphus larvae grew rapidly, and soon 
changed to a dark color, although I could not 
see that they changed their skins. Dark lines 
i-an along the back, and the body was variously 
mottled with sober brown, very unlike their 
brilliantly attired parents. 

When fully grown some of the larger species 
were an inch or more in length, and at this 
stage of their lives, very quickly would they 
clear a stem of plant-lice. Eating was the grand 
business of their lives; almost too lazy to move 
along after their food, they would stretch them- 
selves to an incredible length in trying to reach 
a plant-louse, rather than take a step in advance. 
After one had seized its victim, it elevated its 
head perpendicularly, holding the plant-louse 
up in the air until its juices were extracted, and 
then with a sudden jerk throwing its lifeless 
body down. 

When they were ready to assume the pupa 
form they ceased eating, and became quite 
uneasy, and I found they could crawl quite 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



rapidly. Down the stems and jar they would 
come, and wander about over the paper on 
which the jar stood. I then consulted the books, 
and found that ** the insect attaches itself by a 
glutinous secretion to the leaves and stems of 
plants ; its body then contracts and hardens, and 
the insect assumes the pupa state within the 
larva skin." So I returned them to the plants; 
I wished them to be scientific lai-vae, and did n't 
the books say they assumed the pupa state on 
the leaves and stems? But it was of no use, as 
fast as I returned them, down they would come. 
They were determined not to be scientific. So 
I gave them a little box of earth into which 
they immediately disappeared, where they as- 
sumed the pupa state; and in about a week 
thereafter, the perfect insects — the beautiful 
Syrphus-flies — made their appearance.* 



[•The gpeat bulk of the Sijrphiu larva) with which we are 
acqaainted fasten themselves to the leaves and stems of 
plants, before contracting to pupse, but some have long been 
known to transform in the ground . According to Westwood, 
the pupa of Ckeilona ruficornis has been found at the root of 
a tree by Fallen, while the Koot-louse Syrphus-fly {Fipiza 
radicum W. & H., see A. E. Vol. 1, p. 8.S) not only trans- 
forms under ground, but lives there in the larva state, in a 
recent letter, touching on this subject, Dr. Wm Le Baron, 
of Geneva, Ills., says: 'The pupa- of S. ribetii have been 
found under stones, and Mr. Say discovered the pupa? of his 
S. concava attached by their ventral surface to rails From 
this it would seem that those larva) which live upon leaves, 
desert these unreliable organs when about to pupate, and 
attach themselves to more pei-manent objects. Zettei-stedt 
fomid the pupa* of AphritiH, Latr. {Microdon, Meig.)both 
under the bark of a tree and also attached to the stems of 
^raas The larva* of Milesia^ Criorhina and Xylota arc found 
in rotten wood , and probably they pupat« in the same, or in the 

f round beneath. The same remark may be made ot the genera 
yritta and Rhingia^ whose larva; Inhabit the dung of liorses 
and cows . The larvie oiEriitalit and Helophilus arc aquatic, 
and their lai*va» are known to burrow in the ground, in order 
to undergo their transformations." At our request Mrs. 
Treat has sent us some of the bred flies ^Nhich are mentioned 
in this article, and amone them are three species of the gen u.s 
Stjrphtis and one of Jlelopniim. The latter is the 11. latij'rons 
[FlR. '.►*] of Loew. (l-'ig. 91.) Of the three 

Syrphus flies two are undetermined 
in our cabinet and the other one we 
illustrate herewith (Fig. 1)5.) It is a 
<iuite common species, and we take 
it to .bo the Philadelphia Syrphus- 
flv {Scava [Syrphus] philadeiphicus, 
Macq.); but as there are at least 
three descriled N. A. species which 

bear a very close resemblance to each 

Color-Black and yellow other, We forwarded a specimen to 
Dr. l^e Baron for his opinion, and 
here subjoin his reply : * 'This is a 
common species, and seems to be 
the American representative of the 
equally common Scava ribesii of Ku- 
rope. The term Sca^va is discarded 
by the German end French ento- 
mologists, being merged in the older 
genus Syrphui. The Swedish and 
Kngllsh entomologists, however, 
retain it. The principal distinc- Color-Black and yellow, 
tions seem to be as follows: In Syrphtu the abdomen is 
broader, being more oval than elliptical ; the seta is some- 
times plumose, but never so in Scmva; in Syrpkut the epis- 
toma descends more decidedly below the eye.^; but the nio.st 
conspicuous character is the painting of the abdomen, which 
in Sccpva always cunsists of transverse yellowish bauds, 
i-arely interrupted in the middle, whilst in Syrpkiis it is either 
wholly wanting or reduceil to a few triangular spots. If we 
consider the genera distinct, the present species will evi- 
dently come into the genus Scava. This species comes very 
near Phtladelphicus, but in those points in which Macquurt 
distin^ishes his Philadclphicus ftom the ribetii of Europe, it 
is curious that our species actually resembles the latter, viz., 
in the brown upper margin of the antenna* (which, in Phila- 
delphicus, are wholly IXilvous) , and in the presence of a 
blackish spot just above the base of the antennae. Our spe- 
cies also comes near the S. concava of Say, but the antenna; ' 





In two or three instances the rightful tenant 
did not come forth from the Syi-phus pupa; 
but an entirely diflferent four-winged, sprightly 
busy-body had killed the owner, and taken pos- 
session of its house. This was all plain to me, 
for I had caught the busy Ichneumon in the act 
of depositing her eggs in Syrphus larvae while 
the latter were engaged in feeding upon the 
plant-lice. 

There is another enemy of the plant-lioe, a 
minute Ichneumon [doubtless some species of 
Aphidius— Ed. "] which causes greater conster- 
nation among them than all of their other foes. 
The Syrphus picked his victim off so quietly 
that it never seemed to dream that danger was 
near, until it was kicking on the end of his pro- 
boscis. But this very tiny IchneumoUy even 
smaller than its victim, would set a whole colony 
of plant-Iicc on a stem in commotion. Bringing 
my lens to bear upon such a stem, I invariably 
found the author of the mischief perched upon 
the back of an unlucky plant-louse, which was 
vainly endeavoring to dislodge her by kicking 
and throwing back its antennae. But she was 
usually too iirmly seated to be unhorsed, and 
patiently waited until quiet was restored, when 
she would introduce her ovipositor in the back 
of the plant-louse and leave an egg to hatch into a 
tiny larva wliich should finally eat into the vitals, 
causing a slow and lingering death. After the 
Ichneumon had deposited her eggy she quietly 
dismounted and proceeded to another plant- 
louse, which would in the same manner become 
restive, and again the alarm would be commu- 
nicated to all on the stem. They would hold 
on to the stem by their beaks, and kick, and 

in that species ar*' described as pale testaceous I should 
remark here that I have in inv possession only Mac4iuart's 
and Say 'sand Wiedemann's descriptious . Mr. Walker has 
described about twenty N. A. species, but the works which 
contain them, 1 believe, are not very easily accessible." 

In July, l^«>7, we bred this lly ft'om lana? which were 
feeding oh a large red plant-louse (AphU rudbeckia, Fitch) 
which congregates in immense numbers, head downwaitls, 
on the stalks of the (ioldeni-od. When lull grown this Svr- 
phu9 larv* measures 0.30 inch: the general color is pale- 
yellow, inclining lo sulphur-yellow, audit is variegated on 
the back with black, brown, 
and brick-red, as in Figure (^, 
b. Thtsc larv:e contracted to 
pni»a* ui»on the stems of the 
plant, and u|>oii the sides of the 
vessel in which they were con- 
lined. We also know that the 
closely allied Syrphut ribeiii 
pupates sometimes upon stems, 
and Curtis (Farm Insects, p. 
80) figures the pupa of S. pyras- 
n i„« / - .1 »^ « 1 1 II ''■*» I'inn., likewise upon a 

Colors— (aniMi A) Sulpiiur-yrllow, „.„„, 'I'hua Ir vo^tiit^ tatn^a 

black, ami hrick-rod. "*^"»' *"'^ ?' resuits (Since 

this same species was also breil 
by Mi's. Treat from pupa' that form under ground) that the 
same s|>ecies sometimes pupates above, and at other times 
below ground. May it not be, that those laiTaj hatched 
during the summer months and which are destined to pro- 
duce flies soon after they become full grown, invariably 
transform on the plants where they reside; while those 
which are hatched later in the season, and which may have 
to pass the winter in the pupa state, prefer to enter the ground 
to transform?— Ed.] 



[Fig. »!•: 




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strike out in all directions ; and this would set 
the ants — their attendants and protectors — hunt- 
ing around, to find the cause of the alarm , but 
they never seemed to recognize the true author 
of the mischief. Two ants meeting upon such 
an occasion would put their heads together and 
seem to consult for a moment, and then proceed 
to drive off all the harmless flies and wasps that 
were attracted by the sweets alone. 

Terrible was the fate of an unlucky Syrphus 
larva that happened in the way of an ant at 
8ach a time ; the ant would take it in its mouth, 
and shake it as a dog will shake a wood-chuck. 
Several times I have attempted to rescue such a 
larva, but found it had always received its death 
wound and died shortly after. 

ViXELAXD, N. J. Mrs. Mary Treat. 

[We gladly publish the above from Mrs. Treat, 
and hope her good example will be followed by 
other of our lady readers. It is really a wonder 
to as why the ladies do not more generally in- 
terest themselves in the pleasant and fascinating 
study of Entomology ! There should be more 
Madame Merians. Original observations are 
always valuable, especially if accompanied by 
specimens of the insects spoken of.— -En.] 



THE APPLE-TREE TENT-CATERPILLAII. 

BY WM. LE BARON, M.D., OF (iKNKVA, ILLS. 

[Fig.n?.] 




Oolor»-^« jki) b!ftrk, white, blucsnd rufous; (c) yeI1owiah-f(Tay ; (d ) yellow. 

More than two dozen different species of 
insects arc now known to infest and damage 



the Apple tree. Some subsist upon the root; 
some burrow into the trunk; some infest the 
bark ; some select the opening buds ; some de- 
vour the expanded foliage, and others, finally, 
revel upon the fruit. Thus beset by enemies 
on every side, it would seem that that most 
valuable of fruit trees, the good old Apple tree, 
must ere long succumb, and cease to occupy its 
place in the family of plants. And tliis it would 
undoubtedly do if all these enemies were per- 
mitted to go on unchecked in their operations. 
But owing to the incessant antagonism of par- 
asitic foes, and insectivorous birds, and human 
ingenuity, the ravages of these insects are kept 
within bounds, and the apple tree still lives. Of 
these numerous enemies of the Apple tree, five 
hold a bad pre-eminence, namely, the Round- 
headed Borer {Sapef'da bivittatd), the Oyster- 
shell Bark-louse {Aspidiotus conchi/ormis) , the 
Canker-worm (Anisopieryx vematd), the Tent 
Caterpillar {Clisiocampa Americana), and the 
Apple-worm ( Carpocapsa pomonella) . Of these 
the most conspicuous, and, in some seasons and 
localities, the most destructive, is the insect 
generally known as the Tent Caterpillar (Fig. 
07, a and 6), being the laiTa of a brick-colored 
moth (Fig. 1)H), known popularly as the Amer- 
ican Lackey moth. This insect is a native of 
the more northern Atlantic States, and has been 
introduced into the West in the ^gg state, at- 
tached to the twigs of young trees. Though the 
crab-apple tree, upon which this insect readil^y 
feeds, grows wild at the West, yet the caterpillar 
is not found upon it except in the neighborhood 
of cultivated trees. 

The eggs from which these caterpillars pro- 
ceed (Fig. 97, c) are deposited by the parent 
insect in the latter part of June or the beginning 
of Jnly, upon the smaller twigs, in oblong rings,, 
each of which contains about two hundred and 
fifty eggs. These eggs are little thimble-shaped 
bodies, about one-twentieth of an inch in length. 
The young caterpillar, whilst in the Qgg, is bent 
double, the fold of the body being at the smaller 
end. The same degree of warmth whiclr ex- 
pands the buds of the apple tree, also hatches 
the eggs, so that the young caterpillars are born 
in the midst of abundance. It sometimes hap- 
pens, however, especially in the cold and wet 
springs of New England, that the growth of 
the leaves is arrested by an unfavorable change 
in the weather, after the young caterpillars are 
hatched. To meet this emergency, these little 
insects are endowed with the power of sustain- 
ing hunger for a considerable time. When 
wholly deprived of food they will live from ten 
to twelve days. This species belongs to the tribe 



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THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of Teni-makiug Caterpillars, and during the 
first two or three days of their exislence they 
commence constructing a shelter for themselves 
by extendhig sheets of web across the nearest 
fork in the twig upon which they were hatched. 
As they increase in size ihey construct addi- 
tional layei"8 over those previously made, at- 
taching them to the neighboring twigs, and 
leaving space enough between them for the 
caterpillars to pass. The shape of the tent is 
necessarily very iri-egnlar, depending upon the 
situation of the branches upon which it is con- 
structed. The holes through which the cater- 
pillars enter ai*e situated near (he extremities 
or angles of the nest. This nest when completed 
is about eight or ten inches in diameter. The 
caterpillars retreat into it at night and in stormy 
weather, and at other times when they are 
not feeding. The silken threads of which 
the web is composed are drawn from the body 
of the insect through a minute apertuie situ- 
ated behind the mouth, which is the outlet of 
two convoluted tubes, into which the ductile 
matter is secreted from which the silk is made. 
When going out to feed, the caterpillars always 
travel upon the upper side of the branches, and 
each one leaves a thread of silk behind it, which 
probably serves as a clue to direct it back to the 
nest. The silken trails thns formed are at first 
scarcely noticeable, but become veiy obvious 
after a branch has been traveled upon for a 
considerable time. Thus the caterpillar not 
only lives in a silken house, but covers its roads 
with a silken carpet. Like other larvae, they 
shed their skins four times before arriving at 
maturity. When fully grown they are about 
one inch and three-quarters in length; but as 
they are widely known and easily recognized, 
I shall not here occupy space by desciibing 
them. 

The eyes of this caterpiller have the appear- 
ance of very minute black points, being ten in 
number, five on each side of the head. Their 
position is best seen by holding the cast-oiT skin 
of a caterpillar towards the light, and examin- 
ing it through a magnifying glass. Without 
claiming mathematical exactness, it may be 
stated that four of them are situated in a cuinred 
line, forming half a circle, of which circle the 
fifth occupies the centre. Owing to the extreme 
minuteness of the eyes of caterpillars in general, 
they were formerly overlooked, and these in- 
sects were supposed to be blind. That they pos- 
sess the sense of seeing, however, and that, too, 
at a considerable distance, seems to be pi*oved 
by the following experhnents. If a nest of these 
caterpillars be taken from a tree and placed I 



upon the ground several feet from it, they will 
i*eturn to it in a direct line. In another experi- 
ment a handful of caterpillars was placed in 
some tall grass between two trees, but nearer 
to one than the other. They first crept up the 
stems of the grass, as if for the purpose of taking 
an observation, and then took up their march 
for the nearest tree. 

The leaves of the Apple tree constitute the 
food of by far the greater number of this kind 
of caterpillar. Nests are, however, occasion- 
ally seen on the other common fruit trees, the 
Peach, Pear, Plum, and Cherry, particularly 
the Wild Cherry. When deprived of other food 
they will also eat the leaves of the liose bush. 

The active period of this caterpillar, that is, 
the time from their hatching to their changing 
into chysalids, is from ^ve to six weeks, and 
when we consider their voi-acious appetites and 
that there are about two hundred and fifty 
individuals in each nest, we can easily form an 
idea of the extent of their ravages. Where 
there happen to be several nests on one tree, or 
where the tree itself is small, they often strip 
it of eveiy vestige of foliage ; and in neglected 
localities, whole orchards are sometimes seen 
as bare of foHage on the fi i*st of June as in 
mid-winter. It is at about this date that the 
caterpillars cease their ravages, and the trees 
subsequently make an effort to recover, and do 
actually throw out a new set of leaves, but their 
fruitfulness for the season is destroyed, and the 
tree itself must have received a severe shock to 
its constitution. 

After five or six weeks of vomcious feeding, 
the caterpillars arrive at maturity, and then 
leave the trees, and arc to be seen crawling in 
all directions upon the neighboring fences or 
other objects, in search of some suitable place 
in which to undergo their transformation into 
pupae. They usually select some crevice or 
angle where they can get an attachment for 
their cocoons in two directions. Their favorite 
place is in the angle formed by the projection 
of the cap-board of fences or posts. In these 
positions they sometimes congregate so as to lie 
one upon another. When about to construct its 
cocoon, the insect attaches itself by its hinder- 
most feet, so as to leave the anterior part of its 
body free for motion ; then extending its body, 
it draws some disconnected lines across from 
one side of the angle to the other, to serve as 
outlines or stays. Then, working down ueai^er 
home, it di*aw8 its lines more densely so that 
near its body they constitute a pretty close 
texture, like a piece of loosely woven cloth, 
through which, however, the insect can be seen. 



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When the web is finished, the insect emits a 
yellow fluid with which it besmears the inside 
of the cocoon, and thns eflTectnally conceals 
itself from view. (See Fig. 97, d). This species 
reoHuns in the chrysalis state about twenty 
days. Some kinds of moths pass all the fall, 
winter and spnng months, that is, three-quarters 
of the year, in this state. Some of these are 
enclosed in cocoons of such dense textui*e that 
the inner surface resembles glazed parchment, 
and would seem to be almost impervious to the 
atmosphere. This has given rise to the ques- 
tion whether insects in the pupa state cannot 
live without air, as well a«* without food. 
Some experiments performed with the chrysa- 
lids of the Tent Caterpillar go to disprove this 
notion. A number of cocoons were moistened 
with oil so as to exclude the air; in every in- 
pfance the enclosed pupa perished without com- 
pleting its transformation. The nicety and 
compactness with which the parts of an insect 
are folded up in its pupal envelope is, indeed, 
wonderful. No effort of human ingenuity could 
replace it there, after it has once emerged. 
Goldsmith, in his entertaining but fanciful work 
apon Animated Nature, asserts that ini»ects of 
this kind, when they have emerged from the 
popal covering, expand their wings so i*apidly 
that the eye can scarcely attend their unfolding. 
This is very improbable, in any case, and in the 
species now before us, as I have often witnessed, 
the expansion of the wings is very slow and 
gradual, and yet steadily progressive, so that 
the time occupied in the operation does not 
nsnally exceed fifteen minutes. 

[Fig. 98.1 




Color— Pale brick-red. 

The American Lackey moth, when fully de- 
veloped, measures about one inch and a half 
from tip to tip of the expanded wings. It is 
twually of a pale brick color, but individuals are 
occasionally seen much darker, or of an ashy- 
brown color. Across the fore wings are two 
straight, oblique whitish lines. The antennsB 
we moderately pectinate, or feather-like, in the 
»uale, and very slightly so in the female. The 
holk)w tongue, or sucker, through which insects 
of this order imbibe their nutriment, is wholly 
wanting in this species, as, indeed, it is gener- 
ally in the particnlar group to which it belongs. 
Of coarse they take no food, and live but a short 



time. A number of these moths which were 
put into a box immediately after they had come 
from their oocoons, were alive on the third day, 
but were all dead on the fourth. Their short 
lives have but one object — the pairing of the 
sexes and the deposition of the eg^s by the 
female, for a future generation. The following 
experiment illustrates some of their habits: 
Three female moths were enclosed in a glass 
vessel. They were quiet during the day, but 
became very restless as night approached, show- 
ing that like the moths in general, tfhiy are 
nocturnal in their habits. On the third day a 
twig of apple tree was introduced into the 
vesseL The moths immediately ran up upon it, 
and put themselves in position for laying their 
eggs. This was accomplished in the following 
manner. Placing herself transversely upon the 
side of the twig, she curved her abdomen under 
the twig and extended it up the opposite side 
as far as she could reach, and commenced de- 
positing her eggs, one after another, gradually 
withdrawing the abdomen till she had laid a 
row of eggs across the underside of the twig. 
She then, in the same manner, deposited another 
row, parallel to and in contact with the fii'st. 
Owing to their unnatural situation, or the ab- 
sence of the opposite sex. or to some unknown 
cause, these moths in confinement succeeded in 
laying but two or three rows of eggs, whilst in 
a state of nature they lay from fifteen to twenty 
rows, containing in all an average of about two 
hundred and fifty eggs. They subsequently 
cover the eggs with a coating of brown varnish 
which efiectnally protects them from the vicis- 
situdes of the weather. In no case, however 
warm or protracted the autumn may be, do 
these eggs ever hatch till the following spring. 
So that the Tent Caterpillar, unlike many of 
our noxious injects, never has but one brood 
in the season. IIow is it that these little germs 
of being remain insensible to the heats of July, 
August and September, and yet burst into 
vitality at almost the first touch of spring? We 
know that if the young caterpillars came out 
in the fall, they would perish from inability to 
eat the tough autumnal foliage. But what 
natural law can we conceive of, that exercises 
such a discretionary power? 

Again, by what subtle and inscrutable instinct 
does the parent insect select those trees which 
are suitable for the deposition of her eggs, 
whatever may be their size, shape, or situation ? 
How does this poor insect, of three days* dura- 
tion, know that her future progeny can thrive 
upon the foliage of the Apple and the Cherry, 
whilst it would perish upon that of the Oak or 



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the Ash? The actions of the higher animais 
seem to be governed by a motive power verv 
similar to reason, and differing from it perhaps 
only in degree, whilst the instinct of insects 
often lies wholly beyond its domain ; and, there- 
fore, its nature will probably forever elude the 
grasp of the human understanding. 

Insects; with respect to their social habits, 
are divisible into two classes: the gregarious, 
which live together in communities, and the 
solitary, which seek their subsistence independ- 
ently, eaeh one for itself. This distinction is of 
vast importance in its relatjon to the destructi- 
bility of the noxious species. This practical 
point may be illustrated by^ the habits of the 
present species at different periods of the day. 
At one time a brood of well grown caterpillars 
will be been scattered over every part of a tree, 
and the attempt to capture and destroy them 
would be a hopeless task. But wait an hour 
or two, and all these insects will return and 
congregate in a tent eight or ten inches in 
diameter, when they can be removed by a single 
grasp of the hand. The solitary or separate 
feeding insects are generally beyond our con- 
trol, but there is no excuse for permitting our 
trees to be damaged by the gregarious species, 
of which the Tent Caterpillar is an example. 
A few of these insects may be found and de- 
stroyed in the moth and chrysalis state. A 
much larger number can be detected and de- 
stroyed in the egg state, especially on small or 
nursery trees ; but they for the most part escape 
our sight on large trees, owing to their small- 
ness and to the fact that the varnish which 
covers them is almost precisely the color of the 
bark of the tree. But the tents of the cater- 
pillars, when a week or more old, are very 
conspicuous objects, and are easily discovered 
and destroyed, either by crushing them under 
the foot or throwing them into the fire. When 
too high on the tree to be reached by hand, they 
can be captured by thrusting a stick into their 
nests, and turning it round and round, so as to 
entangle the web and the caterpillars together. 
This caterpillar, like others, is subject to the 
depredations of parasitic insects, but their num- 
ber and names have not yet been determined. 
The insectivorous birds generally reject the 
hairy caterpillars, and therefore we get but 
little help from them in the extermination of 
the present species. The Baltimore Oriole, or 
Golden Robin, is sometimes seen pecking at their 
nests, but they do not make of them a common 
article of diet. The only birds that I know 
which devour them gi*eedily are the American 
Cuckoos {Coccyzus Americanus and erythroph" 



thalmus) . Mr. Nutall, the ornithologist, speak- 
ing of the former species, says be has known 
them to make their chief diet, both for them- 
selves and their young, of the Tent Caterpillar. 
Bu* these birds are not numerous enough to 
effect much in checking the spread of this pre- 
valent insect. Fortunately, however, owing to 
the gregarious habits of these caterpillars, we 
have it in our power to protect ourselves from 
their ravages, by the payment of a small install- 
ment of that eternal vigilance which is the price 
of the husbandman's success. 



APPLE TREE BORERS. 

BY JOHN P. WULANDT, JKFFKBSON CITY, MO. 

Ill Central Missouri the Flat-headed Apple- 
tree Borer, {Chrysohothris femorata, Fabr.) 
seems in many localities to be more common, 
and consequently more destructive, than its 
congener^ the Round-headed Borer, and in most 
of the orchards I have had occasion to examine, 
scarcely ten trees out of every hundred can be 
said to have escaped its ravages altogether. I 
have, last summer, devoted a considerable share 
of my leisure time to an investigation of the 
habits of these mischievous insects, and my 
researches have resulted in satisfying me that a 
little care and attention are all that is necessary 
to guard trees effectually from the ravages of 
these borers. 

In my own orchard, containing several hun- 
di*ed remarkably thrifty young three and four- 
year-old trees, at least one-half were attacked 
last summer— not less than twenty eggs, per- 
haps, being deposited on one tree, in some 
iuHtances — but, by a liberal use of soap, aided 
by an occasional application of the knife, used 
before the larvae were old enough to commit 
any material damage, I have succeeded in 
eradicating them so completely that not oue 
single Chrysobothris is left in my orchard to tell 

* ' the tale of the doom and destruotion of his race, ' ' 

while the rows of smooth and vigorous young 
trees scarcely show the trace of a scar or an 
abrasion. 

The fii*st young larvae, last year, made their 
appearance sometime during the month of June, 
being noticed, as usual, on the south and south- 
west sides of the trunks, ranging all the way 
from the foot to the crotch of the ti-ees, with 
here and there one on the lai*ger limbs. I am 
inclined to think that the eggs hatch very soon 
after they are deposited upon the surface of the 
bark by the female insect, as, notwithstanding 
my almost daily examinations, I have seldom 



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sacceeded in finding anything but their empty 
fihellB. 

As soon as hatched the little borers bury im- 
mediately into the bark, and for some time lie 
concealed under a follicle of thin epidermis 
immediately beneath the surface. At that period 
of their existeuce they are exceedingly minnte — 
mere threads^ with one end apparently some- 
what enlarged — and can be destroyed with a 
slight scratch of the knife, or even the finger 
naily without the least injury to the liber or 
inner bark of the tree ; and after the course of a 
few weeks, the spot where a young borer has 
been found and killed in this manner will be no 
longer noticeable to the eye. This is the period 
during which I always aim to destroy the borers 
on my trees, and it is but seldom, and by mere 
accident, that a few escape to grow to a larger 
size. 

The intelligent observer may, by dint of 
practice and close attention, soon learn, as I 
haye done, how to discover almost at first glance 
the place where a newly hatched borer lies con- 
cealed. A small drop of brown fluid, resem- 
bling tobacco-juice in color, usually reveals its 
presence, for at that early stage of its develop- 
ment the well-known sawdust-like excretions 
characteristic of the full grown larvse must not 
be looked for. 

The easiest and surest way to destroy these 
borers is by washing the stem of the tree, from 
the base to the crotch, with some alkaline solu- 
tion ; but in order to prove efficient, this must 
be done before they are large enough to h^ve 
eaten their way very deeply into the bark. I 
have therefore found soap-suds a very valuable 
auxiliary in the persistent warfare I have waged 
against the borers. After ti7ing various com- 
pounds, I now prefer to use a simple solution 
made from hard or sofl soap, thinned out to a 
proper consistency by the addition of a strong 
brine of salt and tobacco stems. I do not ad- 
vertise this remedy as a preventive, because my 
experiments with several nauseous drugs, in- 
cluding aloes, sulphur, assafoetida and lime, 
have led me to the conclusion that the olfactory 
nerves of the female Cht^ysobothris (that is, sup- 
posing that these insects are endowed with the 
sense of smell, a fact which entomologists have 
failed to make apparent) are proof against all 
nauseous odors . I have repeatedly found freshly 
laid eggs, and even young live borers just 
hatched, on trees that had been washed but a 
£ew days before with a solution of assafoBtida 
and aloes ; and besides, a few heavy dews, or a 
rain shower, will not fail to remove all traces of 
the strongest alkaline wash. 



But although probably not a preventive, the 
solution I have indicated is a cure ; for it will 
instantly and infallibly kill every borer that has 
not penetrated so deep under the bark, or into 
the wood, as to be beyond its reach. By per- 
forming the operation three or four times on all 
the trees in the orchai*d, the first time dudng 
the month of June, and the last from the middle 
to the end of August, and extracting with the 
knife a few borers that may chance to escape 
the penetrating efiects of this wash, I know, 
from a satisfactory and most conclusive personal 
experience, that an orchard can be kept entirely 
free firom these insects. 

As I have stated before, the Flat-headed 
Apple-tree Borer invariably attacks the south 
and southwest sides of the trees, and is only 
found on the eastern or northern sides in excep- 
tional cases. While I admit that the insect 
appears inclined to prey upon feeble and diseased 
trees that suffer from the effects of old wounds, 
sun-scald or neglect, I must at the same time 
remark, that it is an error to suppose that it 
will spare healthy, smooth trees. All the trees 
in my own orchard are, without exception, 
thrifty and vigorous, entirely free f^om bruises 
or sun-scald, and as large of their age as any I 
ever saw ; yet half of them, at least, were at- 
tacked by the borers last summer. 

vThe usual course with a large proportion of 
apple trees planted of late years in Missouri is 
the following : Trees received sound and in good 
condition from the nursery ai*e attacked the 
second or third year after being set out in the 
orchard rows. When small, they are not seldom 
girdled around their entire circumference by the 
borers, and die outright. Many of those which 
survive come out of the encounter wounded and 
sadly worsted, and lead a lingering existence 
for a few seasons. The sun scalds the raw, open 
sores on their south side, and the persistent 
attacks of the borers, added to neglect and want 
of cultivation, increase the evil from year to 
year, until the trunk becomes sun-scalded and 
seared from top to bottom, and the tree finally 
dies. This has proved to be the fate of by far 
the greater half of all the apple trees planted in 
many portions of Missouri during the past ten 
or fifteen years, and it could be obviated by a 
little intelligent labor and care. 

Although the Flat-headed Borer evinces a 
manifest partiality for the various sub-varieties 
of the Fyrus malus and Pyrus baccata, as well 
as for our own indigenous crabs, it must not be 
imagined that it disdains other food. I have 
found these borers preying upon the Pear, 
though seldom ; occasionally upon the Mazzard, 



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and Morel lo Cherry, the Plum, very often on 
the Silver Maple, and last year I found them in 
unusual abundance on my Peach ti*ees. I was, 
indeed, somewhat surprised to notice that they 
wore far moi'e numerous on Peach trees than 
even the true Peach-tree Boi'er {JEgeriaexitiosa^ 
Say), an insect which has become somewhat 
scai*ce in this section within the last few years. 
The Peach trees were attacked by tliem in the 
same manner as described with apple trees, viz : 
on the soutliwest side of the trunk; but the 
larvsB were neither as large nor as fat as some I 
have cut out of Apple trees. Whether or not 
they attain their full development, and undergo 
all the stages of their transformation, when 
feeding on the Peach, I am unable to say. I 
observed that, on the Peach trees, gum generally 
oozed from the wounds caused by these borers> 
while this was not the case with the Cherry trees. 

The Round-headed Borer (Saperda bivittata, 
Say), is much less common with me, and has, 
fortunately, as yet not infested this locality to 
the same extent and in as great numbers as the 
former species. Sometimes both species dwell 
together in the same orchard and on the same 
tree; often, however, the Round-headed Borer 
will be found mainly to infest a certain orchard, 
while another orchard, not a quarter of a mile 
off, will be exclusively attacked by the Flat- 
headed Borer. This is due, possibly, to differ- 
ences of soil and exposure. 

The same means ai*e used to combat both; 
although, of course, allowance must be made 
for the peculiarities in the habits and modes of 
life of each. While the flat-headed species in- 
variably attacks the southwest side of the tree 
above ground, ranging along the whole length 
of the trunk, the round-headed species manifests 
no special partiality for a particular point of the 
compass, and affects the north quite as much as 
it does the south, i*anging commonly two or 
three inches above and five or six inches below 
the surface of the soil, around the entire circum- 
ference of the tree. Cutting out the grubs, and 
washing the base of the tree with the mixture 
I have recommended, are useful remedies. The 
application of scalding hot water, and the use 
of a wire to search for borers that were left to 
burrow deep into the wood, are all useful fn 
their way, but 1 have not found occasion to 
apply these remedies upon any of my trees, as 
my method is to destroy these pests before they 
have caused irreparable injury to the trees. 
Mounding the trees with earth, as now practiced 
by some of the best peach-culturists, will, 1 
have no doubt, be also found a good preventive 
against the Round-headed Borer. 



My father, J. E. Wielandy, Esq., of Highland, 
Ills., a well-informed amateur horticulturist and 
pomologist, and a close observer, states that 
mounding the trees with coal ashes has been 
found productive of good results. Most of the 
coal burned in the West is bituminous, and the 
ashes being probably strongly impregnated with 
sulphureted gases, must be distasteful to the 
borers not less than the perfect insects. As in 
many places coal ashes can be had for the mere 
cost of hauling, it seems to me that this sugges- 
tion i« worthy of a trial. The ground should 
be first scraped off to a depth of five or six 
inches, the tree carefully searched for borers, 
and the cavity then filled with ashes, which 
should be mounded at least one foot above the 
surface level of the soil. The month of May is 
the most proper season to perform this operation. 

I know of not a few localities in this State, 
where, owing to the ravages of the borers, peo- 
ple almost despair of raising apples. To all such 
the short, practical suggestions contained in this 
communication will, if followed intelligently, 
be the means of stocking their failing orchards 
with a new growth of young trees as healthy 
and thrifty as my own. 

[For the sake of scientific accuracy we hope 
our correspondent will breed the perfect insect 
from those borers which he finds in the plum, 
cherry and peach trees, and will report the re- 
sult thi"ough ourcolnmns; for another species 
{Buprestis divarieataj Say) has long been known 
to attack these trees, and it^ laiTa resembles so 
nearly that of Chrysohoihris femorata that the 
two may very easily be confounded. — Ed.] 



The ** Pkaoh Grub MiyN."— L. E. K., of St. 
Joseph, Michigan, says of the "Peach grub 
man :" ** He has been around here selling a pri- 
vate plan for keeping grubs out of peach trees, 
which seems nothing more nor less than banking 
up the earth around the collar of the tree ten or 
twelve inches high in June and leaving it there 
until freezing weather in the fall. Yet simple 
as it may appear, it, would seem by his sub- 
scription list that he has carried off a consider- 
able amount of money from these parts. The 
dope was administered at various prices, varying 
from eight lo twenty dollars, according to the 
number of trees owned by the victim. The 
same plan has long been in use, 1 believe, by 
some of our good cultivators. Now, it striken 
me that it is bad enough to have our trees in- 
jured by the grubs themselves without having 
them attacked by a human vampire, who has 
filched the experience of others and then bar- 
tered it as his own for gold or greenbacks." L. 
E. K. evidently takes the papers, and is not to 
be caught ! 



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GAPES IN FOWIiS. 

{SoUrostoma IStrongylut] ayngamus.) 

BY N. H. PAAREN, V. 8. 

[Fig. 09 !• Dr. Wiesenthal, Professor of 

Anatomy at Baltimore, U. S., 
writing in 1797, says: 

'' There is a disease prevalent 
among the gallinaceons poultry 
in this country called the Gapes, 
which destroys eight-tenths of 
our fowls in many part«», and is 
roost prevalent among voung 
turkeys and chickens bred upon 
established faims. Chicks and 
poults, in a few days after they 
are hatched, are frequently 
found to open wide their mouths 
and gasp for breath, at the same 
time sneezing, and attempting 
to swallow. At first the affec- 
tion is slight, but gradually be- 
comes more and more oppres- 
sive, aud ultimately destroys. 
Very few recover; they lan- 
guish, grow dispirited, droop, 
and die. It is generally known 
these symptoms are occai^ioned 
by worms in the trachea. I have 
seen the whole windpipe com- 
pletely filled with these worms, 
and have been astonished at the 
fowl's being capable of respira- 
, tiou under such circumstances." 
What Dr. Wiesenthal wrote 
Coior-Biood-rcdT'last century applies well to 
Gapes as prevailing in different parts of this 
country at the present time. Pheasants and 
partridges are also liable to the disease. Dr. 
Spencer Cob bold says: 

** This parasite has been found and recorded 
as occurring in the trachea of the following birds, 
namelv, the turkey, domestic cock, pheasant, 
partridge, common duck, lapwing, black stork, 
magpie, hooded crow, green woodpecker, ^t^ir- 
ling, and swift. I do not doubt that tliiM li«?t 
might be very much extended if our British 
ornithologists would favor us with their expe- 
rience in the matter. Hitherto I have been sur- 
prised to find how few of those to whom I have 
mentioned the subject appear to be acquainted 
either with the nature of the parasite, or with 
the various methods lo be adopted in curing the 
disease to which its presence in the windpipe 
gives rise." 

In the calf, the parasites are found in large 
numbers in the trachea, or partially developed 
in the substance of the lungs. It is the Stronyy- 
lus micrurus which is found in the calf, and 
occasionally in the horse and ass. In lambs 

• We are indebted, for this illustration, to E*rof. Jos. Leidy, 
of Philadelphia, who has had the kindness to have it copietl, 
after Siebold, Grom Archiv.f. Naturgeschichte, 1836, plate 
III, where it ia called Syngamut traehealu. The Apite is 
highly ma^oifled, and the lai-ge portion represents the lemale, 
aad the smaUer arm the attached male —Ed. 



and kids, the parasite is termed Strongylu^ flla- 
Ha; and in the pig, Strongylus contortu^. In 
Gapes, the parasite is Sclerostoma {Strongylta) 
syngamus occupying the trachea and bronchial 
tubes of fowls. 

We find, on examining the Inngs of sheep at 
the slaughter-house, that almost all, in the first 
year of their lives, have indications of deposits 
in the lungs — at one time supposed to be tuber- 
cular, but which we now know is due to para- 
sitic productions. 

Strongyli are not easily killed. Ercolani has 
found them living thirty days after exposure to 
air. They were dried up, but being moistened 
with water, moved and gave other signs of life. 

The freed eggs, at the time of their maturity, 
contain ciliated embryo capable of active pro- 
gression. The prolonged action of moisture 
from without, aided by vigorous movements of 
the perfected embryo within, serves to loosen 
the end of the egg-shell, by the opening of which 
the animal is set free. 

Dr. Spencer Cobbold has recommended the 
following course to be adopted in this disease 
of birds: 

** First. When the worm has taken up its 
abode in the trachea of fowls and other domestic 
birds, the simplest plan consists, as Dr. Wiesen- 
thal long ago pointed out, in stripping a feather 
from the tube to near the narrow end of the 
shaft, leaving only a few uninjurf d webs at the 
tip. The bird being secured, the web extremity 
of the feather is introduced into the windpipe. 
It is then twisted round a few times and with- 
drawn, when it will usually happen that several 
of the worms are found attached. In some in- 
stances this plan entirely succeeds. But it is 
not altogether satisfactory, as it occasionally 
fails to mslodge all the occupants. 

«* Secondly. The above method is rendered 
more eflbctual when the feather is previously 
steeped in some medicated solution which will 
destroy the worms. Mr. Bartlett, superinten- 
dent of the Zoological Society's Gardens, em- 
ploys for this purpose salt, or a weak infusion 
of tobacco; and he informs us that the simple 
application of turpentine to the throat externally 
is sufficient to kill the worms. To this plan, 
however, there is the objection that, unless much 
care be taken, the bird itself may be injuriously 
affected by the drugs employed. 

"Thirdly. The mode of treatment recom- 
mended by !Nfr. Montagu appears worthy of 
mention, as it proved successful in his hands, 
although the infested birds were old partridges. 
One of his birds had died from suffocation ; but 
he tells us that * change of food and change of 
place, together with the infusion of rue and 
garlic instead of plain water to drink, and chiefiy 
hempseed, independently of green vegetables 
which the grass-plot of the mauagerie afforded, 
i-ecovered the others in a very short time.' 

** Fourthly. The plan I have here adopted, by 
way of experiment, of opening the trachea and 
removing the worms at once. This method is 



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evidently only necessary when the disease has 
advanced so far that immediate saffocation be- 
comes inevitable ; or it may be resorted to when 
other methods have failed. In the most far-gone 
cases, instant relief will follow this operation, 
since the trachea may with certainty be cleared 
of all obstructions. 

'* Lastly. The most essential thing to be ob- 
served, in view of putting a check upon the future 
prevalence of the disease, is the total destruction 
of the parasites after their removal — a precau- 
tion, however, which cannot be adopted, if Mr. 
Montagu's mode of treatment is followed. If 
the worm be merely killed and thrown away 
(say upon the ground), it is scarcely likely that 
the mature eggs will have sustained any injury. 
Decomposition having set in, the young embryos 
will sooner or later escape from their shells, 
migrate in the soil or elsewhere, and ultimately 
find their way into the air-passages of certain 
birds in the same manner as their parents did 
before them." 

I will in a few words give the results of my 
own obsei*vations. I have had, at different 
times, the disease amongst my own hens. Doc- 
toring them according to books has invariably 
failed with me. I concluded to experiment, 
even at the risk of a few, and succeeded with 
the last two I had suffering with the disease. 
One of these had the windpipe completely filled 
up, and was about suffocating. 

The only remedy with which I have had suc- 
cess, is the carbolic acid, which I have found 
very serviceable, both as a preventive, and as a 
pretty sure remedy, even in far gone cases. The 
following is my mode of treatment: 

Dissolve one grain of pure crystalline carbolic 
acid in ten drops of alcohol, and add half a 
drachm of vinegar. Strip a small quill feather 
till within half an inch of the nan'ow end of the 
shaft. Secure the feathered patient, moisten 
the feather in the solution, and introduce it into 
the windpipe, turning it round once or twice, 
and then remove it. It will dislodge the worms, 
and bring back many of them adhering with 
slime on to it. Great dexterity is required, and 
some little knowledge of the anatomy of the 
parts: a slow, unskillful operator may kill the 
already half-suffocated bird, instead of curing 
it. Next I put the bird in a coop, with some 
shavings dipped in a solution of the carbolic 
acid (half an ounce of the crystalline acid, well 
mixed with one quart of water). Food and 
water is given in small tin boxes placed conve- 
nient to the bird. Administer flour of sulphur, 
with a little ginger, in poultaceous food, com- 
posed of barley-meal and coarse corn-meal. In 
the drinking water placed before the bird, should 
be mixed a few drops of the last-mentioned 
solution. The mouth and beak should be washed 
morning and evening with some of the solution. 



The shavings should be removed mornings, or 
be sprinkled well with the solution morning and 
evening. 

If at all curable, the bird will be free from 
the disease within three days. The bird should 
be kept in a dry, warm place, apart from the 
rest of the fowls. 

As a Preventive I feed youn^ chicks twice 
a week with wheat, steeped in a solution of 
carbolic acid (the solution to be in the propor- 
tion of one teaspoonful of my above-mentioned 
solution to one pint of water). All wood and 
coal ashes from the house, is thrown into the 
nest-house, and on the floor of the roosting- 
house — having both houses separate. The roost- 
ing house is thoroughly cleansed every Satui"- 
day, and some of the solution of carbolic acid 
sprinkled on the floor and roosts once every 
month. The disinfecting and deodorizing pro- 
perties of the carbolic acid, render it alike 
valuable as a preventive of contagion, and as a 
destroyer of vermin . 

P. S.— As the carbolic acid is sparingly solu- 
ble in water, the solution recommended should 

always be shaken before used. 

• ♦ • 

INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE-VINE.— No. 6. 

The Blue Caterpillars of the Vine. 

Besides the large Sphinx caterpillars, de- 
scribed and figured in previous numbers, every 
grape-grower must have observed certain so- 
called " Blue Caterpillars," which, though far 
from being uncommon, are yet very rarely suf- 
ficiently numerous to cause alarm, though in 
some few cases they have been known to strip 
certain vines. There are three distinct species 
of these blue caterpillars, which bear a suffi- 
ciently close resemblance to one another, to 
cause them to be easily confounded. The first 
and by far the most common in the West, is the 
larva of 

The Eight - spotted Forester — (^Alypi^ 

[Fig. 100.] 




Colors— (a) black, white and orange; (c) black, white, 
orange and yellow. 

octomaculatay Fabr.)— This larva (Fig. 100, a) 



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may often be found in the latitude of St. Louis 
as early as the beginning of May, and more 
abundantly in Juoe» while scattering indindnals 
(probably of a second brood) are even met with, 
but half-grown, in the month of September. 
The young larvfe are whitish with brown trans- 
Terse lines, the colors not contrasting so strongly 
as in the full-grown specimens, though the black 
spots are more conspicuous. They feed beneath 
the leaves and can let themselves down by a 
web. The full-grown larva often conceals itself 
within a folded leaf. It is of the form of our 
figure, and is marked transversely with white 
and black lines, each segment having about 
eight light and eight dark ones. The bluish 
appearance of this caterpillar is owing to an 
optical phenomenon fh)m the contrast of these 
white and black stripes. The head and the 
shield on the first segment are of a shiny bright 
deep orange color, marked with black dots, 
and there is a prominent transverse orange- 
red band, faint on segments 2 and 3, conspicu- 
ous on 4 and 11, and uniform in the middle 
of each of the other segments. In the middle 
segments ot the body each orange band con- 
tains eight black elerated spots, each spot 
giving rise to a white hair. These spots are 
arranged as in the enlarged section shown in 
the engraving (Fig. 100, 6), namely, four oh each 
side as follows: the upper one on the anterior 
border of the orange band, the second on its 
posterior border, the third just above spiracles 
on its anterior border — each of the three inter- 
rupting one of the transverse black lines— and 
the fourth, which is smaller, just behind the 
spiracles. The venter is black, slightly varie- 
gated with bluish-white, and with the orange 
band extending on the legless segments. The 
legs are black, and the false legs have two blaek 
spots on an orange ground, at their outer base ; 
but the characteristic feature, which especially 
distinguishes it from the other two species, is 
a lateral white wavy band— obsolete on the 
thoracic segments, and most conspicuous on 10 
and 11 — running just below the spiracles, and 
interrupted by the transverse orange band.* 



•We quote here Harris's full description of this larva 
[Correspondence, p. 2AJ), as it agree^t with ours, except in 
giving the number of transverse black lines as 6 on each 
segment, instead of 8, f^om the fact that he does uot include 
the two which border the orange band, on account of their 
being interrupted. We have preferred to consider each 
segment of this worm as 8-banded, to distinguish it more 
readily from the other two species, which have respectively 
only SIX and four: * 'Length, when at rest, one inch and i wo- 
tenths, very pale blue, transversely banded with orange 
on tho middle of each segment, the bands dotted with 
small black points, producing hairs, and surmounted by 
black lines, and between each of the bands six transverse 
black lines. A large, inegular, white spot on the side of 
the tenth and eleventh segments, and a series of smaller 
white spots on each of the other segments except the first 
three. Head orange dotted with black. Legs biaokish ex- 



This larva transforms to chrysalis within a 
very slight cocoon formed without silk, upon, 
or just below, the surface of the earth, and issues 
soon after, as a very beautiful moth of a deep 
blue-black color, with orange shanks, }ellow 
shoulder-pieces, each of the front wings with 
two large light yellow spots, and each of the 
hind wings with two white ones. Our illustra- 
tion (Fig. 100, c) represents the female, and the 
male difiers from her in having the wing spots 
larger, and in having a conspicuous white mark 
along the top of his narrower abdomen. 

We have on one or two occasions known 
vines to be partly defoliated by this species, but 
never knew it to be quite so destructive as it 
is represented in the following communication 
from Mr. W. V. Andrews, of New York city, 
which we take from the February (1869) num- 
ber of the American Naturalist: 

^'That a man should desire to raise his own 
Isabellas is laudable and praiseworthy; and I 
see no reason why such desire should exist 
exclusively in the breasts of our bucolic friends. 
The inhabitants of New York, as a general 
thing, clearly are of the same opinion, as is 
evidenced by the number of grape-vines orna- 
menting the doors and trellis-work of the houses 
of our citizens; not, of course, in tho benighted 
regions of Wall street, but up-town ; say from 
Sixteenth street, northward. A friend of mine 
residing on Thirty-fourth street, showed me, in 
March last, a very fine vine, which he calculated 
would produce him sundry pounds of very 
choice grapes, and in the pride of his heart h^ 
invited me to '•call along" occasionally, and 
feast my eyes on the gradual development of 
the incipient bunches. Thinking that August 
would be a good month for my visit, I ** called 
along," wondering in my mind whether my 
friend would, when the tinae of ripe grapes came, 
desire me to help myself out of his abundance ; 
or whether he intended to surprise mo with a 
little basket of nice bunches, garnished with 
crisp, green leaves. The first glartce at the 

f rape-vine banished all doubts on this point, 
here were an abundance of bunches on the 
vine, in a rather immature condition, of course, 
but of foliage there was not a trace. Of course 
I expressed my surprise, though, for certain 

temally. The Aill-grown have a decidedly bluish tinge, 
entirely owing, however, to an optical phenomenon from 
the contrast of the white with the transverse black lines. 
The head is of a pale dirty orange or rusty yellow, with about 
eight black dots on each side; a semicircular plate on the 
top of the first segment and the anal valves are pale orange 
dotted with black. There is a transverse series of black dots 
on the second and third segments, without an orange band. 
Each of the other segments is transversely banded with 
orange and dotted with black; the dots being in tWQ alter- 
nate rows, and all of them emitting distinct, long, whitish 
hairs. Between each of the bands there we six slender, 
conUnuous, black transverse lines. The points are alt»o con- 
nected by interrupted black lihes. Legd at base orange, 
black externallv and at tip, except the anal pair which are 
orange, dotted with black. The Iftrjce white lateral spot is 
common to the side of the tenth and eleventh segments. The 
other lateral white spots are situated immediately behind 
the bands on the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and 
ninth segments, the anterior spots being largest; and thence 
they diminish to the ninth, while again the posterior spot 
is very large and very disiinct The orange bands are Inter- 
rupted on ue top of the seventh, eighth and ninth segments.' ' 



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reasons, I felt none ; and asked my friend why 
he selected a species of vine for shelter, orna- 
ment, and use, which produced no foliage. He 
rebuked mv ignorance pretty sharply, and told 
me that a few weeks before, the tree was cov- 
ered with leaves ; but, for some inexplicable rea- 
son, they had all disappeared— eaten, he guessed, 
by something. He guessed right. There were 
at least a hundred of the larvaB of A. octomacU' 
lata^ the rear guard of a mighty host, wander- 
ing about the branches, apparently for the par- 
pose of making sure that no little particle of a 
leaf was left undevoured. Pretty little things 
they were, with harmoniously blended colors of 
black, yellow and blue, but so terribly destruc- 
tive I I had the curiosity to walk tlirough all 
the streets to the east of Third avenue, as low 
as Twenty-third street, and every vine was in 
the same predicament. If grape leaves, instead 
of fig leaves, had been in request for making 
aprons, and one Alypia had been in existence 
at the time, I doubt if in the whole Garden of 
Eden enough material would have been found 
to make a garment of decent size. The destruc- 
tion of the crop for 1868 was complete. 

'' This was bad. But it was not half so bad 
as the helpless ignorance which possessed nearly 
all of the unfortunate owners of vines. Scarcely 
one that I conversed with had the remotest idea 
of the cause of the disaster, and when I explained 
that it was the caterpillar of a beautiful little 
black moth, with eight whitish yellow spots on 
its wings, which had eaten up the foliage, my 
assertion was received with such a smile of 
incredulity, as convinced me that there is no 
use in trying to humbug such very sharp fellows 
as are the New York grape-growers. 

** It is a little remarkable, however, that the 
destruction wa.^ confined to the eastern part oi 
the city. I saw several luxuriant vines on the 
western side ; and across the river at Hoboken, 
and at Hudson City, not a trace of A, octomor 
culafa was discernible. 

**The insect, then, is vei*v local in its habits, 
and it is a day-tiyer; and, from these facts, I 
infer that its ravages may be very materially 
checked. A little poisoned molasses, exposed 
in the neighborhood of the vine, would operate 
on the perfect insect; while a good syringing 
with soft soap and water, would bring down 
the caterpillars effectually." 

Thk Beautiful Wood Nymph — (JEitdryas 
(/rata, Fabr.) — Here is another moth (Fig. 101), 

. [Fig. 101 ] 




Colors— Crtam, brown and olive-green, 
surpassing in real beauty, thougli not in high 
contrast, the species just descril cd. The front 
wings are milk-white, broadly I ordered and 



marked, as in the figure, with rusty-brown, the 
band on the outer margin being shaded on the 
inner side with olive-green, and marked towards 
the edge with a slender wavy white line: under 
surface yellow, with two dusky spots near the 
middle. The hind wings are nankin-yellow, 
with a deep brown border, which does not 
extend to the outer angle, and which also con- 
tains a wavy white line: under surface yellow, 
with a single black spot. 

Surely these two moths ai'e as unlike in general 
appearance as two moths well can be ; and yet 
their caterpillars bear such a close resemblance 
to each other, and both feed upon the Grape- 
vine. The larva of the Beautiful Wood Nymph 
is, in fact, so very similar to that of the Eight- 
spotted Forester, that it is entirely unnecessary 
to figure it. It difiers more especially from 
that species by invariably lacking the white 
patches along the sides ; the hairs arising from 
the black spots are less conspicuous, while the 
hump on the eleventh segment is somewhat 
more prominent. Th*^ light parts of the body 
have really a slight bluish tint, and in sjiecimens 
which we have found, we have only noticed six 
transverse black stripes to each segment. This 
larva, when at rest, depresses the head and raises 
the third and fourth segments, Sphinx-fashion. 
It is found on the vines in this latitude as early 
as May and as late as September, and it devours 
all portions of the leaf, even to the nudrid. It 
descends to the ground, and, without making 
any cocoon, transforms to a chrysalis, which is 
dark colored, rough, with the tip of the abdomen 
obtusely conical, ending in four tubercles, the 
pair above, long and truncate, those below broad 
and short (Packard) . Some of them give out 
the moth the same summer, but most of them 
pass the winter and do not issue as moths till 
the following spring. 

The P£arl Wood Nymph— (i^weZrya* unto, 
Hubner) . — This is another pretty little moth, so 

[Fig. 102.1 



■^1 j||^H||fflffi^[l 



Culors~(a anil b) pale-blue, black and orange. 

closely allied to, and so much resembling the 
preceding species, that it is not necessary to 
produce its picture. It is a smaller species, and 
differs from the Beautiful Wood Nymph in hav- 
ing the outer border of the front wings paler 
and of a tawny color, with the inner edge wavy 
instead of straight; and in that of the hind 



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wings being less distinct, more double, and 
extending to the outer angle. 

The larva is said by Dr. Fitch to so rouch i^esera- 
ble that of the preceding species that *^ we as yet 
know not whether there are any marks whereby 
they can be distinguished from each other." 
(Report 3,§ 124). The moth is more common 
in the West than its larger ally, and though wo 
have never bred it from tlie larva, yet we have 
often met with a worm (Fig. 102, a) which, for 
various reasons, we take to be this species. It 
never grows to be quite so large as the other, and 
may readily be distinguished by its more decided 
bluish cast; by having but four light and four 
dark stripes to each segment (Fig. 102, 6); by hav- 
ing no orange band across the middle segments, 
and by the spots, with the exception of two on 
the back placed in the middle light baud, being 
almost obsolete. The head, shield on the first 
segment, hump on the 11th, and a band on the 
12th, are orange, spotted with black, the hump 
being marked as at Figure 102, c. Venter orange, 
becoming dusky towards head; feet and legs 
also orange, with blackish extremities, and with 
spots on their outside at base. 

This worm works for the most part in the 
terminal buds of the vine, drawing the leaves 
together by a weak silken thread, and canker- 
ing them. It forms a simple earthen cocoon, 
or frequently bores into a piece of old wood, 
and changes to chrysalis, which averages but 
0.36 inch iu length: this chrysalis is reddish- 
brown, covered on the back with rows of very 
minute teeth, with the tip of the abdomen trun- 
cated, and terminating above in a thick blunt 
spine each side. 

From the above accounts, we hope our read- 
ers will have no difficulty in distinguishing 
between these three blue caterpillars of the 
Grape-vine. But, says the practical grape- 
grower, **what does it concern me to know 
whether the little blue varmints that are defoli- 
ating my vines, belong to this species or to that? 
All I wish to know, is how to get rid of them, 
and as they aro all three so nearly alike, the 
remedy applied to one must be equally effectual 
with the others." Gently, dear reader; it may 
prove of considerable importance that you know 
which particular species infests your vines I If 
you live in the West, and find the iarva of the 
Beautiful Wood Nymph, then you need feel no 
alarm, while if you live in the East and find that 
of the Pearl Wood Nymph, you may in like 
manner put your hands in your pockets and go 
your way with an easy mind ; for neither of these 
species ai*e likely to become troublesome iu those 
respective sections of the country, since hereto- 



fore they have always been quite rare in those 
parts. Again, the larvae of the two Wood 
Nymphs have a fondness for boring into old 
pieces of wood, to transform to the chrysalis 
state, and Mr. T. B. Ashton, of White Creek, N. 
Y., found that ihey would even bore into corn 
cobs for this purpose in preference to entering 
the ground, wherever such cobs were accessi- 
ble.* The Eight-spotted Forester, on the con- 
trary, has no such habit, and while the only 
mode of combating it is to pick the larvce off 
and burn them, the Wood Nymphs may be 
more easily subdued by scattering a few corn- 
cobs under the vines in the summer — ^to be raked 
up and burned in the winter. 



SOUTHERN NOTES. 



BY J. PARISH STELLE, OP TENNESSEE. 

Entomology in the South. — A person who 
has never passed a season in the South, can form 
no correct idea of the vastly increased numbers 
of insects which we have down here, compared 
to the numbers existing in the North. I verily 
believe that after crossing the old "Mason and 
Dixon's line," each degree of distance south- 
ward doubles the number of every species, to 
say nothing of the hundreds of new species 
peculiar to a wai-m country, that are brought 
in by change of climate as one goes down. 

Why the South has more insects than the 
North is a question easily answered. In the 
North the severity of the winter kills a large 
per cent, of them, and holds back those which 
it does not kill to a late start in the spring, while 
down here where there is, comparatively, no 
winter, almost eveiy individual lives through, 
and is ready to propagate its species so soon as 
the proper season has rolled around. Even as 
far up as the southern portion of Tennessee, I 
could go out almost any day in mid-winter and 
make up quite a respectable cabinet of living 
insects. This morning (January 16), I took a 
stroll along the edge of one of our cypress 
swamps, and saw a goodly number of grass- 
hoppers and other insects moving meiTily about 
the land, while a passable turn-out of dragon- 
flies were briskly skimming here and there above 
the water. 

Undoubtedly the heaviest clog to the wheels 
of culture in the South is noxious insects ; yet, 
and I am sorry to say it, little or no steps are 
being taken with a view to making it otherwise. 
In some localities we occasionally suffer from 
drouth, and the people living there are now 



•Fitch'aRep. 8,p. 88. 



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talking earnestly of irrigation; in others, our 
soil is thin, and there they are making arrange- 
ments to fertilize ; but where is the locality that 
is taking any special stand towards encouraging 
a promulgation of entomological knowledge — 
the very thing, among all others, of which we 
are really in greatest need? 

I can form no reasonable hypothesis by which 
to account for this, unless it be, that since our 
new life, as it were, began, we have been too 
closely engaged in meeting our immediate 
necessities to be able to give proper attention 
to even our greatest wants. In fact, we can 
plead nothing else ; for the good results that are 
coming to light in those States encouraging 
entomological research, though less cursed with 
noxious insects than our own section, renders 
it impossible for us to reasonably foign an igno- 
rance of the benefits to be derived. 

It is, undoubtedly, a mere question of time 
with us, and I hope our culturists and others 
who wish to see our section great, and know 
the channel through which her greatness must 
come, will take early steps to make that time 
as short as possible. Let us have a State Ento- 
mologist in each Southei*n State, and thus save 
to our intei'ests, at a cost too insignificant to 
merit a mention, millions of dollars every year. 
A little agitation rightly put in will bring the 
thing about at no distant day — all required is 
for the proper persons to take hold of it with a 
determination to succeed. And I would urge 
upon every Horticultural Society, and every 
other club or society of culturists in the whole 
South, to leave no steps untrodden, in the mean- 
time, that could tend towards interesting the 
people in Entomology. Bring up the subject 
at your meetings — discuss it — read and post 
yourselves in the intervals of your comings- 
together, and, above all things, urge your peo- 
ple to benefit themselves by patronizing some 
publication devoted to the science. A good 
work towards checking the ravages of noxious 
insects may go on in this way before an Ento- 
mologist is officially in the field. 

Look out for a Bad Bdg. — ^The Harlequin 
Cabbage-bug {Strachia histrionicay Hahn), re- 
ferred to on page 79, Vol. II of this magazine, 
is moving northward with such rapid strides as 
to make me think it highly probable that our 
friend^ above the Ohio will form its acquaint- 
ance in the course of the coming summer. In 
1866 it appeared in Texas, and in 1867 we found 
it in the Carolinas near the coast, and in Geor- 
gia, Alabama and Mississippi, as far up as 
Macon, Tuscaloosa, and Columbus. In 1868 
its fall brood (it hatches two broods each sea- 



son) appeared along the northern lines of Mi»- 
sissippi and Alabama. In 1869 both broods 
hatched along these lines, working wholesale 
destruction, while its fall brood was noticed in ' 
Tennessee, above Humboldt, and almost as high 
as Nashville. 

So far, the change of climate does not seem to 
have affected this Insect in the least— it was as 
numerous and as destructive along the southern 
line of Tennessee last summer as it had pre- 
viously been at any point further south. A 
careful study of its character has warranted me 
in predicting that it will scarcely stop short of 
the great lakes. 

A Cheap MosQurro Bar.— There is a para- 
graph now going the rounds of the Southern 
papers to the effect that oil of pennyroyal scat- 
tered about a room in small quantities will keep 
mosquitos out. I know that pennyroyal is 
offensive to some insects, and never having 
tried it on the mosquito, I might teel inclined 
to think that some other person had, did the 
paragraph not go on further to state that "a 
handful of cucumber parings scattered about 
the house" would exterminate roaches, and that 
no fly would light on a window previonsly 
"washed with water in which a little garlic 
had been boiled." It would be hard for one to 
put much faith in such a "roach exterminator;" 
nor could he readily believe garlic so very dis- 
agreeable to flies, since personal observation 
has so often told him that in the cities the best 
begarlic'd regions are the regions in which they 
do most delight to congregate. An association of 
all these things point to the conviction that the 
writer was no better informed on one branch of 
his subject than on the others, and that, conse- 
quently, pennyroyai would stand a fair chance, 
at least, of being a very unsafe thing to rely on 
as a mosquito bar. 

But there is a cheap mosquito bar in vogae 
among the plantation-hands and boatmen in 
some parts of the South, which answers every 
purpose to the letter: it is common coal oil. A 
small quantity of oil is dropped on a piece of 
cotton and then squeezed out as dry as possible; 
after which the cotton is rubbed over the face 
and hands. No mosquito will alight where the 
scent has been left. I have tried it and then 
exposed myself to clouds of them on various 
occasions without experiencing the slightest 
annoyance. Thousands of them would hover 
within an inch of my face, and sing by the hour, 
but none would dare touch. 

Without having tried it, one would naturally 
suppose that tJie smell of the coal oil would be 
very disagreeable : not 90; one never smells it 
at aU in five minutes after it has been applied. 



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ENTOMOLOGICAL JOTTINGS. 

[We propose to publish ftrom time to time, under 
the above heading, such extracts from the letters of our 
correspondents as contain entomological facts worthy 
to be recorded, on account either of their scientific or 
of their practical Importance. We hope our readers 
will contribute each their several mites towards the gen- 
eral flind, and in case they are not perfectly certain of 
the names of the insects, the peculiarities of which are 
to be mentioned, will send specimens along in order 
that each species may be duly identified.] 

Ck)w-KiLLEB— C7arA»m«e, Texaa, Dec. 2bthy 
1869. — I never heard any reason given for apply- 
ing the term Cow-killer to MutUla coccinea. It 
is very generally known by that name here, and 
I am nnder the impression that the male stings 
as well as the female. I have always been very 
careful in capturing them. A. H. R. B. 

[We assure our correspondent that he need 
take no precaution in captunng the winged or 
male Mutilla. The sting is a modified oviposi- 
tor, and is not possessed by any male bees or 
wasps. If you ever get stung by following our 
advice, we will come down to Texas, and in 
the interest of science, allow ourselves to be 
"blown" by the "Screw-worm," and tortured 
to death by the " Buffalo gnat," so as to ascer- 
tain wbat these two insects really are, of which 
we have heard so much and seen so little. Will 
not some of our Texan correspondents enlighten 
the entomological world by giving us a full 
account of these two insects? We should also 
like to receive active, living specimens of the 
Osage-orange worm mentioned on page 186 of 
our first volume. — ^Ed.] 

The Rape Butte RPLY—iVc?(? York, Jan, 24, 
TO. — In an article written bv Chas. S. Minot in 
the last number of the Entomologist, it is stated 
that a few specimens of the Rape Butterly (P. 
rap<B) have been found in New Jersey. In and 
around Hudson City and West Hoboken they 
were very abundant last summer, and I venture 
to predict that next summer will see them more 
abundant still, and their sphere of action among 
the cabbages consequently enlarged. In the 
early part of the season, wishing to obtain a 
few larvfe, I asked a German gardener permis- 
sion to "interview" his cabbages. He flatly 
refused on the ground that I should damage 
them. In two months after that, he had not a 
cabbage worth— well, say a " cent." But there 
were lots of P. rapm flying about, giving his 
cabbage-garden an appearance similar to that 
it would have in a small snow storm. W. V. A. 

Blister Beetles on Composite Flowers — 
Vlndandj N, t/".— The enclosed two species of 
Blister-beetles, did much damage to our Com- 
posite plants last summer, particularly to the 



dahlias and asters. The asters in this neigh- 
borhood were almost completely ruined by them. 
They would congregate on the flowers in the 
same way as the Rose-bug does on a rose, and 
it was only by eternal vigilance that I succeeded 
in saving any seed from some very flne dwarf 
asters from Vick's. 

[The two species enclosed were the Margined 
Blister-beetle {Lytta marginata, Fabr.), and 
the Black Blister-beetle {Lytta atrata, Fabr. — 
Ed.] 

The Harlequin Cabbage Bug in Tennessee 
— Savannah, Nov, 23rf, 1869. — I send you one of 
our new Cabbage Bugs (Strachia histrionica, 
Hahn, Fig. 56). It made its flrst appearance in 
this region late in the summer, and completely 
swept out all our cabbage. It seems to be work- 
ing north, as it was at Florence, Ala., flfty miles 
south of us, last year. J. P. 5. 

The Pea-weevil— ^eu; Harmony, Indiana, 
Feb, 1, 70.— The Pea-weevil (Bruchus pisi) 
might easily be kept down to a moderate num- 
ber if pea-growers could be moved to adopt a 
right method. I never plant a pea with a live 
weevil in it. I keep the peas two years, then, 
of course, the weevil is dead; and I take care 
that they do not escape before they die ; conse- 
quently, instead of having a bug in every pea, 
and eating as many bugs as peas, a large num- 
ber of the peas are free from them, and are, 
therefore, pleasanter in idea, if not in taste ; and 
we have some flner seed than we should have 
if we planted bugs as well as seed. As our 
neighbors cannot endure to provide seed two 
years in advance, they all plant bugs, or let 
their bugs escape; and, consequently, we are 
supplied with bugs from their gardens ; but we 
do not have them so soon, nor in such numbers, 
as we should have by the usual plan. I dry the 
seed-peas until I think they will not mould, and 
then I put them in bags and hang them up in an 
airy place, taking care to tie the mouth of the 
bags close. Then, that they may not become too 
dry, about Christmas, I put the peas into bottles 
and cork them, and let them remain until the 
second spring afterwards. The peas are not in 
any way injured by being two years old. I 
have had three-year old peas grow very finely. 
Margaret Chappellsmfih. 

Horizontal vs. Vertical Combs — Water- 
bury, Conn., Feb. 15, '70.— In the March, 1869, 
number of the Entomologist, page 141, you say 
the nests of our social wasps are never built 
with the cell horizontal like the European spe- 
cies. August last I found a nest on a small 
bush built with the cells like you figure. I 



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captured the wasp on the nest, which I send for 
identification. The wasps were quite plenty 
on blackberries. I never before saw a wasp 
nest on a bush, but have seen many on fences 
and under eaves, which were all built with the 
.mouth of the cell down, and, I think, the wasps 
were larger and different. 

I have found Eumolphtis aural us as abundant 
on Apocynum cannabium, var. glaberrinum, as 
it is on -4. androsmmifolium. 

The Dryocampa imperialis moves its scales 
in a small place on the back of the thorax, as if 
they were driven out and in by air from under- 
neath. W. H. Patton. 

[Since the article on wasps, referred to by 
our correspondent, was published, we have met 
with a small nest of FoUstes metricus, Say, 
which was built in a vertical position, with 
horizontal cells, the nest beings attached laterally 
by a central pedicel or point. The species sent 
by our correspondent is the P. fuscatus, Fabr., 
and we thus have two exceptions to the rule laid 
down in that article, that the American species 
of this genus build horizontal uests wiih verti- 
cal cells, while the European species build ver- 
tical nests with horizontal cells. We have never 
noticed the peculiar motion of the scales on the 
thorax of Dryocampa imperialis, — Ed.] 

Squash Bug and White Bush Scollop — 
Jefferson City, Mo., Feb. 6, 70.— I tliink you 
make a mistake in stating that the Squash Bug 
does not touch the White Bush Scollop Squash 
(November No., p. 55). I have raised nearly 
all the varieties of squash for several years, and 
am sure that both the Squash Bug (Coreus tris- 
tis) and the Striped Cucumber Beetle {Diabro- 
tica vittata) attack all more or less. But here 
is the difference: Some of the varieties have 
large, tender, succulent leaves and stems, like 
the Hubbard, for instance; and if they are 
planted in near proximity to the harder, tougher 
varieties, the bugs and beetles will attack the 
first in preference. That is all. I have never 
succeeded in raising the Hubbard, Boston Mar- 
row, Mammoth, or Turban ; these the bugs will 
always take. The following varieties are likely 
to be slighted and passed by whenever the bugs 
can get at the former : Early Yellow Bush 
Scolloped, Early White Scolloped, Early Bush 
Summer Crook-neck, Fall or Winter Crook- 
neck, and Yokohama. This latter excellent 
winter variety, from Japan, has very hard, 
tough stems and leaves, and usually escapes 
unscathed. By planting the tender varieties 
here and there among the others, the bugs will 
congregate upon them, and can be destroyed 
more easily, and thus a crop can be secured, as 



the balance will escape. This is on the same 
principle of planting nectarines among peach 
trees to attract the Curculio. J. F. Wielandy. 

The Mangold-wurzel Fly— i\rew7 York, Feb. 
4, '70. — The Rev. Mr. Haughton describes, iu 
the '^Quarterly Journal of Microscopic Science," 
the fly whose larva has I'ecenUy proved des- 
tructive to Mangold-wurzel. Until last year it 
seems that the male sex predominated, and con- 
sequently little harm was done; then, however, 
the proportions were reversed, the females be- 
ing estimated as twelve to one, and hence the 
extent of the ii^jurious work. 

I find the above in the Notes and Memoranda 
of the "Intellectual Observer." It is to be 
regretted that a journal devoted to scienoe 
should make so important a statement in such 
a slip-shod manner. But assuming that the 
term "fly" has reference to some Dipterous 
insect, is it a fact that the males of that order 
copulate with more than one female? If not, 
it is uLfficult to see how a superabundance of 
females would lead to an increased abundance 
of larvae. As a general thing, we know that 
males of most species, at least in Lepidaptera, 
preponderate. But we also know, that many 
species are periodically abundant and then again 
scarce. Now, is it, or is it not, a fact that this 
periodical abundance is at all due to the abun- 
dance of females of the previous brood? If so. 
is it possible to trace the law regulating the 
relative proportion of the sexes? Is the ** influ- 
ence" meteorological? Has the abundance or 
scarcity of foo4 anything to do with it? 

W. V. Andrews. 

Time op the Appeakance of the Polyphe- 
mus Moth in Louisiana and Kentucky. — Cov- 
ington, Ky., Feb. 20/A, 1870.— It is not very 
important, perhaps, but for the sake of being 
"right upon the (entomological) record," I 
wish to correct an error as to Folypkemus and 
Chalcis marim in your last number. I thought 
I had stated — bnt perhaps I did not — that the 
specimens of C. marim were bred fi'om a cocoon 
of Folypkemus, taken in New Orleans, where I 
spent last February. Folypfiemus is disclosed 
there in February, but probably not earlier than 
the last of May here. Your article conveys the 
impression that it is disclosed here in February. 
At New Orleans it occurs by the million on the 
live oak, and, I think, cannot be very subject 
to pai-asites, as from over fifty cocoons I bred 
the moth, while only one produced the Long- 
tailed Ophion (O. macrurum), and one the 
Chalcis maricB. Here Folypkemus is very rare ; 
more so than Luna. I have found in all my 
excui-sions around here only one cocoon of 
Folypkemus, and that produced nothing. 

V. T. Chambers. 

[We differ from our correspondent in the 
opinion that the matter is not very important. 
It is of the utmost importance, and we thank 
him for making the correction.— Ed.] 



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COMPLIMENTARY. 

We have good cause to be gratified at the 
many complimentary notices which our little 
Journal receives, and though, as before stated, 
it is of course exceedingly distressing to our 
modesty to dwell upon such subjects, yet we 
cannot refrain from laying before our readers 
the two following items which indicate the 
opinions of those who are thoroughly competent 
to judge : 

[From Dr. Warder's Address at the late Annual Meeting of 
the Ohio State Horticuliaral .Society ] 

Horticultural Periodicals. — After speak- 
ing of the inestimable value of the periodicals 
devoted to horticulture and kindred subjects, 
and referring particularly to the Horticulturist, 
of New York, Gardmer's' Monthtyj of Philadel- 
phia, and American Journal of Horticulture , of 
Boston, he said: 

"Among all the periodicals, however, there is 
none more absolutely necessary to the gardener 
and farmer than the American Entomologist, 
published at St. Louis, Mo., and edited by the 
Entomologist of that State. From the Very 
practical pages of this iournal we may gathej* 
hints of the greatest value. This paper i^ the 
more valuable and essential to us from the fact 
that it is the only one ot the kind in the coun- 
try, and because we have no oflicer in our own 
State whose duty it should be to supply the 
needful iDformation to enable us to counter- 
work onr insect enemies, and to protect our- 
selves from their terrible ravages." 

[From the VVestefn Rural.] 

Useful Reading.— During the long nights of 
winter a gi*eat deal of very valuable information 
may be obtained from standard works on Hor- 
ticulture, Entomology, etc. Every farmer's 
library should contain standard works on sub- 
jects connected with agriculture and horticul- 
ture. There are several very useful books 
published on Pomology, Grape Culture, Small 
Fruit, etc. The American Entomologist con- 
tains a large amount of information about the 
habits of predatory insects, and the various 
modes of destroying them, or preventing their 
increase. It should be in the bauds of every 
farmer and fruit-grower. The precepts learned 
by the attentive study of the best authors, may 
have a very beneficial effect when carried into 
practice in the orchard or garden, at the right 
time. The damage done annually to fruit by 
predatory insects is incalculable. 



Gapes in Fowls. — Much has been written 
and much is being written about ''Gapes in 
Fowls.'* Young chickens, especially when they 
are two or three weeks old, are quite subject to 
this disease, and if one that has died of it, be 
examined, several small red worms one-half or 
three-quarters of an inch in length, and as large 
as a common sized pin, will be found in the 
trach^. Some of our subscribers seem to have 
been sorely pnz^led by the contradictory state- 



ments found in the different agricultural papers, 
and appeal to us for information under the sup- 
position that these worms are insects. Thus, 
speaking of these parasites, Mr. Jas. H. Parsons, 
of Franklin, N. Y., writes: 

** The only theory I have ever seen advanced 
is that these worms when mature, crawl out of 
the windpipe, burrow in the earth, change to 
flies, and then couple and lay their eggs in the 
nostrils of the chick. The theory is plausible, 
but whether it has any facts to support it is 
more than I know. I wish you would solve 
the problem of the cause and cure of these 
Gapes." 

Again, Thos. W, Gordon, of Georgetown, 
Ohio, writes: 

*'Do Gapes in chickens depend upon small 
worms in the trachea? If so, to what specie? 
do they belong? What is their origin, and 
what is the best known means of destroying 
them and saving the fowls? Farmers here say 
the disease is caused by small worms in the 
throat, and that they lie embedded in mucun, 
and the chickens can be saved by removing the 
worms with a horse hair, a stalk of grass, or a 
small wire; but there arc none who seem to 
be certain of the source of these little destruc- 
tive pests." 

Again, some persons believe the "Gapes" 
to be caused by the larvae of insects in the lungs, 
as the following, from Milton Conard, of West 
Grove, Pa., will show: 

** I have by a post mortem examination ascer- 
tained that the * Gapes' in chickens are occa- 
sioned by the larva of an insect preying upon 
the substance of the lungs, and have con- 
cluded that the spasms, termed * the Gapes,' 
result from the effort of the worm or maggot to 
escape to the ground, having completed this 
first period of its existence in the chicken's 
lungs, where it did much harm to the delicate 
structure of this important organ. And iu 
tracing the (rack of these unfeeling parasites 
through the body of the lung, 1 think 1 dis- 
covered that it originated right opposite the 
bone cayity under the wing, where there is only 
a thin membranous partition between the lung 
and the outer air; and my inference is, that the 
insect (probably winged), by instinct, seeks 
this point, as affording the means of easily 
depositing its eggs in the lungs. Now, what 
I want to know is, what is the character or 
description of the perfect insect? Is it described 
in any of the books?" 

The worm which causes ** Gapes," like that 
large species {Strongylus gigas) which is known 
to inhabit the kidneys of swine, and even some- 
times finds its way into the same organ in man, 
belongs to the Entozoa {eiitos, within, and zoon, 
an animal), a class of animals included in the 
fourth great Branch or Division of the Animal 
Kingdom, known as Star-animals (Radiata). 
Therefore, since they do not even belong to 
the same Branch (Articulata) with insects, 
they do not, strictly speaking, come within our 



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proyince. Bat as some recent anthorities, and 
among them Prof. Leidy, of Philadelphia, are 
disposed to class them with the Articulates, and 
as with the funguses, the American Entomolo- 
gist seems, by common consent, to be looked to 
for information abont them, we take great pleas- 
sure in referring our readers to an article on 
"Gapes in Fowls" in the present number of our 
masrazine, from the able pen of Dr. N. H. Paaren, 
y. S., of Chicago, Ills. It must be remembered 
that none of these intestinal worms undergo 
any complete transformations as do true insects, 
and that the suppositions of Mr. Conard and 
Mr. Parsons are without facts. Prof. Leidy is 
of the opinion, that, from the destructive char- 
acter of any of the oils, fixed or volatile, to 
insects, worms, etc., olive, lard, or other oil, 
with or without a few drops of turpentine or 
other essential oil, applied by means of a feather, 
would be of sei-vice in " Gapes ;" while the fol- 
lowing paragraph from an old number of Turfy 
Field and Farm, speaks for itself: 

"A gentleman who has had much experience 
with poultry, in Ei^gland, recommends a novel 
cure. He writes: 'The whole apparatus con- 
sists in a thin piece of gut, such as flies are 
fastened on, coarser for chickens than for phea- 
sants, and tolerably stiff, about from four to six 
inches long, and fastened at the end of the loop 
with a piece of sealing wax, by way of handle. 
Put this gut down the windpipe, twist it round 
half a dozen times, and you will draw out the 
parasite that gives so much trouble ; repeat the 
process two or three times, and let the chicken 
go. From being flexible, no harm is done to 
the tender tube of the windpipe. Wire kills as 
often as it cures.' " 



17* As the spring season is at hand, and much 
may be done in the way of preventing the in- 
roads of noxious insects before the trees put 
forth their leaves, we make room this month 
for several communications of a practical pature, 
and have necessarily had to omit several '^An- 
swers to Correspondents." 

• » • 

^•Now is the time for all those whose sub- 
scriptions expire with the flrst of this year, to 
renew. Those who appreciate our efforts 
should strive to send along with their own, the 
name of some one or other of their neighbors. 
The effort costs nothing, and besides that satis- 
faction which every right-minded man feels in 
imparting to others useful knowledge, there is 
the reward which comes of having careful 
neighbors who fight their own insect enemies, 
and thus make it easier for you to subdue 
yours. 



one 



>urs. 

Erratum. — ^Page 111, column 1, last line but 
le, for ^'FeirW read '^Fieris.'' 



ON OUR TABLE. 

The Public Ledger Almanac for 1870. — 
G. W. Childs, Publisher, Philadelphia. 

The Herald of Health.— Wood & Hol- 
brook, New York. 

Monthly Report of the Department oir 
Agriculture, for November and December. — 
Washington, D. C. 

Tilton's Journal of Horticulture. — J. E. 
Tilton & Co., Boston. 

Chicago Medical Times. — R. A. Gunn, M. 
D.. and J. E. Hurlbut, M. D., Editors, Chicago. 

Once a Month and Home Magazine.— T. S. 
Arthur & Sons, Philadelphia. 

Western Educational Review. — O. H. 
Fethers, Publisher, Jefierson City, Mo . 

Second Annual Report of the Board op 
Trustees of the Illinois Industrial Univeb- 

SITY. 

Notice of the Crustacea — Collected by 
Prof. C. F. Hartt, on the Coast of Brazil in 1867, 
together with a List of the Described Species of 
Brazilian FodopMkalmia.-r-By Sidney I. Smith, 
Assistant in Zoology, Yale College, New Ha- 
ven, Conn. The author has our thanks for this 
interesting pamphlet. 

Some op the Hindrances and Helps to the 
Advancement of Agriculture. — An Address 
before the New York State Agricultural So- 
ciety at Elmira in 1869. By Greorge Bockland, 
Professor of Agriculture in University College, 
Toronto. 

Prang's Chromos — A Journal of Popular 
Art.— L. Prang & Co., Boston. Nothing could 
he better calculated to awaken and increase the 
interest of the public in Prang's celebrated 
Chromos than the attractive publication be- 
fore us. 

The Horticulturist. — This old established 
monthly has rapidly increased in interest since 
under the charge of its present editor, Mr. H. 
T. Williams. We heartily welcome it to onr 
table, and admire the spirit and ability with 
which it is conducted. 

The Western Pomoloqist— A Monthly Jour- 
nal of Horticulture and Floriculture. — Pub- 
lished at Des Moines, Iowa. Mark Miller and 
J. A. Nash, editors. The first number of this 
new monthly lies on our table. The field it pro- 
poses to occupy is a wide one, and is to a cer- 
tain extent unoccupied. Mr. Miller's experi- 
ence as an agricultural editor, and as a practi- 
cal horticulturist, eminently fit him for the 
position which he assumes. 



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The American Natdbalist.— No. 11 of this 
excellent mouthly is at hand, and the next n am- 
ber will complete the third volume. The editors 
are performing a labor of love, and strongly 
appeal to the naturalists of the country to give 
the magazine that support which it well de- 
serves. The subscribers to the Entomologist 
who are interested in other branches of natural 
history, cannot do better than club with the 
Naturalist in renewing their subscriptions, as 
a liberal discount is made. The new volume is 
to open with an illustrated article on the Ancient 
M^alithic Monuments of Peru compared with 
those of other parts of the world, by the eminent 
irchflBologist E. G. Squier, and with another on 
Sponges, by Prof. Jos. Leidy, of Philadelphia. 

The Country Gentleman. — Luther Tucker 
k Son, Albany, N. Y. With the beginning of 
the new year this sterling paper was enlarged, 
and the old heading was exchanged for one 
more beautiful and becoming. The Country 
Grentleman has no superior as a strictly agiicul- 
tnral paper, and we take this opportunity of 
thanking the editors for the many kindly notices 
they have given of the Entomologist; and to 
assure them that their good will is appreciated. 

The Prairie Farmer. — This old stand-by of 
the western farmer still continues to improve, 
and we rejoice in its success. With the new 
year it donned a new and improved di*ess, and 
it now appears more attractive than ever. The 
publishers have also engaged a special draughts- 
man and engraver, and more attention is to be 
paid to the illustrations. The price is but $2.00 
a year, and every new subscriber gets a copy of 
the Prairie Farmer Annual, while every one 
sending two names and $4.00 receives a beauti- 
ful allegorical lithograph, entitled ** The Far- 
mer pays for All." The Prairie Farmer ($2.00) 
and the American Entomologist ($2.00) can 
be had for $3.00 by parties sending for both 
papers at one and the same time. 

Tick's Illustrated Catalogue and Floral 
Guide for 1870. — Mr. Vick has our thanks for 
this beautiful pamphlet, which eclipses all former 
catalogues. Every lover of flowers should send 
to Jas. Vick, of Riochester, N. Y., for a copy. 

Michel Bros. & Kern's Floral Catalogue. 
—Just as we go to press this catalogue reaches 
as, and we have not the space to give it the 
extended notice it deserves. We hardly sup- 
posed that anything so creditable could be got- 
ten up in the West, and Mr. Vick will soon 
have to look to his laurels, lest he be outdone, 
in the catalogue business, by some of our West- 
ern friends. We can confidently recommend 
the above firm to those of our readers who 
wish anything in the floricultural line that is 
thoroughly adapted to the Mississippi valley; 
for we nave long admired their strict integrity 
and courtesy. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

Notice. — Such of our correspondents as have already 
sent, or may hereafter send, small collections ofinsects 
to be named, will please to inform us if any of the 
species sent, are f^om other States than their own. 
Lists of insects found in any particular locality are of 
especial interest, as throwing light upon the geograph- 
ical distribution of species. But to make them of real 
value, it is requisite that we know for certain, 
whether or not all the insects in any particular list come 
from that particular locality, -and if not, from what 
locality they do come. 

Pltbr Blackberry Gall— a9. (7. SpatOding, Bote 
Billf Jfo.— The woody blood-brown gall found on 




Colon— (a) blood-brown; (6) yelloiriih- green; (e and 4) white. 

Blackberry canes, over three Inches in length and divi- 
ded longitudinally into five pretty regular ridges, is the 
common Pithy Blackberry gall, caused by the Misty 
Gall-fly {Dia»trophus nehuloiut, O. S.) This gall was 
first described (Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil., II, p. 36) by 
Baron Osten Sacken. Its shape varies, but there are 
always four or five of the wrinkled ridges more or less 
traceable along the stem (Fig. 103, a), corresponding to 
the rows of punctures which the female made in deposit- 
ing her Qg^. It is really a deformation of the cane, 
chiefly due to a hypertrophy of the pith in consequence 
of the poison injected at the time of depositing. If a 
longitudinal section is made, the inside will present the 
appearance of Figure 103, 6, the flesh being insipid in 
taste. Near the edge the flesh in the fresh specimens is 
soft and green to the depth of about one-quarter inch, 
contrasting strongly with the yellow, pithy and woody 
interior, in which are found the cells, which vary in 
form from perfectly round to oblong-9val . At the pre- 
sent time the larva (Fig. 103, <?)— which when straight- 



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ened out measures 0.11 inch, and which is white with 
the mouth parts, an oval spot each side just behind the 
head, and the breathing holes, rufous— may be found 
lying curled up in its cell; but towards the end of March 
it gradually transforms to pupa (Fig. 103, rf), and the fly, 
in your latitude, issues about the fii-st of May. This fly 
belongs to the Cynip* family, but to the genus JHastro- 
pkusf which Is confined to plants of the Rose family just 
as Cynips is to the Oak family, and as ArUistrophus , 
described on page 74, is to Composite plants. If you 
should keep one of these galls in a closed vessel till next 
summer, you would doubtless breed fh)m it, besides 
the true gall-maker, a guest-fly or intruder {Aulax 
ftykestris, O. S.) which sponges on the DiaHrophus for 
board and lodging, and a little parasitic Chalcit-fiy 
which serves to keep the gall-maker in check. By 
burning these unsightly galls at this season of the year, 
you of course effectually prevent the increase of the 
insect which produces it. 



CloTer--wonii«— ^. Fault ^ Eurelca^ Mo.— You say: 
• * In opening a stack ot timothy hay, in which there 
was a little clover at the bottom of the stack, I found a 
lot of brown, grayish worms, that had nearly euten all 
the clover, but not Ihe timothy. 1 wanted to compare 
them with your description of the Clover- worm, but the 
number of the Entomologist containing it was not at 
hand. Are they the same thing?^» Yes, they are the 
identical ** Clover- worm "—the only ** Clover- worm" 
known to prefer the dry to the green plant, and a winter 
to a summer existence ! This is the first time we have 
heard of it in Missouri, though from having caught 
numerous specimens of the moth in St. Louis, flying at 
the light during the summer nights, we knew that the 
worm must also occur not far off*. The answer you 
refer to will be found on page 226 of the last volume, 
where figures are given of the insect in all its stages. 
This insect is very widely distributed, occurring in 
many parts of Euroi^e, in Canada, as we are informed 
by Mr. C. J. S. Bethune, and in most of the Northern 
and Middle States of the Union. This is not to be 
wondered at. when we know how very easily it may be 
transported in the larva state in clover hay. Yet, com- 
mon as it is, nothing was known of its larval history till 
we published an article on the subject in the Frairie 
Farmer ot Chicago. It would really be interesting to 
know whether or not this insect has the same habits 
abroad as it has Mith us, for we cannot believe, as stated 
by Humphrey , that it feeds on poplars in England . In 
the Fraitie Farmer Annual for 1868 we published the 
following relative to its proper nomenclature : 

<* Attacking and spoilhig clover in the stack and mow, 
by interweaving and covering it with abundant white 
silken web, and black excrement that much resembles 
coarse gunpowder. 

**Fuli accounts were given of this insect, first in the 
Frairie Farmer of April 20th, under the name of Fyralig 
olifuUiSf and corrected in the following issue to Agopia 
eostalit. It is only left to state that f^om all we can learn, 
this latter is the proper name. The two insects are 
remarkably alike, and easily confounded, though the 
olinaUa is confined to the United States, while costalis 
occurs both here and in Europe, no difference having 
been found between our American species and those of 
Europe. Both of them have been recently referred to 
the genus Asopia by a distinguished European Lepi- 
dopterist, in monographing the family Pyralid^, to 
which they belong; though the differences between 
Atopia and Fyrulis are very trivial indeed, and to our 
mind there is no real reason why our insect should not 
still be included in the latter genus, where Fabrlcius 



first placed it. Our Clover-worm, with its synonyms, 
may he given thus : 

** Asopia costalis, Lederer. 

* * Fyralit coUalisn Fabr. 

* * FyralitJimbriaZis, Steph . 

* 'The student of Entomology is eternally harassed and 
perplexed by the many synonyms attaching to one in- 
sect, every modern monographer dividing up the old 
genera, till we have almost as many as we have species; 
and we sometimes wish that, instead of a hundred dif- 
ferent persons, in as many parts of the world, each 
cutting up the old genera and creating new ones, ac- 
cording to his particular ideA, we could look to some 
universally recognized head, such as our American 
Entomological Society, for some jurisdiction and au- 
thority in this matter of classification . 

*'The only figure we are able to find of this moth, is 
in Vol. I, pi. 45, fig. 18, of *The genera of British 
Moths, arranged according to the plan now adopted in 
the British Museum, by H. Noel Humphrey;' where it 
is called Hypsopygea costaliSf and the caterpillar is said 
to feed on poplars. The lithographs, however, are more 
faithful than the author's pen, for in his text he most 
laughably confounds this insect with the common meal 
moth, Fyralia/artnalis. 

"The .simple * Clover- worm' will, of course, fall far 
more pleasing and significant on the farmer's ear than 
these synonyms, but they are given for those who take 
an interest in such matters. * ' 

Since the above was published we have added to our 
library several valuable works on moths; and we find 
that, up to a quite recent date, both the leading French 
and English authors place this moth in the old Linnean 
genus Fyralig. The moth is popularly known in Eng- 
land as the Gold Fringe. 

By making a good elevated foundation for your clover 
stacks, so that the air can pass underneath, and by 
sprinkling the first few feet with salt when building the 
stack, you will effectually preserve the hay against the 
attacks of this worm. 

Seed Ticks under Bark of Apple-trees— 0. 
B. Galusha, Morris, JIU.— The minute 8-legged *Mn- 
sects" which infest the apple trees in Mr. Clapp's 
orchard, harboring under the outer bark, are in reality 
not true insects. No insect has more than m true legs, 
and though the larvae of most Moths and Buttcrfles 
[order L^ndopiera], of Saw-fiies [order ffyminopUra], 
of some Two- winged files [order Diptera'], and many 
beetles (order CoUoptera), possess ftoxn one to sixteen 
additional legs, yet all over the six anterior ones are 
simply membranous or prop-legs, and are lost when the 
insects attrfin their perfect state. Thus whenever you 
find an animal with eight true homy, jointed legs, you 
may safely conclude that it is not an insect. The little 
animals you sent, were In fact »* seed -ticks,'' the 
young of one of our most common wood-ticks {hoitt 
unipunetafa, Pack).* When recently hatched these 
ticks have but six legs, but they very soon acquire 
the additional pair. We do not think they will do any 
serious harm to the trees, wad should Judge that they 
do not occur very generally over the orchard. 

Parasitic Cocoons— aJ. W. F$chworth, South Fatt, 
7?Z«.— The ** nest of eggs ' ' which you send, and which 
you found near your door yard under some Bed-oak 
trees, are in reality the same kind of little parasitic 
cocoons, spoken of, and figured on page 128 of our last 
number, in answer to G. C. Brackett. Of course they 
should not be destroyed. 

Ticks and Texas Fever— 7%o». W, Oordofi, Gwrg*- 
town, ^ — See what we have said on this subject on 
page 28 of our first volume . 

* Guide to study of loMcti, p. 661. 



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VOL. 2. 



ST. LOUIS, MO., APRIL, 1870. 



NO. 6. 



^rdamalaQtcul department. 



CHARLES V. RILEY, Editor, 
2S1 N. Main it, St. Louis, Mo. 



THE BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 

Oar readers, no doubt, will be a little sur- 
prised, upon receiving this number, to notice 
the change in our title, and in the appearance 
of our cover. Well, we confess that we are 
fond of giving these little surprises, for which 
reason we have never even so much as hinted 
at this change, which we have long since had 
in view. Now, kind reader, how does the 
change suit you? You may be sure that it 
pleases us, or we should not have made it, and 
we can imagine an almost unanimous expression 
of pleasure from the fairer portion of our-eub- 
scribers, as well as from the great majority of 
the sterner sex. 

The success of the Entomologist in directing 
attention to the pleasure and importance of the 
study of Insects, especially of those affecting 
the interests of Agriculture and Horticulture, 
has been highly gratifying; and though there is 
often much truth in tlie trite French aphorism 
"fe mieux est Vennemi du Men" yet we should 
make no true progress in this world, if we 
adhered to it too stnctly. 

The two sciences of Entomology and Botany 
go hand-in-hand ; they are, indeed, twin-sisters, 
and we have often thought, and the matter has 
frequently been suggested by friends, that the 
UBefulness of our Magazine might be increased 
\>Y broadening and extending its sphere of ope- 
ration so as to include a department of Botany. 
To us there is no branch of Natural History so 
captivating as Entomology, but lives there a 
field-entomologist who has not, over and over 
again, admired the vaned and beauteous forms 
of plant-life around him, or who has not been 
impressed a thousand times with the absolute 
necessity of some knowledge of Botany to enable 
him to fully carry out his own studies? We 
trow not I 



It would be difficult to determine which of 
these two branches of Natural History has the 
greatest number of devotees amongst the priest- 
hood of Science; but it is very evident that 
Botany has the greatest number amongst the 
laity. For while the tender flower develops 
the aesthetic part of man's nature, and draws 
out the sympathy of every child, the poor des- 
pised bug creates an equal degree of repugnance 
in the popular mind. This popular state of 
mind is owing principally to the fact that the 
eyes of but few have yet been opened to the 
hidden wonders and beauties of the Insect 
World. AVe know that there are hundreds of 
persons who will subscribe to a journal devoted 
to Plants, hut who would never think of taking 
one devoted to Bugs, and if by the change we 
have inaugurated, additional readers are brought 
to our Journal, and a few only of them leai'u to 
appreciate the more generally despised of God's 
creatures, we shall have accomplished a double 
purpose. 

The field of Nature may be likened to a vast 
Museum, where one may enter and view the 
most wonderful objects, and fiud on .emerging 
that the great mass has left but an indistinct 
and confused impression on the mind. But if 
a guide go with us and direct our attention in 
detail to the many curiosities, and point out 
their peculiarities, we shall find those objects 
indelibly stamped upon the memory. Now if, 
while striving to enhance the prosperity of the 
country, by describing, figuring, and suggesting 
remedies for the diffeient insects which often 
blight the hopes of the producer, we can at the 
same time engage attention and study to the 
Vegetable Kingdom, which is so very intimately 
connected with the existence and comfort of the 
human family, we shall feel that we are effecting 
increased benefit. 

It is with great pleasure, therefore, that we 
introduce to our readers Mr. Geo. Vasey, of 
Richview, Ills., who will furnish from eight to 
twelve pages of botanical matter each month. 
Mr. Vasey has long been known in the West 
as an eminent botauist, and his reputation is a 
sufficient guarantee of the ability with which 



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THE AMERICAN 



that department will be conducted. But we 
leave him to lay his own plans before the ixjader. 
All letters on botanical subjects should be ad- 
dressed to Mr. Vasey, at Richview, Ills., and 
all those on entomological matters, as usual, to 
the writer, C. Y. R. 



WHEAT RIST AND BARBERRY RUST. 

The article on page Si) of our present volume, 
entitled "A so-called * Vulgar Error * no Error 
at all,'' has called forth the following paragraph 
from the Country Gentleman : 

A SiNHiULAu Inconsistency. — We have re- 
peatedly commended the American Entomolo- 
gist for its common sense and scientific accui-acy. 
It has always been severe on the superficial 
errors of the day. But in a late number, it has 
somewhat deviated from this general course, 
and endorsed the opinion that the barberry 
causes rust in the wheat — although this opinion 
is not sustained with a tenth part of the wit- 
nesses who assert that wheat is transmuted to 
chess. We never saw finer and fairer wheat 
than grew in immediate contiguity to barberry 
bushes, aud in addition to this, the article in 
the Entomologist expressly quotes the state- 
ment of S. ET Todd, that* "he had seen the 
finest crops of wheat growing close beside the 
bush spoken of." 

All which is as much as to say that they 
(the editors of the Country Gentleman) , do not 
believe that the barberry causes rust in wheat, 
and that we ourselves have fallen into one of 
the superficial errors of the day. Very well, 
gentlemen, you have a perfect right to your 
opinion, but when you assail that of others, you 
must stand ready to defend your own. We 
throw down the glove, and if you wish to pick 
it up, you will find us ready! This fungus 
question does not properly come within our 
province, and we freely confess that we do 
not even know the A B C of the science of 
mycology; but we are always ready to defend 
any position we have assumed, and will fi*eely 
" confess the corn " whenever it shall be shown 
that wo are in the wrong. We write for truth 
and not for victory, and in the present case we 
have taken up the cudgel in defense of the plain, 
practical farmer, because we feel quite confident 
that for once he is in the right. Nor have we 
based our belief upon any expenence of our 
own, but upon the authority of Professors De 
Bary and CErsted, and of Sir Joseph Banks, to 
whose conclusions, founded on experiment we 
beg leave to give the preference over all the 
opinions, assertions and asseverations, not so 
founded, that ever were or ever will be thun- 
dered forth. Consequently the Country Gen- 
tlemaUy in the above-quoted item, in reality 



makes no charge against us, but disputes the 
veracity, and questions the ability and scien- 
tific accuracy of the authors named. It has been 
demonstrated by CErsted that a certain fnngas 
(Podisorna sabince) infesting the branches of 
the Savin, is but a phase of another (Rcestdia 
cancellata) wliich attacks the leaves of the Pear; 
that one (Podisorna davarisforme) which occurs 
on the branches of the Juniper is but the first 
asexual state oi Rcesteiia peniciUata, which man- 
ifests itself on the leaves of the Apple and White 
Thorn ; and finally, ih^XPodisomajuniperinum, 
which also inhabits the leaves and branches of 
the Juniper, is identical with that of Bcsstelia 
corniferaj which infests the leaves of the Moun- 
tain Ash. Does the Country Gentleman like- 
wise dispute the correctness of these physio- 
logical discoveries? 

We know that ever since this matter was first 
discussed, in 1774, it has been the fashion to 
deride the common belief of the farmer, and 
singularly enough this fashion has prevailed to 
the greatest extent with those who passed most 
of their lives amid piles of brick and mortar. 
We are all too apt to follow in other people's 
footsteps, and to believe too implicitly what we 
were taught in childhood; and there always 
I will be men who prefer to accept the fossilized 
and crude ideas entertained hundreds of years 
ago, rather than to make investigations aud 
think for themselves. Butthis is pre-eminently 
an age of progress, and we find that many a 
dogma which for years may have had supreme 
hold of the public mind, has been shattered, so 
to speak, by modern investigation. Many an 
idea that was scouted as ridiculous aud absurd 
but a decade since, is now accepted as a truth, 
and the discoveries that have been made during 
that time have convinced every candid and 
earnest naturalist, that life, whether animal or 
vegetable, is altogether more plastic and pro- 
tean than was formerly supposed; and the 
lower down in the scale we go, the more shall 
we find this to be true. 

As a striking and familiar example, we may 
mention that the Hydra tuba, Scyphistoma, 
Strobila and Ephydra were supposed by super- 
ficial observers to be perfectly distinct and dif- 
ferent animals, till they were all proved by 
experiment to be but diflTerent forms of the 
common Jelly-fish or Medusas; and hundreds 
of similar cases among the lower plants and 
animals might be cited, some even, as we 
have already shown, where the diflTerent forms 
of one and the same species have been ranked 
as distinct genera. It is only since a compara- 
tively recent period that by aid of our much 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



163 



improved inici*08copes, the rusts and moylds 
have been properly studied. W. P. Schimpcr, 
ill 1848, in his Recherches sur les Movsses, estab- 
lished, by experiment, that the so-called Con- 
fer vaceae are the pregerminal phases of the 
leaf-mosses, notwithstanding which, they are 
yet very generally considered as sea-weeds or 
algcBy under a spurious nomenclature. Again, 
each of tlie phases of the fermentative or 
original zymotic fungus have been separately 
named by those who have paid no attention to 
its development, as has been demonstrated by 
Prof. Hallicr, of Jena, Germany, and by Dr. 
Hilgard, of Ihis country; while the bread and 
preserve moulds, the blue moulds on apples and 
lemons, the cheese and stool ferments have all 
been proved to be but different forms of one 
species, by the latter gentleman. In our own 
special department we might mention several 
instances where closet-entomologists, with a 
supreme contempt for larval or pupal charac- 
ters, have fabricated two, three or more species 
out of what upon more profound knowledge 
have proved to be one and the same. 

Is it to be wondered at, therefore, with these 
tacts before us, that we prefer, rather than 
accept the ipsissima dicta of would-be savans, 
to take the testimony of men who, having de- 
voted years to the study of funguses, announce 
that the Red rust in wheat is but a form or stage 
of the common Barberry rust. 

We attach more importance to a single fact, 
based upon well conducted experiment, than to 
ten thousand theoiies and ^'opinions'' that have 
no facta for their support, though they may be 
acquiesced in by the so-called authonty through- 
out the land. We always intend to be '* severe 
on the superficial errors of the day,'' and are 
especially down on scientific charlatanism. We 
have the highest respect for our friend and cor- 
respondent, Dr. Trimble, of New Jersey, but 
when, in speaking on i his barberry-wheat ques- 
tion, he simply asserts that " this is an old tra- 
dition that 1 have heard from a boy, bnt there is 
no foundation for the belief"; and that "rust is 
produced by another class of causes " — without 
explaining what Ihose causes are — his words 
sound too much like hollow assertion, unsup- 
ported by facts. Such words from the Doctor 
appear the more astonishing to those who have 
watched his strenuous efforts to overthrow an- 
other superficial error, by demonstrating that 
on some soils shallow plowing is to be preferred 
to deep plowing, notwithstanding the latter has 
from time immemorial been urged and recom- 
mendedy without qualification, by all theorists. 

But we will not dwell any longer on this sub- 



ject at present. We have long since admired 
the courtesy and ability with which the Country 
ffentleman is conducted, and feel that the criti- 
cism we have quoted, was made in all candor. 
Calm and dispassionate argument and con- 
troversy usually results in good, and if our 
Albany friends will bring forth any argument 
that is worthy the name, in favor of their posi- 
tion, we may in future consider this matter at 
gi-eater length, and perhaps get our Botanical 
Editor to give us his opinion, as it is really a 
botanical matter. 

Wc shall defend the farmer whenever we 
think he is in the right, for as in the old Fable 
of the Pnnter and the Lion, the scientific artist 
in the city who is every day publishing descrip- 
tions of men conquering lions in fair single 
combat, has a «^reat advantage over the poor 
maligned agricultural lion in the country, who 
publishes nothin*,^ at all, and confines himself to 
the plain, practical occupation of gobbling up 
as many men a< lie can possibly get hold of. 

Whether or not the opinion that Puccinia 
yraminis and . E^idkim berberidis are the alter- 
nate generatioi.s of one species, is '* sustained 
with a tenth |»Hrt of the witnesses who assert 
that wheat is transmuted into chess," is n ques- 
tion entirely foreign to the subject, the wheat- 
chess discussion having absolutely nothing to 
do with that of Wheat and Barberi} :-ust. And 
as to the opinion that Barberry can not cause 
rust in wheat because fine wheat has been 
grown in close contiguity to such bushes, it 
sounds too much like asf^uniing that small-pox 
is not contDgions because a certain unvaccinated 
person, living in a house where the disease pre- 
vailed, escaped without catching it; for as wo 
may learn from the peru^l of DeBary's pam- 
phlets'^, a certain condition of the atmosphere 
is necessary to the proper germination of the 
Wheat-Barberry fungus. Moreover, we have 
never assumed, nor will any sensible pei*son 
ever assume, that healthy Barberry bushes, free 
from rust, will produce any rust in wheat. 



•Xeue UnterHUchnugen ueber rrodineen, luBbetfondere die 
EDtwickluiiK der Puccinia fframini$. A. DeBary, Berlin, 
186A. Zweite MitUieilung, lam. 



** There is no branch of Natural History so 
captivating as Entomology, and certainly none 
so easily gratified; for its pursuit brings us 
into immediate relation to Nature in her most 
attractive dress, in the woods, the fields and the 
gardens." — Morris. 



Erratum.— Page 97, over the illustration, for 
'*Fig.59," read "Fig. 59*. " 



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164 



THE AMERICAN 



IS ANY KNOWLEDGE USELESS? 

" There is no name of greater power at the 
present day than that of Science ; and it is as 
awkward to say anything against the preten- 
sions of men of science as it once was to be a 
heretic of a different order. You cannot, it is 
true, be burnt alive, or put into an inquisition, 
but, wtiich is almost as bad, you can be made 
to look extremely foolish. The men of science 
regard you through their spectacles with an air 
calculated to strike terror into the boldest heart, 
if you venture to question the advantage ot their 
most trifling speculations. Any thing which by 
hook or by crook can be brought under the 
mantle of an ology is a sacred object, not to be 
touched by the profane vulgar. A poor savage 
sees a civilized being, capable of producing 
thunder and supplied with unlimited quantities 
of fire-water, devote himself for years to the 
pursuit of bu^s — using that word in the Ameri- 
can sense. This strange creature will live for 
mouths in a wilderness, and be amply rewarded 
by collecting a boat-load of creeping, crawling 
things, which are not even gooa to eat. The 
savage thinks the white man must be little bet- 
ter than an idiot; and the white man, when he 
comes home, writes his book, and holds the 
savafire up to the derision of an enlightened 
public. 'Here,* he says in effect, Ms a poor 
creature so ignorant as to think me a fool for 
spending a month in discovering the Hotonchro- 
nonthologus Jonesii — an animal which differs 
from all other Hotonchrononthologi in having 
two more spots upon his nose, and an extra 
claw on his hind leg.' Is it so plain that the 
white man has altogether the best of the argu- 
ment? Suppose that the beast in question had 
remained unknown, would the human race have 
been materially the worse? Or, to put it more 
moderately, could not the month be spent to 
more purpose in some other field of labor? Some 
distinguished martyr to science once planted a 
colony of some loathsome insect in his thumb, 
and heroically traveled to Europe with his bur- 
den, in the hope of (Jiscovering some new facts 
about the way in which the animal laid its eggs. 
Unluckily, if I remember right, the thumb mor- 
tified and had to be amputated within sight of 
land; and we have ever since been called upon 
to admire the zeal and heroism of the sufferer. 
I am willing to do so, just as I admii*e St. Si- 
meon Stylites for standing for twenty yeai's on 
a column, and saying his prayei*s one thousand 
two hundred and fourty-four times a day. Only 
I cannot help asking, in each case, whether so 
rare a quality of heroism could not have been 
turned to some better account? Zeal is not a 
commodity of which we have such an abundance 
that we can complacently set it running to waste. 
Science often means nothing more than accurate 
and systematic knowledge of facts; and the 
question always remains whether the facts are 
really worth knowing. If a man of genius 
spends years in investigating the habits of a 
microscopic animalcule, it does not follow that 
the game was worth the candle simply because 
we give to the knowledge gained the mystic 
name of science." 

We quote the above because it gives a fair 
idea of the views of those practical men whose 



sphere of mental vision is circumscribed by the 
question cui bono? in other words, men whose 
minds, if placed in the centre of a ^ood old- 
fashioned silyer dollar, would be entirely con- 
tained within the periphery. 

The great value of most scientific facts lies not 
so much in the practical £kvailability of the facts 
as in the correlation with oihor fncts, and th6 
light which they throw upon scientific questions 
of confessedly high importance. The discov- 
ery of the supposititious HotonchronontJiologus 
Jonesii might not be a matter of much conse- 
quence in itself, but its relation to the Darwin- 
ian hypothesis, and its effect upon our views in 
regard to species, might possibly be so impor- 
tant as to immortalize the discoverer. So, too, 
it might not be a matter of much consequence 
in itself how a certain AcarUrS propagated its 
species; but a study of the process m this par- 
ticular case might throw much light on genei-a- 
tion in general, and this is cei-tainly worth the 
expenditure of a good deal of zeal and labor. 
Full and definite knowledge of any subject is 
only to be attained through long study, and by 
examining the question from every point of 
view, and under every variety of circumstance 
and condition. The processes of generation 
carefully investigated in the lower animals, 
have thrown great light on the con-esponding 
processes involved in the reproduction of those 
of higher grade. Success in the breeding of 
domestic animals depends largely upon our 
knowledge of the causes that govern the varia- 
tions of species and varieties. It is not at all 
impossible, under certain contingencies, that a 
mere dot on a fossil shell, buried millions of 
years ago, might decide important questions in 
this connection, and lav the world under ever- 
lasting obligations to the observer of these mi- 
nute differences. The writer of the paragraph 
we have just quoted evidently does not appre- 
ciate the fact, that every thing in Nature is car- 
ried out strictly according to law, and that the 
most trifling fact is valuable as an index to these 
laws. 

We copy the foregoing, with the able com- 
ments of the editor, from the November number 
of the Manufacturer and Builder. We rejoice 
that there are few persons, even amongst those 
so-called practical men who hate the very sight 
of a Latin word, who take such a narrow-minded 
view of true science ; and that their nnmbers 
are fast diminishing. It is entirely unnecessary 
for us to undertake to show how most of those 
discoveries which have in a great measure 
brought about our present advanced civiliza- 
tion, have been made by the study ot "sm^l 
things," and by the " accurate and systematic 
accumulation of facts." But to show how, in 
our own Department of Science, the knowledge 
of a single fact which can only be obtained by 
a proper study of one of these "insignificant' 
creeping, crawling things, that are popularly 
called Bugs, may prove of great practical im- 
portance, let us instance one or two of the many 
cases that might be brought forward. 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



165 



It is well known that elm trees, as well as 
apple trees, in certain localities in the United 
States, are sometimes eaten almost bare by that 
common looping caterpillar called the Canker- 
worm ; and that these wor«ms have been checked 
and controlled by those who are acquainted 
with their peculiar habits, by fastening leaden 
troughs of oil round the butts of the trees. Lik§ 
the larvae of many other moths, this worm buries 
itself under the ground to change into the pupa 
state ; but unlike the gi*eat majority of moths, 
the perfect male has wings, and the perfect 
female has no wings at all, and is therefoi*e 
compelled to crawl up the trunks of the trees to 
deposit her eggs, instead of flying on to the 
trees, as almost all other insects have the power 
of doing when in the perfect state. Hence the 
philosophy of the practice above alluded to, 
which depends for its efficacy on this trait in the 
natural history of the Canker-worm. Not very 
long ago, the elm trees which ornament the city 
of Baltimore were attacked by a larva that strip- 
ped them bare. Supposing it to be the notorious 
Canker-worm, the corporate authorities spent a 
good many hundred dollars in fixing leaden 
troughs filled with oil, after the most approved 
fashion, round their ti*ees. They might just as 
well have built a tight board fence round a 
corn-field to keep out the crows and blackbirds. 
The insect that was afflicting their trees was 
not the Canker-worm, but the larva of a beetle 
(^Galeruca calmariensis) imported by some 
chance or other from Europe, where it oiten 
strips the elm trees in the same way; and, un- 
fortunately for the City Fathers of Baltimore, 
the female of this beetle has wings, and was not 
in the least inconvenienced by the oil-troughs. 
A little time spent in investigating the habits of 
this beetle would have saved them all their trouble. 

A similar instance of just such entomological 
folly occurred a couple of years ago in Southern 
Illinois. A certain fruit-grower in Union county, 
for lack of a proper knowledge of the habits of 
that liltlc pest the Curculio, took it into his head 
that this insect had no wings and could not fly, 
and that it could only reach the fruit, in conse- 
quence, by climbing up the tree. Hence he 
very sapiently went to work and fixed a band 
of wool around every tree in a large orchard 
containing about 10,000. Now, as the Curculio 
has ample wings, and can fly with the greatest 
case, this procedure was of no earthly use in 
protecting this worthy fruit-grower's peaches. 
He might just as well have wrapped the wool 
round his stove-pipe under the delusive idea 
that he could thereby keep the flies and mos- 
quitoes out of his house. 



There is a small timber-boring beetle — called 
Limexylon navale, or in English the Naval 
Timber-pest — which is very common in the Oak 
forests of the North of Europe, and occasionally 
occurs in such numbers in the Swedish and 
French dock-yards, as to do a prodigious amount 
of damage. About one hundred years ago the 
Swedish Government found out that this insect 
was doing millions of dollars' worth of damage 
in their dock-yards by boring the timber full of 
holes, so that if it had been put into a ship, it 
would have let the water in like a sieve. The 
Swedish Government concluded that it wouldn't 
answei^'to incur such a heavy annual loss ; and 
they did the very wisest thing that they possibly 
could have done. They applied to the celebrated 
Linnaeus — the father of the Science of Entomol- 
ogy — though to many perhaps he is only known 
as a great Botanist. Linnaeus took the matter 
in hand, and having investigated the habits of 
the insect, discovered that it came out of the 
timber in the perfect or winged state in one 
particular month only (June) when it flew 
around, paired, laid its eggs on any oak timber 
to which it had access, and shortly afterwards 
perished. So he said to the Swedish Govern- 
ment: **Gentlemen, all you have to do is to sink 
all your oak timber under water during the 
month of Juno, so that the female beetle may 
not be able to deposit her eggs on it ; and you 
will be no more troubled for a great many years 
to come with Limexylon navaleJ- The Govern- 
ment did so ; and the result was just what Lin- 
naeus had predicted. Dr. Hariis informs us that 
not very long afterwards the insect occurred in 
similar profusion in a French dock-yard ; and 
although a* naval officer, who was also a good 
entomologist, suggested the Linnaean remedy 
to the authorities, they neglected to apply it — 
having perhaps the common unfaith in Science, 
and thinking with the vulgar, that the study of 
bugs was all a humbug. As might have been 
expected, they reaped the reward of their ignor- 
ance, and suffered an immense amount of valu- 
able timber to be destroyed by this insect, which 
might just as well have been saved. 

Such instances might be multiplied ad inflni- 
turn, but we forbear, and take consolation in 
the fact that a new era is dawning. There were 
men who had no faith in Fulton and his Steam- 
boat. There were men who had no faith in 
Morse and his Electric Telegraph. There were 
men who had no faith in Stephenson and his 
Locomotive. But if Fulton, and Morse, and 
Stephenson, had themselves had no faith, or 
had suffered themselves to be laughed down by 
the criticisms of the would-be wits and can't- 



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be philosophers, the world would not now be 
where it is. The law of the age is progress. 
"The point that yesterday was lost in the dim 
far away distance, becomes our goal to-day, 
and will be our starting point to-morrow.'' 



HOW TO COLLECT AND STUDY INSECTS. 

Hr F. O. BANBORX, BOSTON, MASS. 
iFig. 104.] 




A collection of specimens of insects is an 
almost indispensable adjunct to the study of the 
science of Entomology. The simplest and most 
economical method of obtaining one, but that 
requiring the greatest amount of time and per- 
severance, i§ to preserve each and every object 
related in any way to the history and trans- 
formations of insects. The manner of preserving 
these varies according to the nature of the sub- 
stance, and difibrent circumstances may neces- 
sitate the use of different means. I propose to 
give some account of those methods which have 
been found most desirable. 

Presupposing that the object of the student is 
to make himself acquainted with the natural 
history of his own locality — whether of State, 
county, or town— he should provide himself 
with a number of boxes, of well seasoned wood, 
of such form and size as will allow of their being 
conveniently duplicated from time to time as 
his collection increases. Half a do^n boxes of 
clear, soft pine, measuring nine or ten by twelve 
or fourteen inches, and double the length of the 
common insect pin, that is to say, three inches 
or three and a quarter, inside depth, so that 
the specimens can be pinned in both the upper 
and under box, will be found sufficient to com- 
mence with. (See Figure 104.) A flange, or 
rabbet, extends completely around the inte- 
rior of the lower box, so as to protect the 
contents from dust, and prevent the cover from 
slipping to either side. This should not be 
more than half an inch in height above the level 
of the edge of the box, but should fit accurately 
to the sides and bottom, and be fastened firmly 
by nails, or nails and glue. If hard or knotty 
wood is used for the top and bottom of the box, 
it will be necessary to line or cover these sur- 
faces with some sott material. Considerations 
of economy or convenience will suggest the use 
of various substances for this purpose. Many 



persons insist upon the use of flat sheets of cork 
glued or nailed to the wood. The pith of the 
Amencan aloe, or elder, or of broom-corn, are 
approved of by many collectors. That of Indian 
corn, unless deprived of its saccharine matter 
by boiling or otherwise, is less applicable in (be 
long run, on account of its tendency to oxidize 
or corrode the pins, so that they soon become 
weakened and break at their points of contact 
with the pith. Boiler felt, as it is called, com- 
posed of cow's hair loosely felted together, has 
been found very useful, when covered with thin 
white paper, for lining boxes. Its advantages 
are, evenness of texture, softness and cheapness, 
a box of the size above mentioned requiring 
about ten cents worth of felt. The inch thick 
felting should be split (which may be easily 
done with very little practice) and heavy weights 
be placed upon it when glued inio the box, re- 
maining for about forty-eight hours ; a plunger 
of planed board, about a quarter of an inch 
smaller each way than the box, intervening be- 
tween the weight and the paper which covers 
the felt. 

Boxes of this size and shape are far preferable 
to cabinets of drawers, both on the score of 
economy and convenience, especially for consti- 
tutionally erratic American students, as they 
can readily be packed in small compass for 
transportation when the collector strikes his 
tent. 

Having prepared a safe place of deposit for 

the specimens, now let the student construct a 

[Fig. 105 3 u net," by making a loop of strong 

Oiron or brass wire, of about 3-16th8 
of an inch in thickness, so t^iat the 
diameter of the loop or circle will 
not exceed twelve inches, leaving 
an inch to an inch and a half of 
wire at each end bent at nearly 
^ right angles. Bind the two ex- 

tremities of the wire together with 
^ smaller wire (Fig. 105, a), and tin 

them by applying a drop of muriate of zinc, 
then holding it in the flre or over a gas flame 
until nearly red hot, when a few grains of 
block tin or soft solder placed upon them will 
flow evenly over the whole surface and join 
them firmly together. Take a Maynard rifle 
cartridge tube, or other brass tube of similar 
dimensions ; if the former, file off the closed 
end or perforate it for the admission of the 
wire, and having tinned it in the same manner 
on the inside, push a tight fitting cork half way 
through (Fig. 105, c), and pour into it melted 
tin or soft solder, and insert the wires ; if care- 
fully done you will have a firmly constructed 



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and vei-y durable foundation for a collecting 
net. The cork being extracted, will leave a 
conyenient socket for inserting a stick or walk- 
ing cane to serve as a handle. The net should 
^e made of **millinet," *^book muslin," or 
'^mosquito bar," as is most convenient; it 
should not exceed two feet in depth, and will 
prove much more durable if the wire be bound 
with cloth or leather, to which the muslin may 
be sewed. If the loop be made of the dimen- 
sions above suggested, one yard of material 
will suffice for the net. One or more small 
boxes of two inches depth, lined with pith, to 
carry in the pocket; a paper or cushion of pins, 
and a wide-mouthed vial of alcohol, will com- 
plete this inexpensive outfit for the collector. 
Various circumstances will suggest modifica- 
tions or improvements in the apparatus. 

In the next paper we shall endeavor to give 
an aconnt of some of the objects to be collected. 



THE BALD-PACED HORNET. 



[Fig. 106.] 




Colors— Brown-black and cream-j-ellow. 

There are few insects more interesting than 
the wasps ; and though some of the family are 
greatly abused for their depredations in the 
fruit line, yet I have little doubt that their 
ofibnding in this, is much more than compen- 
sated for by the immense amount of grubs and 
flies destroyed by them to feed their young. It 
must be confessed, though, that the way in 
which they " clean out" a Green-gage or Apri- 
cot is "beyond anything," leaving nothing 
within but the suspended stone; the glowing 
skin hanging beautiful as ever, but, like some 
other beauties, terribly empty. 

It cannot very well be denied that the wasps 
wei-e the first paper-makers. As their manu- 
factories were, it is to be presumed, in full blast 
long before there were any rags, they use wood 
instead, and produce from it, if not what we 
would call a first-class, certainly in every way 
a very creditable, article of paper. 

The Bald-faced Hornet (Vespa maculaia, 
Linn.), is a remarkable species, entitled to 
much mention for its beauty and gi*ace, as well 



as other qualities. I do not know how far 
northward its range extends; but I have met 
with it on Lake Superior, where it is abundant 
and of a large size. 

I was much amused there one day, in the 
month of August, while at work in my tent, 
watching these Bald-faced Hornets on their for- 
aging expeditions, catching flies to feed their 
young. The easy grace with which they cap- 
ture a fly while on the wing, is truly wonderful. 
To select a fly and pounce on it, dexterously 
seizing it, is the work of an instant The wasp 
then alights, and pr^ares its victim for trans- 
portation, trimming it by cutting off* the limbs, 
as superfluities which would encumber the re- 
turning flight. One by one drop down the 
slender legs of the fly, and the gauzy wings 
flutter away, as neatly nipped off" as though 
done with tiny scissors. Next, proceeding to 
roll the denuded fly into a compact parcel, or 
rather pellet, the wasp moistens it with its saliva 
for tliis purpose, and, finally, flies ofl" suddenly 
and rapidly to its nest with its prey. 

This wasp is one of the " Paper-makers," and 
is the largest of our species. Though its general 
color is dark brown, almost black, the face, as 
the English or popular name implies, is white, 
and the thorax and abdomen are also beautifully 
marked with cunously-shaped bands and spots 
of the same creamy or yellowish-whit€. (See 
Fig. 106) . I have noticed considerable variation 
in these, particularly in their shape. 

One thing appears strange in the proceeding 
just narrated. From the very first moment of 
its seizure by the wasp, the fly seems perfectly 
resigned to its fate, not making the least resist- 
ance or even motion, so far as I observed, or 
the usual buzzing cry it utters when captured 
by a spider. This would appear to indicate 
that it is stunned or paralyzed by the wasp. 
And did we not know that this wasp feeds its 
larvflB daily, we might be led to consider this a 
case of paralysis or suspended animation — the 
prey being laid away for future use. 

My tent being " filled with flies," as soon as 
the wasps found their way into it, they went 
briskly to work, flying to and fio on their mur- 
derous errand. The systematic way in which 
they performed it .was almost laughable ; though 
I could not help feeling that what was fun for 
me was death to the flies. The strength and 
determination evinced by the wasps in this, and 
also in collecting and preparing the material for 
their paper cells, are truly remarkable. I have 
seen them strip off*, for this latter purpose, the 
weather-worn splinters from the wood of an 
old house, all day, with laborious zeal, flying off 



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with pieces marvelloufily large, considering the 
size of the insect and the distance to be travel- 
led. 

I once found in the woods, on the north shore 
of Lake Michigan, a wasp's nest nearly twice 
as large as a man's head. It must have been of 
unnsual age, and the musk-like odor exhaled 
by it was rather offensive. This was the largest 
nest I ever saw. The smallest I have ever met 
with was about only two inches in diameter, 
though perfect in every respect. 

Henry Gillman. 
Detroit, Michigan. 



INSECTIVOROUS HABITS OP THE PRAIRIE LARK. 

{Alanda alpestHs,) 

BY DU. WM. LE BABOX, GENEVA, ILLS. 

It is still a matter of dispute whether birds, 
upon the whole, are the friends or the enemies 
of the husbandman ; whether they do more good 
by devouring noxious insects, than damage by 
the destruction of fruits and seeds. Happily for 
the birds, the preponderance of opinion, and 
still more the proponderance of sentiment, is 
strongly on their side. For, even admitting 
that there may be a few species which do more 
harm than good, yet with regard to birds in 
general, it is almost univei'sally believed that 
their existence is essential to the welfare of 
mankind, and indeed to the harmony of nature, 
by preserving the balance between the tribes of 
insects and the vegetable kingdom. It is true 
that most of them, whilst active in ridding us 
of our insect foes, require that we should con- 
tribute something to their support, and some- 
times draw pretty heavily upon us; but the 
species whose name is inscribed at the head of 
this article, furnishes an example of an humble 
fneiid who never obtrudes himself upon our 
notice, and who, whilst rendering us incalcula- 
ble benefit, demands from us notliing in return. 

Most persons who have traveled over our 
Western prairies must have had their attention 
called to a little brownish colored bird, often 
seen dusting himself in the road, and who has 
run or flitted into the neighboring grass as the 
traveler approached. This is the Alanda alpes- 
trisy or Prairie Lark, sometimes called — but 
much less appropriately— the Shore Lark. It 
belongs to the same genus as the famous Sky Lark 
of Europe {Alanda arvensisy Linn.) "We must 
take care that similarity of names does not lead 
us to confound this species with the equally 
common Meadow Lark, which is a much larger 
and more conspicuous bird, with a gray striped 
back and a bright yellow breast, and which 



strictly is not a lark, but belongs to the fomily 
of starlings. The Prairie Lark is of about the 
same size as some of the larger kinds of sparrow, 
though somewhat more slender in shape. The 
predominant color is a brownish-gray, more 
strongly tinted with reddish about the neck and 
shoulders. The color beneath is sordid white, 
tinted with brown on the breast and sides. 
There is a broad, black band across the middle 
of the forehead, terminating laterally above and 
behind the eye in a little pointed tuft of feathers, 
which the bird has the power of elevating and 
depressing at will, so as to resemble little horns. 
The female is more obscure in her markings, 
and the little horn-like appendages ai-e wanting. 
These birds remain with us nearly all the year, 
and may be seen, even in winter, gleaning a 
scanty subsistence upon the bare patches of 
prairie from which the snow has blown off. Bat 
the peculiarity of this bird, which has led us to 
introduce its history as appropriate to this work, 
is the instinct with which it discovers and des; 
troys those grubs which infest corn fields, and 
which often do so much damage to this and 
some other crops. It came to my knowledge 
through the observation of an intelligent and 
obsei*ving farmer in my neighborhood, upon 
whose accuracy entire dependence can be placed. 
Whilst going through with the fii'st hoeing 
of his corn, he observed, running about amongst 
the hills, Httle grayish birds, which fi*om his 
description, and from the absence of any similar 
bird with which it could be easily confounded, 
I have no doubt was the present species. Upon 
observing one of them more attentively, he 
became interested in watching its operations. 
Running along near the hills, it stopped abruptly 
from time to time opposite a hill, and stood still 
as if listening; then, having apparently deter- 
mined its direction, it inserted its bill at a short 
distance from a spear of com, and by a rapid, 
rotary motion, partially buried itself in the loose 
earth, and then jerking backwards, dragged out 
a large grub, which, from its situation, may be 
reasonably supposed to be one of those larvw, 
of which there are several different kinds, known 
by the name of cut-worms. Taking this worm 
in its bill it ran along, until by its acute sense 
of hearing, or by some other instinct, it became 
aware of the presence of another of its insect 
prey. Then, laying down the one previously 
obtained, it quickly dislodged another in the 
same manner, and seizing them both in its bill 
again pursued the search. Having obtained as 
many as it could carry, it flew off to the neigh- 
boring grass-field, having in all probability a 
brood of young awaiting its arrival . Not unfre- 



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169 



qaenily one of these small birds would carry off 
four or five grubs at once, often haying to lay 
them down and take them up 8eYei*al times 
before it could get secure hold of them all. 

When we consider how common these birds 
are, it is easy to conceiye that they must destroy 
an immense number of larvsB in the coui*se of 
the season. 

Whilst writing this article, I have obtained 
several specimens of this kind of bird, both male 
and female, for the purpose of identifying the 
species with certainty. Upon examining the 
contents of the stomach I found in most of them 
several grains resembling hulled oats, and in 
one of them was a larva nearly one inch in 
length, of a pale green color, with a brown head 
and tapering a little at each end, being different 
from the cut-worm, but resembling, and per- 
haps identical with, the spindle-worm, so-called, 
which burrows into the stem of the com plant. 
It would be a curious fact if it should prove that 
this bird possesses the instinct to detect and 
destroy two noxious larvas, so different in ap- 
pearance and habits as those here mentioned. 

Thus does this shy and unobtrusive little bird 
perform its humble but useful part in the 
economy of Nature, and, whilst seeking a sub- 
sistence for itself and young, unconsciously 
renders an important service to the husband- 
man. 



A State Entomologist for Wisconsin.— 
«*The suggestion I have just made may be 
viewed differently by different members of this 
Society, but the suggestion I have now to make 
will, I know, meet with your general approba- 
tion. We have long felt the need of a State 
Entomologist. As horticulturists we see and 
feel the importance and absolute need of such 
an officer — more so than does any other part of 
the community. Some of the older States — and, 
indeed, some of the younger States — have made 
such appointments. And I trust the time will 
soon come when our own State will follow their 
wise example. We are an agricultural people, 
and as such are afflicted with almost every 
plant-destroying insect on this side of the con- 
tinent. And wnile other countries and States 
are seeking, with success, for means to diminish 
or avert the ravages of such plagues, we should 
not be folding our hands awaiting for something 
to turn up, but be following the example of our 
more intelligent neighbors. Therefore, I sug- 
gest that before you separate you elect, as Ento- 
mologist to the State Horticultural Societjr, 
Professor Daniells, of the Wisconsin State Uni- 
versity. I venture to make this recommendation 
simply because the Professor is the best man I 
know of for the place, and because I know that 
he will spare no pains to serve the Society and 
the people." — From President Hohbins'a Ad- 
dress, delivered at the meeting of the Wisconsin 
State HoHicuUural Society y at Madison, Feb* 

ISty 1870. 



HINDRANCES TO SUCCESSFUL FRUIT-GROWING. 

[From an Address delivered at the Fourth Annual Meeting of 

the Centralla (HIb.) Fruit-Growers' Association, by 

B. PULLEX, the retiring President.] 

We are frequently asked, " have we a fruit 
country?" meaning, of course, our own imme- 
diate section. Our answer would be yes, pre- 
eminently so. How are we to satisfy any one 
who would ask such a question, with all the 
facts before him, that our answer is correct? 
He speaks knowingly -of other sections, of im- 
mense and successive crops, great profits, &c. 
This is our El Dorado—just what we are look- 
ing after. We take occasion to inform ourselves, 
and what do we find? why, the old stoiy, that 
"distance lends enchantment to the view," and 
so we return again into our own holes, "wiser 
if not better men." We might furnish statistics 
showing the relative value of this as compared 
with other well-known, longer-established fruit 
districts, and sufier none by the compaiison. 
We know, of our own knowledge, that in the 
twelve past years but one entire failui'e has 
occurred. This was the summer following the 
winter of 1864 and 1865. We were disposed 
to call that an entire failure, and yet the finest 
and most profitable crop of strawberries we 
have ever seen was raised here in the summer 
of 1865. Do we pronounce an agi*icultural dis- 
trict a failure because bountiful crops are not 
every year raised, or because of the entire or 
partial failure of every one of the cereal crops 
grown there? Of course not. If we did, we 
should pronounce against one after another until 
we should have none left. Is it just to pronounce 
against a fruit region for the same reason? 
Where, then, is the trouble? There must be a 
cause for so much complaint and disappointment. 
Is it not possible that we ourselves have proved 
failures? We only want to let ourselves down 
as easy as possible by blaming the country. I 
make the assertion, without fear of successful 
contradiction, that there is not one really suc- 
cessful Horticulturist in our Ccntralia fruit dis- 
trict, and for no other i*eason than that we 
ourselves are failures. This is not so much the 
result of ]gnoi*ance as it is a cnminal neglect on 
our part to make an energetic use of the know- 
ledge we already possess. The damage to the 
fruit-grower yearly by the depredations of the 
Curculio and Codling-moth are almost incalcu- 
lable, sweeping away at times entire crops ; and 
yet how many run a Curculio-catcher, pick up 
the fallen fruit, keep swine in their orchards, 
bandage their trees with a hay-band to afibrd 
a shelter and hiding place for the larvae of the 
Codliug-moth to undergo her transformations 



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in 9 and thus be entrapped; or scrape the body 
of their trees, dislodging and destroying all 
insect life there concealed? All these are well 
known ; simple and efficacious remedies, at least 
to the extent of securing a good crop under 
ordinary circumstances. I suppose there Is 
not a single person in our community who 
practices all or even one of these simple reme- 
dies thoroughly. I know of noue such, but I 
know of numbers who are ready to assert upon 
all occasions that fruit here is a failure. They 
seem to ignore the fact that the presence of these 
pests in such profusion only gives the lie to 
their assertion. Insects and fruit go together; 
they ai:e one and inseparable. * ♦ ♦ * * 
I would, therefore, earnestly recommend to 
every member of this Association, and to every 
fruit-grower, that we combinedly operate to- 
gether in making war upon them, using all the 
knowledge and means in our possession to keep 
them in subjection. The bodies of our apple 
trees should be carefully scraped, and the larvae 
of the Codling-moth hunted out and destroyed. 
The fruit room, and all apple barrels and bins 
should undergo a similar process, before the 
moths make their appearance in the spring. 
The latter hiding places are thought by many 
to be the most prolific source of our annual 
. supply of this insect, and should by no means 
be overlooked. 

The Curculio should come in for a large share 
of our attention. We should be prepared to 
run the Curculio-catcher with a vengeance, and 
take advantage of the information conveyed to 
us by our State Horticulturist (Dr. Hull), that 
the Little Turks gather upon the trees ten or 
twelve days in advance of their depositing any 
eggs in the fruit, for the purpose of pairing off, 
and that if caught during this period, wc not 
only get rid ot the 6upply on hand, but of the 
generation which follows, which would not be 
the case if not caught until later in the season. 

I would also recommend the appointment of 
an active committee, whose duty it shall be to 
visit all the orchards possible in our vicinity 
monthly, to note the management of each, and 
convey to this society the results of their obser- 
vations. Much useful information might thus 
be obtained by the committee, and through 
them be conveyed to the Society for the general 
good. ******** 

You will perceive, gentlemen, that not much 
of the fanciful has occupied our thought in what 
has been said. We propose to leave this to 
those who choose not to dabble in the more 
practical part of our profession. Indeed, our 
mind has been so often toasted and feasted with 



the beautiful imagery in connection with our 
subject, that when called upon to face some of 
the unpleasant practical realities, we have felt 
as if an emetic had been administered and that 
we were prepared to disgorge at once and lor- 
ever all that is not real. We must acknowledge, 
however, that we do sometimes find ourselves 
indulging in this weakness of feeding our &ncy. 
Nothing occurs to us at this moment as being 
more likely to ensnare and captivate the senses 
than in contemplating some of the pleasures to 
be derived from a pursuit so Grod-given, trans- 
porting us into the very garden of our fii-st 
parents. Like them we find there is the bitter 
with the sweet— the forbidden fruit— for we 
pluck the king of fruits— the Apple— and what 
do we find but the larvae of the Codling-moth? 
which has anticipated us and sipped, as it were, 
the very nectar from our lips. We turn from 
it in disgust to the queen of fruits— the Peach, 
and again what do we find? Why, gentlemen, 
the wriggling, loathsome progeny of the ever- 
lasting " nigger in the wood pile ''—the Little 
Turk, and thus we are driven from the garden 
into the cold world to fight single-handed with 
our adversary, and when there, we are forced 
to exclaim, ** that all is not gold that glitters.^' 



THE WORM EXTERMINATOR. 

The Entomolckust is giving the venders of 
patent insect exterminators some home-thrusts, 
in the way of showing up the imposition prac- 
ticed. It is passing strange that people will 
submit to be humbugged by strangers of whom 
they know nothing. But it is true that people 
will patronize every itinerant vender of nos- 
trums who may perambulate through the niral 
districts of any State in the Union. We have 
before us a number of circulars received from 
parties who offer a fruit-tree invigorator and 
insect-destroyer, price five dollars for the right 
to use said nostrum. 

This circular claims that scientific and pi'ac- 
tical cultivators have used and endorse the said 
invigorator, all of which we believe to be un- 
true. 

Wc happen to know that several eminent 
florists and fruit-growers live in the immediate 
neighborhood of the man who offers this hum- 
bug mixture, but their names do not appear in 
the circular— and why not? Simply because 
these men are experienced horticulturists, and 
cannot be caught with such chaff*. 

Our advice is, never patronize a stranger 
unless you know the value of the article offered 
for sale. — Hearth and Home. 



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SCIENTIFIC LANGUAGE. 

BY W. V. ANDREWS, NEW YOKK. * 

Ordinarily, if we seek to convey information 
on any important subject, we make our language 
as plain and clear as our ability permits us. In 
treatingofsclentific subjects some authors seem to 
reverse this common-sense rule, and to cpnceive 
that the harder and more unusual the words are 
in which they clothe their ideas, the more fitting 
and appropriate they are for the purpose of in- 
struction. This, at all events, is the most 
charitable construction we can put upon their 
conduct, for surely it is not the avowed object 
of the instructor to puzzle and bewilder his 
pupils. These remarks, although applicable to 
the language of scientific treatises in genei*al, 
are especially so to those written on the "Natural 
Sciences," and particularly to those on Botany 
and Entomology. With the former I do not 
propose to deal at present. 

Dr. Knaggs tells us that ''purmit of truthj 
fcUh a love of nature^ and a laudable desire to 
investigate the histories of the wonderful organ- 
isms which God has, in his wisdom, created,'* 
are among the motives that induce men to be- 
come entomologists. Such being the case, it 
certainly is to be regretted that the enthusiasm 
of the young student should be at all repressed 
by the unfortunate fact that his instructions are 
coached in a language which, as llorne Tooke 
observed of Dr. Johnsoifs Dictionary, is as 
much the language of Hottentots as of English- 
men. 

It is of importance to remember that this is 
by no means exclusively the complaint of the 
amateur entomologist. Years ago, Jas. Kennie 
denounced the scientific jargon of professed 
entomologists in this wise : 

" In describing species, either well known, or 
' new to our ^ Fauna' or our ^ Flora,' the current 
style, misnamed scientific, maybe fairly charac- 
terized as a uniform tissue of pedantic barbar- 
isms, devised, it would appear, not for the 
diffusion, but for the concealment of knowledge. 
If the descriptions afiect to be in English, the 
language employed is assuredly not English. 
Thus we have 'flavous' and MuteoW for*yellow,' 
*griseous' for *grey,' * fuscous 'for dusky; while 
similar words are not only conipounaed with 
Latin derivatives, as ^ochraceous-fuscous,' mean- 
ing, I conjecture, dusky buff, but with plain 
English, such as * testaceous-red,' * hoary-grise- 
ous,' * griseons-rosy," 'rusty-testaceous,' and 
numerous others equally offensive to good 
taste." 

I need quote no further from this author, 
because our everyday reading affords us in- 
stances of what I can not but consider useless 
displays of possible erudition. I say useless. 



because it is evident that the assertion that it is 
necessary to use terms derived from the *^ learned 
languages" in teaching a science which is some- 
times studied by persons not acquainted with 
the English language, will not bear a moment's 
investigation. 

In a work devoted to entomology I find the 
following sentence : '* Head and thorax, above, 
obscure brown mixed with ashen scales. Abdo- 
men, obscure testaceous-cinereous." By reference 
to a Latin dictionary we find that ** testaceous" 
may mean "brick-colored," and '* cinereous" 
"ashen-grey ." So '^obscure testaceous-cinereous'* 
means a color which is an '^obscure brick-colored 
ashen-grey;" and anybody who is sufficiently 
versed in the English language to understand 
the phrase, " Head and thorax obscure-brown," 
would probably understand "obscure brick- 
colored ashen-grey " just as readily as he would 
comprehend ^^obscure testaceous-cinereous," the 
probability being that he would understand 
neither. The newspapei*s have been laughing 
at some contemporary for describing an oyster 
as a " marine acephalous mollusc of the lamelli- 
branchiate order of the genus ostrea;" but is 
thei*e anything in this moi*e absurd than is to be 
found in many a text book on entomology ? 

With reference to mere names, I have little 
objection to the use of " Icanied terms," for 
here there is some necessity for their use. I 
should have less objection if the terms selected 
conveyed any idea of generic or specific differ- 
ence, or gave any notion of the nature or ap- 
pearance of the thing thus named. For instance 
no one can avoid seeing that the word ligustri 
is properly applied to a moth, the larva of which 
feeds on the privet, and crategei to one feeding 
on the black thorn. 

But it is notorious that names are not always 
thus judiciously bestowed, indeed very rarely 
so ; and a recent English author, writing a book 
for the use of the young entomologist, thinks it 
necessary to give the following advice. 

After stating that it is necessary for the stu- 
dent to know the Latin names of insects, because 
they are current in all European languages, he 
says: "Another piece of advice is, don't waste 
time in trying to puzzle out the meaning — the 
why or the wherefoi-e — of the buttei'flies' names. 
Now and then, certainly, theyjiave some allu- 
sion to the insect's appearance, or to the plant 
on which it feeds; thus, for instance, Gonep- 
teryx rhamni, the entomological name of the 
Brimstone Butterfly, means Angle-winged (but- 
terfly) of the Buckthorn, and this is very 
appropriate and descriptive; but in general 
there is no more connection between the name 



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and character of a butterfly than there is between 
a ship's name — the Furious^ the Coquette^ or 
the Betsy-Jane — and the moral disposition or 
appearance of the vessel that bears it." 

This, of course, is to be regretted ; but so fai* 
as names already bestowed are concerned, the 
evil is irremediable. But may we not ask that 
those entomologists who devote their energies 
mainly to the description of genera and species 
should, in the future, take some little trouble to 
seek out names which convey an accurate idea 
of that which they wish to describe? and always 
accompany it by a translation, so as to prevent 
any possibility of misconstruction of their mean- 
ing. There is another point of great importance. 
In forming a new species or genus, why not 
always give the distinctive differences that dis- 
tinguish the new species or genus from its 
nearest congener or family? Bennie, in his 
valuable synopsis of British Lepidoptera, says : 

AcHERONTiA — Wings entire and acute, the 
jaws short. 

SrHiNx— Wings entire and acute, jaws long- 
ish, and the antcnnse not clubbed at the tip. 

The inference here may be that Sphinx is 
distinguished from Acherontia by its longer 
jaws, and by not having the antenna; clubbed 
at the tip. But we are not told which sort of 
antennffi Acherontia has, and the learner would 
cei*tainly hesitate before drawing the above infer- 
ence. Why not say — ** Differs from Acherontia 
in such and such pai*ticulars?" What makes 
the matter worse, in this case, is the unfortunate 
use of the word " club," because the author has 
just told us that one oi the distinguishing marks 
betwixt a Buttei*fly and a Moth is that the former 
has clubbed-tip antenna and the latter has not. 

While, however, making these complaints, 
we should remember that the fault does not 
entirely lie with the Clerks of the science. Ly- 
ing under great obligations to them, we have 
perhaps attached too much importance to their 
labors, while we have underrated the efforts of 
the " mere collector." A little literaiy vanity 
may be excused under such circumstances; and 
the show of possible erudition, which consists in 
the use of words not comprehensible by the 
illiterate, may at one time have been harmless 
enough; but now, when a continuance in such 
a course acts as a bar to the advancement of the 
science, it is time to protest against that con- 
tinuance, and to insist that the language of the 
science shall be the language of eveiy day life, 
so far as it is available. 

" The individual," says Dr. Knaggs, ** who 
sits in his library all the year round, up to his 
eyes in entomological dry specimens, and drier 



literature, writing elaborate Latin diagnoses of 
probable new species, or turning out descrip- 
tions of improbable ones, at the rate of so many 
per hour, is apt to imagine that his occupation 
constitutes Entomology ; and, as a consequence, 
he too often looks down upon the poor fly- 
catcher with something like contempt; but for 
all that, the despised collector often, of the two, 
does the more for science, by which is here 
meant the acquisition and diffusion of sound 
knowledge, and not the art of piling np a 
synonymy for the bewilderment of future gene- 
rations. The observer, on the other hand, when 
his observations are conducted with caution and 
carefully recorded, is the most scientific ; or in 
other words does more than the other two pat 
together to acquire and diffuse knowledge." 

As I have already said, I have no doubt that 
the superciliousness of the literary Entomologist 
may have some effect upon his language ; but if 
he will remember that " science must be catho- 
lic to be worthy of the name," doubtless he will, 
henceforth, seek to obtain that catholicity by 
writing in as plain English as he finds himself 

possessed of. 

• » » 

Tomato Fruit-wobm. — ^We learn from a re- 
cent number of Scienttjlc Opinion, that at a late 
meeting of the London Entomological Society, 
Mr. Jenner Weir exhibited specimens of our 
Cotton Boll-worm Moth (ffeliothis arnUgera, 
Hubn.), which were bred from larvae which fed 
on the fruit of the Tomato. As we have already 
shown (American Entomologist I, pp. 212- 
213), this same species attacks our com, and 
does great damage to our tomatoes by eating 
into the fruit ; and the fact of its being bred 
from the Tomato in England, where this fruit is 
with difficulty grown, is interesting and sug- 
gestive. This same worm, as set forth in the 
second number of our second volume, is now 
known to feed also on green peas and on the 
stems of the Gladiolus. 



Attacks of Insects Affected by Color.— 
Darwin {Animals and Plants, ii. 277) states 
that 'Mt is certain that insects regulate in many 
cases the range and even the existence of the 
higher animals, whilst living under their natural 
conditions. Under domestication light-cx)lorcd 
animals suffer most; in Thuringia the inhabi- 
tants do not like grey, white, or pale cattle, 
because they are much more troubled by various 
kinds of flies than the brown, i-ed or black cattle. 
An Albino negro, it has been remarked, was 
particularly sensitive to the bites of insects. In 
the West Indies it is said that *the only homed 
cattle fit for work are those which have a good 
deal of black in them. The white are teiTibly 
tormented by the insects; and they are weak 
and sluggish in proportion to the black.' '' 



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173 



LVSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE-VINE —No. 7. 
The American Procris. 

{Proeris [Aeolotihus] Americana.)* 
[From the Second Missouri Entomological Report.] 

During the months of July and August, the 
leaves of the Grape-vine may often be found 
denuded of their softer parts, with nothing but 

[Fig. 107.] 




J^J 



Colors— (o) black and yellow; (b) honey-yellow; (c) whitish; 
(d and e) black and orange. 

the veins, and sometimes only a few of the larger 
ribs left skeleton-like, to tell of the mischief that 
has been done. Very frequently, only portions 
of the leaf will be thus denuded, and in that 
event, if we examine such a leaf closely, we 
shall find the authors of the mischief drawn up 
in line upon the yet leafy tissue, with their heads 
all toward the margin, cutting away with their 
little jaws and retreating as they feed. 

[Fig. 108.] 




Colors— Blacic and yellow. 

These little soldier-like files are formed by 
worms in black and yellow uniforms which 
produce a moth popularly known as the Amer- 
ican Procris. The eggs from which they hatch, 
are laid in small clusters on the underside of 
the leaves, and while ihe worms are small, they 

•This is the Agtaope americana of Clemens. Procrit ameri- 
cana^ ot Boisduval and Harris, and Ctenucha americana of 
Walker. 



leave untouched the most delicate veins of the 
leaf, which then presents a fine net-work ap- 
pearance, as shown at the right of Figure 108 ; 
but when they become older and stronger they 
devour all but the larger ribs, as at the left of 
the figure. 

When full grown* these worms disperse over 
the vines or forsake them entirely, and each 
spins for itself a small, tough, whitish, fiattened 
cocoon (Fig. 107, c), within which, in about 
three days, it changes to a chrysalis (Fig. 107, 
6), 0.30 inch long, broad, flattened and of a light 
shiny yellowish-brown color. In about ten days 
afterwards the moths (Fig. 107, d and c) begin 
to issue. This little moth is the American rep- 
resentative of the European Procris vitis; it is 
wholly of a black color, except the collar, which 
is of a deep orange, and the body ends in a 
broad fan-like, notched tuft, especially in the 
male. The wings are of a delicate texture, 
reminding one of crape, and when the insect is 
at rest they generally form a perfect cross with 
the body, the hind wings being completely hid- 
den by the front ones, which are stretched out 
straight at right angles, as in the genus Ptero- 
phorus, to which belongs the Grape-vine Plume. 
We have, however, on one or two occasions 
found tho American Procris resting in the man- 
ner shown at Figure 107, d. 

This is the only North American Grape-vine 
feeding caterpillar which has a gi*egarious habit, 
and as gregarious insects are always more easily 
subdued than those of a solitary nature, the 
American Procris need never become very de- 
structive. Its natural food is undoubtedly the 
wild grape-vines of our forests, and the Virginia 
Creeper, and Mr. J. M. Jordon, of St. Louis, 
has noticed that while it very commonly attacks 
the foliage of the Concord, yet it never touches 
the Clinton and Taylor in his vineyard— a taste 
which is remarkable and not easily accounted 
for, since the foliage of the latter kinds is more 
tender and generally more subject to insect 
depredations than that of the former. 

There are two broods of this insect each year 
with us, some of the moths from the second 
brood of worms issuing in the fall, but thQ 
greater part not leaving their cocoons till the 



•The full grown larva (Fig. 107, a) measures rather more 
than half an inch, and tam-rs a little towards each end. It 
is of a sulphur-yellow color, with a transverse row of six 
velvety-black, prickly tufts on each of tlie principal seg- 
ments, the lower tufts being less distinct than those on the 
back, llie first segment is entirely black with a yellow 
edge, while the soots on segments 11 and 12 usually run into 
one another. Head small, brown, and retractile, being 
usually hidden in the first segment Fine scattering hairs 
anteriorly, laterally and posteriorlv. The young worm is 
of a very pale vellow, covered with numerous line white 
hairs, with a slight gravish- brown tint on the heml, and 
with the fifth and seventh negments paler than the rest, and 
having the black spots scarcely visible. 



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following summer. Daring the month of June 
they may he seen in pairs ahout the vines, and 
we have also frequently ohserved around Her- 
mann, a very closely allied but smaller and 
different moth (Alcoloithus faharins, Clem.) 
about the same season of the year. This last, 
though so closely resembling the other, may be 
distinguished by being scarcely more than half 
as large; by the body lacking the anal tuft and 
being comparatively much thicker and shorter; 
by the hind wings being comparatively larger; 
and by the collar being of a paler orange and 
divided on the top by a black point. 

The American Procris, though the fact is not 
mentioned by other authors, is subject to the 
attack of at least one parasite, with us ; for we 
have bred from it a very peculiar little four- 
winged black fly belonging to the great Ckalcis 
family, and which Mr. Cresson, of Philadelphia, 
refers doubt ingly to Peri lam pus platygaster, 
Say. 

THE DEATH WKB OF YOING TKOl'T. 



An Enemy to Youxg Trolt.— The Piscicul- 
turist, Seth Green, is known throughout the 
land for his energy and perseverance in inquir- 
ing into and ascertaining the cause of anything 
that may be new in his little world of interest 
or nature. For many years Mr. Green has been 
at a loss to account for the enormous destruc- 
tion of very small trout, but he has now ascer- 
tained the cause, and gives to the public, for the 
public good, his discovery. He says in regard 
to the matter: 

"There is a small worm which is the favorite 
food of trout and many other kinds of fish. This 
worm is one of the greatest enemies which the 
small fry have. It spins a web in the water to 
catch young fish, just as a spider does on land 
to catch flies. I have seen them make the web 
and catch the fish. The web is as perfect as that 
of the spider, and as much mechanical ingenuity 
is displayed in its construction. It is made as 
quickly and in the same way as a spider's, bv 
fastening the threads at different points and 
going back and foi*th until the web is finished. 
The threads are not strong enough to hold the 
young trout after the umbilical sac is absorbed, 
but the web will stick to the fins, get around 
the head and gills, and soon kills the fish. I 
have often seen it on the young trout, and it has 
been a great mystery and caused me many hours, 
days and weeks of study to find out what was 
wound around the head and fins of my young 
trout and killed them. I did not find out until 
lately while watching recently hatched white- 
fish. These are much smaller than the trout 
when they begin to swim, and they are caught 
and held by the web. I found ten small white- 
fish caught in one web in one night. This web 
wag spun in a little whitefish preserve, into 



which I had put one hundred young fish. The 

threads spun by this worm seem to be much 

finer than the common spider's web, and they 

I are not visible in the water until the sediment 

! collects upon them. They can then be seen very 

j plainly. These webs cannot be spun whei'e 

there is much current, and can be easily seen in 

! still water by a close obsei'ver " 

I Probably hundreds of our readers have noticed 

, this web in the water, but have never stopped 

I to inquire into the matter, or whether it was a 

! worm or a spider that inhabited the submerged 

nest and made it. It has remained for Mr. 

Green to solve this mysteiy o*" the water. 

The above item appeared originally in Wilkes 
' Spirit of the TimeSy and has been quite extcn- 
; sively copied. The mystery is, however, not 
' yet solved, and we shall be glad, by the aid of 
such of our correspondents who know anything 
about it, to give an illustrated account of this 
mysterious worm. AVe have heard from Mr. 
Green, who promises to send us specimens. He 
informs us that " the word web hardly describes 
the threads, which are not at all symmetrical 
like the web of a spider, but in most instances 
an irregular mass of nearly parallel threads." 
We learn from Mr. Fred. Mather, of Honeove 
Fallts, Monroe county, N. Y., who is an exten- ' 
sive trout-breeder, that he has seen a web in his 
hatching troughs, and that it often forms on the 
eggs strong enough to lift several in a mass; 
but that he always supposed it to be ** a vege- 
table growth or a product of the water, like 
Bi/88ii8." Mr. E. Sterling, of Cleveland, Ohio, 
, has also noticed the same web, and has been at 
a loss to account for it. 

All we can at present say is, that no explan- 
ation of the fact is yet on record, other than that 
given by" Mr. Green. The worm is in all pro- 
bability the larva of some species of Caddice-fly 
(Phryganeid^), for we know of no other true 
insects that spin a web in the water. These 
Caddice-fly larvae are case-bearers, but it was 
long ago ascertained by Willoughby and after- 
j wards by Pictet, that many of them reside in 
I immovable cases attached to ston^, etc., and 
that they are consequently compelled to quit 
I their cases and search for food in a naked state.* 
This may account for the fact that these cases 
were not observed by Mr. Green, who iufonns 
ns that '^ by taking up one of the worms on a 
I twig and letting the former drop into the water, 
a fine thread will be found attached to the lat- 
ter." Let us hear from our piscicultural sub- 
scribers, and living specimens of the worm will 
also be most thankfully received. We always 
take delight in solving mysteries. 



• Westwood, Introduction, II, p. 07. 



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175 



IOWA BUrTERFLIES. 



SOUTHERN NOTES. 



The following spepies, collected in Gdnnell, 
except as otherwise stated, are to be added to 
the Preliminary List of Iowa species reported 
by Mr. Sainael H. Seudder in Vol. I, Part 2, of 
the Transactions of the Chicago Academy of 
Sciences. - Grinnell is on high rolling prairie, 
the sammit level between the Mississippi and 
Des Moines Rivers, by the Rock Island and 
Pacific Railroad : 

Pmpilio Tornus, iJiin.— YtMlow variety. Com- 
mon. 

PapUlo Astcrlas. Fabr.— Common. 

Papilla Plillenor. Fabr.— Grinnell and Keokuk. 
Differs IVom Boisduvar^j description in primarien not 
greenish; tail not whitish at base. Differs from Say* s 
in first thigh having a conspicuous yellow line; cromc 
yellowish-white. Two specimens— that ft*om (irinncll 
expands near 4 inches. 

Pmpllio Tlioms, Linn. — Keokuk and Davenport. 

Pmpillo Jljmx, var. Marcellufy Cram.— Keokuk and 
Davenport. 

Ariry ■>■>!• myriiim. Cram.— Add to Boisduvars 
description — underside of primaries with three dull 
whitish spaces, two of which flank the middle nacre , 
and are each divided by a transverse brown line. An- 
tennae not conspicuously annulated with white. Ex- 
pands 2.3. 

Aryy nnU Bellona, Godt . —Not uncommon. Am- 
plify Boisduvars description— summit of primaries with 
ferruginous patch , and before it a pale yellow oblique 
band. Four of Ave specimens expand nearly 2 Inches; 
the other 1.75. 

Vanessa, Antlopa, Linn. — Not rare. 

Vanessa Progne, Cram.— Rare so far as observed. 
Expands 2.5. 

Erebia Hfepliele, Klrby.— Not imcommon. Very 
dark brown. Expands 2 Inches. 

Hesperia Batlijrilas. Sm. Abb. {Pt/ladeSy Scudd.) 
— One specimen. 

IVIsomUUIss Catallas. Godt.— Add to Abbott's 
description— head spotted with white above. Front of 
palpi and neck, white. No spots on secondaries. Ex- 
pands a little more than 1 inch . 

Tliecia Strlyosa, Harr. 

The following species, reported by 3Ir. Seudder, I 
have oollected at Grinnell : 

Olaueutf Protodice, Philodice, Eanjthetney Coesoniaf 
Comjfntaty Syrichtusy Frippus, MUippu9y Ursula , Jdalioy 
ApkrodiUf yycUu, Tharo9, Atalanta, Carduiy Bunteray 
InUrrogaiioniSy Portlandiuy Alope, Boisduvaliiy TUytug, 
BathyUu$^ Martialisy Jhatcm, Hdhonwlcj Aphrodite y J- 
album y Also, a Coenia from Keokuk, where it is said 
to have been common a few years since, but not noticed 
of lat«. 

11 W. Parker. 

Iowa College, 3kUrcli, 1870. 

[Note by the Editor.— We reanret that our coiTcspondent 
has not mentioned the sex otPapiRo phUenor, for In the female 
the primaries are scarcely ever greenish; and the Iowa 
specimens cannot differ from Boisduvars description in the 
tail not being whitish at base, because Boisduval mentions 
no soch character In the original French {Lepidopteret diur* 
ne$) . No doubt Bfr. Parker has been led into error by the 
£ngli«h rendering in Morris's Synoptit, It is always dan- 
geroofl to quote second-hand from an author.] 



BY J. PARISH STELLS, OF TENNKSSKK. 
An ExPERIiiENT FOR TORA( CO-GuOWEKS.— I 

visited the plantation of a Mr. George Harris, 
in West Tennessee, last summer, and found 
him protecting his crop of tobacco fix>m the 
ravages of the Tobacco Worm (Sphinx o-macu- 
latUy Haw.) in a most novel kind of way. A 
border some six or eight feet wide, and running 
entirely aLX)uud his tobacco-patch, was thiclkly 
grown with Jimpson or Jamestown weed (Da- 
tura stramoniuviy Linn.), the seed having been 
sown, 1 suppose, for I neglected to ask. At 
the time of my visit tlie weeds were in full 
bloom, and on every third day Mr. Harris, so 
he told me, went among them and dropped a 
little arsenic into the bell of each flower. The 
hawk moths came at night to deposit their eggs 
upon the tobacco plants, but when they reached 
the border they could not think of crossing 
without first having a dip into their favorite 
flowers; and, as a consequence— to use Mr. 
Harrris's own expression — " two minutes later 
found them laid out to dry." Ife assured me 
that on some mornings hundreds of dead moths 
were to be found lying about the edges of his 
patch, and that the appearance of a worm on 
any of his plants was considered a rare thing, 
indeed. 

I was OLly a short time on Mi*. Harrises plan- 
tation, therefore I cannot, of course, stand good 
for all he claimed as the result of his experi- 
ment; still, I will say, without hesitation, that 
I saw nothing which led me to form a single 
doubt. His tobacco was clear of worms, and I 
saw him putting arsenic on his Jimpson flowers. 
I also saw a number of dead moths, and a 
knowledge of the fact that they fly near the 
ground, and slowly from plant to plant, on their 
way to deposit their eggs, caused me to believe 
that they wore killed as he claimed, and that 
few would be likely to cross his border without 
sharing the same fate. It would cost but little 
to try the thing, at all events, and therefore I 
think our tobacco-growers would do well to 
give it a fair test. If it will protect tobacco it 
will also protect tomatoes ; and I am inclined 
to think that fly-cobalt would bo a more eflectual 
poison to use than arsenic. 

Toads in the Gakden.— I wish to say, by 
way of postscript to the article on page 91, Vol. 
II, of this magazine, entitled " Toads vs. Bugs," 
that I kept about a dozen toads in my garden 
all thi*ough the last summer, and found them to 
be zealous insect exterminators. The only ob- 



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jection I made to them grew out of the fact that 
they took no pains to discriminate between my 
friends and my foes; all insects excepting one 
or two, perhaps, went the same way witl^ them. 
They had no taste for the Striped Potato Beetle 
(Lytta vittatay Fabr.) ; and, although I saw 
them •* bolt " an occasional Squash Bug (Coreus 
tristiSy DeGecr), it didn't seem to go down 
with anything of a relish. They will feed on 
squash bugs, however, as I know from having 
had some vines entirely cleared by them early 
in the season ; but I think they only do so in 
cases where other ineects are extremely scarce. 
I could note no loss to my fall brood of squash 
bugs, attributable to their being in the garden. 

Contrary to the general supposition, there is 
but little of the Gipsey spirit about the toad, 
for having chosen his beat, he seldom goes 
beyond it, or changes his location during the 
summer. One may settle him for the season at 
almost any particular locality by simply penning 
him up in a temporaiy enclosure for a few days, 
and then removing the enclosure without dis- 
turbing him. I have often established them in 
different parts of my garden on this plan, and 
but seldom failed to find them in the neighbor- 
hood of their respective stations every evening. 

A toad brought into a garden and immedi- 
ately set at liberty, will usually strike for some 
other parts the first night; but a few days' pen- 
ning up seem to attach him to the locality. 

A Word to Southern Culturists. — I wish 
to see all my planter friends in the South take 
the American Entomologist, for I know that 
it would bring them a large return for a small 
outlay. The publication is a national one, and 
yet it is sectional enough so far as we are con- 
cerned, for it is fairly beginning to transpire 
that the natural sectional-lines of the country 
run north and south instead of east and west, 
and that the general interests from extreme to 
extreme arc so closely identified that no portion 
could get along well without the others. 

Our section, the best agriculture section in 
the association, if not the best on the continent, 
stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to and even 
above the Great Lakes, and the American 
Entomologist, devoted alike to the interests of 
every part of it, is published at a site as nearly 
central as well could be. The Entomologist 
is, therefore, the proper periodical to encourage, 
since reason cannot do otherwise than show 
that a work of such character would be of far 
more value to us than it could possibly be if 
strictly local. 

This thing of being extremely southern or 
extremely northern— trying to create two dis- 



tinct interests, when but one legitimately exists ; 
or, in other words, striving to lead those who 
live by an exchange of products to believe that 
they are a distinct people — is not only foolish 
to the last degree, but extremely injurious to 
all. Such reflections, and nothing else, deter- 
i-ed me from undertaking the publication of a 
** Southern Entomologist" four months ago. I 
saw that the American Entomologist was all 
that the Southern people could desire, and so 
gave up the idea in the belief that they would 
patronize it, and thus derive greater benefit* 
than they could from a publication purely local. 



ENTOMOIiOGICAL JOTTINGS. 

[Wc propoM to publiah fVoin time to tiine, under the above heading, nidi 
extmrts flrom the lettcn of oar corieapondenti •« contain entomolojrical nrti 
worthy to be recorded, on account eiUier of their aciobtiflc or of their practi- 
cal Importance. Wo hope our readerc will contribute each their aeverai mite* 
towardt ihe general fund; and In caao they are not perfectly certaUiot ihe 
name* of the inaectt, the peculiarities ot which are to be menrton^i, will aend 
•pecimeua along m order that each api-eiea may be duly identifled.] 

Is THE New York Weevil the Cause of 
Pear Blight?— CAica^o, llls,y Mai^chSUt, 1870. 
— A gentleman of this city, formerly residing at 
Lake Forest, a suburb of Chicago, conunnni- 
cated to me a few days since, some facts he 
has observed in regard to the " pear tree blight," 
from which he has formed the theory that the 
blight is caused solely by the New York Weevil 
( Ithycerus n oveboj'acensis, Forster) . His obser- 
vations extended over some five years, and were 
briefly as follows:— He never observed any ap- 
pearance of the blight till after the appearance 
of the beetle, which, in four out of ftve years, 
occurred on the same day — June 19th, and in 
the fifth }car on June 20th. That in addition 
to the depredations described in the American 
Entomologist for July, 1869, the insect deposits 
on the bark of the twig or branch, a liquid sub- 
stance (whether excrement or saliva, he was 
uncertain, but supposed it to be the latter), 
which extended some inches in length by an 
eighth of an inch in width. That this liquid 
soon turned black, and seemed to penetrate to 
the heart of the branch, tuiiiing the wood also 
black. If the branch was of considerable size 
the tree would die; if quite small the poison 
would remain latent till the next spring, but in 
the end would certainly kill the tree. That by 
cutting away the deposit before it turned black 
no blight followed. That by stationing men to 
watch for and destroy the beetles as soon as 
they appeared, he saved his trees while those of 
his neighbors were affected. He has given me 
a specimen of the insect which he is certain 
caused him the loss of a tree in the manner 
described. I take the liberty of communicating 
these statements to you, because I am unable 



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to form an opinion as to the correctness of his 
theory, and because if there be any probability 
of its con*ectnesSy it may be worth while to 
investigate farther. Should be pleased to hear 
from you in regard to it. 

H. II. Babcock. 

[We have ourselves never observed this pecu- 
liarity in the New York Weevil, but do not 
doubt the correctness of the foregoing observa- 
tions. We have serious doubts, however, as to 
this beetle being the cause of the real Pear 
Blight, which is considered, by the most emi- 
nent horticulturists of the land (and we agree 
with them), to be of fungoid rather than insect 
origin. The work described by our correspond- 
ent very probably produces a sort of blight, 
and scveml bark-boring and wood-boring bee- 
tles are known to produce a similar effect. But 
this insect-blight must not be confounded with 
the fa4* more subtle and destructive Pear-Blight 
so called; and the singular assertion of Dr. 
Packard, that " the various species of Scolytus, 
Tomictuf, and Xyloterns give rise to the disease 
called fire-blight,"* is, to say the least, very 
loose and indefinite, and calculated to mislead. 
AVc hope to fin<l time before long, to illustrate 
the differences between these different kinds of 
blight, but meanwliilo, shall gladly pnblish more 
detailed statenionis from the gentleman from 
Lake Forest.— En.J 

The UiisuLA Bittkrly mouk common than 

DiSIPPL'S IN SOME Se(^TIONS OF THE COUNTRY — 

Newport^ B. I. — I was showing Mr. Scudder a 
suite of Newport butterflies, and was asking 
him what the Darwinian theory could make of 
the close resemblance between the butterflies D. 
arcMppus and Nymphalis disippus, while the 
larv« are so utterly unlike, when ho gave me 
your paper on ** Imitative Butterflies." Let me 
express to you the pleasure with which I have 
road it. It is so very ingenious and suggestive, 
whether true or not; and every one who, like 
myself, is inclined to the Darwinian theory, must 
be quite disposed to believe it. The only state- 
ment from which I shall dissent is that the 
Ursula Butterfly "is everywhere quite ri^re," 
at least, as compared with the other species. I 
have no doubt that VhU is generally true, but 
since removing here from Massachusetts, I have 
been struck with the fact that it is quite other- 
wise here. I am very sure that in Newport it is 
one of the commonest of the larger butterflies, 
and decidedly more so than the Disippus, I will 
observe specially next summer, but am sure of 
the fact. Mr. Scudder also spoke of its abun- 
dance on Cape Cod. This may, however, be 

• GitiiU, etc. , p. 492. 



duo to special causes, which, if known, would 
only further illustrate your theory — e, </., the 
absence of certain birds which attack the ("rsula 
and spare the othei*s. I do not know which 
birds do this; but our common fauna differs in 
some respects from that of Massachusetts. 

Thomas Wentworth Hi(;gin80x. 

Bladder Plums — AUon^ llh, — I see in No. 4 
of the Entomolooist, an article on '* Bladder 
Plums,'' and a statement of Dr. II nil's, saying 
that they are unknown in this locality. I found 
them here on the wild Plum (a blue vaiiety) 
two yeai-s ago. The ti-ee on which these abnor- 
mal plums grew had probably two or three hun- 
dred of them on it, all afi'ected about alike. I was 
particularly struck with this appearance of tlie 
fruit, as it was new to me. 1 broke open several 
of them, and found them, as you say, hollow, 
and much larger than they would have been if 
healthy and natural; but these of mine had 
insects in them. which much resembled in appear- 
ance woolly lice, being of a downy appearance, 
and of a blnish-w liite color. These lice adhered 
to the interior wall of the phantom plum, and 
the plums and insects resembled galls moi*e than 
anything else. I noticed them very particularly, 
because they were something new. I have never 
seen their like since, and mayhap never shall. 

Geo. W. Copley. 

Corn Kernels in Cocoons of Cecropia Moth 
^Genevay Ills., Feb. 22rf, 1870.— In looking over 
the American Entomologist, I see the curious 
fact stated (page 100) of a kernel of corn being 
found in the cocoon of a Cecropia Moth. I have 
seen the same thing in two instances in cocoons 
brought to me for examination by a young gen- 
tleman of this place. These repeated instances 
show that the com could not have been dropped 
there by some bii'd accidentally, as you conjee- 
ture The only plausible explanation I can give, 
is that the corn is deposited there for safe keep- 
ing during the formation of the cocoon (or pos- 
sibly forced into the loose end of it after com- 
pletion) by some bii*d. And this bird, I have a 
strong suspicion, is the Blue Jay, which is well 
known to have the habit (like other CorvidfB) 
of pilfering and hiding in holes and crevices, 
any small objects which attract its notice. 

Wm. LeBaron. 

The Harlequin Cabbage Bvo—Aiistin, Tex., 
Feb. 294h, 1870.— Within the past few days we 
have gathered by hand over 47,000 (forty-seven 
thousand) of these bugs. This is a great bug 
country, and I have my share of them in grow- 
ing vegetables for market, and And your journal 
very useful in enabling me to tell my friends 
from my enemies. Benj. 11. Townsend. 



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Insect Destroyer— JVeiff Yorky Feb, 14^^70,— 
" A weak solution of the chloride of lime is said 
to preserve plants fVom insects if sprinkled over 
them. Flies are also got rid of in «%(ables and 
other places by scattering chloride of lime on a 
plank. Mixed with half its weight of fatty 
matter, and a narrow band of the composition 
smeared around the trunk of a tree, insects will 
not pass it.'* I find the above in an English 
publication, and think it worth trying. The 
only question is, will it bleach the leaves of the 
plant? W. V. AxDUEWS. 

No Plant-lice Eghs^ Warsaw, Tils,, March 
\sty 1870. — On page 107 you mention the fact 
that the apple trees in the vicinity of St. Louis 
are remarkably free from the eggs of the Plant- 
louse. A careful examination of my own trees 
to-day failed to reveal a single one. If Dr. 
IIulFs theory is correct, we shall escape that 
great scourge of the orcha]*dist, the scab, for 
one year at least. A. C. Hammond. 



•SCAB" IX APPLE vs. APPLE-TREE PLANT-LICE. 

On page 107 of the present volume we showed 
how Dr. Hull believes that the " scab" on apples 
is caused by the punctni*es of Plant- lice, and we 
there expressed our opinion that the pi*e6ent 
year will prove an excellent one in which to test 
the validity of the Doctor's theory, since the 
apple trees, wherever we had examined them, 
were entirely free from the Plant-lice eggs. 

As this is a matter of great practical import- 
ance, and of still greater scientific interest, we 
earnestly ask our horticultural friends, in dif- 
fei*ent parts of the country, to watch carefully 
whether or not the Plant-lice appear in their 
own orchards, and whether subsequently their 
apples are accordingly attacked by, or are free 
from, " scab." We shall gladly record any facts 

bearing on the subject. 

» ♦ • 

ijSr We publish this mouth the first of a series 
of articles giving instixictions how to collect 
and study insects, from Mr. F. G. Sanborn, of 
the Boston Society of Natural History. As one 
of the best field-entomologists in the country, 
and a collector of long experience, Mr. Sanborn 
is eminently fitted to give plain and practical 
dii*ection8, and will win the attention and re- 
ceive the thanks of a great number of our sub- 
scribers who have been requesting such inform- 
ation. 

• ♦ » 

Microscopes. — We have received from Mr. 
Geo. Mead, Box 1,0.35 Chicago, Ills., one of his 
Novelty Microscopes. This instiniment costs but 
$2 and will do well enough to amuse little folks. 



ON OUR TABLE. 

A Guide to the Study of Insects.— By A. 
S. Packard, Jr., M. D., Salem, Naturalists- Book 
Agency. Part X has been on our table for some 
time. It is about twice as thiok as any of the 
preceding pails, and is embellished with three 
full-page plates. It contains an nccouut of the 
Nenroptera, Amchnida and Myriapoda, with 
an Entomological Calender, Glossary and Index, 
and completes the work. We have had all the 
parts bound together, and they form a good 
sized volume which will be found of great value 
and assistance to students of Entomology. We 
hope before long to find time to give a short 
review of the work as a whole. 

Report OF the Department of Agricultuhe 
FOR 1868.— We might say much in favor of this 
Report had we space. Many improvements 
have been made since the Department has been 
under the' control of its present commissioner, 
Colonel Capron. There are two Entomological 
papers in the volume before us. The first is 
the report of the Entomologist, Mr. Townend 
Glover, and is entitled " The Food and Habits 
of Beetles." It is an elaborate compilation, in- 
terspersed with some oi-iginal observations, and 
is well illustrated. It will be found of value to 
a certain class of individuals, but*, as with all 
such tabular papers, numerous ermrs have crept 
in. The author is doubtless as fully awai-e of 
this fact as any one. We know that Mr. Glover 
must have been greatly occupied with other 
matters at the time this paper was being pre- 
pared, and in no derogatory mood, therefore, 
we suggest that any similar paper on the other 
Orders that may be contemplated, would prove 
far more valuable to the class of readers for 
which the Report is intended, if the avowed in- 
tention, stated in the preface, were mai-e strictly 
earned out, namely, to give the vulgar name by 
which the insect is known, or shonld be known. 
The tyro in reading and studying such a paper 
would also be much less confused if the author's 
name were invariably attached to the scientific 
appellation of the insect. 

The other paper is entitled " Practical Ento- 
mology for Farmers' Sons," and though anony- 
mously inserted, we presume it was written by 
Mr. C. R. Dodge. It is a well prepared paper, 
giving correct instructions how to collect and 
prepare insects. There is at present a great 
demand for just such information as is thei'e 
given, and the author would render good ser- 
vice to fanners* sons by striking ofl* a number 
of separate copies, and transposing the head- 
ings. 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



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Entomological Record for 1869.— We learn 
fh)m the Editor that the Record for 1869 will be 
oat early in the spring. This work is pnblished 
at considerable loss to the Naturalists' Book 
Agency at Salem, Mass., and every entomolo- 
gist should encourage the undertaking. 

Pear Culture for Profit.— B. P. T.Quinn— 
Press of the Tribune Association, N. Y. — A 
work which, though it has called forth some 
severe criticism, every pear-grower should have. 
We consider that portion on the diseases and 
insects of the pear, as singularly incomplete. 

Small Frufi Recorder and Cottage Gard- 
ner. — A. M. Purdy (successor to Purdy & 
Johnson) of Palmyra, N. Y., has sent us copies 
of the above monthly. It is spicy and practi- 
cal, and we hope the enei^tic editor will not 
fail of success. 

Le Naturaliste Canadien. — ^Vol. II, No. 1 
of this ably edited little monthly, coines to us 
in a new dress, with a much embellished cover, 
handsomer type, and a marked improvement 
in the character of the engravings. M. PAbb^ 
Provancher is doing a good work in popular- 
izing the delightflil study of Natural History, 
and we sincerely wish him success in his under- 
taking. 

Intbllusence of Animals. — From the French 
of Ernest Menault — Charles Scribner & Co., 
pnblishers. This is a highly interesting little 
book, and the author is benignant and sensible 
enough to accord, with Montaigne, Reaumur, 
La Fontaine, Leroy, Cuvier, Spence, and others, 
a degree of reason and intelligence to the lower 
animals. The work is fully illustrated, and is 
fall of amusing and instructive reading. 



Illinois State Entomologist.— Just as our 
last form is going to press, we learn that Dr. 
Wm. LeBaron, of Greneva, Kane county. Ills., 
has been appointed to the office of State Ento- 
mologist, made vacant by the death of our late 
associate. Well done, Governor Palmer ! Our 
Illinois friends have good cause to rejoice at the 
appointment ! 



M18SODRI Reports. — ^We can yet dispose of a 
few copies of the Fii-st Missouri Entomological 
Report, with uncolored plates, for $1.00, or of 
the Second Report for 75 cents, both separately 
bound. Citizens of Missouri can obtain the 
same, bound in with the Agricultural Report, 
by sending 50 cents for postage, to C. W. Murt- 
feldt, 612 North Fifth street, St. Louis, Mo. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



NO*lOK.— Such of our c o rwpondenti at hare aUcadj tent, or may here- 
after Mud. nnall collection* of InMCta to be named, will pleaM to Inform us 
If anjr of the spcclM lent are from other Htatee than their own. Lists of 
insects fbund In anj particular locality are of cspedal interest, as thfowlns 
llRht upon the fpeoicraphlcal dlKributlon of species. But to make them o? 
real value, it Is requisite that we know for certain whether or not all the 
Insects In any particular list come fh>m that particular locality, and If not , 
from what locality they do come. 

We hare Utciy receired sereral small collections of Insects to be named, 
and hare, so fkr as our time w..uld allow, answetvd by letter, because a lona 
strinc of names is dry and onlnteresllng lo the general leader. It requirea 
mudi time to consclentionsly name the many lots of insects that leadi us, 
and hereafter we can take no notice of them, unless they are property 
I entomok>Klcal pins, and the locality giren In whldi ther wer 



Ibnnd. At least two flMclmens of each species sliould be sent when it Is pos- 
sible to do so, and each speoles should be separately numbered. When there 
are but few, we shall answer a* herrtofore in the columns of the Emtumul- 



ootST, but when there are many we shall answer by mail. 

Insects Named— J^M Marion Hohart, Port B^on, 
Ills.— The butterfly which you reared from nettle- 
feeding \arvse U Orapta comma, Ilarr., or the Comma 
Butterfly. Mr. Edwards long since found the lanse of 
this species feeding on the Broad-leaved Nettle in the 
Catskill Mountains, though Dr. Harris bred his speci- 
mens from hop -feeding lar>'ie. The species is of quite 
uncommon occurrence with us, and we have only met 
with one specimen in seven years* collecting. There 
are four other Xorth American species belonging to this 
genus, namely, progne, J-album, /aunus, and inttrroga- 
tionU, which greatly resemble one another in the gen- 
eral appearance of the upper surfaces. We may at 
some future Ume take occasion to explain and illustrate 
the distinguishing features which separate these species. 
No. 2, which you bred from a <* black bristly cater- 
pillar, with reddish -brown transverse bands on the 
body," is a small c? of the Great White Leopard Moth 
(EcparUheria scrthonia, IlUbn. = Phalana oculaiiuima , 
Sm. and Abb.) No. 3, bred from hazel-feeding larvip, 
is the Chain -dotted Geometer {Geometra caUnaria), 
which also feeds on the Wood-waxen , otherwise known 
as Dyer's Green or Dyer's Genista. No. 4, the large 
black tumble-bug with a rhinoceros-like horn on the 
head, and which was disinterred at a depth of two ieet 
in frozen ground, is (5* XylorycUs satyruSf Fabr. No. 5, 
Arch'a rirgOf Sm. and Abb. No. 6, Coiulpa litnigera, 
Linn. No. 7, feeding upon Hazel leaves, is Sfrlca 
retpertmay Schdnh. No. 8, on Milk- weed, is Tetiraopes 
b-maculatusj Ilald. No. 9, Carahus silrotus, Say. You 
should always pin your beetles through the right wing- 
covcr near the shoulder, and not through the scutel . 
or through the left wing-cover. 

Supposed Trout Enemjr— />«(f. Mather, Hon^t 
Falls, N. r.— The single small case which you send, and 
of which you noticed great numbers a few weeks ago 
with the head and legs of the bearer protruding, and 
climbing upon some spawn which you brought trom 
Mr. Green's— came safely to hand, but without an 
occupant. It is the wise of a Caddice-fly larva, and 
looks much like those known to be made in Europe by 
a genus of these flies {Sericostoma) comprising small 
species. The small dusky flies, with long antennae, two 
somewhat similar caudal appendages and strongly nerved 
wings, which flies are very thick on the snow around 
the ponds which do not freeze, breed In the water, as 
you rightly conjecture. They belong to the Perla 
family, and the species in question is Capnia minima, 
Newp., or in English, the Diminished Capnia. The 
larvae of these insects live in the water, and in general 
torm resemble the flies except in wanting wings, and 
the pupa is said to be also active . The other two insects 
which were enclosed with these flies, and which were 



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taken in the house, were renpectively the common 
Cheese-fly {Peaphila casei) and the common Brown 
Spice-beetle {Ptinw brurmens). 

Food for Trout— -^A Green tfc Collins, Mum/ord, 
y, r.— If you will send us specimens of the worm 
which forms such desirable food for your young trout, 
we may be able to suggest some method of propagating 
it artificially. Without specimens we are entirely at a 
loss as to the character of the worm in question. 

trout Enemj— ^. Sterling, (Heveland, Ohio.— -See 
a short article on the subject in this number. 

Best Practical l¥orks on Kntoaioloiir— ^* 

0, S, Franklin, ChUicotht, Ohio. — No entomological 
work ever written, condenses so much valuable in- 
formation on the general facts and details of the Science, 
as Westwood's Introduction to the Modern Claeeijication 
0/ Insects, (London, 1838-40, two large octavos with 
133 blocks of outline wood-cuts, and colored plate.) 
It is now out of print, but is occasionally to be had of 
book -dealers. Kirby and Spence*s Introduction (Lon- 
don, 1857, one stout duodecimo; no plates, price about 
$2.00) is a pleasantly written work, fraught with much 
valuable information on the general subject. Harris's 
Injurious Insects is preeminently the practical work lor 
the American student. (Orange Judd & Co., New 
York; price J^OO uncolored, ?^.00 colored). Next 
we should advise you to get Packard's Guide io the 
Study of Insects, which hn» oaen been mentioned in 
our columns; and la.st, but not least, the Keports of 
Fitch, M^alsh, Sanborn, and Riley. If you arc conver- 
sant with the French or German languages you may 
find several desirable books by sending for catalogues 
to B. >Vestermann A Co. or Balliere Bros, of New York, 
or to any other prominent book-dealers. We have in 
reality no good text-book on Entomology, for Dr. Pack- 
ard has signally failed to give to his Guide that popular 
character, which would have rendered it so much more 
valuable as a text-book. It is a valuable seientlflc 
work, and we doubt whether it is possible to make a 
popular text-book that covers a^ much ground as docs 
the Guide. 



Hfair-Snakes— jr. W. M., West Dummersion, Vt.— 
The popular belief that these so-called •*Huir.8nakes" 
are •* animated hairs" is of course a fallacy. Neither 
are they * 'generated by the common field cricket," 
though they are olten found protruding from Uic anus 
of crickets and grasshoppers, in which they are para- 
sitic. The species you refer to was probably the A'ary- 
ing Hair-snake {Gordius varius, Leidy;. Two species 
{G. rarius, Leidy, and G, aquaticus, (ImeL) are com- 
monly found throughout tne country, but the former is 
most abundant. Both species occur most abundantly 
on the banks of fresh water ponds and sluggish rivers. 
They are exceedingly prolific, and Prof. Leidy says 
that a 9 of ^. varius laid 6,624,800 eggs. It is generally 
believed that these eggs, which are extremely minute, 
are drank in by insects and other animals, In whose 
bodies they hatch and develop, but from which abiding 
place they must finally depart in order to meet and 
copulate with some male. But from the fact that these 
parasitic worms are found in many insects which rire 
never known to frequent water, such as many of the 
Straight- winged Files (Orthoptera), (Iround - beetles 
{Oarahido'), and even Spiders, this theory hardly sat- 
isfies, and we are consequently glad to Inform you that 




we expect shortly to publish an article on these curious 
parasites, from Dr. Leidy himself. These hair-snakes 
belong to the Intestinal Worms {£nioeoa), which arc 
Ringed Animals (Articulata), and have nothing 
whatever to do with the true snakes, which are Back- 
bone Animals (Vertebrata). 

EfTir^ack off soBie unknourn Spider— ^1. En- 

CFip. !«».: gdmann, ShUoh, His.— The curious egg- 
sacks which Mr. E. W. West found 
hanging from the twigs of an apple 
tree, and which we Illustrate here- 
with (Fig. 109), are those of a spider 
belonging. In all probability, to the 
genus Epeira, and perhaps those of the 
common Epeira rulgaris. But we can 
not tell until we hatch the eggs with 
which the sack is now crowded. You 
will doubtless find frill grown speci- 
mens of the spider on this same tree 
joi<M^-Dark gny. next May or June. 
Do 'Worker Bees Stinff tiae Droiaee io Demtk! 
—jr. W. v., Middletown, a.— It Ih generally believed 
by apiarians that the workers do sting to death the 
drones when the mission of the latter is ended. Many 
careftil observers assert that they have witnessed the 
operation, and as it is also believed by many eminent 
naturallsto, we see no reason to doubt tlie say-so of 
MUne Edwards in his Manual of Zooloijy, though wc 
can say nothing from our own observation. 

Bed Spider—^. //. Warder, Spencer, Ind.—The Bed 
Spider {Tromhidium [Tetranychus] telarium, Herm.) ist sn 
imporUtlon from Europe, and Is a very minute specie:*, 
pale yellow when young, becoming darker when older. 
It is best known in the green-house, but likewise docs 
much damage in dry seasons on trees (especially ever- 
greens) in the open air. It thrives best in a dry atmos- 
phere, and we have found no difficulty in getting rid 
of it by a free use of its natural enemy— water. If a 
little soap Is mixed with the water It will be more effec- 
tual, and we also recommend the Insecticide used by 
M. Clocz, and described on page 86 of this volume. 

PreeerTlBff Ineecls— «/<>#. McGuade, Fort EipUtfi 
^finn.—^ye commence in this number a series of arti- 
cles which will give you the desired Information. 
Meanwhile, if you need ftill directions immediately, 
we will send you a small pamphlet containing an article 
on the subject, upon receipt ol 30 cents. 

H, E. WhUney, Lamar, J/b.— Your query is answered 
In the preceding paragraph. 

Itaeect Named— JT. BarreU, Waukesha, Wi».-'^^^ 
files you send are the Psocus venosus of Bunneister, 
belonging to the Order of Net- winged Flies (Neobop- 
TBRA). They feed on the lichens found on the bark 
of apple trees, as we have ocularly demonstrated, and 
are therefore harmless. Certain minute Mpecles of the 
same genus, however, and which are known as book- 
lice, are very destructive to books and to Insect collec- 
tions. 

To Beetrojr Plant^llce— ^. F. Lazear, louisia^^^ 
Mo. —It you cannot so cover your house -plants as to 
give them a good smoking with tobacco, wash theui 
well with strong soap-suds, or quassia- water, or sprinkle 
them with the fine tobaeco-dust which can be obtained 
from tobacco factories. 



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[Fii?. no.] 




C<»lor— Brown, 



Raspberrr Root-ffall— JTo^Amn^ Parsons, Cam- 
bridge, Afa^s. — The galls found on the roots of »n rasp- 
berry bush, and of one 
of whicJi we here pro- 
duce the outline (Fig. 
110) were long ago men- 
tioned by Harris {In I. 
//j«.,p. .M9). They are 
produced by a Utile gall- 
fly described by Osten | 
Sackcn as Rhoditts radi- 
cum, and they occur on 
the roots of other plants ,.-,.—■ 

belonging to the Rose ^^^^^ ,^P\ \ 

family , and especially on 
tliose of the Rose itself. 
The little white larvae 
which aix' snugly en- 
closed in the cells, scat- 
tered throughout the 
pithy yellowish sub- 
stance of the gall, will soon transform to pupae, and 
in time produce the flies; but the gall itscH is so apt 
to be sponged upon by other guest-flies, and the gall- 
makers are so subject to the attacks of parasites, that 
flies belonging to the diflTerent genera Earytoma, Calli- 
mone, OrmyrttSy and Eupelmus, have been bred from this 
gall, according to Baron Osten Sacken. Indeed, so 
unsafe is it to conclude that because we breed a certain 
fly from this gall, therefore said fly must bo the gall- 
maker, that even Dr. Harris fell into the too common 
error of describing as the^ gall -maker, another fly 
{Ofhips [/] temipicea) which was iu all pi*obability a 
parasite. It becomes a curious question, how so many 
guest-flies manage to discover this underground swell- 
ing of the root, or how so many parasites succeed in 
rt'aching the hidden gall-uiakcr; and there is plenty of 
room for original observation and discovcrj* in this, as 
in every other field of Nature. 

Spinea Sluir-worm— /.fr/ G. Safer, KUzahtthy 
/«</. —The green oval flattened object with lateral tooth- 
like appendages fringed with hairs, the two at the tail 
being larger than the others, ib the larva of an undc- 
scribed species of Limacodcs or .Slug- worm. It belongs 
to the very same family as the '* Saddle -back '* [Fig. 
•Wi of this volume] . When living, it is ornamented with 
a lateral row of minute oeellated spots, each with a 
black dot, and a dorsal row of darker spots with two of 
a rich scarlet color. You will find a colored figure of it 
in Harris's Correspondence [PI. II, Fig. 7], and also a 
magnified view [PI. HI, Fig. 6]. We regret that you 
cannot tell upon what it fed. 

A, R. BodUy, Stargis, JT/c/*.— The green sprang! ing 
worm which you erroneously suppose was ejected by 
the lan-a of the Polyphemus moth, is the same species 
<<poken of above.' 

Fern Insect*— ^^o^A S. Morris, Philadelphia, Pa. 
—The minute fern insects were dead and unrecogniz- 
able when they arrived. Please send us more in a tight 
vessel, according to the directions at the end of this 
Department. 

Ants do not Breed Plant«Uce — //. C» Raymond, 
Council Bluffs, loioa.—We have not seen the copy of 
thf lotca Homestead which you refer to. Of course you 
are right about the ants, and the correspondent of the 
JfmttesUad shows great ignorance on the subject. 



Apple-tree Insects— Z. Camjield, Benton Harbor, 
Mich. — The insects you send are as follows: No. 1, 
cocoon of the White Marked Tussock Moth {Orgyia 
leticostigma, Sm. it Abb.), containing the empty (^ 
chrysalis shell. No. 2, the same. No. 3, the cocoon of 
the same species with the eggs of the $ attachetl . These 
eggs would soon hatch out into beautil\illy tufted cater- 
pillars, which prove very destructive to the foliage; but 
by destroying the eggs at the present time you of course 
effectually ])revent the hatching of the worms. You 
should, however, only destroy those cocoons which 
have eggs on the outside, as all the others either con- 
tain the harmless cf chrysalis shell, or else some parasite. 
At Figure 67 of our first volume, you will find an illus- 
tration of this worm. No. -1, are the silky cases of the 
Leaf Crumpler {Phycita nebulo.) They now contain 
woi*ras, and should be carefXilly plucked ami destroyed 
before the leaves expand. Those worms, which attack 
both quince, crab and plum trees, produce little gray 
moths in June . 

Native Apple«tree Bark-lice— J. U, Hamtnond, 
Warsaw, Ills.— The apple twigs you send, which are 
speckled over with small white paper-like scales, arein- 
[Fig. lu.] fested with the Native Apple-tree 

Hjirk -louse {Aspidiotus Harrisii), 
as you will at once perceive by the 
accompanying Figure 111, which 
represents such an infested twig. 
Vou will find a full account of this 
insect, with the proper remedies 
suggested, in Mr. Walshes First 
Report, as actuig State Entomolo- 
gist, or iu our First Missouri Re- 
port. The species occurs on the 
Pear and Mountain Ash, as well 
tus on the Apple , and though it has 
in a few instances multiplied suf- 
ciently to do serious harm, yet 
these are the exceptions, and not 
the rule, for it is so efl'ectually 
preyed upon by parasites and can- 
nibals that it is little to be feared, 
CoioM-whiu*. with biooti- and you need not feel as much 

ported (Jyster-shell species on your trees. Kncourage 
the lady-birds, especially the Twice-stabbed Lady- 
bird, which has several times been figured in back 
numbers. 

Eniomoloffical %Vorl£s— /i*. W, Bryan, Pomonkey, 
J/t/.— See what we have said in answer to Dr. G. 8. 
Franklin in this number. There is no work extant that 
meets your demimds; nor do we believe one could be 
made. We shall soon publish a table such as you sug- 
gest. Y'es, we have published articles on the Peach 
Borer, and refer you especially to the practical one on 
page 180 of tjie first volume. Shall be glad to receive 
notes from yoiir locality. 

^'Korice,"' Anteshury, Mass.— We refer you to the above 
anjiwers. 

**Sow-bugrs»»— i?. P. Allis, c/r.— Sow-bugs (Por- 
ctllio) are harmless, as they feed upon rotten wood and 
decomposing vegetable matter. They delight in damj) 
places, and this is the reason you find them in your- 
fernery. They are not true insects, but belong to the 
same Class (Crustacea) as the lobster. 




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Tlie Hedgre-Hoir Caterpillar— ZTt/ron BuH, Wil- 
liamshurg. i/if>.— The large caterpillar, covered with stifl 
black hairs on each end, and with reddish hairs in the 
middle of the body, is the larva of the Isabella Tiger 

CFlK. 112.] 

\ I 




Colon— (a) Brotcn and bUck ; (ft) brown ; (e) dull orange and black. 

Moth {Arctia hdbella, HUbn.) The moth is of a dull 
orange color, with the ft-ont wings variegated with 
dusky, and spotted with black, and the hind wings 
somewhat lighter and also with black spots . The cater- 
pillar is one of those which passes the winter as a cater- 
pillar, rolling itself up like a hedge-hog, and seeking 
some sheltered place. In the spring it becomes active 
and * * feeds up ' ' on the first green blades of grass which 
it Ciin obtain, after which it undergoes it« transforma- 
tions in the usual manner. These worms cannot be con- 
sidered injurious, and the supposition that they cause 
the lever, whence they are called * * Fever- worms * ' in 
your locjility, is of course unfounded and erroneous. 
A much larger and entirely black prickly worm (larva 
of Fcpanfheria scrihoniUf Hlibn.), and closely allied to it, 
which occurs <iuite abundantly in the southern swamps, 
is likewise dubbed ** Fever- worm" by tlie negroes, 
under similar false impressions of its injurious powers. 
As the miasma of the swamps induces ague, and as this 
worm is found abundantly in such situations, the two 
circumstances have doubtless been associated through 
ignorance, and some Ethiopean, right from Dixie, has 
perhaps perpetuated the name in your vicinity, by 
applying it to our more northern Jledge-hog Cater- 
pillar. The Isabella Tiger Moth is illustrated at Figure 
112, a giving a back view of the larva, h the cocoon cut 
open so as to show the chrysalis, and c the moth. The 
beetles which you found under the bark of a fence 
rail, may be known by the name of the Sleek liorinus 
{fformus litci's, Oliv.) They feed on rotting wood. 

Gbiclc-^iveed Geometer-s/. Hoggins, Woodhum, 
///*.— The pretty little orange moth marked with pink, 
is the common Chick-weed Geometer {Ei^matopis gra- 
tariay Fabr.), the transformations of which were first 
described in the First Missouri Entomologicjil Report, 
where you will find the insect tijfured. The many- 
legged animal is Oermatia forceps, and is common in 
houses in this latitude. You will find your Canker- 
worm queries answered in the Second Missouri Report. 
Of course you are right about the absurdity of the sul- 
l)hur remedy. 



Bean-weeTU— <?eo. W. CopUy, Alton, /^.— The 
weevils which infest your beans are in reality the very 
same Obsolete Bean-weevil {Bruchu9 ohgoUiut^ Say) 
spoken of on pages 118 and 1*25 of this volume. AVe 
have lately been informed by Mr. J. F. Wielandy,of 
Jefferson City, Mo. , that his father, who is a resident 
of your i»ounty, has been much troubled with the same 
pest. The little case in the cartridge box is the larva- 
case of a small narrow-winged moth, belonging, in all 
probability, to the genus SolenoUa, and closely resem- 
bling that of Solenohia WaUhella, Clem. We cannot 
believe that it gouged out the twig of the Bartlett pear; 
but incline to the opinion that this gouging was done by 
some other insect, and that the ca.>«e-bearer simply took 
shelter in the hollow, to gain protection fVom the win- 
ter's blasts. The species has never been bred, and we 
should be glad to have you send us as many cases as 
you can find. The pretty little leaf- beetle, bearing 
some resemblance to the l*2-Spotted Dlabrolica i.** Cero- 
toma caminea, Fabr. Attacud cynthia is the moth you 
may send us. 

Bair-woriii at Soutii Pass, Ills.— (9. H. Bohr, 
South Pass, His.— Your insects on Bhick Spruce, are 
the notorious Bag- worm, for an account of which see 
pp. 35-8 of the present volume. The fact of tiielr occur- 
ring in your locality is an entirely new one, for we have 
never noticed the insect during our visits there; nor 
have we ever heard of its occurring thefe before. In 
all probability it is yet confined to your grounds, and 
upon reading the article referred to above, you will at 
once perceive how important it is to the South Pass 
community, that you search for and destroy every one 
that can be found. A single follicle was, in all proba- 
bility, originally introduced into your grounds upon 
spruces fV-om some distant nurser>'. 

Injured Pear Roots— (r. Pauls, Eureka, Mb.— 
The corrugated pear roots bear no trace of insect work. 
We can throw no light on the subject. Perhaps the 
appearance is produced by their getting too dn' before 
planting, and thus causing the bark to split open. 

ElTffH of Oblonfr-^v^inired Katydid—^. D, Ladd, 
Lawrence^ Kansas. —'VhQ eggs which you found on a 
currant sprout are those of the Oblong- winged Katydid 
{Phylloptera ollongifolia , DeGeer). They occur on a 
variety of different trees, and differ ftom those of the 
common Broad-winged Katydid in being narrower in 
width but thicker In depth . 

Insects Named— W, II, Patton , Waterhtry, (kw^.— 
Your insects are : Xo. 1 , Chrysochus auralus, Fabr. (see 
A. E. I, p. 249, and 11, p. 27); Xo. 2, Polisies/uscatus, 
Fabr.; Xo. 3, ^ and $ Calopierr»n reticulatunu Fabr. 
(see A. E. II, p. 31); X'o. 4, (7. terminale, Say. 

TAKE NOTICE. 

AU letters, deelrlng Infonnation reapecting noxious or other insects, sbodd 
be aooompaoied by speelmeos, the more In number the better, Sndi speci- 
mens should Always be packed alon/r with a little cotton, wooU or some pica 
substance, in any little paste-board box that is of coorenieot size, •mdM^'"' 
•luAoMd loot* in the UUer. Botanists like their specimens pressed as flat as • 
pancake, but entomoloKlsts do not. Whenever possible, larra (i. e. grm 
caterpillars, manots, etc.) should be packed alive in some tlKU^ 
box— the tighter Ihe better-along with a supply of their appropriste rooa 
suffldent to last them on their Journey ; otherwiae they generally die on tne 
road and shrivel up to nothing. Along with the specimens send as ftul so 
account as possible of the habits of the insect, respecting whidi yon desire 
information ! for example, what plant or planU it infosts; whetlier It detfioyi 
the leaves, the buds, the twigs, or the stem ; how long it has been known to 
yon; what amount of damage it has done, etc. Sucn parttculars are oran 
not onhr of liich seientiflc inlmet. but of great practical Impoitanee. 

aar*' our readers will confer an especiAl favor by addressing all letters ore 
business character to the publishera, as the alitor has no time toatttnaio 
such letters. 



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§0lanual Jtparlmfnl. 



GEORGK VASEY, Kditok, Richview, Ills. 

TO OUR READERS. 

In entering upon this departmeut, it rnay be 
expected of the £ditor that he define his posi- 
tion. We feel the importance of a more general 
diffdsion of botanical information. Very many 
persons have little or no pleasure in looking 
into a scientific text book. The information is 
there usually conveyed in the tersest technical 
language. In these pages, though we may pre- 
sent little matter that is absolutely new, we hope 
to present something each month that shall be 
intelligible and attractive to the popular reader. 
We do not mean to discard the scientific; on 
the contrary, we hope to have a place for the 
researches and observations of the learned ; but 
there is a numerous class of readei*8 who w^ill 
be better interested by familiar language, an 
easy style, and more detailed description. 

By these means, and by suitable illustrations, 
we hope to extend among our fellows an ac- 
quaintance with our native plants, especially 
where this knowledge may have any bearing 
npon genera] industi7 or utility. 

We know that the love of Flowers is almost 
universal. We propose here to cultivate, not 
only the taste for the beautiful and ornamental, 
but to direct attention to the less obvious, but 
not less wonderful, developments of structure 
and functions, observable in the humblest as 
well as the most showy plants. We intend to 
devote especial attention to our native forest 
trees and shrubs, and to urge our people to 
an acquaintance with them, and to a cultiva- 
tion of them both for purposes of ornament 
and utility. 

Here we hope, also, to have a place where our 
botanical friends may freely record their ob- 
servations ^on any peculiar, interesting, or rare 
plants of their region. And for those who love 
plants, and have not the time or the facilities 
needed for looking out their names, we shall 
have a column where their inquiries may be 
answered. 

We wish for and solicit contributions, on sub- 
jects pei*taining to this science, from all pai*ts 
of our extended country. 

Our first efibrts in this work may not equal 
our desire — ^for we labor under disadvantages— 
but we trust to secure a growing interest in and 
for this our new enterprise. 



SPRING FLOWERS. 

With what interest do we watch the first ap- 
pearance of vegetation in the spring. On wann, 
sunny slopes in open woods, peeping out from 
masses of fallen leaves, we find the Claytonia 
and Hepatica expanding their delicate petals to 
receive the first genial rays of the sun. 
The Claytonias. 

[Fig. 113.] 




Cla>'touia Virgin ica. 

These form a genus of delicate, handsome 
plants, belonging to the Portulacca family. Two 
species are found more or less plentifully in all 
the States east of the Mississippi ; they are Clat/- 
tonia Virginica (Fig. 118) and Claytonia Caro- 
liniana (Fig. 113), and are commonly known by 
the name of Spring Beauties. 

If we dig away the soil fh)m the plants we 
shall find that they spring from small brown 
[Fig. 114.] tubers, buried 

several inches 
below the sur- 
face. Each tu- 
ber sends up 
from three to 
ten plants, 
which consist 
of weak, slen- 
der stems, five 
to ten inches 
A long, with one 
pair of IcavcH 
placed oppo- 
site each other, 
and terminated by a loose raceme of flowers. 
The fiowei-s are about half an inch in diameter, 




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have two sepals, five small rose-colored petals, 
five stamens and a pistil with a three-cleft style, 
and the base or ovary of which becomes a cap- 
sule or box containing a few small, shining, 
black seeds. 

[Fig. 115.1 




Cluytoiiia Cnmliniuiin. 



The two species resemble each other closely, 
but are distinguished by the oval pointed leaves 
and the larger sei)als of Claytonia CaroUniana, 
Michx., and the long, narrow, nearly grass-like 
leaves, and short i^c\}a,U of Cf at/ton fa VirginicUy 
Linn. 

The specific names would indicate that one is 
a Carolinian and the other a Virginian species. 
In the early history of our country all the At- 
lantic coast, with the country stretching back 
indefinitely, was claimed by the English and 
French, ander the names of Virginia and Caro- 
lina. Many of the plants of the New World 
were named by Linnaeus fiom specimens and 
descriptions sent him by the early explorers, 
and frequently the portion of country from 
which they were received was indicated by the 
specific names we have mentioned. 

One of the plants we have under consideration 
was named by him Claytonia, in honor of John 
Clayton, an American Botanist then living in 
Virginia; and the specific name Virgin ica was 
applied to indicate the portion of count ly where 
it was obtained. The other species was named 
by a French Botanist, Michaux, probably from 
specimens procured in that portion of the coun- 
try then called Carolina. By further explora- 
tions it was discovered that neither of the specific 
names were strictly appropriate ; but, according 
to the prevailing rules, they have to be retained. 

There are several other species of Claytonia 
in the United States. One (called Claytonia 
diamissonisy Esch., or C aquatica, Nutt.) is 
fonnl in Colorado and other portions of the 



Rocky Mountains. It is very delicate, three to 
six inches high, with five to ten pairs of leaves, 
and grows in springs and cold brooks. The 
stems are weak, reclining, and frequently root- 
ing at the joints. 

The most singular si>ecies we have is a Clay- 
tonia growing on high peaks in the Rocky 
Mountains, above the tree limit or timber line, 
which is generally at an altitude of 12,()00 feet or 
more. It has a thick root, six to twelve inches 
long, frequently growing in crevices of rocks 
and among masses of granite blocks, where it 
would seem^ that it could obtain no noarisli- 
mcnt. From the summit of the root proceeds a 
mass of leaves and flowering steuis. The leaves 
are thi'ee or four inches long, thick and succu- 
lent, with a broad obovate summit, tapering 
below to a long, narrow margin. The flowering 
stems are Kiuch like those of Claytonia Caro- 
Uniana, but thicker and more juicy, with rather 
larger flowers and capsules. Frequently one 
root produces twenty or thirty leaves and stems, 
which when in full bloom (about the fii*st of 
August) presents a beautiful appearance. It is 
more robust in its habit than any of the genus, 
and, on account of its long, thick root, was called 
by Dr. Parry (who disco vei*ed it several \eai-8 
ago) Claytonia megarrhiza, or large rooted 
Claytonia, but Dr. Gray considers it a variety 
of Claytonia arctica. 

Another Claytonia is found in California and 
Oregon. In this the pair of stem leaves usually 
grow together at the bas^e so thtit they seem to 
be one leaf with the stem gi-owing through the 
middle, and hence it is called Claytonia perfoli- 
ata, Donn. 



THE SOFT MAPLES. 



There are two trees which are indiscrimin- 
ately called Soft Maple, namely : Ist. The Silver- 
leaf or White Maple (Acer dasycarpum, Ehrh) ; 
2d. The Red Maple {A. ruhrum, Linn.) They 
are called Soft Maples on account of the com- 
parative softness of tlieir wood, which is due 
to their vigorous and rapid gi'owth. They stand 
foremost in the rank of trees adapted to cultiva- 
tion either for the lawn and garden, or for fuel 
and timber. In general appearance these trees 
resemble each other so closely that many people 
fail to disci iminatc between them. In order to 
aid in their distinction wo will give a short 
account of them. 

The Maples, in their flowering arrangement, 
are polygamous; that is, the flowers may be- 
either perfect, or the staminate or pistillate kinds 
may be separated in the same or in different 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



185 



trees. Probably, however, the Soft Maples are 
generally dicecioas; that is, all the flowers of 
one tree are staminate, and all the flowers of 
another are pistillate. 

But, how many of our readers will say that 
they never saw maple flowers? Well, then, 
look abont you in this month of April, and you 
may find new pleasure in these beautiful trees. 
K, however, you are far south, yon may be too 
late for the flowers this season, and may have 
to content yourselves with a view of the fruit 
only. 

First, let us describe the Silver-leaf Maple 
Acer dasycarpunif Ehrh, Fig. 116.) The flowers 

[Fig. 116.1 




SUTer-leaf Maple: 

are in small clusters proceeding firom lateral 
buds, which are developed before the leaves ap- 
pear. Each cluster or fascicle contains flve or six 
yellowish or purple flowers, either perfect — %, 
e., with stamens and pistils— or containing only 
one kind of organs. The staminate flowers have 
each four or flve stamens; the fertile flowers 
have each two pistils united below, and expand- 
ing into a pair of long, broad wings or keys 
(jMmara), which are quite downy when young, 
and when mature are about two inches long. 



The stalk or pedicel of these keys is ver}^ short 
at first, but it elongates so as to become an inch 
or more in length. Each key contains one large 
seed. They mature and drop from the tree in 
May. The leaves are large, with three to five 
lobes, pointed and toothed, or, sometimes again 
divided into smaller lobes. They are downy 
when young, becoming silvery-white on the 
underside. The tree attains a large size, the 
wood is white, the bark ash-colored and smooth, 
except on the large trunks. The leaves present 
considerable diversity of form — our illustration 
shows leaf and fruit, a little less than full size. 

[Fig. 117] 




Red Maple. 



The Red Maple (Acer rubrumj L., Fig. 117) is 
usually a smaller tree, the twigs reddish, the 
branches gray, and the bark rougher than the 
preceding. The leaves are smaller, not so deeply 
lobed, whitish, but wot silvery beneath, and moi e 
toothed and notched than the other. The flow- 
ers are usually bright scarlet with small oblonor 
petals; the wings or keys smooth, when mature 
abont an inch long, and on long, drooping stalks. 
The wings of fruit are smaller, smoother, less 
spreading or diverging from each other, and on 
longer pedicels than the other species. The 
tree usually grows in wetter ground, but will 
flourish when transplanted to high and dry soil. 

These are the u^ual and more prominent dis- 
tinctive points between the two species, but 
there is such a diversity in the leaves, that it U 
sometimes difficult to decide, without flowers 
and fruit, to which species a given tree belongs. 



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The presence of petals in the flowers of the Red 
Maple, and the size and dowuj state of the/rut^ 
of the Silver-leaf Maple, will be reliable indica- 
\ions of the species. In Southern Illinois there 
will probably be no ftmit on the Silver-leaf 
Maple daring the present yeai* on account of a 
severe frost which has injured the flowers just 
as they were about to expand. 



WHO SHOULD STUDY BOTANY? 

The school boy and school girl, who so often 
ramble in the woods gathering flowers and 
seeking recreation and amusement, will find 
their interest in the fields and woods vastly 
increased by a knowledge of this science. They 
will be constantly making new discoveries in 
their search among rocks, by the brook, or 
in the fields and forest. Let them learn how 
to preserve specimens, and to arrange them in 
an herbarium, that they may have them at hand 
for comparison with other species, and that they 
may yield pleasure in wintry days when Nature 
is in her annual sleep. 

There are hundreds of young men and young 
ladies in our academies and colleges who study 
Botany much as they study grammar — ^in their 
text books — who would find their interest in the 
study vastly increased, as well as find health, 
and refreshment from their weary mental toil, 
by a daily ramble in the fields seeking plants 
and objects of interest in Nature. How few of 
those who finish their education in the colleges 
go forth with a practical acquaintance with 
Nature I Probably forty or fifty species of trees 
are in the forests around Chem, and yet few can 
accurately identify a dozen kinds. They are 
probably quite as ignorant in the other depart- 
ments of natural science. These things ought 
not to be. 

All persons of sedentary habits, including 
clerks, teachers, clergymen, and other persons 
whose occupation keeps them much within 
doors, would find relief mental and physical, 
vigor, rational and satisfactory enjoyment, by 
forming an acquaintance with the various na- 
tural objects presented around them. Their 
enjoyment of a walk would be tenfold increased. 
They would find hundreds of objects of interest 
which before escaped their attention. 

Horticulturists and florists, fh>m the nature 
of their business, have more or less acquaintance 
with Botany, and their toil is cheered and doubly 
rewarded by their knowledge of the beautifhl 
science. But too few even of this class extend 
their inquiries beyond the immediate field of 
their labors. 



But what shall we say of the farmers, to whom 
everything is a weed which does not bring dol- 
lars, and whose plow and hoe are ready to cut 
down every plant which dares lift its head in 
the place allotted to cultivation? You have 
plenty of room, dear friend, in the garden and 
in out of the way places, to give the flowers a 
chance, and you need their kindly influences 
to cheer you in your daily labors. Open your 
heart to the sunshine and beauty of Nature, 
and you may render your toil more agreeable. 
Perhaps no class of men are better situated for 
a study of Botany, or have closer practical rela- 
tions to it than farmers. The cultivation of that 
field of corn may appear a more dignified labor 
if you consider the history, the structure, and 
the value of that noblest grass which Grod has 
given to the human race. 

Nothing U more calculated to increase our 
enjoyment of life than a love of Nature. We 
derive pleasure from an examination of works 
of skill in art. We look upon a painting per- 
haps, and we find our admiration excited by 
the display of the genius of the painter. The 
picture is life-like — there is harmony of color — 
there is expression — there is a just proportion 
of parts. But we need attention and culture 
in order to a full appreciation of the beauties of 
a painting. An uncultivated person might pass 
through a gallery of the finest works of art and 
not recognize their superior claims. So it is 
with the works of Nature. They are displays 
of the skill of the greatest Artist. They are the 
works of an unequalled Master. But we may 
spend a life-time among these objects and never 
half appreciate them. We need to cultivate 
habits of observation, thought, investigation. 
A glance at a rose gives us pleasure — its form 
is symmetrical— its color is .attractive— its fra- 
grance is delightful. But if we also consider 
ita structure, its various organs, the wonderful 
secrets of its vital operations— its relations and 
connection in the great system — it then gives 
us much greater pleasure. Many humbler, less 
showy plants we meet with daily, which, with 
a little investigafion, would speak with equal 
force to us of the wisdom and goodness of the 
Creator. 

In some cases, where the nectarium of a fiower 
is not perceptible, if the spur of such a flower— 
which usually becomes the depository of the 
nectar that has oozed from the capsules secret- 
ing it— be too narrow for the entrance of a bee, 
and even beyond the reach of its long tongue, 
it contrives to attain its object by biting a hole 
on the outside, through which it taps the store. 



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BLOOD-ROOT. 

{Sanguinaria canadmtis,) 

[Fig. 118.1 




Blood-Root. 

The Blood-root is one of our prettiest spring 
flowera. It is usually found in rich woody 
slopes, among thickets of hazel, or in other 
warm sheltered places. Very few except the 
botanist, or those who are acquainted with iu 
early habit, ever get into the woods in season 
to see its handsome white blossoms. 

The cut which we giye of this plant represents 
the leaf more fully expanded than is common 



at tiiat stage of the flower. The leaves are 
mostly quite small, and folded together when 
the flower expands, but during summer they 
spread out to be four or flve inches across. 
That part which 4s commonly called the root 
of this plant is really a thick, prostrate stem, 
developing each year a new bud from its 
extremity. The small fibres which proceed 
fh>m this stem (called rhizoma) are tiie true 
roots. The flower, as will be seen, is raised 
on a slender naked stem about six inches 
long. Before expansion it is wrapped by two 
large greenish leaves, which drop ofi'as soon as 
the flower opens. It then displays usually eight 
or ten pure white, oblong petals, twenty or 
more small delicate stamens, and a pistil, or 
germ, which, after the decay of the flower, 
expands into a thick oblong pod, fllled with 
seeds. The rhizoma, or ground-stem, contains 
an acrid juice of a reddish color, which has val- 
uable medicinal properties, and consequently 
the root is often sought for and collected for 
medical purposes. 

This plant is deserving of more attention for 
the garden. It may be transplanted with ease, 
and a small bed in flower will be a fine orna- 
ment. Its natural habit should be imitated as 
far as possible in cultivation. After flowering 
cover the bed with a thick coat of leaves or 
litter, to protect it from the heat of the summer 
sun. 



RED-BUD. 

{Otreia canadmmi, L) 



The Natural Order Leguminosce embraces in 
this country only a few trees, the principal of 
which are the Black Locust, the Honey Locust, 
the CofiTee-tree, and the Red-bud. The latter 
will engage our attention at the present time; 

The Red-bud (Cercis canadensis, L.) is a 
small tree occurring in most of the Western and 
Southern States. It seldom exceeds twelve or 
fifteen feet high. It is very ornamental, par- 
ticularly when in bloom. The flowering occurs 
before the development of the leaves, and from 
the size and abundance of the flowers the tree 
is a conspicuous object at a great distance, and 
where the trees are numerous the whole forest 
seems ablaze with their rose-colored flowers. 
After the fall of the flowers, when the tree gets 
into full leaf, it is still an object of beauty. The 
leaves are heart-shaped, three or four inches in 
diameter, of a lively green and smooth surface ; 
and when the pods are added, hanging in grace- 
ful clusters below the leaves, the appearance is 
highly attractive. The time of flowering varies 



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with the latitade of the locality: in Southern 
IlUnois in April; farther south, earlier; farther 
north, later. 

This tree belongs to the second section or 
sub-order of the great Pea Family (Sub-order 
Ccesalpinice), The flowers are in small clusters 
from the buds of the preceding year's shoots. 
They are not strictly papilionaceous in their 
structure, the standard being smaller than the 
wings, and tlie lower petals not united to form 
a keel, and the ten stamens are separated. The 
pods, when mature, are flat, about three inches 
long, half an inch wide, and contain fiye to ten 
seeds. 

There is a tree of the same genus in Eui*ope 
called Judas-tree (Cersis siliquastrum) which 
tradition records as the tree on which Judas 
hanged himself. Another smaller and yery 
ornamental species has been introduced into 
cultivation from Japan. 



THE GRASSES. 



The Family of Grasses (GraminecB) is one of 
the largest as well as most important in the 
Vegetable Kingdom. The term grass, however, 
has a more extended common signification than 
is strictly correct. Thus, it is commonly em- 
ployed for the Sedge Grasses (Carices)^ and 
other plants of the Natui*al Order Cyperace<B. 
It is also applied to Bulrushes (Juncus)^ And 
frequently, also, but very erroneously, to any 
kind of plant cultivated for hay, as clover. 
Perhaps it is not practically important if we do 
include under the one general name of grass 
the plants of those two closely related orders. 
Still, it is quite necessary that we have an 
understanding of the scientific differences exist- 
ing between them, because we cannot be cor- 
rectly understood when speaking of any thing 
without precision in the use of words. The 
most prominent differences between the true 
grasses and the sedges may be stated as follows : 

The Grasses generally have the culm or stem 
hollow, except at the joints. When the st^m 
bears leaves, they are two-ranked, or on alter- 
nate sides of the stem, and hence the stem is 
usually round. The leaves, where they issue 
from the stem, usually clasp it closely for a cer- 
tain distance, but are not united at the edges. 
A few moments' inspection of a stalk of common 
Indian corn will show this character of the 
leaves. 

The Sedges generally have solid culms or 
stems. The leaves are usually three-ranked, 
and hence the stem is usually triangular. The 
base of the leaves not only sheathes the stem, 



but the opposite edges are united for a certain 
distance, so as to form a tube, fitting closely 
around the stem. This arrangement may be dis- 
tinctly seen in many of the coarse sedges growing 
in wet ground. There are other differences of 
flower and fruit which it is not easy to describe 
without an analysis of specimens, but a little 
acquaintance with some representative plants 
will enable one readily to distinguish a grass 
fh>m a sedge. 

There is another small Family of Rush-grasses 
(Juncacce), which differs in character from 
either of the preceding, but have the general 
appearance of grasses, and are not ordinarily 
distinguished from them. Species of each of 
these three families will commonly be found in 
any of our natural meadows. 

All our cultivated grasses and grains belong 
to the family of true Grasses ( Graminece) . The 
number of species of these cultivated kinds is, 
however, only a very small proportion of the 
whole number of species in the family. The 
larger part of our native grasses escape general 
observation. They clothe our prairies and low 
grounds; they spread among our woodlands 
and forests; they extend over our hills and 
reach to the tops of the mountains. Some 
species are cosmopolitan and are at home in 
all parts of the globe ; the most, however, are 
especially adapted to certain kinds of soil, or 
climate, or elevation. In number of species the 
family of Grasses is second only to the laige 
order of Compound Flowei*s (Compositcei) . Over 
two hundred species are found in the Northern 
United States, east of the Mississippi river. 
Still more numerous is the family of Sedges 
(Cyperacece). A goodly proportion of these 
numbei*s may be found in almost every town- 
ship. 

It is singular that the New World has fur- 
nished only one additional species of grain to 
the agricultural resources of the husbandman ; 
that one grain, however, is the Indian Com 
(Zea mays, L.), of greater importance, perhaps, 
in usefulness and adaptation to a great variety 
of climates than any other. 

The Sedge Grasses are generally inferior in 
nutritive qualities as food for grazing animals* 
and hence none of them are cultivated by the 
farmer. In the natui*al meadows and slongbs, 
however,- they form a very important part of 
the vegetation. They are particularly adapted 
to low and wet situations, fhmishing there a 
permanent reliance for stock, especially in newly 
settled portions of the country. The most val- 
uable of these are probably ceiiain species of 
the genus Carex^ as Carex stricta, Lam., Carex 



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aquatiliSf Wahl, Carex vulpiniodea, Michx., and 
Carex trichocarpa, Muhl. 

We may in future numbers take up these 
grasses and sedges, and examine them more in 
detail. 



THE SPICY WINTERGEEEN. 

{GavUheria proewnbenSf L.) 

We find the following in an old number of 
the Burcd 2^ew TorkeTf and it is written in so 
charming a style, and shows such an intimate 
acquaintance with tlie plant, that we print it 
in hope that it may give our readers as much 
pleasure as it has given us. The Wintergreen 
is little known at the West; in this State we 
only know of a few localities on the Lake shore 
north of Chicago. Our Eastern readers will 
readily recognize it. It is also sometimes called 
Checkerberry : 

Who does not love the Wintergreen with its 
pleasant, spicy flavor, and its rich scarlet ber- 
ries. How glossy are the leaves with their bril- 
liant green. And then how charmingly hang 
the pendant bowl-like blossoms, hid almost 
beneath those same beautiful leaves. Meek and 
humble though these flowers are, yet they guard 
treasures dear as life, which they hedge about 
with an unspotted garment of innocence. Would 
the casual observer suspect so much worth and 
goodness lay concealed in these humble plants? 
Among the fields of humble life, lie hidden many 
jewels of inestimable worth. Hearts throb in 
the lower walks of society that would honor 
angels, especially if the angels were eartbly 
ones. So the most merit often makes the least 
show, and must be sought out to be known and 
appreciated. 

Through all the vicissitudes of weather the 
Wintergreen holds its unchangeable greenness, 
being endowed by nature with a vitality that 
endures, unchanged, the rigors to which it is 
subject. As winter approaches we find the 
flowers have given place to beautiful scarlet 
berries. These are nearly globular, and at first 
sight show no particular singularity; and yet 
there is infinite wisdom displayed in that organ- 
ization. There is a thorn-like filament extend- 
ing from the apex of the fruit. This is the 
persistant pistil, front which you notice five 
sutures, or lines taking their departure towards 
the stem, stopping, however, before half the 
distance is traversed. The divisions made bv 
these lines are readily elevated, beneath which 
you discover a nice five-angled capsule with five 
apartments filled with seed, which are thus safely 
sheltered from wintry ri^or. The envelop of 
the capsule is the original calyx of the flower 
now swollen into a berry, that will by spring 
have arrived to its full maturity, when its color 
is of deep scarlet and its flavor most delicious. 

The generic name of the Spicy Wintergreen 
is Gkiultheria, given it in honor of one Graul- 
thier, a French physician of Quebec. It is in 
the Decandria Monogynia of the Linnsean Sys- 
tem, classed naturally among the JEricacece or 



Heathworts, where are also found the Whortle- 
berries, Cranberries, etc. In this order are 
found sixty-six genera and one thousand eighty- 
six known species difiused in all parts of the 
globe, but more rarelv in the torrid regions. 
But a few species of this order are poisonous, 
some are medicinal, while the fruits of others 
are wholesome and nourishing.,' T. E. W. 
• • • 

NOTES ON SOME WISCONSIN PLANTS. 

To one who is accustomed to look upon our 
species of the Evening Primrose — (Enothera bi- 
ennis, (E, fruticosay (E. Missouriensis, or even 
the gaudy grandiflora — as types of that family, 
the little (E. pumila is, when beheld for the 
first time, quite a curiosity. Such it was to me 
last summer, when I found it unexpectedly in 
my travels in the northern part of Wisconsin. 
In this I purpose to give a brief description of 
this interesting little plant, iu habiu, etc., 
together with a few more of the most interesting 
plants I found in the same locality. In general 
all the representatives of this family we have 
are found scattered about among fields and 
waste places, while a few of the more showy 
ones have found a place among the garden ex- 
otics. This species of the Primrose I found 
growing in the richer portions of that exceed- 
ingly poor soil to the height of from three to ten 
inches, with the foliage having the general 
characteristics of our species, and the stem bear- 
ing upon the top one or two bright yellow 
fiowers, as small proportionally as the plant, but 
having plainly marked the characteristics of the 
genus. 

Associated with this, though usually a little 
larger, was the Rock Rose (ffelianthemum 
corymbomm), a delicate little plant of lighter 
foliage and lighter yellow flowers; also, the 
Sweet Fern (Comp^onux asplenifolia) . Grow- 
ing in the marshes and lower grounds of the 
same locality, I found one of the Orchidaceous 
flowers (Platanthera psycodes), that far excels 
in beauty many of our garden flowers. I usually 
found them about a foot high, each stalk beai-ing 
ftom two to four flowers, whose brilliant colors 
made the plant very attractive, either as seen 
in the distance or when placed among other 
specimens for preservation or ornament. 

Many have i-emarked that the State of Wis- 
consin was modeled after the State of New York 
in its laws and institutions. One would think 
that not only its laws, but also its flora, was an 
imitation of the same type. Nature having taken 
the lead and the people following in her train. 
I found there many plants that I had not seen 
since seeing them in the State of New York, 
such as the Pipsisi wa ( Chimaphila) , Wintergreen 



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{Pyrola rotundifolia) , the oommon Winter- 
green (GatUtkeria procumbens), Lady's Slipper 
(Cypripedium), and many others too nnmerous 
to mention here. Indeed, I might say that the 
whole general aspect of the middle and northern 
middle of the State resembles that of Central 
New York mulh more than that of either State 
does the flora of Illinois. In looking for a cause 
for this, it seems yery probable that this simi- 
larity is dae, not to any chance transfer of 
similar seeds to that particular locality, or to a 
similarity in climate, so much as to a similarity 
in geological formation, though both the others 
may haye their influence. The central part of 
the State of New York lies mostly in the De- 
yonian or Old Red Sandstone formation, as also 
does the part of the State of Wisconsin aboye 
referred to, while the greater portion of Illinois 
(surface ol course) is the Carboniferous or Sub- 
carboniferous. In the northern part, where we 
haye the lower part of the Sub-carboniferous, or 
it may be the formation immediately below that, 
we haye some plants characteristic of certain 
localities and conditions in New York where we 
also find the same geological formation, as the 
Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea); while 
ftirther south, I belieye, they are not found. 
My deductions may not be correct in this case, 
though if not, there is a strange coincidence of 
circumstances. 

Another interesting plant I found on my 
trayels was the Hare Bell (Campanula rotundi- 
folia). Though that grows in Illinois to some 
extent, on the banks of some of our riyers, yet I 
haye neyer found it in so great abundance as in 
some parts of Wisconsin. The soil seems to be 
more adapted to its growth, as I found it fre- 
quently from half a mile to oue or two miles 
back from the rivers, its usual habitat being 
nearer the water. 

It may be that some of your readers would be 
interested in the general character of the soil of 
particular localities, as well as the flora. I spent 
some time in Adams and Wood counties. Wis., 
and from my observations can say that, in an 
agricultural point of view, the soil is not very 
inviting. It cbnsists mostiy of loose sand, 
though it is not blown about as in some parts 
of Michigan, having some vegetable mould in 
its composition. There are places, however, 
where it is, to all appearance, nothing but sand, 
and looks about as inviting to a farmer as an ash 
heap. The only plants I found on such places 
were a species of Horse Balm (Monarda punc- 
tata) , a straw-colored Cyperus growing fh)m 
ten to fifteen inches high, some Band Burs 
{Cenchrus tribuloides), or something else of a 



similar nature. The forest trees are mostly 
Burr Oak (Qtiercus macrocarpa)^ so stunted as 
to have gained the general appellation of Scmb 
Oak, and Scrub Pine (Pinus Banknana), with 
these not near enongh together to be neighbors. 
This is not the picture of the whole country, for 
there are places where the soil has a larger mix- 
ture of humus, and in such places the Pines in 
a measure disappear, or stand like grim sentinels 
in the distance. In such places there occur the 
Black and some other kinds of Oak, with other 
trees; in the northern parts White and Norway 
Pines (Pintu strobus and restnosa), though the 
general timber country for these pines is still 
fhrther north. Between these two extremes of 
good and bad are found places where the Scrab 
Pines do not disappear, but are seen to attain a 
more respectable size. This kind of pine is 
valued but very little for timber. Interspersed 
' with these were Hazel bushes (Corylus Ameri- 
cana)^ Sweet Fern and Rose Willow (probably 
8alixtri8ti8),wiih occasionally other varieties 
in the lower grounds. Among other marsh 
plants there were plenty of Cranberries (Oxy- 
coccus macrocarpiM) , which fruit, together with 
Bine Berries and Huckleberries, foims quite an 
article of commerce, by which the white inhabi- 
tants are enabled to obtain many little laxnries, 
and the Indians whisky. 

In some localities where the tillage had been 
good I saw good crops of wheat and rye grow- 
ing, though com looked as though the plants 
grown last year would have to be wintered over 
and started again this spring in order to get a 
crop ; and, as a whole, the cereals did not seem 
to be very remunerative. Hops seem to be the 
most productive crop that can be raised in that 
country, as they grow luxuriantly under the 
cultivation usually given them— even growing 
wild on the flats of the Wisconsin. 

As one might suppose, there is a great deal 
of this country that is not under cultivation, in 
some places the houses being from six to nine 
miles apart, and that on a stage road traveled 
every day. G. H. F. 

IRVINGTON, ni. 



Red Snow. — In Alpine regions the fields of 
snow sometimes suddenly appear as if stained 
with blood. Upon close examination by the 
microscope, this phenomenon is found to be 
caused by a vegetable production of the simplest 
kind, being but an immense crop of single cells 
without root, stem, leaf, or flower, yet impressed 
with the mysterious principle of vitality, w>^ 
multiplying by constant divisions and subdi- 
visions of the parent cells. 



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191 



EDITORIAL JOTTINGS. 

In a receut trip through Southern Illinois we 
niade a few botanical notes, which we give onr 
readers. The low bottom lands near the Ohio 
and Mississippi rivers are heavily timbered. 
One of the commonest trees is the American or 
White Elm ( Ulmua Americana, L.) This has 
just passed the flowering stage. The Red Maple 
{Acer rubrum, L.) occurs frequently, and is 
also just out of flower. The Sweet Gum 
(Liquidambar) is abundant in many localities, 
a large number of the prickly fruit-balls still 
remain upon the tree. That vegetable thief, the 
Mistletoe CPhoradendron JlavescenSf Nntt.), 
9oems to have a particular attachment to the 
Elm trees, occurring much more frequently on 
them than on any other tree. It grows also on 
the Sycamore {Plcdanxis ocddentcUiSj L.), on 
the Bed Maple {Acer ruhrum, L.), on the Black 
Gam {Nyasa mvUiJloraj Wang.), and on some 
other trees. Some large Elms seemed loaded 
with this parasite, a hundred or more bunches 
growing upon one tree. These masses of yel- 
lowish-green vegetation give the trees a peculiar 
appearance. 

In many cases the small branches of the 
Sweet Gum were covered with broad corky 
ridges; sometimes this occurred only on the 
lower limbs, and in other cases all the branches 
were free from the excrescence. These corky 
ridges are much like those which occur on the 
Winged Elm ( Ulmua alata) which also grows 
in the same places. 

On rocky ledges at Cobden we found old 
fronds of some interesting feruB, viz.: CheU- 
anthes vesCita, Swartz, Polypodium incanum, 
Swartz, Asplenium eheneum. Ait., and Aspleni- 
urn trichomanesy L. Old stalks were also 
abundant of the JFalse Aloe {Agave Vtrginica^ 
L.) This plant sends up a large and preten- 
tions stalk, but its flowers are insiguiflcant. 
Patches of the small cane {Arundinaria tacta, 
Mahl.) were frequently visible, and at flrst sight 
might be mistaken for small willow bushes. The 
low and swampy grounds are everywhere be- 
coming verdant with extensive patches of the 
Copper-coloi-ed Iris {Iris cuprea^ Pursh). 

Many other rare plants bccur in this region, 
of which we shall probably have occasion to 
speak hei-eafter. 



Many plants could not be pei*petuated but for 
the agency of insects, and especially of bees; 
and it is remarkable that it is chiefly those which 
require the aid of this intervention that have a 
uectarium and secrete honey. 



NOTES PROM CORRESPONDENTS. 

We have the following notes from Mr. E. 
Hall, of Menard county, Ills., and commend 
his inquiries and obsei*vations to the attention 
of our readers : 

eronnd Nut— (^pfo« tuherota, Moench).— Will the 
readers of this journal everywhere, during the coming 
season, make observations on the fruiting of this vine, 
and will those who are so fortunate as to find it in fruit 
examine carefUUy and report the conditions under 
which they so find it? Its habit of reproducing itself 
fVom the tubers is the supposed cause of its general 
infertility; and when found in fhiit the tubers should 
be careAilIy unearthed, and their development and 
health noted, as well as tticir connections with the plant. 
I have only once met with this plant in f^uit in the State 
of Kansas, and where I had no opportunity to examine 
the development of its tubers. Its flowers are very 
fragrant, tiius attracting insects that may destroy the 
fertilizing elements of the female organs by undue 
irritation, or by producing premature dissemination 
of the pollen; but, whatever the cause, careful and 
patient observation will detect it. 

<|uerc«« alba«Biacr*carpa.— ▲ true hybrid, 
perfectly fertile, is growing near Athens, in Menard 
county, Ills. The mother tree was undoubtedly Q, 
macroearpa of the variety called oUva/ormis, as young 
specimens, apparently of the same age as the hybrid of 
that species, are or were growing in its vicinity. In 
general character its paternal blood largely predomi- 
nates, its maternal characters are chiefly notable in the 
f^uit, the younger branches, and in the form and 
pubescence of its leaves. From these several charac- 
ters its parentage is readily traced, and it aflTords a most 
interesting instance of a fertile hybrid of these two 
distinct species of oaks. 

Tlie iroiius Quercus In Menard Gonntjr, Ills. 
—The species of this genus here have prevalence in 
about the following proportions : 

White Oak (Qmrcus alba), 38 per cent. 

Yellow and Scarlet Oaks ( Q. eoecinsa), 25 per cent. 

Bed Oak {Q. rubra), 10 per cent. 

Burr Oak (Q. macroearpa) , 10 per cent. 

Chestnut Oak (Q. coHanea), 8 per cent. 

Post Oak (Q. obtutiloba), 5 per cent. 

Laurel Oak {Q, imbricaria), 5 per cent. 

Black Jack {Q, nigra), 8 per cent. 

Pin Oak ((?. paluttru), }4 per cent. 

Swamp White Oak (^. prinos, var.), }4 per cent 

I have placed the Yellow and Scarlet Oaks together 
fVom the fkct that the species are not easUy known or 
readily separated; even good botanists are often puz- 
zled to disci iminate between them, and some have 
doubted the existence of both species, but the weight 
of opinion is at present in their favor. Their specific 
differences are to be sought chiefly in what might be 
called constitutional characters. Eleven -eighteenths of 
the species of the Northern United States east of the Mis- 
sissippi are represented in this locality— a much greater 
proportion than the general flora of the same region — 
showing that these kings of the forest have somewhat 
equal powers in competing for existence under the 
conditions here pi e vailing. Since the settlement of the 
county a new generation is springing up, which is 
somewhat differently proportioned. The «bove esti- 
mates are for the original forests. 



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From New Tork.— You ask for some botanical 
notes from this part of our great country . Vegetation 
is yet mostly dormant, and we must confine ourselves 
to anticipation of what Nature will soon present. Here 
and there, however, in warm sheltered spots, by brush- 
ing away the masses of fallen leaves we may recognize 
some of our early spring flowers nearly ready to burst 
forth into life and beauty. Among these is the Liver- 
leaf {ffepaUca), the Spring Beauty {Gldytonia Carolini- 
ana)y and several kinds of violets. 

Of the violets I must speak a little at large, although 
it is yet too early for their appearance. The commonest, 
and perhaps the most beautiful, is a blue violet growing 
in wet or damp grounds, especially in meadows and by 
the borders of brooks and streams, the Viola cueullata^ 
Ait. , which rendered into English means the Hooded 
violet, from the manner in which the young leaves are 
rolled together in the form of a hood . The color of this 
violet is quite variable, from a light sky-blue to a dark 
purple, but always bright and attractive. Next we 
have, in low or wet grounds, the small White violet 
( Viola 5^m^, WUld.j, with roundish, heart-shaped, or 
kidney -shaped leaves, and delicate white flowers on 
short stalks, seldom rising more than an inch or two 
from the ground. Then we have the low yellow violet 
( Viola rohmMfolia, Mich.), which is found on wooded 
slopes and hill sides. This has small, bright yellow 
flowers, opening in early spring. The leaves, at the 
time of flowering, are about an inch broad and nearly 
round, but when ftiUy grown they are often three or four 
inches across. The three species we have mentioned 
are stemless violets, the leaves and flowers springing 
separately from the root or root-stock. 

Of the stemmed violets we have a number of species. 
In damp shady places the low leafy blue violet, a variety 
of Viola oarUna, L. , or the Viola MuhUnhergiif Torr., the 
Long-spurred violet {Viola rostrata, Pursh.), in rich 
soils on wooded hills, the Striped-flowered violet ( Viola 
striata. Ait.), and the large white violet ( Viola eanadm' 
m, L.), which is the largest species we have in the 
country, common in rich, open woods, the flowers of 
good size, whitish, and delicately tinged with violet. 
Lastly, we have the large yellow violet ( Viola pubams^tu, 
Ait.) which is common in open, and especially in sandy 
woods. 

I was much pleased the other day, in crossing a low 
place In a meadow, to observe the young flower-stalks, 
or spathes, of the Skunk Cabbage {Symplocarput fceiidua, 
Salisb.) just shooting into sight. With a knife I cut 
down into the ground, and severed some of these from 
the root, that I might examine their very singular 
structure. They consist of a roundish mass, or head, 
in which grow many small crowded yellowish flowers, 
the whole surrounded by a thick, leathery kind of leaf, 
of a purplish color, spotted and striped with yellow and 
green, and extending beyond the cob, or head of flowers, 
enwrapping and almost entirely concealing them from 
view. The young leaves are already beginning to press 
out of the ground, and when fully developed they form 
a mass of lai^e heart-shaped leaves, looking not unlike 
a bead of cabbage, and, irom their strong and peculiar 
odor, meriting the name by which it is generally known. 
A plant of, such offensive odor should have some com- 
pensating qualities, and we find that the root of this 
plant has a pretty well established reputation in the 
Materia Medica, 



Meagre as is the botanizing field among t^e flowering 
plants at present, we find it little more satisfactory among 
cryptogams. Several kinds of mosses have found warmth 
sufllcient to make some growth^ and send up fruithig 
pedicels and mature capsules. On the bodies of trees 
are several species of Orihotriehum (particularly 0. stran- 
gulatum, Beau v., and 0. oritpum^ Hedw.) in little round 
patches, and occasionally large masses of the handsome 
Neehera pennata^ Hedw. I often gather this in fine con- 
dition on the beech wood which is brought into market 
Various other kinds of mosses are still under beds of 
snow, where they find conditions favorable to their 
growth, and when their fleecy covers are melted away 
they will please the eye with their bright and lively 
colors, and repay tenfold any labor taken in a close 
examination. These small delicate objects are worthy 
of more careful study . P . 

Utica, N. Y., April, 1870. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

Plants to Name— J/r«. B, S. Lake, Colorado. —It is 
a pleasure to look upon such finely preserved specimens 
as the Colorado plants you send. No. 1 is the sky-blue 
Columbine {AqmUgia omtUa, Torr.), one of the finest 
ornaments of the Eocky Mountains. The flowers are 
larger and more showy than either the garden Colum- 
bine {A, mlgaru, L.) or the wild Columbine (J. com- 
densis, L.) of the Eastern S totes. It grows about two 
feet high, has large bright blue flowers, the spur of the 
petals being two Inches long. It is well worthy of 
cultivation . No . 2 is the smooth Mountain Maple ( Aeer 
ffldbrumy Torr.) It is a small shrub, six to eight or ten 
feet high, with small smooth leaves, somewhat three- 
lobed and toothed, and producing an abundance of the 
winged fhiit peculiar to the maples. No. 3 is Oxytfop^ 
Laniberti, Pursh.. without any common name so far as 
we are aware. It belongs to the Pea Family {Legu- 
minota). It is a low plant with perennial root, bearing 
all the leaves at the ground and sending up simple 
spikes of flowers, varying from light blue to purple, 
which are succeeded by upright cylindrical pods about 
an inch long. The plant is wide-spread over the plains 
and among the lower mountain ranges . No . 4 is a shrub 
peculiar to the Eocky Mounteins, nearly related to the 
Hydrangea, and is botenically known as Jatnetia Awmt- 
ieana, T. and G., in honor of the discoverer. Dr. 
James, the Botanist of Long's Expedition in 1820. 
No. 5 is a plant well known in the Western States, 
occurring in hazel patches and the borders of prairies, 
and is sometimes called Shooting Stor, sometimes Pride 
of the Prairie {Dodecatheon Jfeadia, L.) It is a unique 
and beauaf\il plant of the Primrose Family. We do 
not mean the Evening Prim/rote Family, but the t^ 
Primrose Family (Primulacem) . The type of this family 
is the Primrose of Europe, of which genus we have but 
two species (both rare) in this country. The Dodeca- 
theon has a number of large, oblong, smooth leaves at 
the surface of the ground, fh)m which rises a long 
naked stem a foot or two in length, and surmounted at 
the top with an umbel of from five to twenty flowers, 
which are nodding when ftilly open, but in flruit 
are strictly erect. It has been somewhat introduced 
into cultivation, and \s well worthy a pUice in every 
garden. 



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VOL. 2. 



ST. LOUIS, MO., MAY, 1870^ 



NO. 7. 



CHARLES V. RILEY, Editor, 
ai N. Main tt., St. Louie, Mo. 

THE G0RDIU8, OR HAIR-WORM. 

BY PR0FKA80B J08KPU LKIDY, PIIILAMCLPHIA 



[Fig. Ill) J 




Though by no ineaus common , most persons, 
at least those living in the country, are more or 
less familiar with the carious animal known 
Diider the various names of Hair-worm, Hair- 
snake, and Horeo-hair worm. Usually a single 
specimen is observed at a time, sometimes in a rai n 
puddle in a hollow or wagon-rut by the wayside, 
or in a drinking-trough at a village inn, attract- 
ing attention by its active and incessant wrig- 
gling movements, bending from side to side and 
carving in all directions, and giving rise to the 
impression that it is writhing with pain. Its 
resemblance in form and color to a hoi*se hair, 
coupled with the position in which it is ordi- 
narily noticed, has given rise to the world-wide 
popular belief that the creature is actually a 
transformed horse-hair— one that by maceration 
has become endowed with independent life, and 
the inherent power of movement. I once saw, 
in an old English periodical, an attempt at an 
explanation of the manner in which horse-haira, 
in the process of decomposition, gave rise to 
movement, which induced me to try the experi- 
ment of making hair-worms. I need hardly 
say that I looked at my horse-hairs for many 
months without having had the opportunity of 
seeing their yiviiication. 



The Hair-worm is, however, a distinct animal, 
having no further relationship with a horse-hair 
than in its general likeness, which is by no means 
an exact one. When sought for in the proper 
places, as is the case with many other animals, 
the Hair-worm is much less rare than is generally 
supposed. In the latter part of summer or the 
beginning of autumn, in the search for the ani- 
mal, I have frequently found it, while saunter- 
ing along the banks of a river or creek, in little 
hollows close to the shore. It requires some 
practice to discover it, as usually it is compara- 
tively quiet in such situations, and may readily 
be confounded with the blackened, decomposing 
vegetable fibres occupying similar places. Some- 
times it is found single, and at others a number 
are discovered coiled together in a loose, but in- 
tricate-looking knotted mass. Such knots, which 
had passed through the water pipes and issued 
at hydrants in our city, I have seen on two 
occasions. Similar knots, no doubt, were the 
source of the scientific name of the worm, that 
of Gordius, applied to it by Linnasus, from the 
fabled Gordian-knot of antiquity. The Gordius, 
however, not only resembles the latter in the 
intricate condition into which it sometimes gets, 
but its history is yet in part a Gordian-knot to 
be unraveled. 

The worm is perhaps the hardest or most re- 
sistant to the feel of any of its Order, and it is 
tough and elastic. It is very tenacious of life, 
and when cut into several pieces will continue 
to live and move for some time afterwards. 

Linnseus accepted a popular en'or in regard 
to the Gordius. In his System of Mature he 
says that, ^* if the worm is incautiously handled 
it will inflict a bite at the ends of the fingers, 
and occasion the complaint called a whitlow." 
It is sufficient to refute such a fancy when it is 
learned that the animal has neither jaws nor 
other instruments by which it could either bite 
or sting. 

A number of species of the genus have been 
noticed in different parts of the world. Several 
European species have been described, and we 
have as many in this country which appear to 
be quite distinct from the former. The morQ 



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common American species of the worm I have 
named the Variable Gordius (G, vaHus) from 
its pi*e8enting some variety of character. 

The worm is cylindrical, of pretty uniform 
diameter, but slightly narrowed at the ends. It 
is smooth and lustrous, and varies from a light 
yellowish-brown to a chocolate-bi*own, some- 
times nearly black. It Is usually much coarser 
than a horse-hair, to which it is so commonly 
likened. The head end is marked by a ring of 
darker color (see Fig. 119, a) than the rest of 
the body. The ring appears darker in contrast 
with the lighter condition of the latter, and 
may be obscured entirely in the nearly black 
varieties (Fig. 119, 6). The summit of the 
head appears as a convex whitish prominence 
included within the ring, and is composed of a 
thinner membrane than the i*est of the integu- 
ment. 

[Fig. 120.] 




The tail end of the male makes one or two 
spiral turns, and terminates in being forked. 
The tail end of the female is straight, and ends 
in three lobes (Fig. 120, g K), The male varies 
in length from 4 to 6i inches, with the thickness 
from 1-5 to i of a line. The female ranges in 
length from 5 inches to afoot, with the thickness 
from i to^of a line. 

The males of this, which I have regarded 
heretofore as of one species, present two varie- 
ties, each of which I now suspect to indicate a 
different species. In the one variety, usually 
more robust than the other, the forks of the tail 
are not longer than the thickness of the body — 
as seen in Figure 120, kj which represents a 
dorsal view. Between the base of the forks, 
on the ventral surface (Fig. 120, t), there 
is included a crescentic fold in which may be 
seen the genital pore. In the other — usually of 
more slender form — the forks of the tail are two 
or three times the length of the thickness of the 
body (Fig. 120, /), and the forks do not include 
at their base a crescentic fold as in the former. 
The genital pore is a little in advance of the 
division of the tail. The species, probably indi- 
cated in this last form, might be distinguished 



by the name of the Long-lobed Gordius {G. 
longilpbatus) . 

A more delicate species than the former I have 
named the Linear Gordius (G. lineatus). It 
was indicated by half a dozen specimens ob- 
tained by Prot. S. F. Baird, from a spring in 
Essex county. New York. It is of a light clay- 
color, and has no dark ring encircling the head, 
which is represented in Figure 119, c. The tail 
end of the male (Fig. 120, m) is forked very much 
as in the Long-lobed Gordius, but the forks are 
furnished on their inner margin, ventrally, with 
a fringe of minute processes, such as are repre- 
sented, highly magnified, in Figure 120, w. The 
tail end of the female is blunt and unprovided 
with lobes, the genital pore occupying the 
centre of the extremity, as seen in Figure 119,/, 
the similar end of a larger species, to be next 
described. The male measures from 5 to 7 inches 
in length, by l-6th of a line in thickness. A 
single female accompanying the males was 5 
inches long and l-5th of a line thick. 

Numerous specimens of a much larger species 
of Gordius than any of the preceding, were sent 
to me some years ago by Dr. Wm. A. Hammond, 
who obtained them 625 miles west of Fort Riley, 
Kansas. They were discovered in large num- 
bers in a pond, in company with the curious 
batrachian Siredon, or so-called Fish-with-legs. 
They swam actively just beneath the surface of 
the water, and occasionally protruded the head 
above into the air. They are of a light yellow- 
ish-brown, with the head end encircled by a 
narrow band of darker hue, as represented in 
Figure 119, 6. The males are darker than the 
females. The tail end of the former resembles 
that of the male of the Variable Gordius (Fig. 120, 
i k). The tail end of the female (Fig. 119,/) is 
blunt, and exhibits the genital pore in the centre 
surrounded by a brown ring. The body of this 
Gordius is more annulated than in any of the 
other species. The males measure from 8 inches 
to 2 feet 2 inches in length, and 1-4 to 2-5ths of 
a line thick. The females measure from 10 
inches to 2 feet 6 inches in length, by Jd to S-oths 
of a line thick. 

The species I think to be the same as one pre- 
viously described by me, under the name of the 
Robust Gordius {G. robustus)^ from a female 
specimen, about 6 inches in length, wki^^h was 
found parasitic in a Grasshopper (Orchelimum 
gracile), in New Jersey. Certain it is, the lat- 
ter agrees in all details with the female speci- 
mens from Kansas, except in size. The great 
Helminthologist, Dr. Diesing, of Vienna, from 
my description, named the species Gordius mb- 
spircUis, 



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195 



Although the complete history of the Grordius 
remains imknowii, it is oeverthcless clearly 
establishiMl that it passes a great part of its ex- 
istence as }i p;irnsite in various species of insects. 
I have never had the good fortune to observe 
any of our ^|locie8 actually wiihin, or proceeding 
from, insecls, though I have, iu a multitude of 
instances, seen the allied genus, Mermis, or 
While Hair-worm, within insects. A single 
specimen, from which I first described the Ro- 
bust Gordius, was sent to mo, together with a 
Grasshopper {Orchelimum gractle), which was 
said to have contained the worm. 

The common European species (Gordius 
aquaticiiSf etc.) have been frequently observed 
within and proceeding from insects, which ai'e 
there viewed as their natural habitation for the 
time, as much so as is the water subsequently. 
The names of various Beetles, especially the 
Ground-beetles, and also Grasshoppers, ai-e 
given, which are infested with Gordii. 

I have obsei-ved a White Hair-worm (Mermis) 
proceeding from the Carolina Grasshopper 
((Edipoda Carolina, Linn.), whilst the latter 
was struggling in a ditch into which it had 
jumped from being alarmed. Perhaps in this 
way we may account for the occasional appear- 
ance of a Gordius in a drinking trough, or a 
puddle on the road. 

A brief notice of the structure of the Gordius 
may not be uninteresting in connection with the 
history of the animal. Notwithstanding the 
simplicity of its outward form, its organization 
is ot complex character, and certain of its pecu- 
liarities are of special interest to the physiojo- 
gist. 

Though the Gordius has had the reputation 
of being able to bite, I must confess that I have 
not been able to satisfy myself that the animal 
actually possesses a mouth. For jaws I suspect 
the forks of the tail of the male have been mis- 
taken. Some European observers have failed 
to detect the mouth, though Dr. George 
Meissner, of Guttingen, a most accurate in- 
vestigator, both describes and figures it. 
Sometimes^ and indeed generally, I have de- 
tected the appearance of a minute orifice, or 
pore, to one side of the summit of the head in 
the Variable Gordius, but in other instances and 
in other species, including the large Robust 
Gordius of Kansas, I could distinguish nothing 
of the kind, the head end appearing as smooth 
as a watch crystal, without the slightest sign of 
even a depression. 

All reliable investigations, in addition to my 
own examinations, prove the total absence of 
anything like a stomach, intestinal canal and 



vent in Gordius. The interior of the body is 
occupied by a soft, white matter, reminding one 
of the pith of sassafras or other plant. This 
matter consists of polyhedral cells, resembling 
vegetable cellular tissue, and forms a continuous 
mass from one end of the body to the other. 
Spaces included in this cellular tissue are occu- 
pied by the genital and other organs. According 
to Dr. Meissi^er, the mouth opens into a short 
gullet which expands upon the upper end of the 
mass of cellular tissue. 

Nutritive liquid matter imbibed by the mouth, 
or the thin investment of the head end of thei 
animal, it is evident, can only pass throughout 
the body of the latter by endosmosis from cell 
to cell of the interior cellular structure. The 
arrangement of the latter, and the transmission 
of nutritive liquid, reminds one of the organiza- 
tion and passage of liquids through the lootlets 
of a plant. 

Nothing like a system of blood-vessels, or 
nutritive tubes, nor like the tracheal air-vessels 
of insects, can be detected in the structure of 
the worm. 

Whilst parasitic in insects, the Gordius is 
bathed in a rich and highly aerated nutritive 
material, and would thus not appear to require 
either an apparatus for the ingestion of food 
nor one for respiration. Perhaps, too, on 
account of the absence of a digestive and i*es- 
piratory apparatus, when the Gordius first 
escapes from its abundant provision of '^aerated 
bread,'' it is stimulated to incessant activity in 
the water to fulfill at least its respiratory need. 

The generative apparatus of the female con- 
sists ot a pair of ovaries, contained in the in- 
terior cellular tissue of the body, extending the 
gi*eater part of the length of the latter on each 
side, and conjoining in a common receptacle 
below, which terminates at the genital pore. In 
the male the testes hold a similar relationship, 
and terminate in like manner. 

Of other interior organs, there is a tubular 
gland extending through the axis of the body, 
and a cylindrical cord, appai*ent]y muscular, 
extending along the ventral side. 

The nervous system consists mainly of a cord, 
without distinct or separate ganglia, extending 
along the ventral side, between the muscular 
cord just indicated and the general envelope of 
the body. In the head the nervous cord divides 
on each side of the muscular cord, and, accord- 
ing to Dr. Meissner, becomes continuous with 
a ring surrounding the gullet. No eyes or other 
organs of special sense appear to exist. 

The external integument of the body consists 
of a thin cuticle of pavement-like cells, and a 



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thick deimis. This is composed of layers of 
fibres which pursue a spiral direction around 
the body of the worm, alternating or crossing 
in the successive layers. Within the thick skin 
of the worm there is a thicker muscular layer, 
composed of longitudinal fibres. 

The Gordius is a wonderfully prolific animal. 
The mode of impregnation I have not observed. 
In the European Oordius aquaticus^ Dr. Meiss- 
ner observed that the tail end of the male wound 
spirally around that of the female, and by its 
forked extremity grasped that of the latter, 
while the genital pores were closely applied 
together. 

The Variable Goi-dius and the Long-lobed 
Gordius extrude their eggs in a long, narrow 
white cord, from between the lobes of the tail, 
as represented in Figure 120, h. I observed a 
Variable Gordius, 9 inches in length by 2-5ths 
of a line in thickness, commence laying eggs, 
and continue the process vei*y slowly and 
gradually during two weeks. They were ex- 
truded in a delicate cylindrical cord, i-esembling 
a thread of sewing cotton. At first it broke ofi*, 
as extruded, in pieces about a foot in length, 
but, towards the end of the process, the cord 
appeared to be less tenacious, and broke off in 
pieces a few inches, and even a few lines, in 
length. The pieces in the aggregate measured 
91 inches ; the thickness of the cord was about 
the 1-lOth of a line. The eggs are very minute, 
and in the cord were compressed together so as 
to be polyhedi-al. In a transverse section of the 
cord I counted about 70 eggs, and in the length 
of l-40th of an inch 26 eggs, which by calcula- 
tion gives 6,624,800 as the whole number of eggs 
in the cord. The eggs when isolated assume an 
oval shape, and measure about the l-750th of an 
inch long by the 1-lOOOth of an inch broad. 

The development of the young from the egg 
is readily observed from day to day ; and it takes 
about a month before the process is completed. 
The globular mass of yolk in the centre of the 
Qgg undergoes segmentation, and inci*ea8es in 
bulk until it is finally resolved into an oval mass 
of granules occupying the greater part of the 
interior of the egg. Gradually the mass assumes 
the appearance of a worm doubled upon itself, 
as seen in the magnified view (Fig. 120, o). In 
about four weeks the Gordius reaches maturity, 
and escapes from the egg totally diffei*ent in 
appearance from the parent (Fig. 121, p qr). 

The newly developed Gordius is about the 
l-450th of an inch long. The body is constricted 
just posterior to the middle, so as to appear 
divided into two portions, reminding one of the 
two divisions of the body in spiders. The an- 



terior thicker portion of the body is cylindrical, 
distinctly annnlated, and contains a complex 
apparatus which the animal is capable of pro- 
truding and withdrawing. The posterior part of 
the body is cylindrical, annulated, and rounded 
at the extremity, which is furnished with a pair 
of minute hooks. The interior exhibits a faintly 
granular structure, including two large, clear, 
globular bodies. 

[Fig. 131.] 




The young Gordius appears not to be able to 
swim about, but lies at the bottom of the vessel 
containing it, slowly* progressing through the 
alternate protrusion, reflection and retraction 
of the oral apparatus, and occasionally swinging 
the hinder part of the body from side to side. 

The oral apparatus consists of a collar, with 
two circles of hooks, six in each, and a proboscis- 
like style. In the movements of this apparatus, 
the ends of six hooks are seen to protrude from 
the centre of the head (Fig. 121, p). These 
continue to project and diverge more and more, 
and then become reflected. As they turn back- 
ward the ends of the second circle of books are 
observed protruding in the same manner^ and 
then follows the style (Fig. 121, q). When the 
latter is fully protruded, the first circle of hooks 
is seen at the margin of a collar deeply roflected 
at the side of the body, while the second circle 
of hooks is reflected from the margin of the 
head (Fig. 121, r). In a reverse order the dif- 
ferent parts of the apparatus are retracted, to be 
again protruded in the manner described. 

The newly developed Gordii, under my ob- 
servation, continued to live about a week more, 
and then gi'adually died. 

Dr. Meissner was successful in following the 
history of the animal a step further. Having 
placed in the same vessel with the young Gordii 
a number of larvse of May-fiies (JEphemeridcB), 
and Caddice-flies (^Phryganeidce) y he observed 
that they entered these insects, and thus com- 
menced their parasitic life. The worms were 
observed to penetrate the delicate membrane at 
the joints of the legs of the inflects, and gradu- 
ally to advance among the muscles and other 
organs throughout the body. In some of the 
insects as many as forty of the young Gordii 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



197 



had penetrated. They afterwards became qui- 
escenty doubled on themselveSy and encysted, 
SO as to resemble their former condition just 
before emerging from the egg. In this state 
they recall to mind the similar encysted TrichinsB 
in the muscles of man and the hog. 

Dr. Meissner observed no further change in 
the Gk)rdii, while contained in the insect larvad, 
nor did he detect them after feeding some of the 
latter to water Beetles. 

Thus from the young Gordius, which has es- 
caped from the egg and entered upon its para- 
sitic life in the interior of iusect larvad, to the 
parent Gordius, as it is commonly observed, 
either as a parasite or living in the water, the 
circle of the animal's history is broken and un- 
known. 

Perhaps the young Gordii remain quiescent 
in the May and Caddice-flies until these under- 
go their last transformation in the air, when 
they may be seized and devoured by Ground- 
beetles, which are ever lurking beneath stones 
and other objects in the vicinity of water, on the 
lookout for prey. Once eaten by the Beetles, 
like TricMnsB swallowed by the hog, the Gordii 
may then undergo transformation, and assume 
the form of the parent Gordius, which is paid 
especially to infest the Ground-beetles. 

EXPLANATION OF FIGURES, ALL OF WHICH ARE 
MAGNIFIED. 

^ Fio. 119 —a. anterior extremity of the femiUe Variable 
* Gordius (G. varim)) b, the same of the male; c, anterior 
extremity of the Linear Gordius (O UnearitU d, side 
Tiew of the posterior extremity of the male of the same 
species; «, anterior extremity of the Robust Gordius (G. ro- 
biuttu), from Kansas; /. posterior extremity of the female of 
the same species, exhibiting the genital pore. 

Fio. 120.—^, Posterior, tri-lobed extremity of the female 
Variable Gordius; h, the same, with the lolSes more diver- 
gent, and exhibiting the extrusion of the cor<l . f eggs; <, 
po8terior bi-lobed extremity of the male V^ariable Gordius, 
seen on the ventral surface, and exhibiting the genital pore; 
k, dorsal view of the same; /, posterior bl-lobed extremity 
of the male Long-lobed Gordius, seen on the ventral surface, 
and exhibiting the genital pore; m, the same in the male of 
the Linear Gordius; n, portion of the fVingeof the latter, 
highly magnified; o, eggof the Variable Gordius, containing 
a rally developed worm, highly magnified. 

Fio. 121 —The young Variable Gordius, after escaping 
firom the egg, highly magnified ; p, the worm commencing to 
protrude tl^ oral appaiatus; 9, the first circle of hoolcTets 
bordering the collar reflected, and the protrusion of the sec- 
ond circle of booklets and the style; r, complete protrusion 
of both circles of the booklets and style. 



ONE DAY'S JOURNAL OF A STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 

[This IS one of Mr. Walsh's posthumous 
papers. The duties therein defined may be con- 
sidered light, as will readily be imagined* when 
the number of letters received each day swells 
to fifteen or twenty, instead of six or seven, as 
we often find to be the case during the height of 
the summer season. — ^Ed.] 

Many persons have an idea that the office of 
State Entomologist is a snug little sinecure, such 



as the footman was in search of when he told 
the gentleman who proposed to hire him that 
he wanted a place where the wages were high, 
and where there was very little work to be 
done, except kissing the housemaid. We pro- 
pose, for the enlightenment of persons like 
these, to give, in the following paragraphs, a 
sketch of an average day's work, such as the 
Bngmaster General of Illinois, or the State En- 
tomologist of Missouri, has to perform almost 
every day during the greater part of the year. 

5 A. M. — Rose and went over to the office. 
Examined my breeding-cages ; found the leaves 
beginning to wilt in five of them, in two of 
which I had larvsB feeding on oak leaves, while 
the lai*v8B in the remaining three lived respec- 
tively upon hickory, plum and bass wood. Took 
my cane and hat, and started out to get a sup- 
ply of fresh leaves. Had to walk a distance of a 
mile and a half, because there was no basswood 
growing any neai^er to my office. Returned and 
shifted the larvce on to fresh twigs, placed, as 
usual, in water to keep them fresh as long as 
possible. Noted in my journal how many larvss 
in each cage had gone to pupa, and how many 
had died or disappeared from other causes. 

7 A. M. — After breakfast, and while I was 
smoking my usual cigar, examined my breeding- 
jars, and the cages where I keep my pupsB. 
Found that seven moths had come out. Noted 
in my journal the lot of pupce from which each 
of the seven had come out, so as to connect each 
separate species with its larval history. Killed the 
moths, and set out their wings in my drying-box. 
Before I could do this — as all the trays in the 
drying-box were brimming full — had to remove 
the eetting-pins and setting-braces from a whole 
tray, and distribute the dried insects among the 
appropriate store-boxes, each group in a sepa- 
rate store-box along with the labels that belong 
to each species, and indicate its name and his- 
tory as far as ascertained. Found that, in my 
breeding-vases, I had reared three species of 
insects that were quite new to me. Ascertained 
at once the name of two of them; but, after 
spending two hours in I'eferriug to a dozen dif- 
fei*ent authors, <o find out the name of the third, 
am more in the dark than ever. Surely this 
must be a new and hitherto undescribed species. 
If so — but I must see about that to-night. 

11 A. M. — Run up to the post-office for my 
morning mail. Find there four letters from 
correspondents, enclosing specimens of bugs, 
and requesting an immediate answer, two such 
letters to be answered through the Entomolo- 
gist, and a package of proof-sheets from R. P. 
Studley &Co., St. Louis; also, a lot of political 



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and agricnltural jonrnals. Return home in a 
hurry, pitch the printed journals into the basket, 
to be examined when I have a little leisure, and 
answer per mail the four letters that requii'e 
immediate attention. Luckily the insects sent 
with these four letters are all common species, 
and perfectly familiar to me; and, as I know 
them '< like a book," it does not take me long 
to write my four letters. 

12:80 p. M. — After dinner, and while I am 
luxuriating in a fragrant Havana, revise the 
proof-sheets. Find but very little indeed to 
correct. Have had pi*oof-sheet8 from a dozen 
different printing offices in America, and from 
twice that number in England, and never yet 
met with such **clean" proofs as Messrs. Studley 
& Co. turn out from their magnificent estab- 
lishment. Open the two letters, enclosing 
specimens of bugs, and requiring to be answered 
in the Entomologist. One of them is all plain 
sailing, as the insects are well known to me, 
and are properly packed with some cotton wool 
ill a little stout pasteboard box. The other cor- 
respondent has enclosed his specimens loose in 
his letter, and being soft, fleshy larvse they are 
squashed into a most promiscuous mass. Puzzle 
a long time over the head, which is the only 
recognizable part. Conclude that it probably 
belongs to some one or other out of fifteen dis- 
tinct larvae. Puzzle again for half an hour 
longer to guess which lai-va of the fifteen is the 
one that has been sent me. Alas I I am no 
Yankee, and have finally to give the job up in 
despair. "Write the appropriate ' 'Answers to 
Correspondents," and fully expect to be "cussed" 
considerably by one of them, because I cannot 
distinguish every one of the thirty thousand 
species of insects that exist in the United States 
by a fragmentary specimen of its head. 

4 p. M. — Gro into my garden to examine the 
results of several experiments that I am trying 
as to the efficacy of different chemical pi-e para- 
gons upon several different noxious insects. 
Return and i*ecord the results, so far as they 
appear up to this day, in my journal. Walk out 
with my fly-net, and capture two males and one 
female of a rare insect, which is comparatively 
common here, and of which I have promised to 
send specimens to an Eastern correspondent, in 
return for his kind assistance in making extracts 
for my use from scarce and expensive Entomo- 
logical works, which at present are only to be 
found in the great scientific libraries in the 
Eastern cities. Heighol I wonder if we shall 
ever get a public library in the West that is 
decently supplied with standard works on 
Natural History. I wish I was a rich man; 



would not I then send an order forthwith to 
Europe for $10,000 worth of Entomological 
books I 

6:30 p. M. — Have just returned from the popt- 
office and swallowed my supper. I have received 
two more letters on the great Bug questiou, 
that require immediate attention; and a long 
and most interesting letter from an entomo- 
logical correspondent in Europe. Run my eye 
over the last, and find ray modesty terribly 
shocked by his telling me that the Entomolo<jist 
is highly appreciated among scientific men on 
the other side of the Atlantic. Answer the 
other two letters, one of which contains some 
new and most important facts about a certain 
noxious insect, which throw great light upon a 
point in its history that has hiiherto been wrap- 
ped in obscurity. What an accurate observer 
that last correspondent of mine is I I would 
just as soon trust his eyes — as to the operaiions 
of any particular bug — as I would my own I 
But then, of course. 1 know the correct names 
of the different bugs better than he does. If I 
had but one hundred such con^spondcnts, they 
would be as useful to me in my scientific in- 
vestigations as fifty pairs of additional eyes! 
And yet this man is nothing but an intelligent 
fruit-grower, with good, strong common sense, 
and that most invaluable habit of never seeing 
anything until he does actually see it. 

g P, M. — Having now discharged the duties of 
the day, I am just about to sit down to prose- 
cute some further investigations into the correct 
name and classification of that bug that bothered 
me so much in the morning, when 1 hear a tre- 
mendous fiuttering in one of my breeding-cages. 
Lo and behold! There are two Urge moths 
come out that I did not expect to make their 
appearance for a week or two. Chloroform 
them to stop their fluttering; and, after killing 
them and stuffing their abdomens with cotton, 
set out their wings on the little space that re- 
mains in the tray that I cleared in the morning. 
To-morrow, I suppose, I shall be obliged to 
clear another tray. Well—** Sufficient unto the 
day is the labor thereof." 

9 p. M. — Set to work once more to puzzle over 
my supposed new species. Can find no descrip- 
tion to suit it in any work that 1 possess. Can 
it be really a new species? As usually happens 
in such cases, thero are several species belonging 
to the genus, the descriptions of which are only 
to be met with in certain rai-e and expensive 
works which I am not rich enough to buy. 
What shall I do ? I have it ! I will enclose some 
specimens, so securely packed that they can not 
possibly come to any harm, in a letter to one of 



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my correspondents in the East, who has the 
happiness to have access to the veiy best scien- 
tific library in the whole country. At my re- 
quest he will, I know, compare the specimens 
sent with the descriptions to which he has free 
access every day, while I should have to travel 
a thousand miles to get to them. I do this; and 
now, having done my best, I will calmly and 
peacefully await results. But by this time it is 
10 p. M., and I am beginning to feel sleepy and 
tired. Suppobc I adjourn to the county of Bed- 
ford ? 



[Flgr. 122.] 



ROW TO COLLECT AND STUDY INSECTS-No. 2. 

HY F. G. SANBORN, BOSTON, MASS. 

One can scarcely walk a mile in the country 
without obtaining some object to grace his 
cabinet, or observing some fact 
in natural histoiy to add to his 
store-house of mental treas- 
ures. It should be borne in 
mind by the student collector 
I that, notwithstanding he may 
propose to confine his studies 
to one Order of insects, he 
should also contract a habit 
of observing and collecting 
tho^e of other Orders, as well 
as such small and portable 
vertebrates and other inverte- 
brates as his opportunities 
may enable him to capture and 
preserve. Alcoholic specimens 
of Mammals, Birds, Fishes, 
Reptiles, Mollubks, Crustacea, 
and facts concerning them, 
are marketable commodities 
in the Exchanges of Science. 
Especially should this plan be 
carried out by the collector 
who may be established for a 
term of months or years in a 
region remote from libraries 
and museums. Such study 
and investigation in this field 
as his time permits, will of 
itiielf materially enlighten his mind upon the 
secrets of Nature; and, although destitute of 
books — those records of i*epeated failures and 
few successful attempts to unmask Nature's 
protean face — he may Ieai*n the structure, habits 
and comparative intelligence of the creatures 
around him. A subsequent opportunity may 
occur for him to ascertain, if so disposed, the 
different technical names imposed upon ''Mouse 




^li® 



No. 7," "Bird and nest, XII," or "Bug No. 427," 
and accepted by the scientific world. 

Should he care only to acquaint himself with 
the nomenclature of some limited group or 
order, and wish to inci*ea8e his cabinet in that 
specialty, he will find that he has the powers of 
a capitalist to invest hie miscellaneous collection 
of specimens and facts in such manner as he 
may prefer. Thanks to the diversity of tastes 
implanted in us, there is always some eager 
specialist — ^individual, or backed by an associa- 
tion — standing ready to give full value for, and 
" work up," this or that portion of such ma- 
tenal. 

The practice of noting (with ink if possible) 
in a small blank book, or on cards, such facts 
and observations as he may make or discover, 
adds immensely to the value of any collection, 
and can not be too strongly recommended to the 
collector. The date of capture of a specimen, 
of the transformation from the egg, larva or 
pupa, of the appearance or disappearance from 
its usual haunts, and such other items of interest 
that arise in connection with the specimen, are 
of importancd to the student, and should be 
therein set down. A small tag or ticket of 
paper attached to the dry specimen, or of parch- 
ment, leather, or soft metal to the alcoholic, and 
bearing a number corresponding to that in the 
note-book, renders the information thus obtained 
available, and sufficiently identifies the speci- 
men. As the collector pursues his investigations 
month after month, he will find his senses be- 
coming educated to a delicacy of touch and 
fineness of perception that can not fail to be a 
source of pride and gratification to him. He 
whose attention would not at first be diverted 
to the ragged leaves of a caterpillar-ridden tree, 
will in a few months notice instantly the slight 
convexity of outline on twig or leaf caused by 
the presence of a small insect, or the extremity 
of a branch cleanly cut by a Prnner-beetle. 

In the course of his observations he will be 
amused by the imitative shapes and colors of 
many forms of insect life, and will frequently 
be deceived by the Curculios, who successfully 
simulate buds and bits of bark. The caterpillars 
of some of the moths resemble so closely cylin- 
drical twigs, as many of the Loopers {Geome- 
tHdcR) ; scales of rough or smooth bark, as the 
Hag-moth (lAmacodes pitfiecium) y and the Lap- 
pet-moths (Gastropacha veileda and americana). 
Some of the Beetles, as the CryptocephaU and 
Histersj closely resemble seeds, as do certain 
Bugs, among them Corimelaenay and the two 
latter suggest such kinship as to cause them 
almost invariably to fhiternize in the cabinet of 



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the amateur. These singular resemblances are 
called mimetic forms; and, existing everywhere 
in Nature, even if they have no high significance 
and serve no better purpose, educate our per- 
ceptive powers to a degree undreamed of by the 
cai^eless horde of money worshippers. 

During the active season of the insect year 
the collector should make it a rule never to stir 
abroad without a cork-stoppered vial half filled 
with alcohol, for the temporary deposit of 
beetles, ants, or the larvsB or pup» of any in- 
sects that it may be desirable to preserve in this 
way. The only insects that are irrecoverably 
injured by a few days immersion in pure alco- 
hol are the Butterflies and Moths. For these a 
small cork or pith-lined pocket box, of conveni- 
ent form and full one inch and a half in depth, 
containing a few insect pins of various sizes, is 
indispensable, and should be a constant com- 
panion. Upon a premeditated excursion of a 
day or more in duration, the collector will 
naturally provide more extensive means of 
transportation, such as jars of alcohol, a vial of 
chloi*oform,. a number of old envelopes, and a 
larger box slung on the side with straps, and a 
proportionate stock of pins. Some collectors 
continually carry, in a pocket made for the 
purpose, a wide-mouthed vial like a chemist's 
test-tube, '^of the same size all the way up,'' 
containing at the bottom a few grains of cyanide 
of potassium, which is kept in place by a wad 
of cotton, felt or thick cloth, neatly pressed 
down upon it. (See Fig. 122.) This prevents 
the cyanide, which is a deadly poison, from 
touching or soiling any delicate insect, and 
allows the powerful vapor to destroy, as it does 
almost instantly, the life of any insect that may 
be enclosed in the prepared vial. The per- 
manence of this poison (its virtue enduring for a 
twelvemonth or more), its cleanliness and cheap- 
ness, render it perhaps the most convenient and 
desirable *' life-annihilator." It is, perhaps, un- 
necessary to mention that the vial cfik. 123.] 
should be kept tightly corked, and 
that the insect should remain 
therein not much more or less than 
ten minutes. A vial one inch in 
diameter and four in length, made 
of strong glass, is the most desir- 
able size. Some collectors carry a 
small vial of chloroform, through 
the cork of which passes a very 
small tube of metal ; what is called 
by jewellers "hollow wire," of 
minute aperture, is used for this 
purpose. (See Fig. 123.) This 
instrument is used for conveying a limited 




quantity of chloroform to the (^piracies of 
the insect, without deluging and damaging 
much of its plumage, if furnished therewith. 
Ether, as well as chloroform, is sometimes 
used in lieu of the cyanide, but it has to be 
continually supplied from another I'eservoir. 
In some countries bruised laurel leaves are 
placed in the bottom of the vial, or a small 
packet of them pinned in a corner of the collect- 
ing-box, enclosed in a little bag or wisp of 
loosely woven cloth, such as lace, book-muslin, 
&c. All of these poisons act at first only as 
anffisthetics, or stupefiers, and should be con- 
tinued in use sufficiently long to desti-oy vitality, 
or to prevent the struggles of the insect; for by 
these struggles it injures itself, as well as its 
companions, after being pinned in the collecting 
box. 



NOTES AND EXPERIMENTS ON CURRANT WORMS. 

BY W. 8AUNDEB8, LONDON, ONT. 

The lai-va of Nertiatm ventricomsy alas, too 
well known under the popular designation of 
" currant wonn," has been very abundant in this 
neighborhood during the pi^esent season. In my 
own garden it has been a continual fight a^ to 
who should have the currant and goosebeiT)' 
bushes, the woiins or their rightful owner. Du- 
ring the early part of sunmier, anticipating their 
attack, I was on tlie lookout for tliem and by 
timely doses of hellel?ore preserved the foliage 
with but little damage. In about a fortnight 
later, having omitted inspection for a few days, 
I was surprised to find the bushes being stripped 
again ; and this time the enemy had got so far 
ahead as to damage their appearance consid- 
erably. Another prompt dosing of lielleboi*e 
bix)uglit relief. After this I hardly ever found 
all the bushes entirely free from them; a walk 
ai*ound the garden would reveal a few here and 
a few there, and I was pei^petually hand-kiJJ- 
ing and 'brushing off these smaller detaehmeut^i. 
Four times during the season I found it neces- 
sary to apply hellebore freely, for the foes were 
a legion. 

During the middle of August, being occupied 
with other matters, the garden was neglected 
for a few days, when on visiting it again on the 
19th, I found many of the bushes entirely leaf- 
less, and the foliage remaining on the others was 
i*apidly disappearing. I felt discouraged and 
began to have some misgiving as to whether 
hellebore was after all such an unfailing panacea 
for this almost univei-sal pest as we had sup- 
posed. I resolved if possible to satisfy myself 
fully on this point, and having mixed about 11 



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oz. of powdered helleboi'e with a pail of water, 
was ready to proceed. I selected a leaf ft-om 
two bashes, marked them and counted the num- 
ber of their inhabitants — one was occupied by 
forty-four worms of different sizes, crowding it 
above and below, and it was about half eaten ; 
the other leaf had twelve nearly ftill grown on 
it. Having transferred the mixture of hellebore 
and water to a watering pot, the bushes were 
sprinkled with it. I returned to examine the 
results in three-quarters of an hour, and the leaf 
which at first had forty-four on il, liad now only 
two, and these were so far exhausted that they 
were unable to cat, and could hardly crawl, 
while on the other leaf out of the twelve there 
remained three, but in the same enfeebled con- 
dition. All around under the bushes, the ground 
was strewed with the fallen foe, and I felt per- 
fectly satisfied that entire reliance might be 
placed on this means of defense. 

I did not anticipate such speedy action on the 
part of the hellebore, or should have returned to 
the examination sooner, and the bushes were so 
entirely cleared, that excepting on one I had 
reserved for another experiment, 1 had no means 
of repeating the dose. 

There was one thing that struck me as some- 
what remarkable, the portion of leaf on which 
the greatest number were feeding, appeared to 
be of the same size as befoi'e the hellebore was 
applied ; if smaller I could not perceive it. When 
the leaves dry, which have been sprinkled with 
liquid, a veiy thin coating of the powder, more 
or less regular, is found over them, and I had 
always supposed that death resulted ftora eating 
a portion of the leaf thus coated. Such is un- 
doubt^ly the case when the helleboi-e is applied 
dry, but in this case a meal however small made 
by forty-four caterpillars on half a leaf, must 
have materially diminished it. I am disposed to 
believe then that the death of most of these 
must liave resulted from their imbibing or ab- 
sorbing some of the liquid as soon as api)lied. 
Many of them showed symptoms of the violent 
cathartic action of the remedy, having a mass of 
soft excrement hanging to the extremity of their 
(lead bodies. 

I had resei-ved one bush, on which were a good 
number, for another experiment. It sometimes 
happens, especially with those who live in the 
country, that hellebore is not at hand when the 
wonns are first obseiTed at work, and a few 
days' delay in procuring it is perhaps unavoida- 
ble. In such cases the bushes may be entirely 
leafiess, before the remedy can be applied. Hot 
water suggested itself to my mind as likely to be 
of some service, and being also an article readily 



procurable in eveiy home. It is well known that 
many plants will bear such an application with- 
out injury, provided the heat is not too great. 
Taking some in a watering pot, a little hotter 
than one could bear the hand in, I showered it 
plentiftilly on the affected bush, and it was 
amusing to see how the caterpillars wriggled 
and twisted and quickly letting go their hold, 
fell to the ground, which was soon strewed with 
them. Atler the first excitement produced by 
the sudden heat was over, they remained as if 
wishing to " cool off" before commencing work 
again. A few did not recover from the applica- 
tion, but most of them were soon as active as 
ever. 

Now what I would suggest is this, that where 
the hellebore caimot be at once procured, no time 
should be lost in applying the hot water, and when 
once on the ground the creatures may have the 
life trodden out of them by the foot, or beaten 
out with the spade or some other implement. In 
any case many of them would never reach the 
bush again, for enemies beset them on every side. 
I was amused to see how busy a colony of ants 
were which had a home at the base of a tree near 
by, lugging these lai'ge caterpillars along, a sin- 
gle one of which would take three or four to 
manage. The worms were twisting and jump- 
ing about as if they wondered whose hands they 
had got into, and the ants were hanging on with 
their sharp jaws and slowly dragging the bodies 
along. By and by they had quite a little pile 
accumulated, which would no doubt ftinush 
them or their progeny with a feast of fat things 
for some time to come. Then there are the tiger 
beetles (Cicindelidce) , with a host of others ever 
running about, looking for stray objects of this 
sort on which to make a dainty meal. 

I had obsei*ved on one of the bushes, before 
applying the hellebore, some friends at work on 
these worms. They were inmiature si>ecimens 
of a tnie bug belonging to the oixler Heniiptera, 
and probably the young of Stiretus flmhriatvs, 
< These creatures are nearly round, about the size 
of a common ladybird, having the head, thorax 
and legs black, and the abdomen red with an 
elongate<l black spot in the center, divided across 
by a whitish line. Approaching a caterpillar, 
they thrust their proboscis into it and quietly 
suck its juices until it becomes so weak and ex- 
hausted that it shrivels up and dies. With the 
view of testing the probable amount of good 
these friends were thus capable of accomplish- 
ing, I shut up two of them in a small box, with 
a dozen nearly full grown caterpillars, and at the 
end of three days found that they had consumed 
them all ;. also six in another box with one bug. 



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and in this instance the rate of consumption was 
about the same^ two caterpillai*s a day for eacli 
of these little ci-eatui-es. The second time I fed 
them they did not get though their work quite 
so quickly; possibly they may have ovei-fed 
themselves at fii'st. 

While turning up the branches of some of 
my goosebeiTy bushes, I obsei'ved a number of 
whitish eggs on some of the leaves, an*anged 
lengthwise in regular rows at short distances 
apart, on the principal veins or ribs of the leaf. 
Usually they were placed singly in the rows, but 
hei*e and there double. These were the eggs of 
the currant worm, they were about one twentieth 
of an inch long, four times as long as broad, 
rounded at each end with a whitish glossy sur- 
face. On the branch I was examining there were 
three leaves with these eggs on ; two of them had 
their principal veins pretty well covered, while 
the third had but a few on it, as if this had been 
the work of a single insect which had exhausted 
her stock before the tliird leaf was covered. I 
counted these, and found there were 101 in all. 
Having just then caught one of the parent flies, 
a female whicli was hoveling about as if look- 
ing for a place on which to deposit her eggs, I 
squeezed some eggs out of her body and com- 
paring them with those on the leaf, found they 
were only about half the size, showing that the 
first must have grown considerably &fivv being 
laid and that they were probably neariy ready to 
hatch. In about three hours atlei-wards, 1 ob- 
sei'ved that several of the young ]&wsb had come 
out of the eggs, and placing the leaf under a 
microscope had the good fortune to see some of 
them escape. The ogg consisted of a thin elastic 
membrane sufficiently transparent to give a dim 
view of the enclosed laiTa. The black sjwt 
which is placed on each side of the head in this 
sjiecies, enabled me to determine the position the 
creature occupied. It was somewhat coiled up 
and resting on its side with it^ jaws against the 
side of the egg not far from its extremity. I 
could not perceive that it had any other means of 
nipturing the egg than by it^ mandibles, which 
were working visibly within. In a short time 
the egg was niptured and the head of the larva 
protruded from the orifice. ^Vithdrawing its 
two ft'ont feet from the egg, it seized the leaf on 
which it was placed, and by raising up its back 
and working itself from side to side, it soon 
worked itself out. The time occupied in thus 
extracting itself, IVom the first appearance of the 
head, varied fVom six to ten minutes, for I 
watched several of them through the process. 
The egg was so thin and elastic that it yielded 
readily to the motions of the body, and adhered 



veiy closely to it, contracting and shrivelling up 
as the body was withdrawn. 

After the laiTa comes out it does not consume 
tlie egg or any portion of it, as is the case with 
most Lepidopiet'a, but sets to work at once eat- 
ing the leaf on which its considerate mother 
placed it. When just hatched the woims are 
about one-twelfth of an inch long ; head large, 
dull whitish with a round dark spot on each 
side, and a few minute shori hairs ; mandibles 
pale brown. Body above and below whitish, 
semi-ti'ansparent, sometimes with a slight green- 
ish tinge. From this time it rapidly increases 
in size, becoming green then changing to green 
with many black dot*, and finally reverting to 
pale gi'een again, tinged with yellow at the 
extremities, just before it becomes a chrjsalis. 

I have a fact to communicate regarding the 
winter histor}- of this insect. It has been uni- 
versally held, that the larva?, when they leave 
the bushes in the fall, at once construct their 
cocoons, either at the surface of tlie gi"ound or 
just below the surface, and change to pupa? 
either then or sometime before early spiing. 
Possibly as a loile this may be the case, if so I 
have an interesting exception to record. On the 
22nd of May I was tiying some experiments in 
crossing gooseberries, fertilizing the flowei-s of 
the Houghton's Seedling with some of the large 
English varieties, and having oi)erated on several 
branches, tied them up in new paper bags to 
prevent interference with the work, either frem 
insects or othei-wise. The particular bag I am 
about to refer to, was attached to an upright 
branch on the summit of the bush, about eight- 
een inches from the ground. While examining 
it on May 31st, nine days afleinkvards, to ascer- 
tain the result of my work, I found in one of the 
folds of the bag a cocoon of N^emaniits ventri- 
cosus fii-mly attached to the paper. In tliis in- 
stance the lai*va must have remained unchanged 
during the winter, then crawled from the gix)und, 
attaching itself as related and constructing it** 
cocoon after the 22d of May. A few days later, 
I found a similar cocoon attached to the bush, 
which from its fresh appearance I inferred Iiad 
been constructed about the same time, although 
I am unable to advance any i)Ositive statement 
regarding it. During the summer I have found 
a considerable number of such cocoons fastened 
to the undei'side of the leaves of the bushes on 
which the larvse have been feeding, and these 
have been obseiTcd in all positions from near 
the base to the summit of the bushes, showing 
that it is not the invariable practice of the larva 
to undergo its change to chrysalis, either at the 
surface or under the surface of tlie ground. 



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[We copy the above interesting observations 
fi*om the Canadian Entomologist y as an addition 
to the article published in the first number of 
our present volume. The Half-winged Bug 
spoken of on page 201, which so savagely attacks 
the Saw-fly larvae, has never yet been descnbed. 
We paid Mr. Saunders a visit, at the time these 
Bugs wei*e in the larva state, and have since 
i*eceived two specimens of the pertect insect. 
Fi"oni these, we are enabled to publish the fol- 
lowing description through the kiudiKvss of Mr. 
P. K. Uhler, of Baltimore, who has sent us an 
advance copy fi'om a paper 
which is now going through 
the press of the Smithsonian 
Institution at Wafihington. 
Our Figure 124, a giving a 
magnified view, and 6 show- 
ing the natural size, will en- 
able the practical reader to 
recognize this fViend, and if 
he should ever notice it upon 
his wonn-infested currant or 
gposeben*y bushes, let him 
carefully pick it off tempo- 
rarily, and after the leaf-eating wonns have been 
subjected to a shower of helleboi*e-water, or a 
blast of the dry and powdered article, let him 
tenderly replace it upon the bush, that it may 
slay the la,«t one, of the injuiious army, which 
may have escaped the avenging stonn. — Ed.] 

PoDiscs PLACIDC8, Uhler —Ovate, liiteus. Head trun- 
cated iu rruut, the lateral mareins slightly Biniute, black, 
recurved; each side of tylus a blackit^h, or brown, strenk; a 
similar streak runs from behind each of the ocelli and ciirvt s 
toward"* the eyes, and nometimes coalesces with that 
on the tylus: the surface coai*sely, remotely punctured; 
ocelli red; tylus smooth and cylindrical to near the tip, the 
tip de[»re8sed. AnU^nnie yellow, tinged with rufous, the 
mi'idle, almost to each end, of all the Joiuts mfuscated 
above; basal jomt not reaching the tip of the head; second 
joint subequai to the third and fourth united; remaining 
joints much 8tout« r than the second; fourth and Hfth sub- 
equal. Rostrum reachinar to the venter; the basal joint 
"horter than the head. Pronotum short, the surlace aote- 
riorlv rugose, coarsely, in patches aggregarely, jmnctured 
with purple; the ]>osterior division more or les.n suffused 
with purple; each side of callosities withablack dot: middle 
line smooth, yellow: humeral angles prominent, blunt, the 
latei*Hl margins smooth, yellow, anteriorily obsoleteU sir- 
rated. Uniierslde and legs yellow; a series of small ulack 
dots e\tend<* fr»>m behind the eyes to the |>enultimate ventral 
segment; tips of tibiae, and tarsi, more or less Infuscatedor 
suffused With rufous. Scutellum clouded wi h purple, the 
middle line and tip remotely punctured, more distinctly 
yellow; the base with a few bare dots, the suriace generally 
closely punctured. Hemelytra purplish, closely, more Huely 
|umciiire<1, the exterior margin and [irincipal suture yel- 
low; membrane einbrawned Length lU miliims. Humend 
breadth 5^ miliims Inhibits Canada, Washington Terri- 
tory, and Massachusetts. 



Color*— Yellowlfh-brovm 
and dark-browD. 



To oiR SrnscuiBERs in Canada. — Parties in 
Canada, who wish to subscribe for the American 
Entomologist, cau obtain it, postage free, by 
remitting $2.00 to the Rev. C. J. S. Bethune, 
Secretary to the Entomological Society of Can- 
ada, Credit, C. W. 



MY RASPBERRY AND VERBENA MOTHS, AND WHAT 
CAME OP THEM. 

[Fig. 1-25.1 




Colors — (o and b) yellowish-gray; (c and d) verdigris-green. 

Readers of tbe Amkric.vn Entomologist, lis- 
ten to my story, and give me your sympathies. 
Upon two occasions I have bred two beautiful 
little moths. One I called the Raspberry Moth, 
as the little caterpillars fed upon the leaves and 
fruit of the Raspberry; the other I called my 
Verbena Moth, as the larva fed upon the buds 
and flowers of the Verbena. 

I hunted through all the works on Entomology 
I had access to, and could find no description of 
these moths; and I began to flatter myeelf that 
I really had found two new species. So 1 st udied 
them carefully, took notes of all their wonderful 
ways, and spent much valuable time in watch- 
ing their proceedings. 

I found my little raspberry caterpillars had a 
decided preference for the Philadelphia Raspber- 
ry, though I occasionally found them upon the 
Black-caps. They also seemed t«> have a great 
passion for ornaments, for they had stack all 
over their boilies dried anthers of flowers and 
small bits of sticks and leaves, which gave them 
a very comical and grotesque appearance. 

I confined several of these larvae in a box, 
giving them daily a fresh supply of raspberries, 
and they semed to thrive as well in confinement 
as ill the open air. Knowing their fondness for 
ornaments, I could not deprive them of these; so I 
cut white paper and thread, together with leaves, 
into small bits, and distnbuted them in the box. 
Very soon they were decked out in these, the 
white paper and thread adding materially to 
their grotesque appearance. Not always satis- 
fied with their own accumulations, they would 
sometimes take the ornaments from their neigh- 
bors and appropriate to their own use. 



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[Fig. 126.] 



I once left the cover to the box not quite 
secure, and one of them made its escape, com- 
pletely stripped of its ornaments; it had left all 
in the box behind, in squeezing through the 
aperture. I no sooner returned it to the box 
than it began to take the ornaments from its 
comrades to re-adorn itself, rather than to pick 
up its own, a process which those that were 
being stolen from did not seem at all to relish. 

After they ceased eating and were ready to 
become pupae, they spun loose cocoons, which 
they fastened to the top and sides of the box, 
takin£^ their ornaments to decorate their cocoons, 
which, ill consequence, wore a very rough, un- 
even appearance. In a few days, a little pea- 
green molh issued from these rough cocoons — 
the most delicate, beautiful little creature 
imaginable. 

I now submitted it to the late Mr. Walsh, and 
received this reply: ** Your Raspberry Moth is 
Aplodes rubivora of the Junior Editor, first de- 
scribed in his Missouri Report." 

Down went all my air-castles of being im- 
mortalized in science with this delicate little 
creature I 

I now had the Verbena Moth (Fig. 126, 5) to 
build my hopes 
upon. Although 
not so interesting 
as the other, 8till 
itwasveryprett>; 
and as my interest 
in the llaspben\v 4 
Moth had greatly 
subsided, f^iuce I 
found that it had 
a name, and more 
than a ^Mocal habi- 
tation," so my 
regard for the 
Verbena Moth as 
greatly increased, 
notwithstanding 
it was such a ter- 
rible nuisance in 
the larva state. It 
seemed determin- 
ed not to let us 

have a perfect^o^o'"'*-— <- and 8) dirty fleHh-color, in- 
, . , dining to green; (5) silvery-gray 

verbena blossom, and brown. 
Quite early in the season I first noticed its work. 
The iarvsB were so small, and so near the color 
of I he calyx of the flower, that it was almost im- 
possible to catch the perpetrator until the mis- 
chief was done. They were hid away among 
the clustera of buds, and ate through the lower 
part of the calyx, completely destroying the 




flowers. At fli*st they seemed to be mostly con- 
flned to the white and light-colored varieties of 
verbena, but later in the season they attacked 
all colors indiscriminately. 

I also noticed that the pnpse were aflTected by 
lamp-light, a peculiarity that I had never ob- 
served in any other insect. One evening I 
brought several clusters of verbena buds, that 
wei*e badly mutilated by these little pests, to the 
light of a lamp, which affected the pups so much 
that they worked and wriggled themselves en- 
tirely out of their cocoons ; and I waited in vain 
to see them give forth the perfect insect, which, 
however, did not issue until two or three days 
after this. 

After satisfying myself that this insect was 
not described in any work on the Lepidoptera, 
I sent it to Mr. Walsh, and he inclined to believe 
that it was a new and undescdbed species ; but 
added, he would let me know in due time. So 
it was left until after the death of Mr. Walsh, 
when Mr. Riley came across some of the moths 
I had sent te Mr. Walsh, and wrote: ''Your 
Verbena Moth is my Penthina FvZlerea, You 
will find it figured and desciibed in TiltorCt 
Journal of HorticuUure for October, 1868. My 
hopes blighted again I 

With a great feeling of disappointment I went 
to hunting among Tilton's old journals until I 
found the designated number; when, Lol hei*e 
it was figured as natural as life, with a full 
description of it iu all its stages. From the 
account here given it would seem to like a greater 
variety of diet than Mr. Riley had supposed, 
although he had given it considei-able latitude; 
but the Verbena is a long way from the Iris 
and Lily families. 

As what I found in TiUon's Journal bears 
upon the name of this moth, and upon its food- 
plant as noticed by Mr. Fuller, and as it is also 
the first published account of this insect, I hope 
Mr. Riley will allow me to quote, in part, his 
letter to Mr. Fuller : 

"The Tigridia-seed larvae which you sent roe 
last December have proved, as I suspected they 
might, to be an entirely new species. Ever 
since the lOth of March, I have been breeding 
from them a pretty little moth, belonging to the 
gQUVLB Penthina, and inclose, in accordance with 
your request, a brief description of the worm, 
its chrysalis and moth, together with some 
drawings, which will be of more value to yon. 

"The genus Penthina belongs to a sub-family 
of the Tortricidce (a large group, whose lai-vae 
live for the most part in seeds, buds, or between 
leaves, which they fasten with their silken 
threads) ; and it is characterized by the antenna 



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205 



of the moths being simple ; their npper wings 
being twice as long as broad, and arching in 
front from the shoulder; and by a tufted thorax. 
They rest with the wings in the shape of a roof, 
but rounded above, and somewhat approaching 
each other beyond the body. The sexes differ 
bat slightly. 

''It is quite probable that this species is not 
confined to the Tigridia, but will be found to 
attack the whole lily family, or at least the 
Iridacem; and I name it, therefore, in honor of 
yourself." Mes. Mary Tbeat. 

ViNBLAND, N. J., April, 1870. 

[For the benefit of the scientific reader, we 
annex descriptions of these two insects in their 
different stages : 

The Baspbbbby Gbombtkb {Aplodet rubivora, Riley.)— 
Larva— Average length 0.80 inch; 10-legged. Ck)lor yellow- 
ish gray, very minutely shagreened aU over, and with other 
wart^ prominences as at Figure 125 b. Each joint with a 
prominent, pointed, straight projecti on each side of dorsum, 
and several minor prickles below . Two very slightly raised , 
longitudinal, light-colored lines along dorsum, oet ween the 
prominent prickles. Feeds on the fruit and leaves of the 
Rsspberry, and disguises itself by attaching to its prickles, 
and especially to the dorsal ones, pieces of dried beriy. seed, 
pollen, anthers, and other debris of the fruit. These foreign 
substances are fastened to the prickles by aid of the mout^, 
from Which a viscid silky matter is emitted for the purpose. 

Pi^a.— Length 0.2ft inch. Formed within a slight cocoon. 
Pale yellow, mclining to flesh-color, with a darker dorsal 
line, a row of dark spots each side, ai^d with lon|fitudinal 
oark lines on wing-sheaths and antennse: two slight pro- 
jections anteriorly Just above the eyes. Appears minutely 
speckled under lens. 

Perfect Iwtect.—Alv expanse 0.60 inch, length of body 
0.25 inch. Color verdigris-green, the scales being sparse 
and sprinkled over a light grown^t »o that the wings, when 
the least rubbed, appear sub-hyaline. Head short. Ailvous; 
eyes inclining to green, with a deeper border; palpi pale; 
antennae scarcely reaching to inner transverse line of front 
wing, white and convex above, Mvous and concave be- 
neath; stout at base (where they are connected by a white 
transverse piece) and tapering to a fine point; those of the 
mrie fringed, those of the female simple. TAoro* green on 
a fulvous ground. Abdomen slightly green on a fhlvoiis 
ground, and with a whitish spot above, at base. Front- 
vings with two transverse light lines dividing the wing 
into three parts, proportionate, on oosta, as 3, 4, 2 count- 
ing from base; the outer line scarcely sinuate and nearly 
parallel with posterior mai^n, being a little produced 
posteriorly between nerves 2 and 4; the inner line more 
decidedly sinuate and reaching the costa and inner margin 
at about the same distance flrom base; costa broadly white 
about the middle; posterior margin with a fine white line; 
fringes green: under surface silvery, with a tinee of green 
and with the transverse lines barely indicated. Hind-winge 
with two similar transverse lines, dividing the wing in 
like proportion, the outer line produced posteriorly between 
nerves 2 and 8; posterior border and fringe as in tront- 
wiogs; under surface uniformly silvery- white, the lines 
barely indicated in certain lights. Lege short, the thighs 
of the first four inclining to green and their shanks to 
fulvous. Described from 2 (J and 3 $ bred specimens, In 
two of which there Is, on Aront-wlngs, a faint line ruiiulng 
to about one-third of wing from cobta, between the two 
transverse lines. 

This species resembles the glaucaria of Guenec, but is 
evidently dlsthict, if wearetolndge from his description. 
We have another very closely allied species in this country, 
and one which is more common than rxibivora It may be 
known as the Yellow-lined Geometer {Aploiet JIaoiUneata) , 
vul it mav be at once distinguished from rubioora by its 
somewhat larger size, by the transverse lines being broader, 
yel/ow or fulvotu instead of white, and dividing the wings 
into three more nearly equal parts; by the outer lines run- 
ning almost straight across Doth wings; by the inner ones 
on the frt>nt wings being much arcuated towards base near 
the costa, and on the hind wings being sub-obsolete; and 
iwtly by the broad yeUow costal and posterior border. The 
larva ot this species has been found by Mr. P. S. Sprague. 
of Boston. Mass , feeding on the flowers of some composite 
plant, and it is ftLmished with similar spines and has the 
same habit of disguising Itself as that of rubivora. These 
are the only two North American Geometers, the larvse of 
Which are known to be ftimished with such spines; though 



that of HipparckUctu venuttiu, Walsh, has curled lateral 
velvety appendages.* and that of NematocampaJHamentaria^ 
Guen., has two pairs of long curled filaments on Joints 6 
andS.t 

Our Figure 12.') represents the larva of ruMoora, natural 
size at a; an enlarged lateral view of a segment at b} the 
moth natural size at c (the second half-line on hind wings is 
a mistake of the engraver), and an e^nlarged outline ot the 
wings at d (the )>osterior line on hind wings is not suflioiently 
produced behind, between nerves 2 and 3). 

Tub Veubbna Bud-motu— PenMina FuUerea^ Uiley.— 
Larva .—Average length 0.50 inch. Cieneral color of a uni- 
form dull oameous, firequently inclining to yellow and to 
green; two wrinkles on each Joint, head Jet-black, without 
a spot or shade; cervical shield also black, and occupying 
the whole upper surface of Joint 1 ; piliferous spots m the 
normal position, but scarcely observable, even with a lens, 
except by the hairs proceeding from them ; thoracic, abdom- 
inal and anal legs, and venter, of the same color as upper 
surface. 

Pupa.— Average length 0.25 inch; of the usual form, with a 
distinct row of teeth above, on the anterior portion of each 
segment, and a few minute bristles at the extremity and 
along the sides Formed within a silken cocoon , constructed 
within the seed or bud which the larva Inhabits : It forces 
itself half way out at one side, when the moth is about to 
emei^. 

Perfect Intect—WfUT expanse 0.50 Inch; length 0.23 Inch. 
Head, with buff-brown tufts; eyes and palpi at tips some- 
what darker; antenniB short (one-third length of firout-wing) , 
flillform and simple In both sexes . Tliorax with the shoulder 
pieces and dorsal tuft of the same buff- brown. Abdomen 
more gray. Front toin'^t, ground-color sllvery-ifrav. with 
metallic blue r^fleetlons more or less intense; the lighter 

f tarts flesh-colored, with a silvery lustre, and the whole 
ntrlcately shaded with dark Vandyke-brown, as In the 
figure. The light is most reflected from the edges of scales, 
which are beautiftilly shingled transversely . There are three 
principal dark-brown marks, namely, one broad and irreg- 
ular, crossing the wing a little beyond the middle, and 
invariably containing a more or less complete pale ring on 
the posterior border Just within ihe anterior medan cell; 
and another, subobsolete, opposite, on its inner border: be- 
tween this transverse band and the base is a smaller^ irreg- 
ular, brown mark, not extending to inner margin; and 
between the pale ring above described and apex of wing a 
thii*d conspicuous brown mark, not extending more than one- 
third the width of wing. Each oCth -se dark marks is relieved 
by a pale border and between them, the brown, blue and 
flesh-color are intricately mixed: apex rounded; posterior 
border dark, with a series of eight or nine more or less dis- 
tinct rust- brown angular sp"ts. Just inside, the two largest 
being costal ; fringes dark brown, with a deep blue gloss 
Hind wingB light brown, becoming deeper around the pos- 
terior margin; fringes lighter. Whole under surface of a 
uniform leaden-brown- that of fW)nt wings somewhat darkest 
and showing costal marks No sexual difference except in 
the narrower and less pointed ^ abflomen. Deseribed from 
numerous bred specimens, those bred from Verbena Uuds 
showing no differences whatever from those bred from dry 
Tigridia seed . Our flgure 128 1 epresents an infested Trigidia 
seed (1) , the larva natural size (2), the same magnified; (3) , 
the pupa shell (4) , and the enlarged moth (5) . —Ed . 1 



•Proc. Bolt 9oe. Nat. Hist^ DC, pp. 800-2 
t Packud. Oaid^ etc , p. 831. 



A Chrysalis Flying. — HappeniDg to be in 
my gai'deu about tbo middle of June, I took to 
watching some butterflies flying among the cab- 
bages. My attention was attracted to one by 
having) as it seemed to me, something strange 
on its back ; I thought at first sight that it was 
being attacked by some ferocious insect; but 
on capturing it, which I succeeded in doing 
without difficulty, as its flight was a little heavy, 
I was not a little surprised to find that the poor 
Cabbage-butterfly (Pterin rapas) was encased 
in its own chrysalis, its thorax and wings being 
out and its body within the chrysalis. I tried 
to extricate it from its peculiar position, but I 
found that its body was so completely fixed 
inside the chrysaiin, that I could not get it out 
without iniuring the butterfly. I killed it just as 
it was, ana pinned it out; so it looks just like a 
chrysalis with wings. — A. M. F., %n Science 
Ghmp, 



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A METHODICAL TABLE OP THE CRICKETS. 

Dear Sir: I send you a Tableau Methodique 
of the Crickets {QrylUdce)^ which I have made 
lip from Walker's Catalogue of this family— a 
work just issued, and which embraces not only 
the specimens in the British Museum, but all 
the species described up to the time of its issue. 
I have also added a list of the North American 
species of this family, not included in Mr. Scud- 
der's Catalogue. C. Thomas. 

Wa8III!«oton, D C , March 14, 1870. 

ORDER, ORTHOPTERA. 
Sect. 2, Saltatoria. 
a.— Fore wiiijo* horizontal in repose. Gryllida:. 

aa. — Fore wings ileflexed in repose. 
2».— Antennae long, wUweous; tarni 

4-jointed. Loci'HTiUit:. 

M.— Antenna; ttlifonn. generally rather 

Hbort. ACRIDIDJC. 

Fam. 1— GRYLLI1>A£. 
OryllideSf Latr.; OiyUina, Macleay; Achetida, Leaeh; 
Gryllo(Uay Burm.; Achetuutj lUcwm. 
^.— Fore legs fossorial. 

b. Hind tarsi of the usual form. 

c. Tarsi 3-jointed. 

d. Fore tibia hexadaetylate . Oryllotalpa^ iAxtv, 
dd. Fore tibia didactylate. ScapUrUeu*, Seudd. 
«f. Tarsia-jointed. OyUndrodts, iirviy , 
bb. Hind tarsi flat, digitate. 

/ c. Four anterior tarsi 3-Jointed. *Tridactylus. Oliv. 
2. cc. Four anterior tarsi 2-jointed. * RhipipUrjfXj Newm. 
AA,-~¥qtq legs not fossorlal. 
T b. Head concealed. ^Jiyrmecophila, Latr. 

bb. Head prominent. 

c . Face rounded. 

d. Hind tibiie with spines. 

e. Four anterior legs .short, or but moderately long. 

f . Third joint of the palni not distinctly trunciited. 
C. Fore wings not very long . 

Ii. Prothorax not very narrow. 

i. Hind legs stout, of moderate length. 

J . Hind tibia; with stout approximate spines. 

K. Tarsi 4-jointed. Acheta, Fabr. 

fcJL. Tarsi 3-jointed. 

I . First joint of the hind tarsi setulose. 

Brachytrypesy Serv. 

II. First joint of tlic hind tarsi smooth, 
m. Head not ridged. 

». Head not conical in flront. 
-/ <^. Oviduct very narrow. * Gryllus , lAnw . 

00, Oviduct flattened. Platyryphus, Haan. 

^ nn. Head conical in front. *MogoplUU», Serv. 

mm. Head ridged between the eyes. 
^ ». Hind tarsi not serrated. 

o. Fore wings rej^ularly reticulated. *TufalUca, Walk. 

00, Fore wings irregularly reticulated. 

p. Hind tibiae not serrated. Gaseidava, Walk. 

. Hind tibiie serrated. ^^essuj Walk. 

_ Hind tibiie with slender, wide-apart simrs. 

!. Fore wings generally abbreviated. 
/. Legs not very hairy. 
m. Spines of the hind tibiie not very long. 

*Jvemohiuiy Serv. 
mm. Hind tibi» with very long spines. ArgizaUy Walk . 
II. Legs very hairy. •Hapithusy Uhler. 

kk. Fore wings complete. 

1, Fore wings mem1)raneoiis. 
m. Fore wings of the males not very broad. 
n. Fore wings with transverse veins. 
0, Prothorax not broader than the head , 
p. Head not prominent between tlie eyes, 
y. Fore wings with veins beyond the" tvmpanum ir- 

reguhir . • Orocharu, Uhler . 

qq. Fore wings with veins beyond the tympanum 

regular. Itara^ Walk. 



pp. Head prominent between the eves. 

Madatumma, Walk. 

00. Prothorax much broader than the head. 

Zoft«/a. Walk. 

nn. Fore wings of the male ver>' broad. 
/(>'0, Legs not verv slender. * SnwpUra, Vkyirm. 

jl no. Legs verv slender. * PhyllojHilpus, Uhler. 

^ mm. Fore wings of the male verj- broacf. 

n. Prothorax not narrower in front. Eurepa^Walk. 

nn. Prothorax much narrower in | Lemeca^ Walk, 
front. 1 ^almania. Walk. 

U. Fore wings coriaceous. 

m. Fore wings not reticulated. ScUroptenu, U»z. 

^ tnm. Fore wings reticulated. *XeV/i«^*<i. Walk. 

ii. Hind legs very long. 

;'. Fore femora and fore tibiie not spiny. 

k. Eyes not very prominent. 

1 . Second joint of the hind tarsi very distinct. 

Podo§cirtu9^ Seiiiltl 

II. Second joint of the hind tarsi hardly apparent. 
/3 -w. Winjcs complete. * Flatydactytus y Brulli. 

mm, Wnigs none. 

n. Spines of the hind tibia* very short Laranda, Walk. 
'< ^n. Si)ines of the hind tibiae long. •Za</ru, Walk. 

kk. Eyes very prominent. 

/. Legs .stout. Orhegaf Wa\k. 

II. Legs slender. Auifray Walk. 

j. (Not i*epresenteil.) 

bh. Prothorax very long and narrow 
^ V. Head elongated. •(Ecan/Aw, Serv. 

. 4i, Head not elongated. *Laurepaf Walk. 

fg". Fore wings extremely long. 
. Body stout. Tarragaj Walk. 

AA. Bodv very slender. Nocera, Walk. 

f f . Third joint of the maxillary palpi 

directly truncated. Ti iyonidiumy Ramb. 

ee. Four anterior legs very long. 
/. Hind femora not abruptly attenuated. 

Luzaray Walk. 
//. Hind femora abruptly attenuated 

beyond the midtUe. * PhaUmgopgisy Serv. 

dd. Hind tibiae without lateral spine**. 
€. Prothorax produced hindward. ♦ Oycloptilum^ Send. 
ee. Prothorax not produced hindward. 
/. Body stout. Ornebius, (iuer. 

//. Body very slender Xabea, Walk 

cc. Face very flat. PlalyhUmmus, Serv. 

*ThoM rvprMentcd in North America. AcillCTA ia re«trict«d to Sekfio- 
daetglu* moiutrotHs of Biancli., BUt. Nmt., iii. Si ; Serv. Httt. Ortk., SSt 



A LIST OF SP£CIES OF GKYLLIDJB NOT INCLUUKD IN 

scudder's catalogue of OKTHOPTKUA. 

Oryllua septentrionalis , Walk. pg. 18. Mexico, St. Dom. 
** luridus, ** 18. Vera Cruz. 

** determinatus, ** 19. Jamaica. 

** HmilarU^ ** 20. St. Domingo. 

** angustalus, ** 21. Jamaica. 

*• conitngengj ** 21. Jamaica. 

** signatipes, *" 22. W. coast Am. 

f Scudd., Pro, Bout, ] 
Jfogoplistea Occident alts, < Soc. Nat, HUt. > Lower Cal. 

(Walk. p. 52. J 



TafalUca lurida^ 
Nem^hius mexicanus, 



Walk . p . 53 . St. Domingo . 
ri7. Ojaco, Mex. 

Scudd., Pro. Bost, ) 



I Scudd., Pro. Bost, | 

** eircumcinctus , < Soc. -AW. Hist, > Mexico. 
( Walk. p. 57. I 

Bapithus guadrattiSf Scudd., Cent, Dec. GryU, Texas. 

Orocharis signatus. Walk. p. 61. Mexico. 
** scUultiSj ** 62. Honduras. 
** fusi/ormisy ** 63. 

Eneoptera insularisy Walk. p. 60. Jamaica. 

PhyUopalpus latipennis, ** 68. ** 

** nigrotarius, ** TO. Mexico. 

Lehu€«a tenuicornis^ ^ * • 75. St. Domingo. 

Pfatydactylus simUis, ** 78. ** 

Ztiora cinctipes y ** 89. Jiunaica. 

CEcanthus nujricomisy ** 98. Illinois. 

** carkomis, • ** 94. Mexico. 

*» formosusy ** 94. 

Laurepe valida, ** 97. Jamaica. 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



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ScapUriauvMnu,, { ^n^l^/lf^, ^*- 1 Cent. Am. 

CEcarUhut nigricomu$, Walk., CaL Dermat, Salt. p. 93. 

**/«iwZ^.— Testaceous, slender, shlninjf. Head Hli^litly 
elongated, with three black stripes extending Ironj the 
hind border, one between the eyes and one on each side 
below the eyes. Eyes elongated, sli^htlv prominent. 
Third joint of tjie palpi clavate, obliquely truncated, 
longer than the second. Antennse black, testaceous at 
the base, very much longer than the body . Prothorax 
slightly longer than broad, fore border and hind border 
testaceous; two longitudinal testaceous streaks in the 
disk. Ventral segments black. Cerci and oviduct a 
little shorter than the abdomen, the latter black. Legs 
black, very slender; fore tibiae slightly dilated and ex- 
cavated on the inner side near the base \ hind femora 
testaceous toward the base; hind tibiae with six minute 
spines on the outer side, and tive on the inner side. 
Fore wings cinerous, extending much beyond the abdo- 
men, regularly reticulated; mediastinal vein with nine 
oblique branches. Hind wings extending much beyond 
the lore wings. Length of body T>^ lines. Illinois. 
Presented by E, Doubleday, Esq.'* 

I give this in extmso for the benefit of our Western 
Entomologists, who may not as yet have received 
Walker's Catalogue. 

• ♦ • 

A GOOD WORD FOR THE TOAD. 

Mr. Rilet: I was much interested iu some 
extracts from "Fogt's Book on Noxious and 
Beneficial Animals/' in your January number, 
and am induced to send you my own experience 
as another proof of the intelligence of toads. 

Loving flowers, even when a child, with that 
love which makes a happiness of labor and 
patient waiting, my earliest possession was a 
small flower garden. I had been told that 
toads were very useful in a garden, and conse- 
quently transferred them, as they were occa- 
sionally found, to my own especial domain, 
which happened to be enclosed by a low brick 
wall and paling fence. 

Although my toads seemed none of them 
afraid of me, I soon fancied that one of them 
followed me about my flower borders; and, 
watching carefully, I found my fancy to be a 
truth. My toad grew more and more attentive 
with time, and I frequently talked to him as he 
seemed watching my labors, and sometimes he 
would hop immediately where I was digging, 
then I quietly lifted him on one side with my 
trowel, saying: "Tom, you are in my way." 

One day I threw some sweet crumbs that 
were in my pocket towards him, and was much 
amused to see him catch them before they fell 
to the ground. You will readily suppose that 
after this "Tom Toad" was very liberally fed. 
He grew fast, and his skin became very glossy, 
and the spots very brilliant; and I soon found 
that he not only knew my voice, but also my 
step. "My pet" became quite the jest of the 
neighborhood, and it was a common thing for 
my friends to sit upon the steps leading to the 



house, for me to call "Tom," and see him come 
hopping from some secluded place to catch his 
cmmbs. 

The windows of the basement opened on to 
my garden, and as the servant girls would be 
ironing by the windows, the toad often hopped 
ill to watch their labors. They always bore the 
call quietly, unless he hopped upon the table or 
into the clothes basket, when the screams were 
loud for me to "come and take care of my bird." 
And thus, for about six years, Tom was made 
as comfortable and happy as a toad could be. 

He always burrowed his winter quarters for 
hibernation in one place — directly by the kitchen 
window — and in early spring, as the weather 
grew warmer, the earth would gradually loosen 
and heave up over his back, and all at once he 
would hop forth. I did not particularly notice 
his condition, but for a day his movements were 
rather sluggish. I sometimes used to uncover 
him when he had come very near the surface, 
and tell him it was "time to get up;" and I 
dug away once to see how far he went down for 
his winter nap, and found the hole about a foot 
deep. 

But at last, when I was about to leave home 
for a long term at school, it was insisted that 
"Tom" must be carried away, they were so 
senselessly afi*aid of him, and I carried him 
tenderly to a beautiful spot by our beautiful 
river, and said "good-bye." I never saw my 
toad again, and have never had such healthy 
rose bushes since. 

Not long ago, I was telling of my toad to a 
friend, when he said that " one day he observed 
a toad in his garden always hopping in his way. 
He impaled a fly and held it to the Toad, who 
snapped it off A'om the stick in an instant. 
Daily, for quite a length of time, he amused 
himself with feeding the toad, until once, in 
mischief, he held to it a bee, and he thinks the 
bee stung the Toad, for it would never again 
notice him. E. U. B. 

Bar Mills, Minn. 



Insects Boring Lk^uor-casks. — There is a 
very small species of wood-boring beetle, known 
as the Tomicus manographtcs, which has for a 
number of years past been very destructive in 
India to casks containing malt liquors. More 
than one million of the small perforations made 
by this insect have been observed in one stave. 
Dealers in malt liquors suffer greatly from these 
pests, and are anxious to discover a preventive. 
This borer has lately been examined by British 
entomologists, who are endeavoring to ascertain 
whether Siis insect feeds on the oak staves for 
the li<]^uor they contain, or because they are 
really tond of oak wood. — Hearth and Home, 



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INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE-VINE— No. 8. 

The Grape Leaf-folder. 
{ Des/nia f/taeulalis, West.) 



[Fig. 127 1 




Colors— (1 and 2) grass-green; (3) brown j (4 and 5) black 
The subject of tills sketch has long been known 
to depredate on tlie leaves of the Grape-vine in 
luany widely separated parts of North Amenca. 
It is not uncommon in Canada West, and is 
found in the extreme southern pai*ts of Georgia. 
It appeal's to be far more injurious, however, in 
the intermediate country, or between latitude 
35° and 40°, than in any otlier sections, and in 
Southeni Illinois and Central Missouri proves 
more or less injurious every year. It belongs to 
the same family (Asopid^) as our notorious 
Clover-woim, which attacks our clover stacks 
and mows. It was first described and named 
by West wood*, who erected, for it, the genus 
Desmia. 

This genus is characterized by the elbowed or 
knotted appearance of the <? antennae, in con- 
trast with the smooth, thread-like $ antennte; 
the maxillaiy palpi are not visible, while the 
compressed and feathery labial palpi are recui-ved 
against the eyes, and reach aUnost to their sum- 
mit; the body extends beyond the hind wings. 
The moth of the Grape Leaf-folder is a very 
pretty little thing, expanding on an average 
almost an inch, with a length of body of about 
one-third of an inch. It is conspicuously marked, 
and the sexes differ sufficiently to have given 
rise to two names, the female having been named 
Botys bicolor. The color is black, with an 
opalescent reflection, and the under surface differs 
only ft-om the upper in being less bright ; all the 
wings are bordered with white. The frent wings 
of both sexes are each fmuiished with two white 
spots ;t but while in the male (Fig. 127, 4) there 
is but one large spot on the hind wings, in the 
female (Fig. 127, 5) this spot is invariably more 

•Mag. Zool., par M. Guerin, 1831} pi. 2. 

fMr Glover, in the AgricuUaral Report for 18.54, p. 79, 
says that the male has a semi-lunar mark of white on the 
outside of each spot, which in his figure, pi 6, ibid., is very 
distinct . In dozens of specimens bred in I If inois and Missouri 
no such mark appears, thoug^h there is an apparent coinci- 
dent shade, barely distinguished from the black n-ound- 
color, on the outside of each spot in both male and female. 



and white. 



or less constricted in the middle, esi)ecially alwve, 
and is oftoi entirely divided into two distinct 
Hi)ot«. The body of the male has but one distinct 
transvei*se band, and a longitudinal white dash 
at its extremity superiorly, while that of the 
female has two white bands. The 
antemiae, as already stated, are still 
more characteristic, those of tlie male 
being elbowed and thickened neai' 
the middle, while those of the female 
are simple and thi*ead-llke. 

There are two broods in this lati- 
tude — and probably three farther 
south — during the yeai*; the first moths 
appearing in June, the second in 
August, and the worms produced ft'om these la^t 
hibernating in the chrysalis state. The eggs are 
scattered in small patches over the vines, and 
the womis are found of all sizes at the same time. 
These last change to chiysalids in 24 to 30 days 
from hatching, and give forth the moths in about 
a week afterwards. 

The worm (Fig. 127, 1) folds rather than rolls 
the leaf, by fastening tw^o portions together 
by its silken threads ; and for this reason, in con- 
tradistinction to the many leaf-rollers, may be 
popularly known as the "Grape Leaf-folder.-' 
It is of a glass-green color,* and veiy active, 
wriggling, jumping and jerking either way at 
every touch. The head and thoracic segments 
are marked as at Figure 127, 2. If let alone 
these worms will soon defoliate a vine, and the 
best method of destroying them is by crushing 
suddenly within the leaf, with both hands. To 
prevent their appearance, however, requires far 
less trouble. The chrysalis is formed within the 
fold of the leaf, and by going over the vineyard 
in October, or any time before the leaves fall, 
and carefully plucking and destro\ing all those 
that are folded and crumpled, the supply for the 
following year will be cut off. Tliis should be 
done collectively to be positively effectual, for 
the utmost vigilance will avail but little if one is 
surrounded with slovenly neighbors. 

We l>elieve this insect shows no preference for 
any particular kind of gi*ape-vine, having found 
it on well nigh all the cultivated, as well as the 

• We subjoin a description of this worm, as first given by 
us in the Prairie Farmer Annual for 1888. Average length, 
SO. Largest on abdominal Joints, and tapering thence 
slightly each way. Color glass-rreen, always darker above 
than below. A narrow darker dorsal line, with each Joint 
swollen into two transverse wrinkles. Laterally paler or 
vellowish, and a large and distinct piliferous spot on each 
loint, with others scarcely visible with a lens. Head 
fulvous, polished, horizontal, with two small eye-spots and 
two larger dark patches. Joint 1 of the same color, and 
marked as in Figure 127, 2. Joints has two small spots, 
with an intermediate larger one, on each side 



Acquires a carneons or pink tint before changing 

iry sails, which latter is of the normal color, size and 

form of Figure 127, 3, and has at the tail several very minute 



carved hooks, Joining and forming into a point 



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209 



wild varieties. Its natural enemies consist of 
spiders, wasps, and a small undescribed species 
of Tachina fly which we have ascertained to in- 
fest it in the larva state, and to which we have 
given the MS. name of desmiw. There is every 
reason to believe that it is also attacked by a 
small clay-yellow beetle, the Grape-vine Colaspis 
(^Colasjns flavida, Say), which, though a vege- 
table feeder, may often be found in the fold of 
the leftf in company with some shrunken, half- 
dead wonn. 

ENTOMOIiOGICAL JOTTINGS. 

C We propose to poblbh ftoin thne to Uine, under the above heading, rach 
extract* ftrora the letten of our correepondenti m con^io entomological fkcta 
worthy to be recorded, on account etUier uf their ecicnttflc or of their practi- 
cal importance. We hope our reader* will contribute each their MTeral mitee 
towaroi the general fUnd ; and in caae thev arc not perltoctly certain of the 
nanwf of the ineecU, the peculiantiei of which are to be mentioned, will eend 
•pccbueni along in order that each apeaiae may be duly Ideotifled.] 

Rot in Peaches and other Fruits. — New 
Harmony y Ind,, April 20, 70. — I g^row but few 
peaches and observe those closely, and I believe 
that I have -generally, if not always, found that 
the rot proceeds fi'om a bite, which I suspect is 
often made by a locust or grasshopper (Locus- 
t€idcB), but I know that it is very often made by 
a brown softrbodied insect that I call a cricket : 
it is, I think, a little bulkier than the insect 
ligured in the Entomologist as the Snowy Tree 
Cncket. I have caught many of them while they 
were eating peaches and quinces. Shortly before 
the quince becomes tinged with yellow these 
ci-eatures bite small pieces out of them ; in cer- 
tain conditions of the quince and of weather the 
wound heals, but the bites made when the 
weather is wet, or the quince is rii>ening, are 
fatal. Rot commences around the hole and rap- 
idly spreads, and the small hole made by the bite 
is so obscure as not to be noticed by those who 
do not expect to find it. The same process goes 
on in tlie i)each; it is attacked before it is nearly 
ripe, and in all its alter stages ; but the peaches 
do not fall until a mass of rotten matter almost 
obliterates the sign of the cause of the rot. 
A])ples ai"e injui'ed in the same manner. Nearly 
all the rot that I have perceived in these vaii- 
eties of fruit, I have found has commenced 
fi-om the outside, and in that grown by ourselves 
I have found the sign of the bite, excepting 
where some, out of my reach, has been allowed 
to fall and smash. In the fruit I have bought I 
have often found the same sign, but very often I 
forget to examine ; and, of course, most of the 
bitten fhiit is left to rot in the orchard, or is 
consumed by pigs, and is not examined by any 
one. A fruit-gi'ower here, in derision of my 
opinion, handed me two i-otten apples and asked 
if they were bitten ; I showed him that there 
was more than one bite mark on each of them, 



though these marks were somewhat obscured by 
the rot which ensued. I suppose this brown 
cricket (a chestnut-brown) when mature has the 
wings peculiar to its order; but I think when I 
have caught it, it has been wingless : it is easily 
cinished, and not easily caught without crusliing. 
[We shall be glad to receive specimens of the 
cricket in question. It may be the Jumping 
Cricket (Orocharis sattator, Uhler), which we 
know to have the pernicious habit of severing 
green grapes ft-om their stems, and thus allowing 
them to fall upon the ground. We are well 
aware that the bite or puncture of any insect 
will induce rot in the fruits mentioned, when 
other conditions are favorable; and this fact 
only contiims our opinion, as expressed on page 
137, that the puncture of the Plum Curculio has 
no special or peculiarly poisonous effect, and that 
it cAnnot be the sole cause of the Peach rot, as 
some persons contend it is. — ^Ed.] 

Clover- WORMS — Eureka, Mo,j April 21, 70. — 
I am ver)' thankftil for your answer about the 
Clover-wonn ; but I have yet a little curiosity 
to know how the wonn gets into, or why it 
chooses the center and bottom of the stack. Mr. 
Walsh's supiK)8ition (Pract. Ent., I, p. 83) can- 
not be correct, for my stack was on a new found- 
ation* and at least two hundred yards away IVom 
any previous stacking place. G. Pauls. 

[In the Prairie Fanner of April 20th, 18G7, 
we have shown that Mr. Walsh was wrong in 
supposing that this wonn can only increase 
prodigiously where clover has been stacked for 
successive years in the same place ; and we have 
also demonstrnted that the principal reason why 
they are so generally found at the bottom of a 
stack in winter, is, that they are attracted there 
for wannth and moisture. — Ed.] 

Flat-Headed Apple-tree Borer — Eureka, 
Mo,, April 21, 1870. — Last fall, and early this 
spring, and even quite reoently, I found on my 
apple trees small specimens of Chrysohothris 
femorata^ about one-quarter inch long, or just of 
the size which the main ci'op has acquired in the 
month of August. I can only conclude that the 
eggs were either laid late in the fall, or that the 
annual soft-soaping in May so weakens the con- 
stitution of the lai*va tliat it cannot mature in 
the i)roper season. I have had but three borers 
escape my notice and get large enough to go into 
the wood, or body of the tree, and in eveiy in- 
stance they penetrated in a straight or horizontal 
direction, for about one to one and a half inches, 
and then downwards. I fully indoi*se Mr. Wie- 
landy's article on borei*s, in No. 5; especially 
what he says about the general fate of apple trees 



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THE AMERICAN 



planted in this part of Missouri. It was the fate 
of my first planting, and as long as people con- 
sider $2.00 too much for your paper, and ento- 
mology beneath their notice, they will have to 
learn the truth from woful experience. I can 
now, thanks to the teachings of the Entomolo- 
gist, show trees as fine, smootli, and vigorous, 
probably, as those of Mr. Wielandy ; though I 
cannot say that I am ft'ee from the boi'er. 

[The young borei's which escaped your vigil- 
ance last summer wintered in a dormant state, 
which accounts for your finding them of the same 
size either in early spring or late fall. — Ed.] 

Flock op Bdttebplies— TTaxoAocAtc, UUis 
county, Texas, March 31, 1870. — ^During my 
ramble this morning I happened upon a fiock or 
bevy of butterflies, known as Danais archippus, 
Fabr., containing thirty individuals, four of 
which I captured for the purpose of identifica- 
tion, only two of which, however, I pinned down. 
I find them to be of the genuine archipptu, iden- 
tical in every respect, with specimens bred from 
the caterpillar by myself last summer, except in 
that of color, which is somewhat paler in these 
captured this morning than it was in those bred 
by me in the summer. They have the appear- 
ance of having been on the wing some days. 
The interesting question is, do they hibernate in 
the imago state, or in that of the chrysalis? They 
are wholly in advance of their lai*val food-plant, 
Asdepias obtus\folia; and from my observations 
upon the habits of the species, I infer that they 
hibernate as chiysalids. Please give us the fact* 
as to the manner and condition in which they 
spend the winter, and oblige yours, respectfully, 

L. J. Stroop. 

[They undoubtedly hibernate in the perfect 
state, for we have often captured pale, faded 
and worn specimens quite early in the spring 
of the year. — Ed.] 

An anomalous Grape Sphinx Moth^Cov- 
ington, Ky,, April 19, 1870. — A friend yes- 
terday gave me a badly battered specimen of 
a PhilampeliMy wliich is such a curiosity that I 
write to inquire about it. In size, and in the 
size and shape of the markings, it is identical 
with P. sateUitia, as figured on page 90 of the 
present volume of the Entomologist, except 
that under the double discal dots of the anterior 
wings is a very shoi*t and narrow longitudinal 
dash. (Your figure has three small dots, but 
all of my specimens of mteUitia have only two, 
although agreeing in all other particulai*s vn\^ 
your figure.) But the peculiarity about this 
specimen is, that a longitudinal line down the 
center divides the insect so that all of the spots 



and patches on the right side of the tborax and 
abdomen and front wing are light green, except 
the one on the thoi*ax at the base of the wing 
and the large one on the hind mai^gin of the wing 
near the base, which are of a rich dark green, 
not at all the color of P. satetlUia, which I call 
rather dusky than green. The spots on the left 
side of the body and left wing are rustrred, vann- 
ing to a light yellow drab ; that on the thorax at 
the base of the wing, and that on the posterior 
margin near the base, being darker than the 
others. The line down the middle would divide 
the band across the metathorax and first abdom- 
inal segment into the same two coloi's. The 
spots on the two sides of the abdomen also differ, 
but not so glaringly. The hind wings are alike 
except that the drab appeai-s again at the poste- 
rior angle of the left wing ; otherwise the hind 
wings do not differ from those of P. sateUitia. 
The ground color of the left anterior wing is also 
much lighter than that of the right wing. Both 
antennae are missing. 

It is clearly not P. achemon or sateHUiay as 
figured by you ; nor P. Linnei, nor Lycaon, as 
figured by Grote {Pr. PhU, En, So., Vol. V., pi. 3). 
Indeed, the only one of these for which it could 
be mistaken, would be a hermaplurodite saleUitia, 
in which there had been a wide departure from 
the noimal coloi's even on the right side. But 
then I have never heard that there is any differ- 
ence as to color between the cJ and ? satellitia, 
A hole made' by some insect in the side of tlie 
abdomen shows that it is a female, for the abdo- 
men is frill of eggs. It was picked up dead by 
some children last summer. Wliat can you make 
of it? V. T. Chambers. 

Food-Plant op Grbbn Spr angling Slug- 
worm— jKt;?a^A, Ind., March 19, 1870.— The 
green, oval, flattened object, witli lateral, tooth- 
like appendages, fringed with liairs, the two at 
the tail being longer than the others, and which 
you say is an undescribed species of Limacodes, 
or Slug-woiin, sent you by me several weeks 
ago, were found feeding upon the leaves of a tree 
gi'owing along the Ohio river and creek bottoms 
in this country, known as the Sycamore tree. I 
have ascertained this since the specimens were 
sent to you. Some of the specimens were much 

larger than the one sent. 

Levi G. Sapi^'er. 



Errata. — Page 152, column 1, line 21, for 
"one" read "our." Page 163, column 2, line 6, 
for "I'esults" read "result." Page 168, column 
1, lines 15 fram top and 6 from bottom, for 
"^ton*i" i-ead ''Alauda.'' 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



211 



THE PERIODICAL CICADA, alias THE 17-YEAR AND 
13- YEAR LOCUST. 

In the MiHsoun Entomological Report for 1868 
will be found tlie following account of two 
broods of these singulai* insects, which are to 
appear the present season : 

BROOD Ul,—Septemdecimr-.lS^, 1870. 

In tlie year 1870, and at int^i-vals of seventeen 
years thereafter, tliey will in all probability ap- 
pear in what is known as the **Kreitz Creek 
valley/' in York county. Pa., and possibly in 
Vinton county, Ohio, and Jo, Daviess county, 
Ills. Ml*. S.' S. Rathvon, of Lancaster, Pa., 
speaking of this brood, says : ** Lancaster county 
is bounded on the southwest by the Susquehanna 
i"iver, dividing it from the county of York, along 
the northeastern margin of which there is a 
mountain i*ange sloping down to the river. Along 
that slope Cicadas were abundant the present 
season (1868— Brood XXII). But on the south- 
west side of the range, in what is known as the 
Kreitz Creek Valley, there were none. They 
appeared last in thisValley in 1863, and pi*eviou8 
to that year at intervals of seventeen vears tVom 
time immemorial." Dr. Smith records their ap- 
peai-ance in 1853, both in Vinton county, Ohio, 
and Jo. Daviess county, Illinois. 

BROOD IV.— 7V«d#ctm— 1867, 1870. 

In the year 1870, being the same as the preced- 
ing, they will in all probability appear in Jackson, 
Gadsden and Washington counties, Florida, 
having appeai*ed thei*e according to Dr. Smith in 
1844 and W. 

We earnestly ask our subscribers, who happen 
to live in the several parts of the countiy there 
mentioned, to report to us whether or not the 
iiiseets appear according to prediction, as we 
wish either to veiify and confirm, or disprove, 
the genuineness of these broods. We have every 
confidence that the 17-year brood (III.) will duly 
appear, as our correspondent, Mr. Rathvon, who 
has observed it in past years, is still living to 
Duake f\irther obsei-vations ; but as Dr. Smith, 
who recorded the appearance of the 13-year brood 
(IV.) IB now dead, it would be very gi'atifying 
to have its periodic visits, at intervals of thii-teen 
years, confirmed. 

If any of our Georgia subscribera can give us 
the proper infoionatiou, we should also veiy much 
like to know whether or not the Periodical Cicada 
appeared last year (1869) in Habersham, Musco- 
gee, Jasper, Greene, Washington and adjacent 
counties in that State. 



^^ Determined that our Journal shall stand 
solely on its merits, we take pleasure in being 
allowed to mention as contributors, among others, 
the following well known Entomological writers : 
Baron Osteu Sacken, N. Y. ; Dr. H. Hagen, Cam- 
bridge , Mass. ; A. 8. Packard, Jr., Salem, Mass. ; 
F. G. SanborBy Boston, Mass.; F. N. Norton, 



Farmington, Conn. ; P. R. Uhler, Baltimore, Md., 
Dr. Jno. G. Moms, Baltimore, Md. ; Dr. Wm. 
LeBaron, Geneva, His. ; Rev. C. J. S. Bethune, 
M. A., Credit, C. W. ; S. S. Rathvon, Lancaster, 
Pa. ; Dr. H. Shuner, Mt. Carroll, Ills. ; Dr. J. P. 
Trimble, Newark, N. J. ; J. P. Stelle, Savannah; 
Tenn., and Mi's. Mary Ti'eat, Vineland, N. J. 
We shall spare no means to make this magazine 
valuable alike to the practical and scientific 
reader, and we really hope that our friends, who 
appreciate our efiorts, ^\i\\ speak a good word to 
their neighboi*s, as occasion may present. Sample 
cot)ies sent fi'ee to any addi^ess. 

THE DEATH-WEB OP YOUNG TROUT. 

Soon after the- article on page 174, with the 
above heading, was in type, we received ft*om 
Mr. Seth Green specimens of the web-wonn in 
question, and the mystery was soon solved. The 
wonn is the larva of a two-winged fly belonging 
to the genus Simtdium, the species of which are 
so well known to torment both man and beast by 
their irritating bites. In our next number we 
shall publish an interesting article on the trans- 
fonnations of this genus,' ft-om the pen of Baron 
Osten Sacken, accompanied by fitting illustra- 
tions. 

• ♦ • 

Choice Flowers. — We thankfully acknowl- 
edge the receipt, in excellent condition^ of a fine 
assortment of Greenhouse and Bedding plants, 
from the well-known Chicago fiorist, Edgar 
Sandera. We never before received plants from 
a distance that looked so A'esh and healthy. It 
is no wonder that Mr. S. receives so large a 
share of the Western patronage, for he well 
deseiTes it; and our readers, who wish assort- 
ments of plants well grown, will do well to send 
to 100 Madison street, Chicago, for a catalogue. 



ON OUR TABLE. 



The Butterflies op North America, with 
colored drawings and descriptions, by Wm. H. Ed- 
wards, American Entomological Society, Philadelphia. 
Part V. Price $2 60. We cannot say more ui favor of 
tliis part than that it equaU the preceding parts in every 
character. The species described and figured are Ar- 
gynnis Edwardtii^ CoIum eurydicf^ Limenitis lorqutnd, 
Grapta fauwut^ Lyeoina pseuaargiolue, and X. nsglteta. 
The synopsis of N. A. specien is continued. 

Transactions of the American Entomologi- 
cal Society . Vol . 11 , Part IV . 

The Country Gentleman's Magazine for Jan- 
uary, February, March and April. London. 

Petites Nouvelles Entomologiques.— Paris: 
M. E. Deyrolle, Fils. [We have only received two Nos.] 

Woodward's Architecture . — Geo. E. Wood- 
ward, 191 Broadway, N. Y. 

Contributions to the Natural History of 
Nova Scotia; Insrcta, Colboptera . Part I. By 
J. Mathew Jones, F.L.S. 



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ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

Notice — Snch of our oorrMpondrati m h«ve a1rc*dr tent, or nimj her»- 
after send, ■mall collectioni of Iniecta to be named , will please to inform ui 
if any of the speciei lent are from other States than their own. Lists of 
insects found in any particular locality are of especial interest, as throwinE 
light up^ the ReoKraphical dlktribuiion of species But to malte them or 
nkl value, it is requisite that we Icnow for certain whether or not all th« 
insects in any particular list como fh>m that particular locality, and if not, 
from what lf)cality they do come. 

We have lately received several small collections of Insects to be named, 
and have, to ftir as our time would allow, answcrrd by letter, because a long 
strinsof names is dry and uninteresting to the general leainr. It requires 
much time to conscientiously name the many lots of insects that reach us, 
and hereafter we can take no notice of them, unless they are properly 
mounted on entomological pins, and the locality given In which they were 
found. At least two specimens oi each species should be sent when it Is pos- 
sible to do so, and each species should be separately numbered. When there 
•re but few, we shall answer as hervtofbre in the columns of the Emtomol- 
O«I0T, but when there are many we shall answer by nuiL 

Hoir io Stadj amd Breed Insects — Jason E. 
Cotodtn, Amesbury, i/a**.— You are referred to the series 
of articles, from the pen of Mr. F. G. Sanborn, now 
appearing in our magazine . 

C/uu. E. BiUin, PhUaMphia, Pa.— Please refer to 
same article. See also page 68 at bottom of colunm 2. 

Slied Snake Scale — Jos. B. Hawhins, Vandalia, 
Jllg,~^We have on two former occasions received just 
such an object as you send, and as your own words fitly 
CFig. !«.] describe it, we quote 

them: '' Having a 
very rare specimen 
in my collection, I 
take the liberty of 
coioiwTransiuoent white. asking your opinion 

of it. It is about an inch and a quarter in length, 
by one-qualter in breadth, and is almost as thin as 
tissue paper. It is semi-transparent, and an ordinary 
microscope reveals no organs of life whatever. Still 
it is possessed of motion, and can travel over a table 
pretty briskly after the fashion of a measuTlng-worm. 
Its body seems hard to the touch, and has a fine polish 
which reflects the colors of the rainbow. When dis- 
turbed it quickly colls up like a watch-spring. I think 
a small piece of tissue from the inside of an onion, cut 
the proper length, would have a close resemblance to 
it. It was found on an old decayed log. " 

This wonderful creature is in reality a shed abdomi- 
nal scale of some snake, and lest some other of our 
readers may at some future time be as sorely puzzled 
over it as you have been, we give an outline of it at 
Figure 128. Uairs and other epidermis are more or 
less hygrometric, and readily move under a change 
in the condition of the air. These snake scales are so 
sensitive that they will readily pulsate In keeping with 
the beatings of the heart, if the finger be held close to 
one end. We incline to believe, however, that lis con- 
tracting has caused you to stretch the story of its moving 
briskly over a table ^z^^ a UetU, If you place a hair on 
a hot stove, you will find that it will curl up as rapidly 
as the Hair-worms described in this number by Profes- 
sor Leidy. 

Worms under nmicln Day — J. F. Flagg, Mead- 
ville, Pa. — The dirty brown worms, about one-half 
inch' long, having a small shiny, brown, retractile head, 
four longitudinal rows of minute black spines, and ter 
minating abruptly at the tail with a flesh-colored proleg 
below, and four pointed fleshy protuberances above, 
are the larvss of some species of Crane-fly ( Tipida), We 
have long since been acquainted with these worms, but 
they have never, so fSar as we know, been bred to the 
perfect state. We have observed them, in the month 
of February, crawling by thousands over the snow and 




ice in a meadow; and your finding them under the hay 
and leaves used as a mulch around your rose-bushes, is 
quite in accordance with their habits, for they love 
moist and cool situations. They feed on decomposing 
vegetable matter, but also sometimes seriously injure 
graj<s meadow.s by devouring the living roots. A little 
salt, sprinkled over the ground before the mulch is 
applied, would doubtless prevent their appearance, if 
that is what you desire. They are not cut-worms. 

A neir Pear-iree Insect — ^. J. Ayrety Villa 
Rid^€y IIU, ^The blackish beetles with a greenish cast, 
and finely punctured, which have injured so iflany of 
your young pear trees, by completely [Fig. i».] 
eating out the ends of the new shoots, 
and of the buds just before they burst, 
belong to the family of "Horn-bugs'* .^ 
(LuCANiD^), as they are called In 
this country, or "Stag-beetles," as 
they are termed in England. The 
species is the PUUyc«ru9 qiureutj 
Sch. , and may be known in popular ' 
language as the Oak Horn-bug. As 
its name would imply, it is perhaps 
common on the diff-erent kinds of ^^,^^3,^^^^,,^,^^ 
oak, though we have met with oiive-green hoe. 
it on but few occasiofas ourselves, and have never 
before heard of its destructive habit of devouring 
pear buds. In the larva state it feeds on dead oak logs 
and stumps. Attracted by the earlier development of 
the pear buds, compared with those of the different 
oaks, these beetles, with appetites sharpened by a long 
winter fasting, are led to invade your orchard during 
the early part of the season, but will in all probability 
retire to their usual haunts in the woods, as soon as 
there is a fit supply of their more natural food. But as 
your orchard is surrounded with timber and is more or 
less subject to such invasions every spring, we should 
advise you in future to protect the smaller trees just 
planted by covering them with millinet, as it is difficult 
to ward ofl' beetles which fly so readily by any other 
means. As this is an entirely new enemy to the Pear . 
we give an outline sketch of the female (Pig. 129), the 
male differing only in his somewhat hunger size, and his 
rather more robust mandibles. 

Apple-tirls Borer— JiM^ B, Myers, Jola, Kane, — 
The brown beetle which you found boring into a small 
pear tree at the axil of a limb, is the $ Bodrichus hioaw 
dattte, to which we have frequently referred in back 
numbers. 

Cocoons of Poljpl&emns Rlotli — ff, J, Dwdap, 
Champaign, Big. —Yoiir cocoons, found on a Horello 
Cherry tree, are those of tlic Polyphemus Motli {Atta^us 
polyphemue, Linn.), which was figured in the March (1809) 
number of this ma^^lne. 

Galls on supposed Dock— 49. V, Summtre, M,D., 
St, Louie y Mo, — The galls on what you take to be some 
species of Bumex, are in reality the Qolden-rod Moth 
Gall {Gelechia galloieolidaginie ,* Riley). You have 
doubtless been led into the error of confounding the 
two plants fh>m finding these old Golden-rod stalks near 
some growing dock. We have long since known that 
Chryeomela IGaetrophyea] eyanea, Melsh., breeds on 
Dock, and from this habit, it might appropriately be 
called in popular language the Dock Leaf-beetle. 

•Mo. Art.ltep.tLp.lTS. 



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[FiR. 130 ] 




mommj Rose Gall— W, M, Loche, Honeoye Falls , 
-^. r.— The moss-like bunches (Fig. 130)of wliich you 
found eight on a single rose 
bush, and which attracted 
your attention from their 
resemblance to an old quid of 
tobacco, are polythalamous 
galls. They are composed 
of an agglomeration of hard 
cells, many of which are at< 
present vacant, though some 
yet contain larvai. The gall- 
fly which causes this gall is 
the Rkodites rosoi, Linn., an 
insect which Baron Osteu 
Sacken found to be identi- 
cal witli a species which 
makes a similar gall on the 

rose in Europe, where it is coioi-Gwen ihen fhMh. jeUc 
known as the Bedeguar of when dry. 

the rose. The fly measures about O.IG inch in length, 
and is principally distinguished by the $ having a black 
tip to her reddish abdomen. The larv a of this gall-fly 
very closely resembles that of the Pithy Blackberr>' gill, 
represented in No. 5, at Figure 103, c. It is yellowish, 
has but 12 joints, of which the 4th is very short, and the 
11th and 12th quite small; it has 7 pairs of spiracles, 
namely, a pair on each of joints 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, 
and a lance oval horny yellowish patch on each side of 
joint 1. The jaws are dark, and the head, in repose, is 
always bent under on to the breast. A parasitic larva 
often occurs in this gall, but may easily be distinguished 
from the true gall-maker by its whiter and more opacfue 
color, its 13-jointed and slightly hairy body, the joints 
being less deeply separated, and by the absence of the 
homy piece on joint 1, and the more elongate and less 
bent forepart of body. • 

CFig.ui.] Punctures on Rose Twlfr— ^«o. W. 
Copley, AUauy Ilh.^The punctures in the 
stem of the Multiflora Rose, and which we 
illustrate herewith (Tig. 131), are made by 
some insect unkno>vn to ib<, for the purpose 
of depositing its egga. There are ten of these 
rounded punctures, about one-half inch dis- 
tant from one another, the fibres of the wood 
being torn in shreds longitudinally, looking 
very much like hemp, and contrasting strong- 
ly witli the crihison and green bark of the twig. 
Upon cutting into these punctures the wood 
is found to be discolored and dead, as far as 
they extend, and in the centre of the pith, 
placed longitudinally, is an elongate dull yel- 
low, opaque, soft, more or less flattened egg, 
0.22 inch long and 0.04 wide, the anterior 
end tapering to a tolerably fine point, the 
posterior end more blunt . BYom the size and 
appearance of this Ggg we infer that it belongs 
to some Cricket (Gryllid^;, and if we 

<vior-(«««i») succeed In rearing it we will report re- 

tmrm) gmy. SUltS. 

Snoat-beeile— IT. A, Vineland, N, «A— The Snout- 
beetles which you find so numerous, are Hylobius con- 
/wu8, Kirb. We know nothing of its habits; but the 
beetles of tliis genus are* timber borers, and usually in 
pine* 



Tlie Ojster-sliell Bark-lonse In inissoarl— 

-5. p. ffanan, Luray, Clarice county , Mo. — The section of 
a branch of a Sweet June apple tree, which CFIr. 132.] 
you cut from the orchard of Dr. Wm. H. 
Martin, of Kahoka, in your county, is in 
reality covered witli the scales of the com- 
mon Oyster-shell Bark-louse {Aspidiotus 
concht/ormts y Gmelj. It is furthermore 
covered very thickly, and the while eggs 
underneath the scales are plump and 
healthy. This matter is of such vital in- 
terest and importance to the State of Mis- 
.souri, and especially to those living in 
your county, that we quote part of your 
letter : 

* *This tree is rather badly infested, and 
I find by examination that they (the in- 
sects) are spreading slightly onto the near- 
est trees around it. W '111 they spread from 
one orchard to another, one or two miles 
distant? I saved my orchard from the 
native White Bark -louse, by sending you 
specimens ot them and ot their foes, and 
bv learning ironi you what to do to de- ^'^r — oreenwh 
stroy the lice I took your advice; en- SSJ?theSSiS 
couraged the ladybirds, and they cleared mUk-whitc. 
my trees of the lice. If your advice in this case shall 
accomplish as much for my friend, Dr. Martin, the 
object of this communication will have been accom- 
plished.'' 

In our First State Report we published a full account 
of tills insect, and demonstrated that though it was 
perfectly able to live and thrive in the northern half of 
the State, and had proved ruinously injurious in the 
adjoining sections of the States of Towa, and more espe- 
cially of Illinois; yet, in all probability, it was entirely 
unknown in our own State. In view of these facts, we 
laid great stress upon the importance of preventing its 
introduction, and of thus retaining the immunity which 
we had so far enjoyed. In the paper read before the 
State Horticultural Society at its last annual meeting, 
and published in No. 4 of the present volume of this 
m^igazine, we again called attention to the subject; and 
now for the first time we learn that this pest has actu- 
tually been introduced, and our worst fears are but too 
surely realized! Just as might have been expected, 
too, the insect first gains a footing in the extreme north- 
east comer of the State— the point of greatest proximity 
to the infested sections of Illinois and Iowa. From tlie 
contents of your letter we infer that the lice are yet 
confined to the particular tree from which you cut the 
infested twig, and to a few of those surrounding it, and 
in the name of the State, we earnestly ask Dr. Martin 
to have this tree cut down to the ground, and every par- 
ticle of it burned before the young lice hatch from the 
eggs now under the scales. The other trees should also 
be critically examined and properly treated. We cannot 
here repeat what we have already written on the sub- 
ject, but reier you to the article above-mentioned, for 
the natural history of this insect, and tlie proper reme- 
dies to apply; and if Dr. Martin follows our advice, he 
can rest assured that it will not only accomplish as much 
for him as it did for yourself, but that it will also be of 
immense benefit to the State. It would be well to send 
to Chas. W. Murtfeldt, 612 N. Filth street, St. Louis, 
for a dozen copies of the State Agricultural Report for 
1868, which contains the article, so that it may be dis- 
tributed among Dr. Martin's neighbors. We must, at 
all cost, stamp this insect out, before it spreads any 
further, and in order to definitely ascertain the limits 



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to which it has gone, we shall visit your county during 
the summer. If unmolested, this Barl^-louse will not 
only spread from one orchard to another, one or two 
miles distant, but will in time spread through the whole 
county, and continue ite destructive course like a de- 
vouring flame, from one county to another, until event- 
uiilly the whole northern portion of the State is infested 
so tliat orchards may have to be abandoned, as they 
have often been in other States on this account. 

Those trees which are not cut down , should be closely 
watched, and thoroughly syringed with strong tobacco- 
water, as soon as tlie young lice commence crawling 
about, which will be about the flrst of June . About two 
weeks after this syringing (just the time, by the way, 
to prune) cut off all the terminal twigs and burn them, 
by which means you will be apt to destroy any lice that 
escaped the syringing process, as they prefer to fix them- 
selves around the ends and knots of such young termi- 
nal twigs. The ladybirds, which devour this as well 
as the native white species, should also be encouraged. 
For the benefit of those who are not yet acquainted 
with the appearance of the Oyster-shell Bark-louse, we 
produce an illustration (Fig. 132) of an infested piece 
of bark, at the head of this answer. 

Tlie Pod-like Willow GwtU—J. R, M,, Wood- 
ham, Ills, — The oval woody galls, averaging 0.75 inch in 
leugtli and 0.40 inch in diameter, and terminating in a 
conical beak, which galls you find growing from the tips 
of the twigs of the Osier willow [t?tm»«a/M /] , and which 
we illustrate herewith, arc the Pod-like Willow gall 
[Fig 138.] {SalicU tUiqiuiy Walsh). 

This gall occurs on no 
(less than six different 
Willows, namely. Salt- 
cit humiUtf S, discolor J 
S, rostrataf S. oordata, 
S, petiolarUf S» lucida, 
and if yours were found 
on S, viminalis, that 
will make the seventh, 
and we therefore hope 
you will identify the 
species . Though slight 
differences, in size more 
espexjially, are notice- 
able between the galls 
growing on the different 
species of Willow, yet 
they are all produced 
by the same species of 
gall -gnat, which was 
originally described as 
Cecidomyia saliei's by 
Coio^-Same m twig; the larva ontDge. Dr. Fitch, iu the Amer- 
ican Quarterly Journal of Agriculture and Science, Vol. 
I, p. 263. The name salicU was, however, already pre- 
occupied by an European species, and Mr. Walsh after- 
wards redescribed it under the name of ailigua (Proc. 
Ent. Soc. Phil., Ill, p. 591). The fly Is one of our 
hu*gest syecies. and the specimens from your galls issued 
about the middle ol April. The pupa when about to 
change, works itself partly out of tlie terminal beak of 
the gall, and after the fly has escaped, the pupal, integu- 
ment, which is characterized by all the parts except 
the abdomen being dusky, frequently remains attached 
at the orifice. Our figui'e at h represents a section, 
showing the larva. 




cng. m ] 




Bee West— e/. i?. Muhleman^ Woodbi/m, TK^.—The 
delicate silken cells, each about 0.22 inch long, which 
are placed contiguously in a hollow currant stem, the 
bore of which has a diameter of 
0.12 inch, are built by some species 
of small bee, and in all probability, 
as you suggest, by one belonging 
to the genus Ceratina, The larvae 
which are now (March 25th) con- 
tained in these cells agree (as the 
cells themselves do) very well with 
Dr. Packard's description of those 
of the Double Ceratina ((?. dupla. 
Say*). Should they prove to be 
this species, an important error in 
its natural history will be correct- 
ed; for, from the fact that the $ 
has been observed to deposit eggs 
in the middle of May, Dr. Pack- 
ard concludes that there is but one 
brood each year, and that the per- 
fect insect hibernates. If we are 
right in referring these cells to Cer- 
atinay however, there are evidently 
two broods each year, the second 
brood hibernating in tlie larvae 
state; and this seems the more 
Ukely, since even in New York and o^^o"^*) jenowbh-whrtr 
Massachasetts the perfect bees appear in July from eggs 
deposited in May . We present (Fig. 134) an illustnitioii 
of these cells at a, and of the^ magnified larva at 5; and if 
we succeed in breeding the bee will report further. 

Beetles Named — S, V» Summert^ St. Louis, Mo.— 
Your insects are as follows: No. 1, Gyrinus analis,Sa.y, 
No. 2, Aphodius hteolor, Say, No. 3, Hydrophilus laUr- 
aUs, Herbst. No. 4, Dineutes assimiliSf Kirb. No. 5, 
Opatrinus notusj Say. No. 6, Copris ammon, Fabr. No. 
7, Copris caroUna, Linn. No. 8, Geotrupes sxeremetUi, 
Say. No. 9, Copris anaglypticus , Say. No. 10, (A) Can- 
thon ehalcites, Hald. No. 10, (B) Catdhon hmUy Drury. 
These two are very similar, but chalcitss always has a 
smooth and loivis a rough-punctured anus. No. 11 , 
Parandra hrunneay Fabr. No. 12, Pelidnota punctata , 
Linn. No. 13, Tenebrio tenebrioides , Lee. No. 14, an 
English species, we cannot undertake to name; it is a 
MycetophaguSf and probably quadripustulatus . No. 15, 
Philonthus apiealisy Say. No. 16, Pirates picipts, H. 
Sch. No. 17, Casnonia permsylvanica, Linn. No. 18, 
Julus tnarginatus (myriapoda). No. 19, Dsrmegtes nubHusj 
Say. No. 20, Chlanius pennsylvanicus , Say. No. 21, 
Platinus punctiformis, Lee. No. 22, Jschyrus, i-punda- 
tusy Oliv. No. 23, JBembidium postieatum, Hald. No. 
24, Aphodius fimetarius^ Fabr. No. 26, Bemhidium Uxti- 
gatum, Say. No. 26, same as 25. No. 27, Codes cuprasus, 
Chaud. No. 28, Pterostichus chaleitesy Say. No. 29, 

HaUica ? No. 30 we are not acqualiited 

with ; it must be foreign. No. 31, Bemhidium caudatumy 
Lee. For the proper determination of several of them, 
we are indebted to Dr. Horn , of Philadelp hia. 

*Gutd;tUi., p. 134. 



DBAUQHTBMAN WAITTSD. 

We can give employ lueut to u good Draughtsniau. and especi- 
ally to one wlio has a taste for tlie study of Entomology, and Is 
de$iirouH of improving his Icnowledge in llils department of 
Natural 8clencc. None but those who have ha<l practice m 
drawing minute objects need apply. For particulars and term 
address the editor of Uils department. 



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^0tani;jtal ^ti^mtmtnt 



Dr. GEORGE VA8EY, Editor, Biohview, Uls. 



THE HERBARIUM. 

The object* in Nature are so numerous and 
divei*8iiied that it is imiK)ssible for any one to 
retain in the mind a distinct and clear conception 
of all the species in any one of the departments 
of Nature. Every Naturalist also knows how 
difficult it is to describe, by pen or type, clearly 
and accurately the character of a species, so 
that it may be easily identified. Hence the im- 
portance, in thediflerent departments of Natural 
science, of collections or museums of natural 
objects. For instance, it is impossible to give a 
learner a clear idea of the nature of granite, lime- 
stone, sandstone, or other rocks and minerals 
without an examination of specimens. Indeed, 
it may be safely stated that no man can become 
a good Naturalist without the presei^vation, in 
some form, of the objects of his reseai'ch. 

In pui-suing the study of Botany, it is of the 
gi'eatest importance that specimens of the plants 
examined should be pi'eserved for comparison 
with other species. We hope many of our read- 
ers will commence with the opening of spring to 
make collections of dried plants, and to aid them 
ill this work, we present ft few directions, by 
follo\ving which, we think, they will succeed in 
obtaining satisfactory specimens. 

A vei*y good and convenient press consists 
merely of two pieces of planed board, each about 
fourteen by twenty inches, and with two cleats 
screwed across each board to prevent it from 
warping or splitting. 

Next provide an abundance of paper for diyei-s ; 
common wrapping paper will do, about twelve 
by eighteen inches in size ; or newspapers folded 
to about that size will answer. Then we want a 
quantity of plain white printing paper, of about 
the same size. Newspapei-s folded to the proper 
size will do for many plants, but the white print- 
ing pai)er is best. 

Now, how much of a plant shall we take for a 
specimen? Whenever the plant is small enough 
l-o go into a| sheet ten by sixteen inches, without 
much crowding of the parts, take the whole 
plant while in flower, or what is better, in flower 
and fruit, when possible"^ and with the root also, 
or a part of the ix)ot, if large. The principle is 
to have as fair and full a representation as pos- 
sible of all the pai-ts of the plant. 

Tlie roots, or the bulbs and tubei^s, of some 
plants are important characters, and sometimes 



Ibmish distinctive marks of great value. When 
the bulb or tuber is large and bulky, it will be 
best to slice off longitudinal pieces to roduce it 
to proper size. Some long and slender plants, as 
grasses, can be easily bent once or twice, so as 
to include the whole plant in a single sheet. But 
where the plant is too large to be used entire, we 
take a portion — as a branch, with leaves, flowers 
and fruit if possible. 

In some cases we have to take specimens of a 
plant at different times, in order fully to repre- 
sent its charactei*s. For instance, some Willows, 
the Elms and some Maples, develop their flowei-s, 
and nearly mature their fruit, before the leaves 
are fully expanded. In this case we get speci- 
mens, first of the flowers and afterwards of the 
leaves and fruit. 

Now, suppose we are ready to prepare a bo- 
tanical specimen. We fii'st lay down one of the 
press boards, upon which we place five or six 
sheets of the drying paper. Next the specimen 
is to be spread out, as naturally as possible, on 
the white sheet. Of small plants several speci- 
mens may often be placed on one sheet. This 
sheet, containing the specimen or specimens, is 
next to be placed on the layer of dryers, and five 
or six sheets more of dryers to be placed above 
it. Now, if we have any more si>ecimens, we 
may fill another white sheet and place on moro 
dryers, and so alternate them until we have in 
press all the specimens we wish. Then we place 
the other press-board on the top of all, and upon 
it we place a heavy weight, not generally less 
. than fifty pounds, and for most plants, especially 
when there are many in the press, a hundred 
pounds will not be too much. 

The usual custom is to leave the press in this 
state for about twenty-four hours, then remove 
the diyers, which have by this time become damp 
with the moisture absorbed f\*om the plants, and 
replace them with fresh ones ; then reapply the 
weights and leave them for another day, repeat- 
ing the change of dryers daily until the moisturo 
is entirely removed from the si>ccimens, which 
will usually require about one week. Some 
succulent plants will require a longer time. The 
damp papers may be dried and prepared for use 
again by half an hour's exi)osui*e t^) a hot sun, or 
if nec'essary they are to be dried by the stove. 

It frequently happens that, alter a lot of plants 
have been in press for one, two, or more days, 
we want to introduce more specimens. In this 
case we should separate the fresh ones from the 
others by intervening a piece of oiled cloth, or 
oiled pai)er. When dry the specimens are to be 
carefully put away in the Herbarium. 

We shall be surer of making good specimens, 



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and eliall make them in less than half the time, 
if we change diyers twice a day. With some 
delicate plants this is essential, in order to pre- 
serve the colors of the flowers. 

It will be remarked that this process involves 
a considerable amount of labor. Tnie, it does ; 
but it will pay. No person can become an accu- 
rate practical Botanist without an Herbarium ; 
for well pi*cpared specimens may be kept any 
length of time, and are always ready for ex- 
amination and comparison. Besides, a good 
Herbarium is a source of pleasure. What is more 
suitable for a place on the parlor table than a 
good Herbarium, even though it contain only a 
score or ^wo of plants? How much enjoyment 
and pleasure may be derivecFfrom such a collec- 
tion? The Ferns and Mosses especially make 
beautiful specimens, well worthy a place in every 
lady's cabinet of curiosities. 



THE COMMON VIRGIN'S BOWER. 

{GlematU Virginiana, L.) 

This is a perennial climbing viue, which might 
be introduced into our gardens with good eflect. 
Its flowers are not as ^howy as those of some 
foreign species, but its greatest novelty consists 
in its copious clusters of feathery tailed fruit, 
which hang on the vine late in the season and 
are conspicuous objects of attention even when 
seen in a wild state. The Atrageue {Clematis 
veriicellaris, D. C.) is a smaller species, wilh 
rather large and showy single flowers, succeeded 
by single heads of tailed fruit. It i? a rare spe- 
cies, occasionally found in rocky woods, and 
would be a pleasing addition to our cultivated 
list. 

In every part of our country there are native 
plants that are as worthy of cultivation as the 
foreign ones which are commonly found in gar- 
dens. Every large district of country has some 
species which are peculiar to itself, and this fact 
furnishes an opportunity for exchange between 
the cultivators of diflerent sections. Only a 
small number of our native plants have been 
introduced into our gardens. We have an im- 
mense variety to select from, and a little care in 
their management would improve their size and 
beauty, and probably in some cases produce 
that condition which is generally sought for by 
florists, namely, the tendency to produce double 
flowers. 



Erkata.— Page 183, column 2, line 21 from 
bottom, for '*Fig. 113" read "Fig. 116." Page 
188, column 1, line 16,for<'Cerm" read **Cercw." 



PULSATILLL 

(Fljr. 135.) 




American I'lilsatilla or Eaeter Flower. {Anemone patent, L., 
var. NnttalHana, Gr.) 

The genus Anemone is pretty well known, in 
some of its species, all over our countiy. The 
name is derived from a Greek word signifying 
wind — ^given, as some think, because many of 
them bloom in the windy days of spring. The 
genus has representatives in all the principal 
divisions of the globe. In the Northern States 
we have eight species, including Pulsatilla, which 
until recently has been considered a distinct 
genus. It differs chiefly from other species of 
Anemone in having long feathery, or tailed seeds, 
as in Clematis, while in Anemone proper the 
seeds are short, and without the tailed append- 
ages. 

We present a figure of our American Pulsatilla 
(Fig. 136), which is a variety differing little tcoxn 



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217 



the European Anemone patens, and is dietin- 
gnished as the variety NuttaUiana, Gr. It grows 
somewhat sparingly on gravelly hills, or banks, 
in northern Illinois, in Wisconsin and Minnesota 
more abundantly, and thence westwardly to the 
Rocky Mountains. The flower (Fig. 135, a) usually 
makes its appearance early in April. It is of pretty 
large size, and of a bluish-purple color, varjing 
to a light blue. The flower has not the usual 
two sets of floral leaves, i. c, calyx and corolla, 
but only the external set of sepals, which, how- 
ever, are petal-like in texture and color. There 
are usually six of these sepals, fi'om one to one 
and a half inches long, oblong, and covered ex- 
ternally with scattered silky haii-s. 

The flower blooms befoi-e the development of 
the leaves, and at first seems to be closely sur- 
rounded by the involucre of finely dissected 
leaves which is just below it ; but it gradually 
pushes itself up on a stem, wliich finally becomes 
two or three times as long as the poriion of the 
stem below the involucre (Fig. 135, b). Finally 
the sepals and stamens drop oflf, and a head of 
fifty to eighty seeds, with fine silky tails an 
inch and a half long, is matured. During this 
time, also, the radical leaves (Fig. 135, c) are 
developed. The whole plant is at first (?ovei-ed 
with silky hairs, which mostly wear oflT with age. 

In the north of Europe this plant and a nearly 
allied species. Anemone PuUatilla, are well 
known as the Pasque flower, or Easter flower, 
and they ai-e often used to decorate the churches 
during Easter. The Pulsatilla has also attained 
great celebrity as a medicinal plant, especially 
in homoeoi>athic practice. 

• ^ • 

In tropical countries many species of plants 
live entirely upon what they obtain from the 
air. They usually grow upon trees, but not in 
the manner of parasites, because they do not 
insinuate their lOots into the tissues of the tree, 
or plant, and draw from it its juices. These are 
called Epiphytes, or air-plants. It is stated that 
in the island of Java there are over three hundred 
species of Orchidaceous plants of this character. 
The Spanish Moss of our Southern States, which 
is ^een hanging in long, tangled threads from 
the branches of trees, belongs to this class of air- 
plants. Many lichens growing on bare rocks are 
true epiphytes, as is also a species of lichen {Par- 
melia moUinscula, Ach.) which grows on the 
arid plains of the Rocky Mountain region. 
Parasitic plants differ from air-plants in not only 
growing upon other plants, but in drawing their 
sustenance from them. The Mistletoe strikes its 
roots into the branch on which it grows so tho- 
roughly as to be inseparable from it, 



VEGETABLE CELLS. 

BY DR. FBLIZ 80HAAH, CHICAGO. 

PART I. 

In our microscopical investigations we meet 
with two kinds of objects — those originating in 
the minei-al kingdom, as crystals, their polariza- 
tion, decomposition, etc.; and those having 
connection with organic life. The latter are 
classed in two grand subdivisions, viz., the Vege- 
table and Animal Kingdoms. In both we find 
one common ground form of being, the cell. 
This is the foundation-stone of the entire Vege- 
table and Animal Kingdoms, and is a subject of 
overwhelming importance. We propose at this 
time to discuss the vegetable cells, in their 
different phases of generation, life and death. 

The ■ vegetable cell is composed of an outer 
coat of cellulose, including closely another of 
nitrogenous matter, called the primordial vesicle. 
This contains certain substances, as starch, fat, 
crystals, chlorophyl, granular matters, gas, and 
a nucleus called cytoblast, which contains one or 
more nucleoli. Let us pass in review all these 
parts, in order to have an acquaintance with the 
whole cell. 

1. The Cellulose, — ^The cellulose pure is white, 
transparent, diaphanic, insoluble in water, in 
spirit of wine, ether, or the fixed or etheric oils. 
Feeble solutions of acid exert but little action 
upon it, even by boiling; it is the same with 
feeble alkaline solutions. The resistance whiA 
the cellulose opposes to these I'eactives varies, 
however, with its cohesion; the newly built 
cellulose altei"s easier than that of older forma- 
tion. 

Concentrated sulphuric acid (S O*) transforms 
the cellulose into a substance called "dextrine." 
Niti'ic acid (N O^) transforms it into an exceed- 
ing combustible and explosive substance known 
under the name of "cotton-powder." Boiling 
nitric acid transforms cellulose into oxalic acid. 
Acetic aci<l does not attack the cellulose. The 
cellulose does not change its color by the addi- 
tion of an aqueous solution of iodine ; but when 
the sulphuric acid has commenced its disaggre- 
gation, the iodine gives it a beautiful blue hue. 

This chemical reaction is one ot those we use 
to prove the existence of cellulose under the 
microscope. The chemical composition of cellu- 
lose is represented by carbon ^*, hydrogen *°, and 
oxygen ^^. 

Some may wonder how we are able to give 
these facts on studying a membrane not thicker 
than one ten-thousandth part of an inch. ^We 
state these facts by way of isolation — ^by taking 
divers parts of vegetables and submitting them 



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succe88ively to different chemical reactions 
which effect a destruction of all foreig^n mattei-s 
adherent to tlie membrane in question. 

There is no difficulty in showing you this part 
of the ve«^etable cell. Take a potato, cut it, and 
take ft-om the cut surface a very thin slice on an 
object-glass ; cover it with a coveiing glass plate, 
and add a drop of water. You will remark on 
the edges of the slice many cells, in some p&ris 
only a portion, rent, lai^erated, and out of con- 
nection with the adjacent cells. 

If you have any doubt of that being a cellulose 
membrane, you add some solution of Iodine. 
Instantly you see the starch in the cell colored a 
deep blue. The membrane remains transparent, 
white as before. Add a di*op of sulphuric acid 
and you will see, after a while, the membrane 
also take a blue hue, but not so intense by far 
as the starch bodies near by. The parts near the 
comer whei*e you let enter the sulphuric acid 
Ave colored first, and the color advances gradu- 
ally in the other direction. 

I made some fine slices of the root of Valeriana 
offlcinulis. In putting them between the glass 
plates I could not distinguish any cellulose mem- 
brane, or any indication of it. It was because 
the salts spread through the cells, and the in- 
crustations in their walls rendered the membrane 
opaque. In boiling the preparation, the water 
took so much of the soluble salts away that the 
cellulose membranes could be seen very clearly. 
This boiling can be performed in any vessel ; but 
for our purjyose it suffices to add some drops of 
water to the object glass, and hold it for an in- 
stant over the alcohol lamp. The jumping up 
and down of the covering glass-plate denotes 
that there is steam formed, whose expansive 
power is utilized in the locomotive. 

Now the cellulose membrane is degarnished 
enough to be observed, and we can try the same 
experiment with the iodine and sulphuric acid 
as alluded to before. It is indifferent which of 
the two you add first. I boiled the valerian root 
in water containing a few drops of sulphuric 
acid, and the membrane grew free to a great4?r 
extent, because the sulphuric acid is a strong 
dissolvent for organic as well as for inorganic 
salts. When you put this slice under the micro- 
scojK*, and add a drop or two of iodine solution, 
you remark easily the growing of the blue color 
at the mai-gins before white. I tried the same 
exi)eriment on a fungus which luxuriated upon 
an animal matter, but with a negative result. A 
fungus growing in a sugary solution should be 
carefully washed, because the sugar, being trans- 
formed by sulphuric acid into dextrine, can take 
the blue color by adding iodine. The cellular 



membrane of these two vegetables (potato and 
valerian) is smooth, without any pores. 

The successive coloring of the contents of an 
integer cell from the side from which the i^eactiye 
comes, demonstrates that it is only by the law of 
Osmose, and not through pores or other holes in 
the wall that the coloring is effected. 

We find often at the inside of the cuticle of 
cellulose, layers of different form, thickness and 
an'angement. These layers have sometimes the 
fonn of a circle, sometimes of a spiral, sometimes 
of large deposits covering more or less the entire 
surface of the cell. 

When the cell contains one or more rings, it is 
called the ceUtUa [Fig, iJW] 

annulifera, oi*i5>^^^jlk^^5il^^^^^^\^^^ 
ring-bearing <^^^1-V^^^^^!^^^^\^^^^^^^ 
We find tJ^^^^l^^^i^^^^^^^^^^^ 
mixed with 8pi-\^^^ **^S^^^:ir^V — mI 

rals in a trans- TraMveree cot of Hyacinth leaf 
verse cutof a leaf of Hyacinth (Fig. 136). Whenthe 
two ends do not grow together, then the layer 
inside the cell takes the form of a spiral ; this 
spiral can run ft'6m the left to the right, or from 
the right to the left. The cells containing the 
spiral are called fibre cells, when the fibres are 
clearly separable ftoia the cell wall. A trans- 
verse cut of Hyacinth shows very distinctly these 
spirals. And you can also distinguish some 
fibres running from right to left, and one nmning 
in the contrary direction. The same can be olv 
served in a few cells out of the pith of Geranium. 

[Fig. 137.] 





Pith of Geranium 

In this example I had rent the spiral out of the 
cell, and so I could study it more closely. I found 
it an elastic substance without hole in the in- 
terior, the breadth being ever>^where the same. 
In one part- 1 distinguished that the fibi-e-ribbon 
was split in the middle (Fig. 137, aa) but soon 
coming together again, leaving a kind of button- 
hole. 

In the fibrous cell adjacent (Fig. 137, h) I i-e- 
marked that, at the borders of the cell where the 
fibre-ribbon passed from above to below, there 
was a little white space (Fig. 187, c), the effect 
of the interference of the light. I followed the 



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spiral, and found at one end, whei*e it was rent 
out of the cell, that it was also an entire fihi*e, 
and I could see that the white spots at tlie twin- 
ing was not o(!casioned by a pore or a hole in 
the wall of the eell. Tliis observation was very 
interesting, because it gave me the opportunity 
of exi)laining such white si)ots at tlie ends of a 
tender line in the cells of a moss (Sphagnum 
fimbiHotum) , which I was unable to do before 
(Fig. 138). 

[Fig. 138 ] 




Sphagnum flmbriatum. 
This tender line is nothing else than a spiral. 
This tibi-e could not be isolated from the cellu- 
lose, but it adhered very fast to it, and broke 
just at the same place as the cellulose, as you can 
remark in the lacerated cells of the edge of a 
slice. That might be considered as the tran- 
sition to the porous cells {cellulosw porosct), 
in which the fibi*es are so gi^own together 
as to appear like a continuous membrane beset 
with little pores. Close by the fibrous cells 
you can find them in the pith of Geranium (Fig. 
137, c). It presented itself in the shape of a 
la<lder, the pores ai-e horizontally disposed at 
equal distances ft*om each other; in the middle 
of each pore you can see a transverse line divid- 
ing it into tAVo halves — an effect of interference 
of light. In the thickness of the wall of the cell 
at both sides, and corresponding to the space 
between the pores, we remark a swelling of the 
cellulose; this is the result of the gi*owing to- 
gether of the fibre and wall. 

[Fig. 139.] 




Timiwrene. LonKitadinal. 

Liber celU of Cinchona callsaya. 

WImju tlie inside layers are deposited merely 
ou the entire sui'face of the cellulose wall, then 
we have a successive growiiig of the wall in a 



regular way, depositing ring uiMin ring, spiral 
upon spiral, porous layer upon porous layer; or 
the layers are deposited irregularly — the first is 
mostly the case. 

A transverse and a longitudinal slice of liber- 
cells of the Peruvian bark (Cinchona caJittaya) 
gives us a splendid illustration of this. You 
can pursue the pores through the entire layer, 
which has the aspect of a series of boxes inclos- 
ing one another. (Fig. 139.) 
CFig^MO] |,j tjj^» starch-cells of the root of 

/ Sarsaparilla (Smilax sarsaparilla) 

the pores are deposittnl with regu- 
larity. I remarked that, by cutting 
the slice, the pores near the ed«^e 
did not rend: and by adding iodine, 
the starch inside the integer cell 
(Fig. 140, 6), attached with its top 
to the lower end of this lacerated cell, 
took its blue color merely in accord- 
ance with the law of Osino.se. The 
starch granules near the to]) (Fig. 






o 
c 



o 




odll 
<^o! 

starch cell 
Sflwaparilla. 



140, «), where they are 
separated from the con- 
tact of the iodine by 
two membranes, col- 
ored first and more 
intensely, because the 
capillarity sent a large 
amount of iodine in that direction. 



[FiK. Ul.] 




Compound itarcli 
cell Sanaparilla. 



HOW TO STUDY THE GRASSES. 

The study of the grasses is attended with 
some difficulty on acconnt of the smallness of 
the parts composing the tlowers, and is under- 
taken by very few, even of those who study 
with some care the more conspicuous flowering 
plants. But for those who will have the patience 
to attempt their investigation, Nature spreads 
out an open and inviting field, and the explorer 
will be rewarded by discoveries of as great in- 
terest as in any other department. 

Let us notice some of the principal parts, or 
organs, entering into the flower structure of the 
grasses. The flowers of grasses are sometimes 
in spikes, as those of Timothy or Ilerd's-grass, 
and sometimes in loose, open panicles, as those 
of Red-top. Each spikelet, or smallest subdi- 
vision of the spike or panicle, whether consisting 
of a single flower or of a number of flowers, has 
commonly a pair of outer husks called glumes. 

Each individual flower is composed of two 
inner husks or scales called palea^, three stamens 
(each consisting of a thread-like stem or fila- 
ment), a pollen-box or anther, and a pistil, 
composed of the germ and two hairy or feathery 



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styles. The outer pair of glumes is sometimes 
wanting, and in some cases one of the inner 
pair is either absent or imperfect. 

It is well to begin the study of grasses by 
examining first the structure of some of those 
having large flowers, as the common Oat (Arena 
sativa, L.) Here if we take one of the smallest 
spikelets, we find first a pair of large husks or 
glumes, one of them at the bottom rather folds 
over the other, and is affixed to the stem or 
rachis a little below it, hence it is called the 
lower glume; the other is called the upper 
glume. Just within these glumes will be seen 
two or three flowers, in each of which we may 
observe the two palets, and, if the specimen is 
collected in flower, we will find the stamens 
and styles, but if the ripe oat is examined we 
shall find within the palets only a gi*ain ; or, in- 
deed, one of the two or three flowers may be 
sterile or imperfect. 

A wild grass (Stipa spartea, Trin.) growing 
on the native prairies and plains of the West, 
and sometimes called Wild Oats, or Porcupine 
grass, on account of the slender, twisted awn or 
bristle, four to six inches long, which encloses 
the seed, has very conspicuous glumes, one and 
a half or two inches long; but very few of our 
grasses have flowers of such magnitude, while 
in some species the flowers are less than one line 
in length. 

After acquiring familiarity with the floral 
organs in some of the larger specimens, the 
learner will have little trouble, with the aid of a 
common lens, and of the excellent figures in 
Gi*ay'8 Manual, in getting an acquaintance with 
any of the common grasses. We trust our 
readers will improve the coming season in an 
investigation of this subject. 



POISONOUS PLANTS. 



**At Walcott, in this county, on Monday even- 
ing, Ilariy, aged 6 J years, son of Dr. T. Byrnes, 
and Willie, aged 7 years, son of Mr. Bardie, died 
from eating the poisonous root known as wild 
parsnip or Hemlock. The children were play- 
mates, and about six o'clock took a walk along 
the railroad track, where they discovered the 
plant, of which they ate. The first intimation 
any one had of anything being wi*ong was about 
seven o'clock, when little Harry came home and 
told liis mother that his playmate, Willie Barche, 
was down thei*e (pointing to the railroad) sick. 
He said, * Willie staggers like a drunken man, 
and he is sick, Mam, he is real sick ; and I feel 
sick, too.^ Dr. Byrnes, who was at home, over- 
heard the remark, and, on looking, saw Willie 
lying down up(5n the ground. He immediately 
i-equested Mr. Peck, station agent, to bring the 
child to the house. This was done, but the poor 
little fellow was then in a state of collapse, and 



soon went into violent convulsions, and died in 
half an hour. Mrs. Byrnes, when apprised by 
her little son that he was sick, consulted her hus- 
band, and a strong emetic wjis given the cliild. 
Being asked what he had eaten, he said, *Only 
two little roots about as big as my finger.' The 
child continued to grow worse, and in a short 
time was seized with convulsions, and, despite 
all remedies, died at midnight." — Davenport 
Gazette, April 20. 

It is now an appropriate time to give a word 
of warning respecting poisonous plants. Everj^ 
spring we find such accounts as the above in the 
public prints, of cases of poisonuig "ft'om the use 
of roots which are mistaken for those of esculent 
vegetables. 

A few years ago, we knew a strong, healthy 
young Norwegian, who, having found some i-oots 
just beginning to develop leaves, ate two or 
three of them, under the belief that they wwxj 
pai*snip8. In an hour or two he was seized with 
pain and vomiting, and befoi'e medical aid was 
procured he was dead. The roots wei^ those of 
the Spotted Cowbane {Cicuta maculutaf L.), » 
plant which occurs all over the country in low 
moist grounds, and has been the occasion of 
many cases of poisoning. 

Two years ago, several children near C-entralia, 
111., were poisoned fi'om eating the roots of an- 
other plant, which grows in the southern part of 
the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, in 
similar situations with the preceding, and is 
botanically called Eulophua Americanus, Nutt. 
It has no definite common name so far as we 
know. 

These two plants belong to the Natural Order 
UmbelUfercB, or to the same family as the Carar 
way. Parsley, CaiTot, Parsnip, &c. It embraces 
many poisonous plants, among tliem the Poison 
Hemlock (Conium maculatum, L.), the juice of 
which, it is supposed, was employed by the 
ancients in the execution of criminals. 

Children should be cautioned against eating 
any wild roots without the sanction of those who 
are acquainted with them and know what they 
are. We shall hereafter give some illustrations 
of these poisonous plants. 



Western Botany. — A large portion of the 
native vegetation of the States west of the Mis- 
sissippi, and particularly of the great Plains of 
Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado, is not described 
in the common Text-books of Botany. Hence 
our friends in those sections will meet with dif- 
ficulty in becoming acquainted with the plants 
they meet with there. The names and descrip- 
tions of such plants are contained in Pacific 
Railroad Reports, and in published proceedings 
of various scientific societies. 



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[Pig. 142.1 




The Flowering Dogwood, 



THE FLOWERING I>OGWOOD. 

^ {Camug Jlorid^i^ L.) 

There are many kinds of Dogwood {Comus), 
the most of wliicli are shrubs varying in height 
from five to ten or fifteen feet, and distributed 
over nearly all parts of our country. But the 
most attractive and showy of all the Dogwoods 
is that species botanically called Cornm florida, 
L. It is a small tree, growing from fifteen to 
twenty-five or thirty feet liigh, having a pretty 
wide mnge of latitude, from 47° N. to Florida, 
being rare, however, in the northern latitudes. 
It.s natural situation is in rocky woods, and on 
the borders of streams. 

It is a very conspicuous object when in flow'er, 
ft'om the profusion of large white blossoms, or 
ratlier what appear to be blossoms, for the appa- 
rent blossoms /are not really such. The tnie 
fiowei*8 are very small, and clustered together in 
a small head. Each of these minute flowei*s has 
all the parts proper to a i)erfect fiower, calyx, 
corolla, Btamens and pistil. Immediately beneath 



the cluster is developed four hii-ge white leaves, 
looking like petals, but really fonning what Is 
called an involucre. These involucral leaves are 
inversely heart-shaped, and about an inch and a 
half long. At a distance they look like the pro- 
per petals of a single flower, while the small 
head of true flowers which they surround looks 
like the central organs of a flower. A close ex- 
amination will readily detect the true nature of 
these parts. 

The wood of the Dogwood is very close-grained, 
hard, capable of an excellent polish, and useful 
for the manufacture of many ariicles requiring 
durability and firmness of texture. The bark of 
the tree is bitter, and has long been known and 
employed as a substitute for, or adjuvant of, 
Peruvian bark and quinine in the treatment of 
ague and malarious diseases. 

The tree is well deserving of cultivation from 
the showy appeai-ance of the snow-white flowers, 
or floral appendages (Fig. 142), which contrast 
finely with the lively green of the foliage, and 
from the bright red berries which succeed the 
flowers. 



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OUR CULTIVATED GRASSES. 

The grasses which in this couDtry are culti- 
vated for pasturage ami hay-making, are chiefly 
Blue-grass (Poa pratensis, L.), also called June- 
gi-ass, Red-top (Agrostis i-uJgaris, Wiih.)> and 
Timothy, or Hcrd's-grass (Fhleum pratenaey L.) 
Several other species are occasionally found in 
lawns and orchards, and an annual species called 
Millet (Setaria italicaj Kunlh), is somewhat 
extensively grown for hay or fodder. 

In some portions of the country Blue-grass 
has, acquired an extended i*eputation as a pasture 
grass. In Kentucky, Oh'O, and some other 
"Western States, it is considered the most valu- 
able of all grasses for pasturage. There has been 
much discussion during several years past as to 
the real botanical name of the Kentucky Blue- 
grass, some contending that it was the Poa 
compressay which is also called Blue-grass, and 
which, in fact, is oflen found growing with Poa 
pratensis. The latter has an upright, round 
stem, or culm, while the former has a reclining 
and flattened stem. We think there is little 
doubt among botanists that the June-grass of 
the Northern States is also the Blue-grass of 
Kentucky, varied only by differences of soil and 
climate. The genus Poa includes a number of 
other species, which have more or less value as 
forage plants, the most impoHant of which is, 
probably the Fowl Meadow-grass (Poa seroiina, 
Ehrh.) This is found as a native grass in many 
parts of the country, forming, indeed, a con- 
siderable proportion of the grass of sloughs aud 
wet meadows in Northern Illinois and Wiscon- 
sin. Though somewhat coarse, it is a veiy 
l)roductive and useful grass. 

Red-top (Agrostis vulgaris, With.) is exten- 
sively employed in the Norlhern States as a 
pasture grass, especially on low, damp grouuds. 
In Pennsylvania it is called Herd*s-grass, which 
name in the Northern States is applied to quite 
a different grass. Red-top is native both in this 
country and in England, where it is called Bent- 
grass. Two other nearly-related species, the 
White Bent-grass (Agrostis alba, L.), and the 
Brown Bent-grass, (Agrostis canina, L.) are 
occasionally found in meadows mixed with 
common Red- top, and they also are native in 
some localities in this country. All the species 
of Agrostis have one-flowered spikelets, in 
open panicles. Red-top has its name from the 
reddish color of the flowers and flower branches, 
which color is very peculiar aud distinctive 
when a large quantity, or a field, is seen at once. 
The stems are erect, rouud aud smooth, and the 
roots creeping. 



As a grass for hay-making the Herd's-grass, 
or Timothy (Phleum pratense, L.), is more ex- 
tensively employed than any other. Its solid 
stems, and tall, vigorous growth, give a large 
product of highly nutritive hay. Its flowers are 
arranged in a compact, cylindrical spike, usually 
thi-ee or four inches long. The spikeleu arc 
single-flowered, of two stiff'-polnted glomes, 
including two much smaller and shorter palets. 
This grass has been introduced fi'om Europe, 
where it is native, and also extensively cultivated 
under the name of Cat's-tail grass. 

On the high mountains of New Hampshire, 
and also on the Rocky Mountains, we have a 
native species closely related to the Timothy, 
viz. : Phleum alpinum, L., or what might be 
called the Alpine Timothy. In Europe there 
are also several other species belonging to this 
genus, none of which, however, have been cul- 
tivated. 

— — — *-»•- — — 

THE HONEY LOCUST. 

{GUditichia triaeanihoa, L.) 

The* Honey Locust is a well known tree, prin- 
cipally of the Western and Southern States. It 
is one of our largest forest ti-ees, the tnuik ft"e- 
quently attaining a diameter of thi-ee or four 
feet ; but, ft-om its habit of early dividing up into 
large branches, it does not attain as gi-eat height 
as many smaller ti-ees. It usuaHy forms a broad, 
open head, with a beautiful light-green foliage, 
which waves gi*aceftilly in the summer breeze. 

Its trunk and limbs are usually beset with 
numerous horrible spines, or thorns, fronvtln*ec 
to six inches long, each of which has commonly 
two branches, whence the specific name triacan- 
thos, or thi-ee-thoi-ned. These thorns, however, 
are not constant, as trees are occasionally found 
which are entirely smooth. Some have supposed 
these were a diflerent species, but they are in all 
other respects like the thorny kind, and the seed 
of either will pi'oduce thorny and thomless tiws. 

The favorite locality of the Honey Locust is ui 
bottom lauds, or following the coui'se of small 
streams. It belongs to the Pea family (Natm-al 
Order LeguminoscB) , but not to the same section 
as the Black Locust, which has tnie papilliou- 
aceous flowere. Its relationslup in the Pea' 
family would not be suspected IVoni the appear- 
ance of the flowers, but its pinnate leaves and 
long pods, or true legumes, easily identify it. 

In its flowering habit it is polygamous— that 
is, the fertile aud infertile flowers are either 
separate or variously mixed on the same tree. 
The flowers are small and inconspicuous, iu short 
spikes, proceeding tcom the axils of the leaves. 



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The fertile ones produce flat, twisted pods, a foot 
or more in leii^h, and an inch and a half broad, 
and containing twenty or more pretty large, flat 
seeds. Tiie pinnate leaves, four to six inches 
long, are made up of about ten pail's of small 
oblong leaflets, which are nearly entire on the 
margin. The pods contain a sweetish pulp, 
which is said to be employed in some of the 
Southern States in fennenting a kind of beer. 

The tree is a vigorous grower, with a pi'ctty 
dense, tough-gi*ained wood, which makes excel- 
lent fuel. It is not much in i^equest as an onm- 
mental tree, perhaps on account of its formidable 
thorns, but has been employed to make hedges, 
and by some is tliought to be superior for that 
purpose to the Osage. It has also been recom- 
mended for timber plantations. 



THE WOODY COMPOSIT.?:. 



Perhaps no family of plants is more numerous 
in species than thai of the so-called Compound 
flowere {CompositcB) , 

In all that part of the country lying east of 
the Mississippi there is not a shrub or tree be- 
longing to this family. Some kinds, as various 
species of Sunflower (ffelianthus) j prodnce 
annually a large and heavy growth, but it inva- 
riably dies down to the ground at the approach 
of winter. The roots of many are perennial, 
but nothing above ground survives a season's 
growth. 

It is not so, however, with several kinds of 
Compositce in the region of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, and particularly in the great basins of the 
western slope. These are various species of 
Artemesia and Linosyris, all generally classed 
under the name of Sage brush ; and they form a 
prominent and distinctive feature of the Plains, 
and in some iheasure by their woody growth 
compensate for the absence of trees. 

The largest and most common Sage brush is 
the Artemesia tridentatay Nutt. It is very vari- 
able in size; on dry upland plains not usually 
over two or three feet high, with a trunk two 
or three inches in diameter. In valleys and 
moist ground it often attains a height of eight 
to ten feet, with a thickness of as many inches. 
URually there are a number of stems spreading 
out from one root. The wood is light and 
porous, somewhat resembling cedar, and it 
bums readily even in a green state, as also do 
the leaves, with a pleasant balsamic fragrance. 
It is the main dependence, for fuel, of immi- 
grants and travellers on the Plains west of the 
mountain ranges. It has no resemblance to onr 
cultivated Sage-plant, except in its fragrance, 



and belongs to an entirely different family. Its 
annual growth is very slow. We have often 
cut bushes of moderate size which indicated 
forty or fifty yeai-s* age, and undoubtedly many 
of them continue to grow for a century. 

Another species, the Artemesia carta j Pursh., 
is seldom found away from rich moist valleys. 
It sends up more numerous stalks from one 
root, t. e., it grows in bushy clumps of twenty 
or thirty stalks, which are each about an inch 
in diameter. 

Still another species is the Artemesia arbus- 
cula, Nutt. This is very dwarf in habit, seldom 
growing over a foot high, but often covering 
hundreds of acres on low mountain slopes. 

The bushes of lAnosyrus are quite similar in 
general habit to those of the Artemesia, but do 
not grow as large. There are also several spe- 
cies of that genus. 



NEW BOOK. 

THE AMERICAN BOTANIST AND FLORIST. By 
Alphonso Wood, A.M., author of the Class Book 
of Botany, &c. A. S. Barnes & Co., New York and 
Chicago . 

This is a handsome, well-printed volume of nearly 
600 pages, possessing some features of great merit. The 
part devoted to structural and physiological botany is 
an example of great condensation, and is proAisely 
illustrated. The definitions are generally very clear 
and concise. In some instances, ,we think, technical 
names are unnecessarily employed, as for instance, 
pUtirenchyma instead of Jibrous tissue j and trachyeneJtyma 
instead of vascular tissus. Where Etiglish words will 
convey the idea intended, we think they should be em- 
ployed in preference to foreign ones; tlius head is a 
better word than capitulum, and cluster is to be preferred 
to glomerulej etc. 

The portion of the volume devoted to descriptive 
botany professes to record the characters of nearly 4,000 
species of the native and cultivated plants of the United 
States east of the Mississippi river. The introduction 
of greenhouse exotics Is, we think, carried too far; for 
Instance, we have given us fifteen species of Begonia, a 
genus of which we have no native representative . As 
an accommodation to city classes, whose acquaintance 
with plants is mostly limited to the cultivated exotics, 
this may be well enough, but for students wishing to 
study the productions of their own country, we think 
this matter is superfluous, and that its space would be 
better tilled by expanding the descriptions of our native 
plants. 

Ferns and Mosses.— The Ferns and Mosses 
are beautiful objects and well deserving the 
study of young ladies. Good specimens are 
finely adapted to parlor collections for ornament 
as well as for study. There are about sixty 
species of ferns in the Northern States. Many 
of them ai'e very delicate and beautiful. The 
fructification is generally in small dots or lines 
on the back of the leaves. 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



NOTES PROM CORRESPONDENTS. 



FleM and meadoir Rlosses.— The spedeB affect- 
ing these localities, and often by their abcmdance, doing 
great damage to meadows, are Bryum argenUum, Lin. , 
Barhula unifuiculata, }lQd., Anhiiium Ohtoense, 8ch., 
Phascum euspidatum. 6chr., Phascum altemifoUum^ Brid. , 
and Phascum nitidulum, Schimp. Sevei*al others are 
occasionally found in certaia localities in less numbers. 
Hypnum polymorphum on clay lands is sometimes quite 
abundant and ii^urious. Phascum triquetrum is rarer. 
Bryum c<^pitieum, L. , Airichum augugtcUum, Bean, Fu- 
naria Jlavicans^ Mich., and Hypnum salehrosvm, Uoff., 
are rarely found in such situations. Weistia vvndula, 
Brid., in some clay meadows is also found sparingly, 
and in very low swampy places, Bypnum riparium and 
Hypnum radicals frequently abound; but excepting the 
first six species little damage is sustained to the grasses 
by their presence . Bryum argehteum and Barhula ttn- 
guictdata are specially obnoxious not alone in these 
situations, but in gardens and house-grounds where 
weeds are kept down, having the advantage of growing 
without much heat; in tact, flourishing most luxuri- 
antly when phenogamous plants are entirely at rest in 
the winter, they soon possess themselves of the whole 
territory, and finally choke out many herbaceus plants, 
and do great mischief to garden shrubbery and even 
trees. Underdraining would to some extent diminish 
the evil, but as all mosses grow chiefiy during the win- 
ter and spring months, when moisture almost continu- 
ally abounds, no satisfactory remedy will probably ever 
be applied for this particular evil to agriculture and 
horticulture. E. Hall. 

VelTet«leaf {AhutUon Aricenrntj Gaert.) — Tlio In- 
dian Mallow, or Velvet-leaf, often so called, and also 
locally Stamp-woed, fVom a use formerly of printing 
butter with it« pods, is an annual East Indian plant of 
the Mallow family. It is a vile weed, alrea<ly well 
established in numerou.s loraliticH in the West, as well 
as in the oMer portions of this country. Public atten- 
tion, if not legal enactments, should be directed without 
delay to some means of limiting its dissemination, or 
confining it to its present areas: eradication where 
established is not practicable, the seeds being appar- 
ently imperishable under all conditions to which time 
can expose them. The writer having carefully attended 
a small locality for sixteen years, finds the seeds that 
ripened probably sixteen years ago from a single plant 
annually making their appearance . The spread of the 
plant is not necessarily rapid, nor difllcult to cheek. An 
instance occurs here, where the plant has grown for 
eight or ten years in a neighbor's garden almost with- 
out hindrance, and has not yet crossed to an at^joining 
field, with only a fence and hedge of weeds between; 
but the plant, nevertheless, is rapidly extending its areas 
in the rich cultivated lands all over the West. Farmers 
are not aware of the pernicious character of the weed 
or the detriment their farms are subjected to ft-om its 
presence on them. Fifty per cent, depreciation in in- 
trinsic value would probably be below rather than above 
the average loss in worth of fanns stocked with it. I 
have seen farms in Central Illinois abandoned apparently 
on account of the impracticability of profitable cultiva- 
tion, it being more profitable to cultivate new lands than 
to own and cultivate farms infested with it; but this 
easy method will not long be available. Those who 
have it on their farms cannot be too vigilant to prevent 



ftuther dissemination, and those few who are so for- 
tunate as to yet be ft^e from it, cannot use too much 
watchftilness to keep it off. The plant, like most tropi- 
cal or subtropical plants, has a wonderful capacity of 
adapting itself to the situation. It only germinates 
with a high temperature, and when this and moisture, 
and otlier requisite conditions are provided, it com- 
mences operations without regard to time or seasons, 
but is never caught . Suiting itself to the circumstaoees 
sun-ounding it, it invariably accomplishes tlie object of 
its existence, «. «., matures seeds. It is a rapid grower, 
and apparently an exhaustive feeder, and no foreign or 
native weed is destined to work half the evil to agricol- 
ture if permitted to generally disseminate ifc^elf through 
the rich prairies of the North and West. 
Athens, Ills. E. Hall. 
» ♦ • 

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

Plants to Name.—ifr^. B, S. Lake, Colorado.— 
More of those nicely prepared specimens of Rocky 
Mountain plants. So, His P^nlttejnon glaber^Vh, The 
genus Penlstemon is represented by only three species 
east of the Mississippi; but westward the species be- 
come very numerous, and many of them have large and 
conspicuous fiowers. This species is very ornamental, 
and may be cultivated with perfect success. It is nearly 
related to the Fox-glove family. No. 7 is the Rocky 
Mountain Flax {Linum perenne^ L.) This, as its name 
indicates, is a perennial species of fiax, growing from 
Missouri to the Pacific, and also in Europe and Asia. 
It has a slender, branching stem , two to three feet high, 
and ratlier large, bright-blue flowers. No. 8 is OiUa 
aggregata, Spreng. The Gilias belong to the same 
Natural Order as the Phlox, and are closely related to 
that genus. Mimy o! them are very showy. This species 
has narrow, trumpet-like flowers, one and a half inehe?* 
long, in loo.^e clusters along a tall, slender stalk. They 
vary m color from white to bright scarlet. No. 9 is 
Castilleia iniegra^ Gr. This may be called the Entire- 
leaved Painted Cup. It grows at considerable elevations 
on the mountains, and witli its bright scarlet bracu* 
lights up the mountain sides . Two or three other species 
there join with it in giving variety and beauty to the 
scenery. No. 10 is the Alpine Vetch {A$tragalus alpiniu, 
L.), a very pretty and delicate plant, growing on the 
borders of cold mountain streams. It is alno found on 
some mountain> in New Enghind, and in Europe. No. 
11 is PotentiUa pennsyhantoa, L. This occurs under a 
variety of forms at all elevations in the moimtains and 
valleys, and with its grayish-white leaves and yellow 
flowers has a pleasing appearance. It is doubtful about 
its ever having been found in Pennsylvania, as would 
be infen-ed from the specific name, butitocinu^ in a 
few places in New England. 

Chas E. Billen^ Philadelphia, — Your plants are as fol- 
lows: No. 1, an exotic Spirea; we have not the means 
of determining the species . No. 2 is our beautiftil native 
Yellow Lily (Lilium canadensCf L.) No. 8 is calltd 
Enawel {Seleranthus annum y L), a weed introduced 
from Europe. No. 4 is the Butterfly- weed, or Pleurisy- 
root {Agclepias tuherota, L.) No. 5 is a kind of Milkwort 
iPolygaZa fastipiataf Nutt.) No. 6 is Slender Gerardia 
( Gerardia tenuifolia , Vahl . ) No . 7 is one of the Blazing 
StAi*s {JAatris acariosa, Willd .), a beautlAil plant, as are 
the other species of this genus, and well deserving culti- 
vation. No. 8 is the showy Toadflax {Linaria vttlgari$. 
Mill.), a troublesome weed in many places. No. 9 is 
the Hardback (Spirea iomentosa, L.), a handsome slinib. 
No. 10 is an incomplete specimen of what appears to be 
Cynthia virginica, Don. These specimens are mostly 
well preserved, but some of them are on too small a 
scale, not ftilly representing the species. 



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VOL. 2. 



ST. LOUIS, MO., JUNE, 1870. 



NO. 8. 



CHARLES V. BILEY, Editob, 
Sn N. Mftln ft, St. Louia, Mo. 



GKEAT DISCOVERY— CURCULIO EXTERMINATION 
POSSIBLE ! 

The importance of this subject, the demand 
for prompt and persistent action , and the absolute 
necessity of arousing every peach, plum and 
8tone-A*nit grower to destroy the Curculio, have 
Jed the editor of the Herald, as Secretary of the 
St. Joseph Fi-uit-Growers* Association, to issue 
this extra. Not a single day should be lost, for 
with united action 5u0,000 Curculios may be 
killed in a single day. 

There is no doubt on this point. This morn- 
ing Hon. John Whittlesey called at the Herald 
office and stated that on the 14tli inst. he killed 
2,715 Curculios about the roots of 200 trees, and 
on the 15th, in four hours on the same trees he 
killed 1,500 by actual count. 

Mr. Whittlesey also stated that Mr. Ransom, 
Mr. Bonelle and' himself had in five hours killed 
upwards of 5,000 Curculios in a portion of three 
small orchards. That he had himself alone, in two 
days of eight houre each, killed one-half more 
Curculios than were ever taken by three men 
with the old fashioned sheet in a week. Mr. 
Whittlesey is one of the most successful and 
scientific fruit-growers of St. Joseph, whose 
word is a bond ; but he said, '' Do not believe 
me; go to Mr. Hansom's orchard and see for 
yourself." 

Entering Mr. Random's orchard, the editor 
met Dr. Cyman Collins coming out. Dr. Col- 
lins is widely known for his successful peach 
culture. 

'^ Well, Doctor, is it a success?" 

*' Most assuredly. I tned the experiment on 
eight of my trees in the evening, and the next 
morning took 104 Curculios. I am going home 
*to bug my whole orchard in this manner." 

Wm. B. Hansom, the discoverer of the new 
method of exterminating the Curculio, was 
found on his knees in the back of his orchard 
examining his Curculio traps. This was at 10 
o'clock A. M., and he had already killed 1,357 
on 800 trees. The editor stooped down and 
lifted up a corn cob not six inches long, and 
found and killed seven Curculios. There is no 
doubt whatever, that the long desired means of 
exterminating the Curculio is discovered. 

Such is the burden of a little two-column 
extra to the St. Joseph' JTera^, which Mr. J. £. 



Chamberlain, editor of that paper, and Secre- 
tary of the St. Joseph Fruit-Growers' Associa- 
tion, sent to us just as our last number was going 
to press. The subject is of such importance 
that we can forgive, in an editor, the somewhat 
sensational heading. 

The following account of the method em- 
ployed we soon aftei'wards i*eoeived from the 
discovei*er himself: 

Editor American Entomologist : As you are 
scienced in the matter of Bugs, it may be of 
some interest to you, and of practical importance 
to fruit-gi'owers, to know that the Curculio — 
that pest of all stone fruits — can easily be de- 
stroyed, as I am now practically demonstrating. 

Last year I discovered that they gathered in 
pairs on the tininks of the peach trees, where the 
main branches diverge, and on the under side of 
the limbs, around the knots and black bark. I 
determined to watch their movements this year, 
and learn more of their natui*al habits, and see 
if there could not be some more speedy, effectual, 
and less expensive mode of destroying them than 
has hitherto been practiced. 

Some three weeks ago I examined my trees 
(peach, plum and cherry) but did not find any. 
The fii*st of May brought warm days, and the 
same degree of warmth which expanded the 
blossoms and the foliage, i-oused the Curculio to 
activity in this latitude. After two or thi'ee 
warm days, I went (May 4th) and closely exam- 
ined my trees, and found small numbers of the 
little pest on each tree. None were found copu- 
lating. The next day was warm, and 1 found a 
few in pairs. Next day it rained a little, and 
turned cold. During the cold days and nights 
the Curculio stopped feeding on the leaves of the 
ti*ees. 

On the 13th of May it was very warm, both 
day and night ; and next day almost all the Cur- 
culios which 1 destroyed had fed. Fi*om their 
fii*st appearance I searched for them around and 
under the trees, but found none. But after foul* 
days' search, I knew they must be hid under 
leaves, chips, sticks, stones, or something. I laid 
myself down and examined more closely, and 
began to discover the little hump-back rascals. 

Now, let me sum up my observations, and my 
mode of destruction. The warmth that bnn^s 
out blossoms, bnngs the Curculios to tlieir 
natui-al food and breeding places. They hide 
anywhere in the orchard wnere there is a cover. 
During sufficiently wai'm days and nights they 
go the ti*ee — mostly crawling, I presume, — to 
feed and pair. 

I destroy them in this way : By expeiimeut at 
first I raked everything that they could possibly 



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THE AMERICAN 



hide under ft'oni around the tree, and made the 
Hoil smooth for a couple of feet around tlie collar; 
I then put a few piecen of bark, each two or three 
inches lon«: and an hicli or po wide, down close 
to the tive. In a few hours I went and examined 
them. Ah! there the pests were hid I I en- 
larged the numl>er of traps. Yes, I had the 
tcHows usiii<{ my honses, as well jis eating my 
fruit! I cleared' my orchard under the tre(\s: 
made smooth two or lhi*ee feet of the j^'ound 
around each tree, and put chii)**, corn-c^obs, pieces 
of old leather, stones — anything to give them 
shelter — near the butt. The enemy can be at- 
tacked in hiR habitat. Go around any time in the 
day, turn the traps over, and there the pests are 
— singly, in pairs and in clustei^s. 

The weather on Friday ui^ht (l^th) was wann, 
and the next dav (14tli) it was hot. Omitted 
killing one hot day, and next morning, f\'om 
about seventy-five trees, I killed 1,648 Curculios 
in just one hour. 

I have told my neighbors, and some of tliem 
ju'e desti*oying their Cnrculios in the same man- 
ner. Mr. J. Whittlesey this morning, from 
under about two hundred troes, killed 2,614 in 
about two hours. In cool weather I find few, 
but during the fii'st warm days thev swarm. Let 
this method be unitedly tried, and we can save 
our fi-uit. W. B. Ransom. 

St. JosEiMi, Mich, May 10, *70. 

We are roally sorry to damp the ardor and 
enthusiasm of any person or persons, when 
enlisted in such a good cause, but truth obliges 
us to do so nevcilheless. Of course, Curculio 
extermination is possible ! but not by the above 
method alone, as our Michigan Mends will find 
to their soitow. For a short time, early in the 
season, when the days are sometimes warm and 
the nights cold, and before the peach blossoms 
have withered away, we have succeeded in 
capturing Curculios under chips of wood and 
other such sheltered situations; but we have 
never been able to do so after the ft*uit was as 
large as a hazel-nut, and the Little Turk had 
got fairly to work. Our Michigan friends will, 
we fear, find this to be too truly the case. 

This process, furthermore, cannot well be 
called a discovery, because it was discovered 
several years ago, as the following item from 
Jfoore'8 Rural New Yoi'keVj of January 28th, 
1865, will show : 

IIow TO Catch Clkculio. — In May last we 
had occasion to use some lumber. It was laid 
down in the vicinity of the plum-yard, and on 
taking up a piece of it one cold morning, we 
discovered a number of Curculios huddled to- 
gether on the underside. On examining other 
boards we found more, so we spread it out to 
see if we could catch more, and we continued 
to find more or less every day, for two weeks. 
We caught in all one hundred and sixty-one. 
So I think if i>eople would take a little pains 
they might destroy a great many such pests. 
These were caught before the plum trees were 
n flower. What is most singular is, that we 



never found a Curculio on a piece of old lumber, 
although we put several pieces down to tiy 
them. Thev seemed to come out of the gronnd, 
as we could find them several 'times a day by 
turning over the boards. Ml^s. II. Wikk. 

Johnson viLLK, N. Y. 

But though Mr. Itansom can not )>ropcrly 
claim to have made a new discovery, and though 
this mode of fighting will not ]nx)ve sufficient lo 
EXTERMINATE the Curculio, vct wc greatly ad- 
miro the eainiestness and i>eri(evcrance which he 
lias exhibited. In dcnionsti-ating that so great 
a number of the little i>est8 can be entrapped iu 
the manner described, Mr. It. has laid the froitr 
growers of the countiy under lasting obligatioiis 
to him. It is a grand movement towai-ds the 
defeat of the foe, and one which, from iu sim- 
plicity, should be universally adopted early in 
the season. But we mu!<t not reliuquibh the 
other methods of janing during the summer, 
and of destroying the fallen fruit ; for we repeat, 
that the Plum Curculio will breed iu the forest. 

We ai-e fast becoming perfect masters of this 
stone-fruit scoufge. Already, throngli the kind- 
ness of Dr. Trimble, we have been enabled to 
breed several specimens of the first and only 
true parasite ever known to infest it ; aud, by a 
series of experiments now making, we hope, 
Deo volente, to be able to definitely clear up 
eveiy mooted point in its history before Nature 
dons another wintiy garb. 

P. 8. — About a week after the above article 
was in type, we found the following in ihe 
columns of the St. Joseph Herald of the 28tJi 
May: 

At a meeting held on Monday, the 23d inst., 
at Benton Harbor, Dr. LeBaron, State Entomo- 
logist of Illinois, said: ** The object for which I 
came to Benton Harbor was to collect some of 
the insects for fhture examination. I wish to 
secure and take home some of the larvae to I'ear 
and observe their habits. From the habit of the 
curculio gatheiing under chi{>6, not having been 
observed in Southern Illinois, 1 thought thev 
might be a new kind. Besides the plum or peach 
curculio, there is another kind called the apple 
cureulio, which we thought might be the one 
you are taking. Yet the difference is so slight 
that we have not been able to discover which it 
is. I shall take some home and careHiUy com- 
pai*c them. 1 would be glad if any of the audi- 
ence would send me the larvae of any new insects 
they discover, with tlie leaves on which they are 
found, for examination.'- 

Dr. Hull, of Alton, State Horticulturist, said: 
They had heard of the new discovery, and had 
come over to investivate the curculio. He had 
never before lieai-d, and knew nothing of this 
mode of destnietion, and was 8Uii)n8ed aud 
gratified. It was certainly a great discovery. 
Tie thought it could not l)c the plum cureulio, 
which he once thought were identical, until Dr. 
Walsh sent him his specimens and made clear 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



227 



the diflTercnce. The apple curculio spreads with 
extraordinary rapidity, and destroys the gi-eater 
part of the apple crop of Illinois. The plum 
curculio stings, but does not breed in the apple ; 
the apple curculio makes a round cut, difficult to 
sec witli the eye. The worai remains where the 
egg was laid until it matures, when it comes out 
and goes into the ground. He hoped this would 
turn out to be the apple curculio. It is tlie apple 
or plum curculio, for only one kind has been 
seen to-day. Curculio can not flv under a tcm- 
IKsratui'e of 70 degrees. They ny against the 
wind ; but as yet he had been uiiable to determine 
the extent to which they mi^ate. Whether this 
be the apple or plum curculio, a great discovery 
has been made." 

All which verily surpiiscd us. What! the com- 
bined entomological and horticultural wisdom 
of Illinois not able to distinguish between the 
Plum and the Apple Curculio? Dr. LeBaron, 
so far as we are aware, has never claimed to be 
acijuainted with the Apple Curculio, and we 
believe it is of quite i*are occuiTcnoe around 
Geneva ; he might therefore justly be cautions in 
the matter. lUit what shall we say of Dr. Hull, 
who has so often spoken of the Apple Curculio, 
and dwelt upon its habits, before horticultural 
bodies ; and who must have slain such hosts of 
the Plimi Curculio with his powerful and pon- 
derous macliine. Not able to distinguish be- 
tween these two \nsects ? Why, they differ more 
in tlie eyes of an entomologist than a sheep does 
from a cow ! 

Tlie snout of the Plum Curciilio {Conoivackel us 
nenuphar) hangs down like the trunk of an ele- 
phant ; it is short, stout, and does not admit of 
being stretched out horizontally foi-wards ; and, 
as may be seen by referring to our Figure 92, is 
scarcely as long as the head and thorax together , 
and can be folded back between the legs, where 
there is a groove to receive it. The Plum 
Curculio is broadest across the shoulders and 
narrows beliind, and moreover, the black sealing- 
wax-like, knife-edged elevations on the baek, with 
the pale band behind them, characterize it at once 
from all our other fruit-boiing snout-beetles. 

The Apple, or Four-humped Curculio (Anfh- 
onomus quadrigibbus, Say), is a much smaller 
insect, with a snout which sticks out more or less 
horizontally and cannot be folded under, and 
which is as long as the whole body. This insect 
has nan'ow shoulders and broadens behind, 
where it is furnished with four very conspicuous 
humps, fi-om which it takes its name. It has 
neither the polished black elevations nor the pale 
band of the Plum Curculio. In short, it diffci-s 
generically, and does not attack the peach. 

If the St. Josephites were a wine-growing, 
instead of a peach-gi-owing people, we might, 
in our own minds, have been able to account for 



this lack of discrimination on the pai-t of ojie who 
has said so much about both insects ; but as it is 
(for the tax on pdach-brandy must certainly pre- 
clude its manufacture ' there) we can give no 
other explanation than — well, more anon! 



THE DEATH-WEB OP YOUNG TROUT. 



[Fig. 143 J 




Explanation of Figukb I43.~(a) Larva, dorsal view, with 
tun-shaped appendages spread; {b) pupa, dorsal view; 
(r) 8ume, lateral view; (a) same, ventral view; U) thor- 
acic pi-uleg of larva; (/) manner in which the circular rows 
of bristles are arranged at anal exti'emity — all the figures 
being enlarged. 

The culture offish, and especially of the Trout, 
is attracting deserved attention in this coantryy 
from mauy persons who are at all favorably 
situated for carrying it on. The idea of propa- 
gating fish artificially is comparatively modem, 
and when we reflect on the success of the enter- 
prise, notwithstanding those who first talked 
about it were looked upon as idle theorists ; we 
yet have faith that, some of these days, certain 
beneficial and parasitic insects will to some ex- 
tent be propagated and introduced into one 
country frem anothei' — ^Utopian and chimerical 
as the idea may now appear to most persons. 

To-day fish-culture has grown to be a most 
important and lucrative business in some parts 
of Europe, and it is fast acquiring importance 
in this country. It is an art yet in its infancy, 
and the few enterprising men who embai'kin it, 
in this country, will naturally meet with ad- 
verses, and must gradually perfect their art by 
dear-bought experience. Anything which will 
lead to a better understanding of the obstacles 
which render the business precanous, will 
therefore tend to perfect the art, and must bo 
welcomed by those interested. 



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THE AMERICAN 



On pa^ 174y under this same caption, we 
published an account of a worm which, by 
spinning a web in the water, proved very de-, 
structive to young trout in certain breeding 
ponds in the States of New York and Ohio. On 
page 211 we stated that this worm was the larva 
of a Two-winged Fly, belonging to the genus 
Simulium, 

The habits of these larvae are not yet com- 
pletely known; and, as everything that bears 
upon the subject will prove interesting, and aid 
future observers, we make room for the follow- 
ing original observations of two of our corres- 
pondents. Mr. Seth Green, of Mumford, N. Y., 
says: 

We find these larvas exclusively upon stones 
in swift-running and rippling water. In a state 
of rest, fastenea by the "sucker" at the end of 
the tail, they stand erect and move around with 
a circling motion of the head. They move from 
place to place by fastening the 'tubercle" which 
is under the thorax, and by bringing up the tail 
end to it. The thread comes from the head end, 
but whether from the tubercle or not, my glass 
is not strong enough to discover. I think that 
this larva leaves a thread wherever it goes. At 
any rate, while putting those I sent to you into 
the bottle, they invariably dropped from the 
stick, leaving a thread behind them by which 
they could be lifted and moved from side to side 
in Uie water; and as, in taking away the stick, 
the thread became fastened upon the mouth of 
the bottle, we saw three or four at once actually 
climbing up these threads — not so fast as a 
spider would, but still at a pretty good pace. 

Writing of the same larva, Sara J. McBride, 
also of Mumford, N. Y., says: 

When about to change its position, it works 
for a few seconds with its maxillse against the 
substance to which it adheres, and then, placing 
the last segments of its body firmly on the place 
thus prepared, moves its head ofi* in another 
direction. Every time it moves its head, it 
leaves in the place a silken thread, something 
like a spider's thread, but much more delicate 
and fine. After it has been in one place a short 
time it leaves a " web," which is uneven and 
irregular in its angles and outline. When 
frightened this larva i*emains suspended in the 
water by means of its thread. 

I have never observed it feeding on any 
aquatic plant, and so conclude its nourishment 
must consist of animalcules. Whether its web 
is for the purpose of securing its food, or the 
natural result of moving its head from place to 
place, I cannot ascertain. It exists in the larva 
state in running water, during the winter 
months, and spins a cocoon for its pupa of a 
conical shape, and closed at the lower end. 

Upon two occasions we have received speci- 
mens of this larva from Mr. Green ; but each 
time the water became so foul during the tran- 
sit that the larvae soon perished, and we were 
consequently unable to breed the perfect fly. 
While these larvae were in our possession, we 



[Fig. 144.] 



made sundry observations on their peculiarities; 
but the article which follows, from Baron Osten 
Sacken, on the transformations of the genus, is 
so exhaustive, that we content ourselves with 
presenting the life-like drawings at Figure 143. 
The slight differences in form between oar 
figures of the pupa and those of Verdat may be 
accounted for, either by a diflTerence in species 
or in maturity. We will also pi-emise that oar 
pupae, like Verdat's and Scheffer's, had foar 
principal branches and eight tracheal filaments, 
each side ; that the silk is spun fi*om the month 
(apparently from lower lip), and that the fan- 
shaped organs either serve to spread the web- 
nets, so as to entangle the animalcules which 
form this insect's food, or, what is more prob- 
able, serve, as do the ciliae of many other small 
animals, to form a vortex by the rotary motion of 
the head observed by ftlr. Green ; and the animal- 
cules, thus engulfed in this miniature maelstrom, 
are irresistably drawn towards the mouth. 

Aside from its curious transformations, and 
this newly-discovered destructive habit in the 
larva state, this genus possesses an unusual 
interest from the fact that 
it furnishes the well known 
Black-fly of the North, 
and the celebrated Buffalo- 
gnat of the Southwest; and, 
in order that the perfect 
form may be recognized, we 
ooior-Biwk. present the annexed ouUine 

(Fig. 144, after Packard), of the former species, 
Simulium molestum. 

Where breeding ponds can be 80 protected as 
to prevent these fiies getting at the water dur- 
ing the summer, it follows that the young fish 
will not be troubled with the web of the larvae; 
but it is doubtful whether any such protection 
can be given in the majority of cases. We shall 
be glad to publish any further observations on 
the habits of these larvae that may be made by 
parties possessing the proper facilities for study, 
and will add that, according to Osten Sacken. 
besides this spinning larva of Simulium, rhat of 
the genus Chironomtts seems to weave the earthy 
sheath in which it lives, and that of Tanypvs 
moves about in a light spun sheath, according 

to Lyonnet. 

»«"» — — 

BTBy a strange oversight we omitted the 
name of QyvuB Thomas in our list of contributors 
published last month. Mr. Thomas was, many 
years ago, well known as a writer on Illinois 
entomological subjects, and, knowing that he is 
with us, heart and hand, in our work, we owe 
b li p an apology for this oversight. 




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ON THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF SIMULIUM. 

BY BAUOX R. 08TKN SACKKN, NKW YCBK. 
[Pig. 146.] ' 




EXFI.ANATION OF FiQUBS 145. ~(a) Larvft from a side view, 
enlarged, the hair-line above showing natural size; (b) 
same, fh)m a back view; (c) pupa, ventral view, enlarged; 
(d) same, dorsal view; («) pupal pouch, enlarged, the hair- 
line showing natural Bize— After Verdat. 

Several excellent observers have studied the 
natural history of this genus, which, except in a 
few doubtful points, may be considered as fairly 
elucidated. The following account has been 
prepared by comparing my own observations, 
made upon a species which I found in the envi- 
rons of Washington, with those of Verdat and 
others. In this account, the discrepancies be- 
tween authors have been carefully noted, in 
order to draw the attention of future observers 
to those points which deserve to be investigated. 
It must be bonie in mind, however, that some 
of these discrepancies may be due to the fact that 
the observed lai'vse belonged to diffei*ent species 
of the genus Simuliuvi, 

The larvae are frequently found in small streams 
of running water, in large societies, fastened by 
their tails to stones or to the leaves or stalks of 



water plants. They are about 0.36 of an inch 
long, subcylindrical, attenuated in the middle, 
incmssated towards both ends ; the latter third 
of the body is stouter than the anterior tliird, 
and almost club-shaped ; head subquadrate^ yel- 
lowish, with a pair of small, approximate black 
dots on each side. Verdat took them for eyes, but 
I did not discover the slightest convexity in them. 
They are evidently below the homy shell of the 
head. Antennae slender, subuliform, apparently 
four-jointed. Epistoma horny, subtriangular ; 
upper lip fleshy, Mnged with long, delicate hairs ; 
its ordinary position is not horizontal, but almost 
vertical, at right angles with the upper surface 
of the head and as if lapping over the oiifice of 
the (Bsophagus; (it can be perceived only by 
looking in the direction of the axis of the body, 
as it is concealed between the other parts of the 
moutli) ; between the mandible and the epistoma 
and close by the antennae the remarkable flabelli- 
fonn organs, peculiar to this larva, are situated ; 
they consist of a stout stem bearing a fan of 
thirty-five or forty delicate homy rays, each of 
the shape of a very long, slender scythe ; they 
open and close like a fan ; when closed, the tip 
of this fan is inside of the mouth and touches the 
tip of the mandibles ; its opposite end forms an 

[Fig. 146.1 




Explanation of Figure 146— (a) Head of laiTa, from un- 
derside; {b) it« mandible; (c) maxilla; (e) under Up; r/) 
upper lii)— all enlarged; (rf) larva natural size, attached 
tf> a plant; (g) pupa natural size, within its pouch.— After 
Verdat. 

angle or knee with the stem. They may be 
compared to the antennae of the MdolonthidcB, 
only the rays are much more numerous. The 
mandibles consist of a pale-colored, apparently 
fleshy, basal piece, with a tuft of hairs on the 
inside, and to their upper exti'emity are fastened, 
1st, a small, homy, black tooth, having the shape 
of an ordinary mandible, bifld at the tip, and 
with a very minute projection inside of this in- 
dentation ; 2d, a brash of hairs, or perhaps of 
scythe-shaped organs analogous to those fomi- 
ing the fan. The maxillm consist of a stout, 
fleshy basal piece, an elongated apparently two- 
jointed palpus (first joint cylindrical, second 
short, rudimentary), and an internal, rounded, 
thumb-shaped lobe, bearing tufts of bail's on both 



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sides. Under lip and mentum are represented 
by a homy, projecting, slightly emargiuate and 
tridentate piece, behind which there is another 
piece, fringed with nmnerons hairs, especially 
on the sides. The body of the larva is smooth, 
of a dirty greenish-gray, this appearance being 
produced by numerous spots of this color on a 
pale ground. On the underside of the thoracic 
portion there is a subcorneal, retractile process, 
crowned with a circular row of bristles. If 
examined with a lens, this organ appears to 
consist of a system of parallel black lines ; but 
if a much stronger magnifying power is used, 
these lines prove to be dense rows of short, shaip 
bristles. The joints of the body are not distinct ; 
still I could count twelve joints, five of which 
formed the club-shaped anal portion of the body, 
the four or five joints immediately preceding 
them are more apparent than the others. The 
anal extremity consists of a subcylindrical, trun- 
cated protuberance, crowned with rows of bris- 
tles, similar to those of the thoracic proleg. 
Immediately below it, on the underside of the 
body, there are three (Fries mentions only two) 
short, cylindrical, soft, curved, retractile tenta- 
cles, to which the large trachesB lead. These are 
probably the organs of respiration. I did not 
discover any traces of stigmata, nor does any 
other author mention them. 

The strange fan-shaped organs are apparently 
used for procuring food. Under a strong mag- 
nifying power, each [*ik' w7.] 
of the scythe-shaped 
rays which compose 
it appears lined on the 
inside with exceed- 
ingly minute hairs, 
the fringe of which 
is interrupted at 
regular intervals by C* c? «>> 

«i,^«4. ^^«:^«i ^M^s^^/T ExPLANATioir OF Figure 147 *- 
short, corneal projec- j^, portion of a ray of the fan ; 
finnn ThAVpnlrpadv (^) mandible; (r) maxilla; (d) 

nons. inaveaireaay ^^n^ieriip; (e) upper lip-aii en- 
remarked above, that larged — 4//cr Ot/en Sacken, 
the tuft on the mandibles consists, if I have 
seen right, of a row of small rays of a consists 
ency similar to those forming the fan ; it is prob- 
able that this tuft is used for cleaning the fan 
when it is closed and turned with its tip towards 
the mandible. The fan is usually spread out, 
but I have noticed that sometime before assum- 
ing the pupa state, the larva keeps it constantly 
closed, evidently because, at this period of its 
life, it ceases to feed. 

What the homology of these organs is, I am 
not able to suggest. They seem to be absolutely 
supernumerary, as the mouth, without them, is 
complete, that is, contains all the parts of a 



[FiR. 147.] 



t5T)ical insect mouth. This is an interesting 
question, worthy of being inquired into. As ^ 
the use of these fans, it is undoubtedly for catch- 
ing the animalcules which constitute the food of 
the larva ; but what those animalcules are, again 
we do not know, and have not been able to m- 
vestigate. The vague statement of Plancbon, 
that in the stomach of one of the larvae he fonnd 
a prodigious quantity of round or elliptical ani- 
malcules, some dead, some still alive, cannot 
satisfy us. 

The larvae are sometimes seen swimming by 
means of a jerking motion. They can also walk, 
by doubling their body and using alternately 
their anterior proleg and their anal protuber- 
ance. 

According to Verdat, the larva moults more 
than once. When full grown and about to un- 
dergo its transformation, it spins an obconical, 
grayish, semitransparent pouch, fastened to a 
plant or a stone ; in this pouch the pupa is in- 
serted, its anterior end protruding above the 
upper rim. I have seen the process of spinning. 
The larva does not leave its foothold but re- 
mains in the centre of its work, using its 
mouth, fi-om which the filament is drawn, and 
helping with its proleg. (According to an ob- 
servation communicated by Audouin to West- 
wood, the cocoon is first formed entire, closely 
resembling one-half of a diminutive eggj cut lon- 
gitudinally, and fastened by the flat surface to 
the leaf or stone ; subsequently, the upper end 
is eaten away as far as a thickened arch, pre- 
viously formed. As I have happened to come 
across this remark long after I made my obser- 
vations, I am not able either to confirm or to 
reject it.) According to Planchon, the skin is 
not cast by the larva, but seems to dissolve and 
thus gi-adually to disclose the outlines of the 
pupa. (According to another author, the head 
alone is thrown off*.) 

The pupa, on each side of its thorax, has a tuft 
of filaments, serving evidently for respiration. 
From a common root I saw eight principal 
branches proceed, which, at some distance, split 
in two, thus forming sixteen filaments. (Fries 
mentions and figures only /owr filaments on each 
side; Fabricius, m;; Verdat's and Schefl*er8^ 
larvae had eight. I do not know how to account 
for these difterences.) Verdat mentions "a 
cylindrical body, at ihQ basis of these tuflfi, 
appearing scaly at its root and conical, spoug)' 
at the tip." I did not see anything of tiie kind. 
On the abdomen of the pupa, I perceived, along 
the posterior margins of the 3d and the 4th dor- 
sal segments, rows of eight very minute spines ; 
they are arranged in groups of four, separated 



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231 



by a very 8hoi*t interval ; near the tip of the ab- 
domen there is a row of still more minute spines. 

I did not see the exclusion of the perfect in- 
sect ; but, according to Verdat, after 13 — 14 days 
spent in the pupa state, the thoi*ax splits and the 
fly escapes, wrapped in an air-ball, which makes 
it rise rapidly to the surface of the water ; during 
this inteiTal, the limbs remain folded as in the 
pupa ; but as soon as it reaches the sui-face, the 
limbs unfold themselves in an instant and the 
fly walks on the water towards the next stalk, 
where it remains until its wings have become 
sufficiently hardened. 

The imago of S, reptans has acquired in Eu- 
rope, under the name of the gnat of Columbatz," 
a reputation equal to that of Glossina morsiians, 
the African Tz^tz^. Immense clouds of this 
bloodthirsty gnat infest the banks of the Danube 
on the Hungarian as well as on the Servian side, 
where the castle of the Columbatz is situated. 
Their numbers are siicli tliat animals attacked 
by them seldom escape death, as they not only 
cover the skin, but penetrate in every orifice, 
even the lungs, and produce the most intolerable 
inflanmiation. More than six hundixid head of 
cattle were destroyed in that i-cgion in the single 
year of 1783. The same gnate are mentioned in 
Poland as far back as 1679, where, according to 
the (probably exaggerated) accounts of the time, 
thirty men wei^c killed by them. In the Northern 
States and Canada, Simulium is known under 
the name of Black-fly, and is, in some regions, 
very anno>ing. In the West, it is called BUfffalo 
gnat J and I have heard of a case of destruction, 
caused by them to mules at Vicksburg, wliich 
fkilly equals that of Columbatz. 

AUTHORITIES. 

ElClIHORN — Naturgesch, d, Kleinsten WatseriAtere. 
Danzig, 1774. Tab. Vll. (Joiitafns, according to a 
statement in ThonV Archiv, Vol. II, a rough tigiirc of 
the larva. 

Otto Fabricius— Schrift. d. Gesellsch. d. naturf. 
Freiinde in Berlin, Vol. V, p. 254-250. (1784.) The 
article in entitled * 'Bcschreibung d. Atlas-mUcke und 
ihrer Puppe,'' and contalnn a rough flffurc of the pupa, 
its pouch, and of the perfect inRcct. The larva was not 
known to Fabricius. 

Vkrdat— Mem. pour servir K Phistoirc des Simultes, 
pr^ent^ ik la Soc. d'hist. natur. de B&le en 1821. In 
Naturw. Anz. der Schweizer. Gcsellsch; 1823, Vol. V, 
p. 65, transUted in German in Thon's Archiv, II, 2, pp. 
66-69, with figures. This Is the principal paper on the 
subject: the figuren arc very good; they arc reproduced 
on a reduced scale in Wentw. Inirod., Il,lig. 12(J, 19, 20. 
Although Verdat calls the species <S'. wricewn {iyn, 
reptans), I am inclined to think that it is S. omatufn* 

Fries — Memoir. Sif(iuL SwcttB (in Dissert. Academica: 
"Observationes entomologicaj"). Pars I, fig. 6-7 (I . p.), 
1824. Translated (witliout figures) in Meigen, Europ. 
Zweifl. VI, p. 309. Some discrepancies between Fries' 
and Verdat 8 account have been adverted to above. 
Meigen' 9 extract is evidently wrong in stating that the 
larva lives in instead of on the stalks of plants. 

PlaNCHON — Histoire d^une larve aaitatiqw du Genre 
Simulium; MontpelUer, 1844. Beproauctiou of already 
known facts, with some new details, and esi>eeially some 



remarks on the anatomy of the lar\'a. No plates. S. 
rivtdarie, n. sp. 

KoiA.AR—£eurtheilung des von Dr, Medoviez an die 
Serbische liegierung erstaUtten Berichies iib, die Entste- 
hung und VertUgung der Columhatzer MOelcen. (Sitzungs- 
bes. d. AVicn. Acad., 1848; with three plates). Medo- 
vicz's report contained many errors: for instance he 
mistook another larva for that of Simulium, Kollar 
corrects these errors, but otherwise ^ves nothing new, 
except the figure of the lan'a, which is drawn on a 
large scale flrom nature . The figure of the pupa is bor- 
rowed from Verdat. 

SCHEFFER— In Rossi's Diptera Austriaea, p. 14 (1848), 
S. replant (sericmm). Short note; nothing new. 

Westwood— Gardener's Chronicle, 1848, p. 204 (witli 
figures). Extract fl-om the former authors; figures 
copied flrom Verdat, on a reduced scale. 

K6LLIKER— Observatlones de prima insectorum gen- 
esi. Turici, 1842. Dissert, inaug. Embryological re- 
searches on the development of the larva in the egg. 
{S, canescensy Bremi, n. sp.) 



BLACK KNOT. 



It was long ago shown iu the Pi*actical Ento- 
mologist by Mr. "Walsh, that the Fungoid dis- 
ease known under the name of "Black Knot" 
to infest the cultivated Cherry, was quite distinct 
from the disease of the same name which attacks 
the cultivated Plum ; and that (he former most 
probably took its origin from the wild Choke 
Cherry {Cerasm virginiana), and the latter 
from the common wild Plum (Prunus ameri- 
cana), Ilcnce there followed the important 
practical consequence, that Black Knot could 
not spread from Cherry on to Plum or from 
Plum on to Cicrry ; each parasitic fungus con- 
fining itself to its appropriate tree. 

In July, 1869, we were favored by Mr. B. 
N. McKinstry, nurseryman, of East Sumner, 
Kankakee county, Illinois, with specimens of 
Black Knot growing quite abundantly with 
him, as he says, upon the Miner Plum, but 
not on any other cultivated plum. A single 
glance suffices to show that this diseased growth 
is essentially distinct from the common Black 
Knot of the Plum, although like this last it is 
evidently of fungoid origin In fact, both in 
color, in external texture, and in internal or- 
ganization the two differ so widely, that **Brown 
Knot " would be a far more appropriate name 
than *' Black Knot" for the affection of the 
Miner Plum. 

As the Miner Plum is a cultivated variety of 
the Chickasaw Plum {Prunus chicasd), it would 
seem to follow that there are three distinct 
Black Knots, originating respectively from 
Choke Cherry, from the common Wild Plum 
and from the Chickasaw Plum ; and further, that 
the firet is confined among our cultivated fruits 
to Cherry, the second to our common tame 
plums, and the third to the Miner Plum. It is 
very remarkable that in Europe they have no 
Black Knot at all, whether upon Cherry or Plum. 



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NOXIOUS LARY^. 

BY DB. WM. LB BABOK, QJtKKYA, ILLS. 

Whilst insects are much more beautiftil and 
perfect, and consequently more attractive and 
interesting, both to the entomologist and the 
amateur, in the imago or winged state, than in 
the larva or grub state, yet it is in this last con- 
dition that they are of chief importance to the 
farmer and horticulturist. This we shall easily 
undei*stand from the following considerations. 
In the first place, it is in the lai'va state that the 
insects accomplish the whole of their growth; 
no insect increasing in size after it has attained 
the winged form. It is therefore in the larva 
state that the greatest amount of food is required, 
and accoi*dingly it is in this state only, with a 
few exceptions, that insects commit those exten- 
sive ravages which often render them the scourge 
of the husbandman. 

Secondly, many insects which in the larva state 
are furnished with mandibles or teeth fitted for 
gnawing herbage, are so completely changed, 
that in the perfect state, the mouth consists of a 
long fiexible tube or sucker, incapable of injur- 
ing vegetation. Such are the extensive tribe of 
catei'pillars, which, in their perfect state, become 
converted into moths or butterfiies. 

Thirdly, as a general rule, insects live much 
longer in the lai*va than in the perfect state, and 
therefore have more time for mischief. Many of 
the Lepidoptera live several months as larvae, 
but only a few days as imagines or pei*fect in- 
sects. Some of the most pernicious Beetles, 
namely, the May-beetle, which comes fh)m the 
White grub, and the Two-striped Saperda, which 
is the parent of the Round-headed Apple-tree 
Borer, exist three years in the larva state, and 
not often more than as many weeks in that of 
the perfect insect. 

It is in the larva state, therefore, we repeat, 
that insects are of the most importance to the 
agriculturist, and it is natural, when he meets 
with these mischievous creatures, that he should 
feel interested to know what is their name and 
nature, and into what kind of winged insects 
they will ultimately be changed. It is in order 
to afibrd some assistance in gratifying this laud- 
able curiosity that we have drawn up a few 
practical generalizations, which are recorded in 
the sequel. 

Insects, with respect to their ti*ansformations, 
are divisible into two widely different sections. 
In one the metamorphosis is said to be incom- 
plete ; that is, the insect retains the same form, 
or nearly the same, in all its stages of larva, 
pupa, and imago, and is active in the pupa, as 



well as in the other states. The pupa is distin- 
guished by having rudimental wings, and the 
imago by having wings fully developed. The 
grasshopper Aimishes a familiar example of this 
kind of metamorphosis. 

In tiie other section, the metamorphosis is 
complete; that is, the insect undergoes such a 
total change that its several states bear no re- 
semblance to each other, and the insect is inac- 
tive in the pupa state. The caterpiUai* changing 
to a chrysalis, and then to a moth or butterfly, 
fhmishes a well known instance of complete 
metamorphosis. To the former division belong 
the orders Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, &c.) and 
Hemiptera (Bugs, Leaf hoppers, &c.); whilst 
the latter includes the vast majority of insects, 
constituting the comprehensive orders of Coleop- 
tera or Beetles, Lepidoptera or Scaly-winged 
Flies, Hymenoptera or Clear-winged Flies, and 
Diptera or Two-winged Flies. The order Neu- 
roptera, which is in a great measure aquatic, 
forms a connecting link between the two sec- 
tions, the greater number being active in all 
their states, whilst in a few families, such as the 
MYRUELEOMiDiB (Ant-lious), aud the Hemebo- 
-BiiD^ (Lace-wings), the species undergo a 
complete transformation. 

If, in accordance with the views of some re- 
cent authors, we unite the anomalous group of 
Strepsiptera to the order Coleoptera, and more- 
ovei: include the harmless Phryganeid-<e in the 
order Neuroptera, then we can make the broad 
assertion that every order of insects contains 
species injurious to mankind. By fai* the lai'ger 
proportion of noxious insects belong to the two 
oi*ders Coleoptera and Lepidoptera, either one 
of which contains nearly as many injurious spe- 
cies as all the other orders together. 

Of the one hundred and seventy-eight families 
recognized by Mr. Westwood in his classification 
of insects, sixty-five, or rather more than one- 
third, contain noxious species. Of these sixty-five 
families, I find but six in which the species are 
injurious exclusively in the imago state, viz., 
the Cantharides, the Rutelidae and the Cetoniidie 
amongst the Coleoptera, the Formicidse (Ants) in 
the order Hymenoptera, and the CulicidsB (Mos- 
quitoes), and Tabanidae (Horse-fiies) in the oi"der 
Diptera. And of these six, none except the Can- 
tharides can be classed with the moi-e seriously 
injm'ious insects. The species of all the other 
fifty-nine families are injurious exclusively or 
chiefiy in the larva state. In some instances, 
indeed, and especially amongst the phytophagous 
Coleoptei-a, namely, the Chrysomelidae and their 
allied fandlies, and also in those orders wherein 
the species undergo an incomplete metamor- 



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phosis, the larvae and perfect insects usually 
feed together, and it might be thought impos- 
sible, at first sight, to tell which are the more 
destructive. But when we consider the impoiir 
ant fact to which we have before adverted, that 
the whole growth of insects takes place in the 
larva state, we must conclude that even in these 
cases, the principal damage must be effected 
whilst the insects are in the preparatory stage. 
If to this we add that one of the most destructive 
orders of insects, namely, the Lepidoptei*a, com- 
mit all their havoc in the larva form of cater- 
pillars, we shall be able to form some estimate 
of the preponderance of damage effected by in- 
sects in the larva state. 

Let us now inquire if larvae exhibit any chai'- 
acters by which we can so classify them as to 
deterndne to what orders and families they will 
respectively belong when they shall have attained 
their perfect state. 

The difficulty which has attended all attempts 
to classify larvae upon their own characters, and 
at the same time preserve their relationship to 
their respective imagines, strongiy exhibits the 
comparative inferiority or degradation of the 
laiTal state. We can indeed classify larvae into 
what seem to be natural groups, founded upon 
their most important and prominent charactei*s ; 
but when we come to put opposite to them, in 
parallel senes, the perfect insects which these 
larvae produce, we are astonished to find that 
every vestige of relationship is lost. Take, for 
example, the classification of lai-vae by Kirby and 
Spence. These authors arrange laiTae in five 
principal groups. The fii-st group produces, 
when arrived at the perfect state, a heterogene- 
ous mixture of Coleoptera, Hymenoptei-a and 
Diptera. The second group produces Diptera 
only. In the third, two of the most remote 
orders of insects, the Coleoptera and Neuroptera 
are brought into juxtaposition. In the fourth, a 
part of the Tipulidae are separated from the rest 
of their family, and- from the Dipterous oixier, 
and associated with the Micro-Lepidoptera. And 
in the fifth group, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and 
Lepidoptera are indiscriminately associated to- 
gether. 

Still the practical question renuuns whether 
any general rules can be established, by which 
we can know what form the noxious larvae we 
meet with, will ultimately assume. 

In order to understand what follows, it is 
necessary to state that lai-vae have legs of two 
kinds: first, the true legs, representing the legs 
of the perfect insect, which are comparatively 
firm, conical, and jointed, and, when present, are 
almost always six in number, and attached to 



the first three segments of the body. Secondly, 
the spurious legs, or prolegs, which are short, 
thick, muscular and unarticulated, varying in 
number from two to sixteen, and attached to one 
or more of *the eight last segments. 

1st. OenercUization, All larvae generally 
known as Caterpillars, and distinguished by 
having both legs and prolegs, produce either 
Lepidoptera, or Saw-flies in the oixier Hymen- 
optera ; and the larva? of the Saw-flies are dis- 
tinguished from those of the Lepidoptera by 
having more than ^ve pairs of prolegs ; and by 
having only two eyes, whilst the true caterpillars 
have ten or twelve, and also by their habit of 
rolling themselves into a spii*al coil. 

2d. As a general rule, hairy caterpillars pro- 
duce moths, whilst spiny or naked ones produce 
butterflies or sphinges. The rule may be more 
accurately stated thus : AU densely haired cater- 
pillars produce moths, but all the larvae of moths 
are not haiiy . Tlie caterpillars of the butterflies 
and sphinges are either naked or ornamented 
with spines, or with very short or scattered 
hairs. 

3d. Wood-boring laiTae belong mostly to the 
Coleoptera; but also to a few families of the 
Lepidoptera, namely, the jEgeridae, the Hepi- 
alidae, and a few exceptional Torti-icidae. The 
larvae of the Lepidoptera can always be distin- 
guished from those of the Coleoptera, by the 
presence of prolegs on the intermediate seg- 
ments. A few Coleopterous larvae have one pair 
of prolegs on the anal segment, but more gener- 
ally only one such leg. 

4th. All leaf-sucking larvae belong to the oixier 
Hemiptera (including the Homoptera). 

5th. All leaf-gnawing larvae, excepting gi^ass- 
hoppei-s, and the caterpillars above treated of^ 
belong to one tribe of Coleoptera, distinguished 
by the title of Phyllophaga, or Leaf-eaters, and 
comprising the four fanulies Crioceridae, Galer- 
ucidae, Cassididae, and Chi'ysomelidae. These 
lai'vae, moreover, can generally be identified by 
their short, wrinkled foims, their sluggish mo- 
tions, and some of them by the singular habit of 
protecting their bodies by their own excrement. 

6th. All larvae found imderground, excepting 
those which enter it only for the purpose of 
undergoing their transformations, are divisible, 
accortling. to their habits, into two sections. 
First, the subteiTanean larvae, properly so called, 
which live under gi'ound, and feed upon the 
roots of plants ; and, secondly, those which sub- 
sist above ground, but burrow into it, when not 
feeding, for the purpose of concealment. True 
subterranean laiTae are found in the orders Cole- 
optera, Hemiptera, Homoptera, and Diptera. 



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None of the last order, except a few of the 
Tipulidae, have ever been known to multiply 
so as to be seriously injurious to vegetation. 
But in the Coleoptera we have the well known 
White-grub of the May-beetle, and the large 
Grape-root Borer, in the family Prionidae ; and, 
belonging to the Homoptcra, is the pernicious 
Apple-tree Root-louse. The second section is 
limited almost exclusively to the notorious tribe 
of Cut-worms, all of which belong to the family 
of Noctuidje, in the order Lepidoptcra. 

These are a few of the more obvious general 
results which we derive from the obsciTation of 
insects, under the two limitations of noxious 
habits and the larval state. Others, Icks remark* 
able, perhaps, but equally interesting, would be 
suggested by a more minute study of the subject. 
But this would extend our article to an unreason- 
able length. 



Insect Embryogeny.— Three years ago the 
Entomological world was much interested in 
the discovery of the phenomenon of partheno- 
genesis in the larva of a gnat (Cecidomyia) , 
The particulars are given in Dr. Tripps's paper 
in the Popular Science lieview for April, 1867. 
They are very curious. It has not hitherto been 
surmised that the larva ofAphrophora spumaria, 
the Cuckoo-spit, affords another instance. Baron 
DeGeer, the great Swedish naturalist, noticed 
that the female Frog-hoppers (so the perfect in- 
sects are called) become so gravid in September 
that they can scarcely fly. The eggs could not 
well cause this inconvenient gravity, because 
they are deposited at a much later season — ^in 
England certainly, and probably in Sweden also. 
The eggs do not seem to encumber the insect, 
according to my observation, even in December 
immediately before their deposition. We may, 
therefore, suppose DcGeor's observation to have 
applied to females about to become viviparous, 
though he does not seem to have suspected it. 
That it might have been so is rendered certain 
by the occurrence of an embryo within the 
abdomen of a larva taken in my garden, and 
now in my cabinet. The claws, eyes, proboscis 
and antonnsB are to bo clearly distinguished, 
and even the lenses of the eyes, when consider- 
ably magnified. The antennas appear of an 
unusual size, but they comprise only the normal 
pai*t8, and are obviously immature. The mother 
larva in this example is about three-pai*ts grown 
to maturity, the wing-cases being still incom- 
plete beneath the outer skin. • • • It may 
now be left to entomologists and physiologists 
to pursue this new fact, unexpectedly started 
upon a well beaten fLeld.— Science Goisip. 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE-VINE.-No. 9. 

The Grape-vine Plume. 

{Pterophorut periscdidadyluM ^ Fitch.) 

[Fig. 148.1 




Colore— (fl) white; (6) light-brown j (rf) tawny-yellow. 

Just about the time that the third bnnch of 
grapes, on a given shoot, is developing, mauy 
of the leaves, and especially those at the 
extremity of the shoot, are found fastened 
together more or less closely, but generally so 
as (o form a hollow ball. These leaves are (lis- 
tened by a fine white silk, and upon opening 
the mass and separating the leaves, one of two 
caterpillars will generally be found in the re- 
treat. We say one of two, because the retreat 
made by the smallest of the Blue Caterpillars 
of the Vine, namely, the larva of the Pearl Wood 
Nymph (Fig. 102, a, p. 152), so closely resem- 
bles that of the Grape-vine Plume under con- 
sideration, that until the leaves are separated it 
is almost impossible to tell which larva will be 
found. Both occur at the same time of year, 
and both have been more destructive than usaal 
the present season in the vicinity of St. Loais. 
In an ordinary season they do not draw together 
the tips of the shoots till after the third banch 
of grapes is formed, and in devouring the ter- 
minal bud and leaves, they do little more than 
assist the vineyardist in the pruning which he 
would soon have to give. They act, indeed, as 
Nature's pruuing-knives. But the late severe 
frost which killed the first buds this year, so 
retarded the growth of the vines that the worms 
were out in fnll foixe before the third bunch had 
fully formed, and this bnnch was consequently 
included in the fold made by these worms, and 
destroyed. 



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The larva of the Grape-vine Plume invariably 
hatches very soon aflcr the leaves begin to ex- 
pand ; and though it is very generally called the 
LEAF-FOLDERy it must DOt bc confoundcd with 
the true Leaf-folder, described in our last num- 
ber, and which does its principal damage later 
in the season. At first the larva of our Plume 
is smooth and almost dentil ute of hairs, brt 
after each moult the hairs become more percep- 
tible, and when full grown the larva appears as 
at Figure 148, a, the hairs arising from a trans- 
verse row of warts, each joint having four above 
and six below the breathing-pores* (see Fig. 
148, e). After feeding for about three weeks 
our little worm fastens itself securely by the 
hind legs to the underside of some leaf or other 
object, and, casting its hairy skin, transforms 
to the pupa state. This pupa (Fig. 148, 5), 
with the lower pari of the three or four terminal 
joints attached to a little silk previously spun 
by the worm, hangs at a slant of about 40^. 
It is of peculiar and characteristic form, being 
ridged and angular, with numerous projections, 
and having remnants of the larval warts ; it is 
obliquely truncated at the head, but is chiefly 
distinguished by two compressed sharp-pointed 
horns, one of which is enlarged at Figure 148, 
c, projecting from the middle of the back: it 
measures, on an avei*age, rather more than one- 
third inch, and varies in color from light gi*een 
with darker gi*een shadings, to pale straw-color 
with light brown shadings. 

The moth (Fig. 148, d) escapes from this 
pupa in about one week, and, like all the species 
l>elouging to the genus, it has a very active and, 
impetuous flight, and rests with the wings closed 
and stretched at right angles from the body, so 
as to recall the letter T. It is of a tawny yellow 
color, the front wings marked with white and 
dark brown as in the figure, the hind wings 
appearing like burnished copper, and the legs 
being alternately banded with white and tawny 
yellow. 

All the moths of the family (Alucitid^) to 
which it belongs have the wings split up into 
narrow feather-like lobes, and for this reason 



• A8 Dr. Fitch's description of this larva is the only one 
we know of, and is rather incomplete, we subjoin the foi- 
lowing for the Bcientiflc reader: 

Maturs Larva op Ptbropuorus pbrwcrlidactylds.— 
Average length O.fiO inch. Color pale greenish-yellow. 
Joints separated bv deep constrictions. Each Joint with a 
transverse row of large cream-colored warts, giving rise to 
solt white hairs, many of which are slighUy clubbed at tip. 
Four of these warts above, and six below stigmata, the four 
lower smaller than the six upper ones . The hairs fh>m warts 
above stigmata diverging in all directions and straight, those 
ftrom the row immediately below stigmata decurving. Other 
short and more nr.inute dnb-tipped hairs spring ftrom the 
general surface of the body between the warts . Head yellow 
with labnim slightly towny. Legs also yeUow, immaculate 
and very long and slender. Described flrom numerous living 
specimens. 



they have very appropriately been called Plumes 
in popular language. In the genus Pterophorus 
tlie front wings are divided into two, and the 
hind wings into three lobes. In this country, 
a somewhat larger species (P. carduidaciylus, 
Riley) occurs on the Thistle, and though bear- 
ing a close resemblance to the Grape-vine Plume 
in color and markings, yet differs very remark- 
ably in the larva and pupa states. 

From analogy we infer that thei*e are two 
broods of these worms each year, and that the 
last brood passes the winter in the moth state. 
We have, however, never noticed any second 
appearance of them, and whether this is from 
the fact that the vines are covered with a denser 
foliage in the summer than in the spring, or 
whether there is really but one brood, are points 
in the history of our little Plume which yet have 
to be settled by further observation. 

On account of its spinning habit this insect 
is easily kept in check by hand picking. 



The Pear^Leaf Fungus (Bcestelia cancelkUa). 
— According to the Gardener's Chronicle this 
ftmgus seems to be unusually abundant this 
year. Its connection, if not its identity, with 
the curious yellow fleshy fVingus often found on 
the Savin Juniper (Podisoma aabince), has been 
asserted by M. CErsted, and confirmed by M. 
Decaisne. The latter botanist placed two plants 
of Savin affected with Podisoma, one in the 
ground in the midst of four perfectly healthy 
young Pear trees, and the other among the 
branches of a large, equally healthy Pear tree 
(Bon Cure), at a distance of six to eight feet 
from the ground. After a few days the Rcestdia 
appeared upon almost all the leaves of the five 
Pears. Moreover, some leaves which were pur- 
posely smeared on tlieir under surface with the 
slimy mucus of the Podisoma were speedily 
reddened over by the Rcestdia, M. Iloze, how- 
ever, has not succeeded in his endeavors to 
repeat this experiment, and he calls attention to 
a circumstance which is very significant, that is 
to say, the presence of true Pucdnia (smut) on 
the Podisoma of the Savin in some seasons, and 
its absence in others, from which he cautiously 
surmises that the Pear-leaf fungus may be a 
form of the Picccinia. — Science Gossip, 



At a late meeting of the London Entomologi- 
cal Society, Mr. "Westwood exhibited an Apho- 
dius, which was given to him by M. Jenyns, 
who assured him that this insect was frequently 
vomited by the Hottentots. 



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THE AMERICAN 



HOW TO COLLECT AND STUDY INSECTS-No. 3. 

UY F. O. SANBORN, BOSTON, MASS. 

Having equipped ourselves with the few 
simple instruments previously described, let us 
sally forth to some unfrequented spot — a wooded 
hill-side, sheep pasture, or, if well provided with 
water-proof boots, a meadow. Each and all such 
places prove good ** collecting ground," and 
open a vast field of research to him who keeps 
liis eyes open and knows how to use them. Here 
aie a few small stones, covering a square foot or 
more of soil ; turn them, or rather lift them care- 
fully and reveree them, so that you can inspect 
with one eye what has been for some days the 
under surface, while the other eye watches for 
any moving, and therefore probably endeavor- 
ing-to-escape creature. This little golden-red 
knob, not so large as a pin's head, looks as if it 
was part of the stone ; but wet your forefinger 
and touch it, not exerting a pressure of more 
tlian an ounce to the square inch. You have 
brought up on his back a little kicking hexapod, 
which makes futile struggles to get upon his feet 
while confined to your great finger by the co- 
hesive atti*action of saliva. Slip your left fore- 
finger and thumb into your vest pocket, and 
extract your magnifier, open and focus it. What 
superb joints in all those supple feet and flexile 
antennae; what lustre in those tliimble-like, brown 
eyes ; how the little abdomen curves, contracts 
and expands, and how the tiny elytra separate, 
and the wings, matted with the moistui'e from 
your finger, strive to lend their feeble aid to raise 
the unhappy proprietor from his ignoble position I 
Nay, even the microscopic mouth opens, the little 
brown jaws gape as if to remonstrate, but your 
coarae auditory neiTe catches no sound. Replace 
your pocket glass and withdraw a small vial ; if 
you have learned the use of your fingers, take 
out the cork with your thumb and forefinger, 
while you hold the vial steadily between the 
other thi'ee fingers and the palm of the left hand. 
Now shift your right forefinger to the mouth of 
the vial, so that the little "specimen" is enclosed, 
and with a quick motion float him off in the al- 
cohol, re-cork, and watch him if you please. He 
kicks still, waves his anteunse frantically, opens 
and shuts his wings, perhaps twenty, forty, sixty 
seconds, and with a placid smile upon his other- 
wise immovable features^ he folds his small limbs 
upon his breast, and passes happily into that 
sleep which knows no waking. 

What is all this about? Oh, you have simply 
captured a specimen of Olibrus nitidus, LeConte, 
Order Coleoptera, Family Phalacridcb. Original 



describer, F. E. Melsheimer, in Proc, Phifa, 
Acad, Kat, Sciences^ Vol. II., page 102. And 
this is what characterizes him, and distinguishes 
him from every other Olibrus that has ever been 
seen: " Short, ovate, gi-eatly convex, light ches- 
nut, highly polished, impunctured: head witli 
distant, veiy minute punctui'es; eyes black: 
sutural stria of the elytra faintly impressed : j line 
long." 

But this is not collecting. Look agahi at the 
stone ; nothing more there, eh ? Don't you see 
small, shining, black objects, about ^\q or six of 
them, moving slowly along? Bring yom* magni- 
fier to bear on one of them. It looks like a dim- 
inutive wheel-barrow turned bottom upwards, 
with an immense pair of sideboards dragging on 
each side, or like a minute but irritated turkey- 
gobbler sweeping his stiffened wings behind him. 
Wet your finger and look at him beneath ; he has 
eight feet surely, and won't do for a true insect. 
Tme, he is an Arachnide^ or Spider, and belongs 
to the class denominated Mites. So few students 
have studied up the Mites of this country, that it 
is most probable he has never received a name ; 
but put him in a vial with alcohol, and note when 
and where he was found ; at some ftiture date 
we shall be able to investigate liis structure more 
closely with a powerful microscope, or shall 
meet some one who can tell us more about him. 
What are those little gray creatui*es that are 
leaping so actively, and sometimes running quite 
briskly on the ground or on the flat surface of the 
stone? Look at the under side of one of these 
longer ones and you see a little fork hinged at 
his tail, and springing up and down, its points 
nearly reaching liis hinder feet. This little insect 
belongs to the Spring-tails, or, as the technical 
name Podura implies, Foot^tails. It is considered 
by most naturalists, as a low form, or ''degraded 
tyioe," of the Order ^Teuroptera, to which the 
Dragon-flies, Tennites or White Ants as they 
are improperly termed, and May-flies belong. Its 
body is covered with delicate scales, shaped like 
criK. 140.] those of fishes, and smaller 

and finer than those on the 
wings and bodies of the 
buttei-flies and moths. These 
scales (Fig. 149) were used 
formerly as "test objects" for 
the compound microscope, 
and are so used to some 
extent to-day for cheaper 
instruments, the fine lines 
ruled along the scale being 
difficult to see clearly, or to "define," as the 
phrase is, with a poor glass. We can keep them 
tolerably well in alcohol, but should use a 




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237 



separate vial, as they will get badly nibbed if 
kept in the same place as the harder shelled in- 
sects. But we can put in with them those short, 
rounded little hoppers, of a greenish color, not 
bigger than ^ pin's head, which also have a forked 
spring in their tails, and belong to the genus 
SmyTtthurua, 

Have you got thi'ough with the little world 
under this stone? If so, slip your net on the end 
of your walking-stick, for here comes a fellow 
on the wing, his colors gleaming and flashing in 
the sun. Wait; now is your time, strike I Now 
twist your wrist slightly, so as to bring the 
weight of the net across the piouth of the loop. 
You can now grasp the net below the loop, and 
pick out, with the other hand, the specimen ; or 
pin it through the net, as you prefer. What does 
it look like? "A darning-needle." Oh I well, 
you can introduce your hand and seize it with- 
out apprehension, for it cannot harm you, spite 
of its formidable appearance, and the old women's 
traditions, floating in your memory, of their 
" sewing up folk's mouths," " flying in at one 
ear and out the other," " stinging horses," Ac, 
Drop an atom of chloroform on him just imder 
his wings on each side ; now he is still. What 
delicate colors in that slender body ; what glori- 
ous eyes, in whose depths you seem to see the 
spirit of life retreating sorrowfully from the 
graceftil body it had inspired but now. Those 
glassy wings, so transparent, and so crowded 
with slender dark veins, no longer obey the 
impulse to soar; those long black spiny feet, 
one of which faintly moves, and again contracts, 
as if with a memory of duties undone, are no 
longer capable of supporting their owner on 
some sprig or leaf! It hardly seems as if this 
beautifril creature, larger than some biixis, could 
be related to those little " spring-tails " we just 
bottled. True, but the evidence is not all in; 
we are just beginning to learn the connection 
between species, and genera, and families, and 
orders, and classes. Let us have patience, and 
observe carefUlly the structure and habits of each 
insect that comes in our way, and we may per- 
haps discover day by day some of the links that 
connect this Dragon-fly (^Anax Junius) with the 

Spring-tails {Podura), 

• » • 

TOADS YS. INSECTS. 

As summer advances the question of Toads 
versus Insects is sure to come up, and perhaps 
an experiment of mine on the capacity of a toad 
may be of interest. Dr. T. W. Harris remarked 
to mo some twenty years ago, that he supposed 
the odor of the Squash Bug (Coreus tristis), 
would protect it from the toad, and to test tbe 



matter I offered one to a grave-looking Bufo 
under a cabbage. He seized it eagerly, but spit 
it out instantly, reared up on his hind legs and 
put his front feet on top of his head for an in- 
stant, as if in pain, and then disappeared across 
the garden in a series of the greatest leaps I ever 
saw a toad make. Perhaps tbe bug bit the biter. 
Not satisfled with this, I hunted up another old 
toad, who lived under the piazza, and always 
sunned himself in one place in the grass, and 
offered him a flne Squash Bug, which he took 
and swallowed, winking in a very satisfled 
manner. Twenty .other fine bugs followed the 
first, in a few moments, with no difficulty nor 
hesitation in the taking or swallowing, though, 
from his wriggling and contortions afterward, 
it seemed as if their corners did not set well 
within. The stock of bugs being then exhausted, 
I found a colony of smooth black larvse on a 
white birch, each about three-quarters of an inch 
long, and fed him over a hundred of them. 
Touching one of them with the end of a straw, 
it would coil around it, and then, when shaken 
before him, he would seize and swallow it, at 
first eagerly, but with diminished zest as the 
number increased, until it became necessary to 
rub the worm against his lips for some time be- 
fore he could decide about it. He would then 
take it and sit with his lips ajar for a short time, 
gathering strength and resolution, and then 
swallow by a desperate effort. 

There is no telling what the number or result 
would have been, but the dinner bell rang as the 
lOlst worm disappeared, and by the close of the 
meal he had retired to his den ; nor did he ap- 
pear for four days in his sunning place. It is to 
be hoped he slept well, but there may have been 
nightmares. J. C. Hill. 

Yellow Hprings, O. 

- - -»«"•- 

Fowls vs. Worms. — M. Giot, a French En- 
tomologist, has lately found new employment 
for fowls. He says that French farmers have, 
during the past year, complained bitterly of tbe 
prevalence of worms, which infest corn and 
other crops, the highest cultivated flelds being 
the most infested. Fowls are known to be the 
most indefatigable worm desti'oyers, pursuing 
their prey with extraordinary instinct and 
tenacity. But fowls cannot conveniently be 
kept upon every fleld, nor are they wanted there 
at all seasons. Therefore M. Giot has invented 
a perambulating fowl-house, which is described 
as follows: '' I& has large omnibuses, fltted up 
with perches above, the nest beneath. The 
fowls are shut in at night, and the vehicle is 
drawn to the required spot, and, the doors being 
opened in the morning, tbe fowls are let out to 
feed during the day in the flelds. Knowing 
their habitation, they enter it at nightfall with- 
out hesitation, roost and lay their eggs there." 



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THE AMERICAN 




SOUTHERN NOTES. 

BY J. PARISU STELLE, OF TENNESSEE. 
8COUl»IONS AND TaKAKTI'LAS IN TENNESSEE. — 

A Canada Entomolofifist has wi ittcn to ask if we 
have scorpions and cng. jado 

tarantulas in Ten- 
nessee. I replied by 
letter, bat thinking 
there may be others 
who would like the 
same kind of in- 
formation, I have 
concluded to say, 
through the Ameri- 
can Entomologist, 
that we have. We 
have two scoi'pions 
in the highlands or 
Tennessee : the 
**Long-tail" (Scor- 
pio [ Telegonus'] 
6orcu«, Girard), and 
the ** Short-tail " 
( Buthtis carolxni' coior-Browii. 

anusy Beauvois, Fig. 150). The sting of the 
former is, of the two, the most venomous, 
though neither is much to be di*eaded. I would 
about as lief be stung by one of our scorpions 
as by a hornet. Length of body about one inch ; 
color dirty gi'eeuish-yellow. The "Long-tail" 
is a shade darker than the " Shoi*t-tail." Our 
boys sometimes call them teetotallers, from the 
fact that they cannot endure alcohol. A drop 
of alcohol, or whisky, deposited upon one of 
them will cause it to immediately commit sui- 
cide by stinging itself to death. 

As yet I have found but one species of taran- 
tula in Tennessee, the My gale JTen^m of Girard, 
which you figured on page 111 of your first 
volume. Tarantulas are veiy rare in Tennesse, 
owing, possibly, to the work of their deadly 
enemy, the Digger Wasp (Pompilus formosua, 
Say), which in quite plentiful here. Both 
scorpions and tarantulas increase in numbers 
as one goes down towards the sea-board. 

Centipedes in Tennessee.—*' If you wish to 
see the old fellow himself just open that !' ^ said 
a fiiend the other morning, as he placed a small 
paper parcel upon my oflice table. There was 
no need of opening anything, however, for in 
the next instant out from among the folds of the 
paper, now freed from my friend's grii>e, i*au " the 
old fellow himself" in the person of a true Centi- 
pede about four inches long— the Scolopendra 
kei^os of Giraixl. One of my ai'ms was resting 



upon the table at the time, and he made a sweep 
towards it as fast as his forty-two legs could 
cany him, having, doubtless, been fevorably 
impressed with the cavernous appearance of my 
coat sleeve. I could discover nothing about him 
to make a favorable impression, especially when 
associating him with mattei-s up my sleeve, con- 
sequently I made a sweep also— back frem the 
table. And at all this my ft"ieiid laughed most 
excessively. It was as good a thing as he 
wanted — **a worm putting an entomologist to 
rout" — until I had impressed upon him what 
the creature was, and assured liim that its bite 
was almost as venomous as that of a rattlesnake. 
A sudden transit 

* * Prom gay to grave, lh)m lively to severe," 
took place as he thought of the danger his finger*; 
had lately been in, making altogether as good a 
thing as / wanted. 

The Centipede was soon captured and bottlwl 
to the evident relief of my ft-iend, who assured 
me that he had otlen met with them before with- 
out having the slightest susjneion as to their 
true character, lie had regarded them as some 
kind of overgrown earwigs, and although he had 
heard of a terrible animal in Texas called a Cen- 
tipede, the thought had never occurred to him 
that there was such a thing in Tennessee. Nor 
was he more ignorant in that particular than 
most of his neighbor: until I had found ami 
recognized the creature, I do not think any of 
our citizens were aware of the fact that we had 
centipedes among us. 

There are but few centipedes in Tennessee, 
and 1 think this point may be put down as about 
their northern limit. I found one ten miles above 
Savannah last summer, the Airthest up that I 
have ever met with one. They are quite common 
in the Gulf States as we go down, however, 
increasing in number and size the further we go. 
Here they are small, four inches being about tlie 
greatest length to which they attain, but in tbo 
vicinity of Mobile 1 have found them over six 
inches long. 

Nine-tenths of the stories told about centipedes 
are untme. 1 do not regard them as being ver\' 
dangerous at all. They wiU bite, and the bite 
is very poisonous, but you must confine or press 
them in some way to make them do it. A cen- 
tipede in one's clothes or as a bed-fellow might 
not be just the thing to delight in, but there is 
little danger of their getting into such positions, 
for they abhor light or dry places. The greatest 
danger is to men handling old rails or pieces of 
wood that have lain upon the ground for a long 
time — they ar« likely to turn them up where 
they are plentiftil, and, without due caution, 



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may pi*es8 them amoug their fiu^i*fi. 1 have 
known fence-builders to be bitten by tlieni. 

The centii>eile never emei^gee into oyyen day of 
iU^ own accord, but lies under old logs and stones 
in damp places, whence it comes forth at night 
in quest of its pi*ey . It is a ravenous eater, feed- 
ing on even- character of soft insect that ci-osses 
its imth, excepting earth worms— it apix»ai"s to 
liave no tooth for them. To give the general 
reader an idea of its appearance, I \v\\\ say that it 
is a snuff-colored animal, tVom thi-ee to six inches 
long, and fVom one-fourth to one-half inch wide 
— sometliing on the plan of a creatui*e tliat every- 
body knowns as a "thousand-legged worm." 
It is divided into twenty-one joints, or i)arts, 
exclusive of the head, each joint bearing a leg 
on either side, giving it forty-two legs. The legs 
are divided into five joints, and tai>er rapidly to 
the extremities, finishing up in a kind of claw. 
Tlie legs on the posterior part or joint do not run 
square out flx)m the body like the othei*s, but 
range back and turn in slightly at the ends, 
forming hooks. Upon its head it lias a pair of 
long slender feelei's, each divided into twenty- 
five joints, and also a pair of keen little forceps, 
or piiichera, wliich come out near the back pai-t 
of the head, and foim about two-thirds of a circle 
around it, meeting immediately in tVont, of 
course. The undei'side of the animal is flat, 
with a slight groove along the middle, while its 
back is inclined to roundish with two shallow 
depressions loinning its full length, or, rather, it 
is w^hat would be called subconcave. Color of 
undei*side is a shade lighter than that of back. 

We have, in the Southern States, several other 
members of the same family that might be mis- 
taken lor true centipedes; but there is a rale 
which will always enable one to identify them : 
the true centipede has forty-two legs running 
out tvom its body, while all its near though 
harmless relations have but forty. 



Hem ED Y FOR THE C ANKER- WORM, — At a 

winter discussion of the Iowa State Agricul- 
tural Society several gave their experience with 
the Canker-worm. Sorghum is cheaper than 
tar; besides, there is no danger of damage to 
the tree by using it, as there is with tar, if it 
is applied upon the bark. Thicken the sorghum 
with flour, and when the worms have covered 
it, kill them and daub on another coat. 

My remedy was burning with a light coat of 
dry straw spread under the tree. Shake and 
pole the worms all off, and immediately set Are 
to the straw. Take a calm, clear day, and be 
careful not to burn the tree. S. Foster. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL JOTTINGS. 



C We propoae to publlah from time to time, under tbfl aiiove liMdiniCt Mich 
exttmrts from the Mten ci oar eortemuodenta m oontaln emomoioKicftl IktU 
worthy to bo recorded, od account cither uf their ■dentlflc or of their pcwcti- 



eat Importance. We hope our rcadeni will oontrilH^ each ttieir eeveral mltae 

tuwaroa the general fbndt and In "*^ ^'*' ^' — * '*^" 

namea ot the Inaecte, the pccuUan 

tprriuient aluuK in ocder that each tiH-ciM uwy be duljr idmtlfled.] 



.. J general fbndt and In caae they are not perfcethr certain ot the 

namea ot the Inaecta, the pecuUantlea of which are to be menrlonHl. wdt lend 



The SxuirED Cuci mueu Beetle in a New 
lloi.E — Spring Bay, Woodford Co.^ Ills., May 
Sd, 1870. — Enclosed I send some insects which 
I discovei*ed, only a few days ago, on my i)ear 
and cherry trees, especially the former. Tho^e 
insects attack the blossoms of the pear, and also 
to some extent the cherry blossoms. Only six 
days ago, I discovered the first of these pests on 
my pear trees ; at that time they were few in 
number, but today if a tree is shaken a cloud 
of them files away, only to return again in a few 
minutes. I also send a few pear blossoms, in 
various stages of destruction. The insect seems 
to have a preference for the petals of the fiowers, 
especially the yet unopened flowers, which they 
perfoliate first, and then eat all around until all 
or most of the petals are consumed. There are 
frequently two at work on one flower. Of cherry 
blossoms they seem to prefer the stamens of the 
fully developed flower, and I think that cherries 
are not as badly injured as pears. At least three- 
fourths of my pears are already destroyed by 
this destructive bug. I have dusted the trees 
with caustic lime, with sulphur, and spiinkled 
with water and coal oil, but without the least 
efifect; they seem to be as regardless of all such 
things as the Ck>lorado Potato Bug. I would be 
pleased to learn fi*om you whether this is a new 
insect, or whether it is an old and well-known 
kind that has lately acquired bad habits. 

J. G. Zelleb, M. D. 

[ The insects ai*e the notorious Striped Cucum- 
ber-beetle (Diabrotica vittata, Fabr., Fig. 161). 
crig. 131 ] It has long been known to devour the 
leaves of a variety of difTerent plants, 
early in the spring before cucurbi- 
taceons vines have formed much leaf, 
but we never before heard of its 
^^"^'j^SSS?*^ injuring fruit trees to the extent you 
set forth. You will flnd it difficult to head tliem 
off*, and we can recommend nothing with confi- 
dence, never having had an opportunity to 
experiment with them on trees. Wide mouthed 
bottles filled with sweetened water hung up in 
the trees, and fires built at night, might materi- 
ally reduce their numbers, and should be tried 
another season. The beetles will leave the trees 
as soon as the cucumber and melon vines are 
out of the ground.— Ed.] 




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LARViE IN Human Bowbls — West Chester ^ 
Pa,, April 14, 70.— The article in the March 
number of the Entomologist on " Larvae in the 
Human Bowels," brings forcibly to mind a case 
in point, which I will briefly relate. About the 
last of September, 1852, my little daughter, aged 
four years and a half, while on a visit to a friend, 
ate a large quantity of Catawba and Isabella 
grapes, from the vines in the garden, to which 
she had free access. A few days afterwards she 
was violently attacked with dysenter>^, from 
which she died in about three weeks. During 
her illness the motions from the bowels were 
frequently and critically examined by myself 
and another physician in attendance with me, 
tvithovi detecting any larvce. 

One year after interment, the old burial ground 
was required to be vacated, and the bodies were 
removed to a new cemetery. While superintend- 
ing the removal of the remains of my child, I 
requested the undertaker to remove the lid of 
the inner coffin, and to my great amazement I 
beheld hundreds of dead and dried larvae (such 
as repi'esented in your Figure 93) adhering to 
the clothing and lining of the coffin. There 
were no evidences of the perfect fly, the larvae 
seeming to have died while crawling about in 
vain efforts to escape. I cannot be mistaken as 
to the larvcBy as I particularly noticed the ar- 
rangement of the branchial spines on the sides 
and back of one, with a pocket lens, and as they 
had all died in an extended position, the two 
black hooks on the inferior surface of the head 
were plainly visible. Having paid some atten- 
tion to entomology for some years previous, I 
recognized it as the larva of some Dipterous 
insect, with which I was unacquainted, and I 
wondered at their presence in such numbers, as 
the body was kept in a cold and darkened room, 
the weather being so cold at the time as to 
require fire throughout the house, and all flies 
having disappeared except the common House- 
fly. The conclusion at which I amved at the 
time was, that the ova of these larvae had been 
deposited on tlie body before intei*ment. The 
question now arises, was the disease a symptom 
of the presence of these larvae, and were the ova 
taken in with the finiit? 

W. D. Haktman, M.D. 

Bbech-borino Larva — Detroit ^ Mich,, April 
9, 1870. — The accompanying rough sketch will 
give some idea of a boring lately observed by 
me in Beech-wood. I also enclose, in three dis- 
tinct stages, the larvae whose work tliis is. The 
genei*al direction of tliese boiings is almost al- 
ways horizontal or at right angles to the gi'ain 
of the wood, and frequently they are exactly 



parallel to each other as though laid off with 
mathematical precision. At first the passages 
are without the side branches or galleries, but 
after about the firat inch, and sometimes before, 
these begin, as shown in my sketch, which is 
natural size. They are mostly at right angles to 
the mainway and perpendicular, or with the 
grain of the wood, and many of them are pe^ 
fectly parallel to each other. I found but a single 
larva in each boring. This seems a remarkable 
amount of work for so small an insect, notwith- 
standing its powerftil jaws. The earliest stage 
of the larva is found in the simple, the more 
advanced stages in the compound or branched 
passages. The character of this excavation, 
though, appears to depend much on the quality 
of the Beech. Where the wood is smooth and 
even the perforation is correspondingly straight 
and symmetrical, and the side chambera ,do not 
so soon appear, or not for at least an inch ; but 
where knotty, wrinkled or contorted gram is 
met with by these little engineers, we find their 
work less regular and with more tortuous wind- 
ings, the side chambers branching off so'metimes 
at once in such cases. When encountering a 
knot or other similar obstruction they change 
their course in accordance, following the twisted 
grain on one side of it. Sometimes the excava- 
tions do not enter the solid wood immediately, 
but wind between it and the bark for a few 
inches. I have also obsei-ved some instances of 
three or more mainways leading off from one 
general entrance, at angles of about twenty 
degrees. The entrance, in the bark, is some- 
what smaller than the interior, and is generally 
closed, being not easily perceived. These larva? 
were taken from their excavations on the first of 
April. 

On the ninth of April (this morning) 1 fpTind 
several species of the beetle or perfect insect, 
some of which I also send hei-e with . These were 
usually in the small side chambers, but towards 
the entrance of the boring, as though making 
their way out. In two instances I took two of 
these beetles from a single chamber into which 
they were tightly wedged. They appear dor- 
mant at fii'st, but atlei'wards are quite lively. 

I do not send specimens of the borings ft*om 
the fact that the first I found, and from which 
my drawing was made, were unfortunately not 
preserved by me, and I have since failed to ob- 
tain as fair specimens. Indeed, it is rather diffi- 
cult to get them out without spoiling them. And 
in my eagerness to obtain the insects I was not 
as careftil as I might have been to preserve their 
dwellings, which I generally had to de8ti*oy in 
order to get the inmates. So you will have to 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



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dejiend on my sketch in this respect. It gives a 
correct view (longitudinal sections) of one of two 
adjoining borings in a piece of smooth regularly- 
grained wood. Henry Gillman. 

[These lai*vfle are iutei*esting from the fact that 
they evidently belong to a genus (Colydium) of 
beetles which have long been known to bore 
under the bark of trees in the larva state, but 
have never been described as boring in such a 
i*egular manner, the passages described by Mr. 
G. very closely i*esembling those of the Pine 
Timber-beetle (Tomicus materiarius, Fitch). 
We shall be glad to receive numerous 4iviug 
s|)ecimen8 of the larvae and also specimens of 
the i>ei*forated wood, and hope that Mr. G. will 
make some effoii; to rear, or capture upon the 
tree, the perfect hisect during the summer, as 
there are only three described N. A. species, the 
habits of none of which are known. — Ed.] 

Pupa of the Girdled Sphinx— Ftwc/wwc?, 2i. 
J, April 2, 1870. — Last fall there was brought 
to me the largest larva of some Sphinx I ever 
saw. It was almost black in color, and was 'with- 
out caudal horn. I think it would have weighed 
as much as a full gi*own si)ecimen of the Royal 
Honied-caterpillar. To-day I unearthed it and 
found the chiysalis dead. The chiysalis is black, 
or nearly so, and about a third larger than that 
of the Tomato-woim moth {Sphinx b-maculata). 
I cannot find anything in Morris's Synopsis that 
answei's to a description of either the lai-va or 
chrj'salis. I enclose the tongue-case, hoping you 
may recognize it by this. 

Mrs. Mary Treat. 

[Fi'om the description of the lainra, and the 
character of the pupa tongue-case, the terminal 
half of wliich is curled up mider the breast to- 
wards the head, we have little doubt that the 
insect is the Girdled Splnnx {S. dnyulatay Linn.) 
which you Mil find described on page 188 of 
Morris's Synopsis, under the generic name of 
Macrosila, and where it is said to feed on Sweet- 
potato.— Ed.] 

To KILL THE Pea-weevil — Vindand, i\r. J. — 
I think I have a much better way of killing the 
Pea-weevil than Mrs. Chappelsmith. When I 
collect my seed I pour boiling water over them ; 
this does not in the least injure the seed, and 
kills all the larvae. But I do not see that there is 
much use in one person doing this, for my peas 
arc generally stung from my neighbor's "bugs." 

M. T. 

No Apple Plant-lice — Champaigny Illinois, 
May 16, 70.— I have been unable to find a single 
specimen of Aphis mali this year, and do not 
believe that " scab" can be produced by it. 

n. J. I). 



The Philenor Swallow-tail— Error Cor- 
rected — Baltimore, Md., May 14, '70.— Allow 
me to express my gi*atification at the improve- 
ment in the Entomologist by the addition of 
Botany. It is like a neat, well-cultivated patch 
ot garden to a convenient dwelling-house^ not 
rendering the latter more comfortable inside, but 
adding cheei'ftdness and neatness outside. I 
ought, however, to call your attention to an error 
which has crept into your columns. In your 
note on page 175, you say: "Mr. Pai'ker has 
been led into eiTor by the English rendeiing in 
Moii-is's Synopsis,^^ "because Boisduval men- 
tions no such character in the original French." 
Now, if I added without authority that the tail 
was whitish at base, it could not well be an "er- 
ror i^ rendering," but an unwarrantable addition. 
Boisduval, in his Species General des L€pidop- 
t^res Diumes (Paris, 1836), when describing 
Philenor, does not mention the fact that the tail 
is whitish at base, but I did not ti'anslate my 
description ft'om this book, but ftx)m Boisduval 
et LeConte's Iconographie des L^pidopteres de 
VAm^nque SeptentrionaU, where he says " les 
queues sout couiles, ^troites, noiixis, bordees de 
blanc k leur base." Was I in enx)r? Was not 
Mr. P. right? Are you not wi*ong? 

Dr. Jno. G. Morris. 

[You are not in error ; Mr. P. was right, and 
we are wrong— in pai-t. Unlike the Pope, we do 
not claim infallibility, audit always gives us 
pleasure to have our mistakes corrected, especi- 
ally when, as in this case, they question the 
accuracy of fellow- workers. We do not possess 
the work from which you translated, and as the 
description in the Synopsis is credited to "Bois- 
duval" alone, and not to "Boisduval et LeConte," 
we made the unpardonable blunder of infening 
that the description was condensed from the first 
mentioned work, which is the only one we know 
of by Boisduval himself, wherein Philenor is 
described. We were f\irthermore led into enx)r 
by the description "whitish at base," instead of 
"bordered with white at their base," and would 
I'espectMly ask friend Monis whether there is 
not ^^jest a leetle^^ difierence between the two 
phrases. In ideality the tail is bordered more or 
less at base by the cream-colored sinuses each 
side, and so it is in almost all our difiei*ent species 
of the genus PapUio; and yet theii* tails are not 
described as "whitish at base." We all slop 
over sometimes. — Ed.] 

A Rare Caiture— JS't'aw^ow, Ills., May 17th, 
1870.— Allow me to add to our Illinois Butterfiies 
the beautiful Limenitis proseipina, Edwards. 
I have collected assiduously aroimd here for 
three years, and never met with but one speci- 
men. E. G. Boutell. 



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THE AMERICAN 



The Grape-leaf Gall-louse— Jl/onfpcZ^ie?*, 
-France.— Your remarks on page 248 of the fii-st 
volume, in reference to the Grape-leaf Gall-insect 
are perfectly in concordance with the views of 
my brother-in-law, Dr. Planchon, and of my 
own. ♦ * ♦ You are perfectly right 
in your criticism of Br. Shimer's new family, 
DactylosphoBridcBf as the globular hairs at the 
extremity of the legs are common to all Coccus 
and Coccu*-like Leaf-lice, and Phylloxera stands 
very close to Coccus, J. Lichtenstein. 

Development of Egg of Imported Currant 
Saw-fly (Neniatus ventricosus)— London, C. W,, 
May nth, 1870.— I send you a small tin box, 
containing some eggs and a few young lai-vfe, 
just hatched, of Nematus ventricosus, I found 
them in the gaixlen to-day, and hope they will 
i^each you in good order. I observe that the 
fi'eshly deposited eggs are much smaller than 
those from which the larva is about to proceed ; 
but cannot see that they are attached to anything 
more than the mere surface of the ribs of the 
leaves. If this is the case, do the females use 
their saw-like appendage at all in connection 
with the depositing of eggs? The subsequent 
swelling of the egg must, I fancy, proceed alto- 
gether from the development of the enclosed 
laiTa. The texture of the enclosing membrane 
appears to be very elastic. Wm. Saunders. 

A Rare CA^nrRE— Covington, Ky,, April 10, 
1870. — The only notice that I have ever seen 
of Phymaphora pulcheUa is that in Packard's 
Guide, and from tiiat I infer it is very rare. It 
may therefore be worth while to i-ecord the cap- 
ture of a single specimen by me upon a plank 
fence aix>und timbered land last summer. I do 
not remember the exact date, but I think it was 
about the last of Apiil. It was left for some 
time among other material, and did not attract 
my attention until a short time ago. 

V. T. Chambers. 

Beech-nuts in Cocoon of the Cecropia. — 
In the last number of the American Entomolo- 
gist AND Botanist, mention is made of kernels 
of com being found in the cocoon of the Cecropia. 
Two similar instances have come under my 
notice. Twice I have found beech-nuts in the 
inside of the cocoon at the small end, between 
the caterpillar and the innermost layer of silk. 
The explanation offered by Dr. LeBaron seems 
hardly admissible under these circumstances. 
[Why?] On the other hand, the fact of no 
beech trees being within an eighth of a mile, 
would indicate that they must have been placed 
there by the blue-jays, or some other bird, as he 
supposes. C. S. MiNOT, in Canadian Ent. 



THE WHEAT-BARBERRY RU8T. 

Says the Country Gentleman: 

We have no controvei'sy with the Un/oniolo- 
gist on tlie scientific position it has taken ou 
the ftmgoid parasites. The identity of the bar- 
berry rust and the wheat rust does not prove 
that the former plant causes the destruction of 
the wheat crop, any more than the identity of 
the apple and of the plum curculio proves that 
the apple destroys the plum ti'ee. 

The Eritomoiogist has distinguished itself in 
exposing many popular errors, and in the la^t 
number mentions the common opinion at the 
South, that the hedge-ho^ caterpillar cauRcs fever, 
becatree it is found in miasmatic localities ; also, 
that of hair-snakes being water-soaked and ani- 
mated hau*8. It is precisely such hasty reasouintf 
that induces mauv to believe that wheat turns to 
chess, and that the barberry bush nists wheat. 
We admit that these two cases are unlike in 
character, but alike in the want of attempted 
proof, by close, accurate, repeated obsei-vation. 
The Entomologist is thoroughly scientific in itx 
character, and we infer from lis last article on 
this subiect, that it only argues for the identity 
of the wheat and barbeny rust, adding "we have 
never assumed that healthy barbeny bushes, free 
from rust, will produce' any rust in wheat.*- 
When it has furnished a senes of close experi- 
ments proving that the barbeny manufactures 
rust and then scattei*s it far and wide over wheat 
fields, we will accept the proof as far as it goes. 

We would gently remind our contemporarj' 
that, in the first place, there is no identity be- 
tween the Apple and the Plum Curculio, and, in 
the second placej if these two insects were iden- 
tical, the analogy dmwn in tho first pai-agraph 
above quoted is a purely false and supposititious 
one. If tliere existed a curculio which in tfie 
larva state fed on apples, but which could only 
undergo its transformations to the pujm and 
perfect states in plums, such an insect might 
fUrnish the illustration required. 

It does not become our Albany friends, after 
first criticising our position, to attempt to throw 
the burden of proof on us. We like not such 
modes of arguing a point. We have already 
furnished proof in support of our own position, 
and to deny in the face of it that barbeiTy rust 
has any infiuence on wheat nist, is tantamount 
to denying, in the face of scientific evidence, that 
we dei-ive the tape-worm from the cystadids 
which inhabit the liver and other i)ai'ts of the 
hog. Until this last fact was proved by expen- 
ment, few could comprehend or imagine that wc 
derived that di-eaded parasite from one of our 
most common domestic animals ; and though it 
may be equally diflicult lor some i>ei*soiis to com- 
prehend how the pregerminal form of a parasitic 
plant may be wafted hundreds — nay thousands— 
of miles from its place of /development ; or how 
it may be almost ubiquitous, and yet remain 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



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latent indefinitely, and not continue its destined 
course of growth until the requisite conditions 
present themselves — yet such we believe to be 
facts, nevertheless. 

We rest the matter here, for it does hot belong 
to our columns; and we are perfectly willing 
that the reader shall form his own conclusions 
as to which of us founds his faith on assumption, 
and which on close experiment. 



THE APPLE CURCULIO. 



In order that our readers, and especially those 
who live near 8t Joseph, Mich., may recognize 
the Apple Curculio whenever they see it, we 
present herewith its portrait (Fig. 152), a giving 

[Fig. 192.] 




Colors— Dingy gray, inclining to rnst-red behind. 

the natural size; h a side view, and c a back 
view. Now compare this %ure (6) with that of 
the Plum Curculio (Fig. 92, c) on page 130 of 
this volume, and it will be next to impossible to 
confound two such widely differing insects. 



THE NEW CURCULIO REMEDY. 

As we always like to give a good reason for 
the faith that is in us, it will be well, perhaps, to 
report the results of experiments recently made 
to test the chip-trap Curculio remedy. On the 
16th of May, at Kirkwood, Mo., we carefully 
cleared the ground around six stone-fruit trees 
(two peach, two plum and two cherry). We 
cleared it within a radius of at least four feet 
around each tree; and after depositing the 
requisite traps, and carefully examining them 
three times a day till the present time (May 
29th), how many Curculios, good people of St. 
Joseph, do you suppose we captured? Just 
SEVEN, namely, two on the 20th, 'one on the 
21st, one on the 22nd, one on the 2oth, and two 
on the 26th. Not very rapid catching, but all 
we expected at this season of the year I 



^*Where there is one thorough entomologist 
among our readers, there are doubtless a 
hundred persons who know next to nothing of 
Entomology, and who do not understand the 
technicalities of the science. For this reason we 
always endeavor to evade such technicalities, as 
far as is consistent with clearness and precision, 
knowing ftill well that plain Anglo-Saxon is 
best understood by all. 



^rOur labors have lately been interrupted by 
a rather tedious illness, and our correspondents 
will please bear with us for any delay in attend- 
ing to their questions. 



^r Our readers will greatly oblige us by ad- 
dressing all letters of a botanical character to the 
botanical editor, as we have nothing to do with 
the botanical department. 



Erratum. — ^Page 211, column 1, line 20 from 
l>ottom, for *'as" read **and." 



ON OUR TABLE. 

A Prblibonary List of the Buttbrflibs of 
Iowa. By Saml. H. Scuddor, Chicago Academy of 
Sciences. 

The Technologist. Industrial Publication Co., 
176 Broadway, N. Y. 

Zymotbchnic News. St Louis. 

MoNOGRAPHiA Chalciditum. Vols. I and II. By 
F. Walker, British Museum. 

The Apiculturist. Mexico, Mo. 

The Cosmopolitan. New York. 

Trout Culture. By Seth Green. D. M. Dewey, 
Rochester, N. Y. 

Ohio Convention Reporter. Columbus, O. 

The Hub. Boston, Mass. 

Advertisers' Gazette. Geo. P. Rowell & Co., 
N. Y. 

Proceedings of the Illinois Press Associa- 
tion , at its Fourth and Fifth Annual Meetings . Ham- 
Sher & Mosser, Decatur. 

Prrmium List of the Fourth Annual Fair of 
THE Nebraska State Agricultural Society. 

BowDOiN Scientific Review. Brunswick, Me. 

Masonic Trowel. Springfield, His. 

European Mail.— London, Eng. 

Land and Water. London, England. 

Nature. London, England. 

Transactions of the Chicago Academy of 
Sciences. Vol. I., part 2. 

The Southern Agriculturist. Published by 
Thomas J. Key. Louisville, Ey. 

Outlines of Bee Culture. Second edition, with 
additions and illustrations. By D. L. Adair. 

Annual Report of the Regent of the Illinois 
Industrial University, 

Forsyth Banner. Forsyth, Mo. 

Phylloxera Vastatbix. Par le Dr. V. Signoret. 

Memorial of Herman Ten Eyck Fostbr; of 
Ben J. P. Johnson, and Rational and Irrational 
Treatment of Animals . Three pamphlets lh>m the 
New York State Agricultural Society. 



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iuMcta ftmnd n any particnUu- locality are of capedal interviC, a« throwinir 
light upon the Keographical dktribuUon of ■peciea. But to malie them or 



ANSWERS TO OORKESPONDENTS. 



Notice.— Such of ova eorreipondnits at haye already Mot, or mav here- 
alter iCDd, nnall collectiona of InMct* to be named, will please to inftniB n» 
if any of the nxciee tent are from other States than their own* Lieta of 
. — dinai 

rnl yaJue, it ii"requls}to ^t~we know fw eatalB whetiier or not all the 
iniecta in any part^lar list come ftom that particular locality* and if not, 
flvm what locality they do come. 

We have lately received seyeral small collections of Insects to be named, 
and haye, so flu- as our time would allow, answeivd by letter, because a loi^ 
■trinff of names is dry and uninteresting to the general reader. It requires 
much time to conscientiously name the many lots of inaects that reach us, 
and hereafter we can take no notice of them, unless they are properly 
mounted on entomological pins, and the locality given in which their were 
found. At least two specimens o( each speoiesshoald be sent when it IS pos- 
sible to do so, and each species should be separately numbered. When there 



•re but few, we shall answer as heretofore fn the columns of the ExTOliuL- 
ooiST, but when there are many we shall answer by malL 

Tarantula of Texaa— Z. J. Stroop, WaxdhaehUy 
Ellis Co., Texas. ^Xou ask whether the outline of the 
cephalothorax Is correct, and the ocelli properly placed, 
in the figure of the Tarantula {MygdU HerUtii, Gir.), 
which we published on page 111 of our first volume; 
and you state that, If the figure is correct, there must 
be two species, as the one occurring in your locality 
differs from the figure, especially in having the ocelli 
arranged aiound a small circular disk, op sessile style. 
We do not think there are two distinct species, for our 
figure, which was borrowed from the American KaturaU 
ist, is not very correct in these points; and three Mis- 
souri specimens which we have in our cabinet, all agree 
with your description. 

Insects of Colorado— JT. W, J7., Ann Arbor , Mich, 
—Descriptions of the Beetles of Colorado have been 
given by Dr. Jno. L. LeConte, in the Proceedings of the 
i*hiladelphia Academy of Natural Science. 

AUantlius 8Uk-worm Naturalised— '< MUCH 

ADO ABOUT Nothing "— ^. S. Fuller, Ridgewood, N. J. 
—The cocoons found on Ailanthus in Brooklyn, the 
worms of which were very numerous last season, so that 
the "Tree of Heaven," though long exempt^ has at last 
become the food of worms, are actually those of the 
Ailanthus Silk-worm {Aitacue cynihia, HtLbn.) It was 
introduced into this country in 1861, and has been iUlly 
experimented with since then. Dr. Morris of Balti- 
more published elaborate papers on the culture of this 
worm in the Patent Office Reports foi; 1861-2, and five 
years ago we made extensive experiments with it, and 
then and there stated our belief that its cocoon was of 
no more value than that of some of our native sUk- 
worms.* The Ailanthus worm has since become wild, 
and is rapidly increasing around the cities of Baltimore 
Philadelphia, Chicago, and, as it now appears, around 
Brooklyn. And yet a certain Prof. J. Q. A. Warren, 
who seems to have a sort of seri-mania, is now traveling 
over the country, and delivering, with an appearance of 
originality, to the scientific academies of our principal 
cities, the same lecture which he delivered, some time 
since, before your Farmers' Institute Club— totally ignor- 
ing what has been done in past years, and soliciting gov- 
ernment aid in the introduction of this worm . If this 
should meet the Professor's eye, he will know that the 
Ailanthus worm takes kindly to our climate without 
legislative aid. We would also suggest to him that 
he had better first post himself as to what has been done 
abroad by such men as Gu^rin M^neville, and would 
ask him whether he thinks it worth while to preach so 
loudly, after the French have tested this insect so 
thoroughly without any good result ? 

/roiris /knasr, AprQ ISlh, )S8S. 




,CjpreMi-ffaU— «r. P. 5., Savatmdh, 7«i».— The gall 
[Fig. l."^.] which occurs on the 

stems of the Cypren 
tree, so abundant in 
your swamps, is pro- 
duced by a little gall- 
gnat {Ceeidom]fia)f and 
as the gall is undescrib- 
ed, we represent it at 
Figure 153, a giving the 
more common form; h 
a section; c a more ex- 
ceptional form, and d 
the magnified head, 
showing breast-bone of 
larva. From its resem- 
blance to a miniatore 
pine-apple, it may be 
called the Pine-apple 
Cypress-gall, and we 
subjoin the following 
description of it and its architect: 

Gall (CW«m ananaesa, N. Sp.) — Growing on the 
stems of the Cypress tree {C, thyoides), A pale 
brown gall, sparingly covered with a pruinescence, 
averaging over half an inch in length, with numer- 
ous transverse, knife-edged elevations, and in form 
and general appearance recalling a pine-apple; some 
specimens are smaller, more spherical, and recall 
the appearance of an Early Rose potato. Evidently 
an enlargement of the stem, the elevations correHpond- 
ing to the leaf-scars. A transverse section shows the 
woodv part of the stem through the axis of the gall, and 
around It are arranged from three to eight larvae, lying 
in the spongy mass which forms the interior of the gall, 
and whichnas the exact golden-brown eolor, and very 
much the appearance of spunk. 

Cbcidomyia C. Ananassa, N. Sp.— Zam»— 0.07 
long; deep orange, with a rather distinct lateral ridge, 
ana with the breast-bone clove-shaped, and very dark 
brown— almost black. 
Pupa— VnVjioyfn, 

Pupal t»/«^m«n<—Non -characteristic; silvery -white, 
with antennas slightly brown; remains attached to out- 
side of gall. 

Jfnago—2 0.05-0.06 inch long, exclusive of ovipositor, 
which, when fully extended, is as long as abdomen, c^ 
0.04-0.05 inch long. Color bright blood-red. Antenna; 
brown, the two basal joints pale red; those of $ U- 
jointed, with joints 1 and 2 twice as stout, but together 
only as long as 3; 3-14 very graduall;jr less and less, each 
twice as long as wide, slightly constncted in middle, with 
short whorfi and short pedicel; joint 14 with a terminal 
bud : those of (^ also 14-joiuted, with joints more con- 
stricted, whorls, which are rather longer than diameter 
of joint, somewhat more conspicuous, and pedicels 
longer. Head above and at sides black, with jetrblack 
eyes. Thorax dusky superiorly , pale red laterally and 
beneath. Abdomen bright blood-red, verging to scar- 
let . Legs dusky, with basal half of thighs anothochan- 
ters paler. Wings smoky. The whole body and legs with 
numerous hairs, and the wine-lrinee long. Bred manv 
specimens which commenced issuing April 25th, and 
are still (May 15, '70) issuing, while some galls yet con- 
tain larva). Described from 3 cJ 8 $. Easily recog- 
nized by its small size and bright red body, iii contrast 
with the black head and dusky thorax above— the red 
color being retained even in the drieil specimens. 

Insects 'SwLMMked—Chas. S. Davis, Decatur, llh»— 
Your insects are : No. 1, pupa of Arctia virginica; No. 
2, Dried larva skin, containing a 4-winged parasite 
which we have often bred and which belongs to the 
genus Rogas, but is undescribed; No. 3, Arkopalut 
rohinuB, Forster; No. 4, Lachnostema guereina, Knoch; 
No. 6, Euryomia inda, Linn.; No. 6, Elaphrus ruscariut, 
Say. 



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TeBt*cmierplllar of Ute Tmr^mt^A. M. Brown, 
VtUa Bidg€, UU, — The worms which have Infested your 
plum, apple, and several forest trees, are the above 
named insect ( ClUioeampa $ylvaHea , Harris) . It hatches 
at about the same time of year as does the common 
Orchard Tent-caterpillar (C/. americana), matures at the 
same time, and spins a cocoon almost identically similar; 
but besides the difference in the markings mentioned 
on page 208 of our first volume, it diflers ft-om the other 
species in the following essential points : It is a more 
indiscriminate feeder, attacking alike many forest as 
well as orchard trees, and is more apt to become exces- 
sively numerous in certain years, and to swarm like the 
Army-worm, wherefore it has been erroneously called 
THE Army-worm in some parts of New York. It spins 
a much less conspicuous web (sometimes fastened to 
the limbs so closely that it U not readily perceptible) 
and congregates on the outside of it, especially at the 
different moulting periods, when large companies may 
often be found huddled together, and easily destroyed. 
It loses its gregarious habit much earlier, or when about 
half grown, and travels rapidly from place to place in 
search of proper shelter to spin its cocoon. Its egg mans 
is of a uniform thickness, and -is docked off squarely at 
each end. 

John H, Evantj Dt% Arc, ^rl.— The worms which are 
scattered all over your part of the country, and which 
completely stripped the over-cup timber in the over- 
flowed bottoms, both last year and this, are the same 
Forest Caterpillars mentioned above. As they have 
been very numerous this season, we have concluded to 
publiah a more full account of them in our next issue. 
Your informant, in stating that this worm also devours 
the Cotton plant, must, we think, have confounded it 
with the Cotton -worm (Anomis xylina, Say). 

Worm boring into Peacli— W, C. Flaggy Alton, 
Ills, — The pale green worm, with cream-colored specks, 
and a broad cream-colored lateral band, and which you 
found inside a peach, produces an undescribed moth, 
of an ash-gray color, belonging to the genus Xylina, 
We have for several years been acquainted >vith this 
worm, and have found it in apples, peaches, ouk-galls, 
on hickory leaves, and on oHkt forest trees. It has 
never done much damage lo fruit. We shall shortly 
figure the moth. 

A C. ffammondf Warsaw, lUt. — The worm boring 
into your apples is the same as that mentioned above. 

JT. M, Eooion, Centraiia, Jlh,— You will also recognize 
him as the gentleman boring into your peaches. 

Insects Ifamed— ^. Engelman, ShtloJi, Ills.— The 
two tree- hoppers which you found together on one of 
your vines, are not of the same species. The golden- 
green species with the back comprcj<j*ed, thin-edged, 
rounded, high and arched anteriorily, like the edge of 
a shoe-knife, may be known as the Golden-green Vine 
Hopper {Smilia aurtculatay Fitch). The brown species 
with a camel-like hump on his back is the Menibracit 
ampdopsidu of Harris. Both species are common on 
grape-vines. The rough beetle is $ Trosc punctatw, 

Lice on ^'Sno^vr-balla'' — Mrs. 0. L. Seymow, 
Chicago, Ills. — Give your shrubs frequent syringings of 
tobacco-water, or of a weak solution of cresylic soap, 
etpedally when the lice first appear. 



iMsects Nantea— 7. P., St. Louis.— Your insects 
are: Nos. 1 and 2, Zeucania vnipuncta. Haw. No. 8, 
Geonuter, unknown. No. 4, Dssmia maculalis. West. 
No. 6, Phaeellura hyaUnitalis, Linn. No. 6, Plusia sim- 
plex, Guenee. No. 7, Pamphtla oUeus,* Linn. No. 8, 

Depressaria ? No. 9, PamphUa phyleus, Boisd. 

et Lee. No. 10, Aspila suhflexa, Guen.* No. 11, Pa*- 
salus comutus. No. 12, Argynnis eolumbina, CJodt No* 
18, Cycocephdla immaadata, Oliv. No. U, PeUdnata 
punctata, Linn. No. 15, Qlocopis semidiaphara, Harr. 
No. 16, Horinus IcBvis, Oliv. No. 17, Catocala amatrix. 
No. 18, Phyllophaga quercina, Knoch. No. 19, Oueujvs 
davipes, Oliv. Nos. 20 and 21, Clytus scuttUaris, Oliv. 
No. 22, Harpahis caliginosus, Fabr. No. 28, Paphia 
glyeerium, (^. No. 24, Acridium amerieunum, Drury. 
No. 25, Priononyx Thomx, Fabr. No. 2«, Orapta in- 
tstrogaiionis, Fabr. We should like duplicate speci- 
mens of those marked >vith a *. 

Twif Borer- S, IL Kritd^Xbaugh, M, /).— The in- 
sects which were boring into your grape cuttings, and 



[Fig. 154] 




Fig 6y ' //e5. 
Ck>lor— Brown. 



which entered at the axil of a bud, 
are the common Twig -borer (J?o#- 
trichys hieaiidatus, Say), repeatedly 
referred to in back numbers under 
this name. We repeat the annexed 
cut (Fig. 154), 5 giving a side view of 
(^, and 6 a back view of $ . We found 

a (^ and $ in each of the cuttings you sent. 

G. F. Merriam, Topehi, Kansas. —Your insect boring 

grape canes is the same Twig-borer. It is an old enemy. 

PreserTiny and JHoantinf Beetles— ^. C. B., 

Laiorsnce, iTa/wff*.— Ikctles to be sent away can be well 
kept in alcohol. Entomological pins can be obtained in 
Philadelphia, as per advertisement on our cover. Be 
sure and order the Klaeger pin, made in Berlin; else 
they will send you a worthless pin of American make, 
which in quality, strength and finish is as inferior to the 
genuiDC Prussian article as a squash is to a pine-apple 
in flavor. 

Bee Smeiiiir— /'. Brewer, WaynestdUy Mo. — The in- 
sect which you sent and which you caught with a bee, 
is not the same bee-enemy which you sent la^t fall, and 
which we referred to on page 50. That which you 
now send is the Spotted Rove-beetle {Stap/tilinus maew 
lostts, Grv.), an insect of scavenger habits, and which 
would be more likely to devour a dead than a living 
bee. 

Orange Baepberry Bast — Isidor Bush, BusKberg, 
ifo.— The bright orange rust wjiich is entirely covering 
the underside of the leaves of many of your raspberry 
bushes, is the Orange Raspberry Bust {Uredo ruborum). 
Knowing that you have the back numbers of our maga- 
zine, we refer you to what was said about this Aingus 
on page 288 of our first volume. There is no other 
available remedy than the complete destruction, root 
and branch, of every injected plant, and unless this 
remedy be unhesitatingly an^ thoroughly applied, you 
may expect in a few years to lose yoiu* whole raspberry 
plantation. Several other subscribers have lately sent 
to us this same lungus, which seems to be on the 
increase. This answer will suffice for all. 

Boir to Kill Insect*-- FK. M, Grant, Datenport, 
Iowa,— You will find the information you want on page 
190 of our last number. 



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Knots on Apple-tree roots, caused hy R*ot« 
lice— ^. N, McKingtry, East Sumner, Jlli.— The knots 
on the roots of your one-year old apple root grafts are 
undoubtedly the effect of root-lice punctures. The 
fact that tliey occur only on those grafts which you 
bought, and not on those which you yourself grafted, 
would indicate that the graft^s wore infested in the nur- 
sery from which they caine. These knots, as well as 
the roots upon which they occur, will eventually rot, 
and most of the grafts— not all— will die. There were 
no lice on those you sent, but if lice still exist in your 
nursery rows, their presence will be made manifest by 
the bluish-white down which they secrete. Either root 
up such infested grafts and destroy them, or try and 
save them by removing the earth and applying hot- 
water. In a recent article, the Horticultural Editor of 
the Prairie Farmer (P. F. May 7, '70), states that hot- 
water cannot possibly be of any practical use, but this 
statement, like one or two other;* in the name article, 
is made without sufficient deliberation. It will hold 
good In reference to large, deep-rooted trees, but we 
know, from experiment, that hot-water Is the best 
remedy that can be used against these lice in the nur- 
sery, where the greatest damage is really done. Be 
cautious next time, and inspect your grafts before 
planting. 

Beetles Named— fT. W, Danielle, Madiean, Wis. — 
The smaller beetle which you send Is the common Twig- 
borer {JSoetrichus hicaudatue). The large gray snout- 
beetle found eating the apple leaves off just at their base, 
is the New York Weevil {Ithycerus novixboraeeneie, A. E., 
Vol. I, Fig. 157). The Missouri Reports are sent postage 
free for the price advertised on p«ige 170 of the present 
volume. 



Ba^-ivorni — M, M, HoUen, Ceniralia, llh, — The 
worms which you found on your peach trees, and which 
'* carry their houses on their backs and stand on their 
heads,'' are the young lan'ae of the common Bag- worm 
{Thyridopteryx ephemtrceformie , see p. 85). As they grow 
older they will let their houses hang down. 

Tlie E.arder Beetle— i>r. S, H, Kriedelbaugh, Wis. 
—The brown hairy larvstj which taper from head to 
tail, and which are furnished with two short, curved, 
homy spines on top of the last joint, are the lan'S) of the 
common Larder Beetle, also otten called the Bacon 
Beetle {Dermestes lardarius). We never knew them to 
occur before in bee hives; but, as they feed on feathers, 
horn, hoofs, and other sucli (to us) indigestible sub- 
stances, it is not surprising that they also relish wax. 
Those you sent fed ravenously upon it; and, after 
changing their coats several times, became beetles. The 
beetle measures about 0.30 incli in length, and is dark 
brown, with a characteristic pale yellowish-brown band 
containing six black dots across the upper half of the 
wing-covers. 

Water Bu^— Wm. H. Harrington, Clinton, Iowa. — 
The long-bodied, brown water insect, with two long 
but stiff tail appendages, ^d with the front pair of legs 
somewhat resembling the front arms of the Rear-horse 
{Mantis), is the Dusky Ranatra {Ranatra fusca. Beau v.) 
It is tolerably common, and dashes with rapid and 
sudden jerks over the surface of the water. 

Katydid Eggm-^ason Owen, MJehart City, JUs, — 
The eggs you send are those of the Oblong-winged 
Katydid. (See A- E., I, Fig. 120.) 




Grey arious UTorins on Borse diestnut — Wm. 

Ji. Howard, Forsyth, Jfo.— The worms on Horse Chest- 
nut are, as you suggest, the larvae of Tortrix EHeyana^ 
figured and de8crH>ed in your First Entomological Re- 
port. The eggs are deposited on the leaves. Yes, it 
has a parasite, for we have bred an undescribed spcciew 
of Microdus trom it 

CFig. 155.] Papa of tlie Dlsippus Butterfflr— 
?^^ Tyra Montgomery f Maitoon, Ills,— The curi- 
ous brown and cream-colored pupa (Fig. 
155), with a strange knife-edged projection 
that is often likened to a Roman nose, is 
the pupa of the Dislppus Butterfly (Limeni- 
tie disippus, Godt.) The butterfly Is rep- 
resented at Figure 133 of our. first volume, 
and Is a tolerably common species. The 
larva feeds on willow and cottonwood, and 
h passes the winter in a snug little retreat 
fonnod by part of a leaf. 

Prickljr Rose Gall— «/. Cochrane, Havana, His. — 
The round prickly protuberances found on a wild rose, 
are galls made by a four-winged fly belonging to the 
genus Rhodites, and first described by Harris under the 
specific name of hicolor. 

J. P, S,, Tenn,—^The green prickly galls with a beau- 
tlftil rosy tint, found so common on one of your wild 
dwarf roses, are the same as that mentioned above . 

Insects feeding on Sap of Black TFalnnt— 
Dr, M. Barrett, Waultshoy TFw.— Ves, the flies you send 
belong to the genus Psocas, and are the common venosttB 
ot Burmeister. 

liocnst Borer—'* Arhor,^ ' Columbia, Mo.— -The borer 
you refer to is undoubtedly the common Locust Borer 
{Arhopalus rohinice). To prevent its attacks apply soil 
soap to the trunks of your young trees every sununer 
about the first of August. 

To Exterminate Coduroaches— i?. F, Weitbree, 
Birmingham, OAto.— Use pulverised borax, and sprinkle 
freely in their haunts. It is harmless to the higher 
animals . 



TAKE NOTICE. 



All Ictten, desiring infbimfttlon rofpecdng noxious or other insects, should 
bo Aooompuiied by specimens, the more in nmnber the better. Such q»eci- 
mens should always be packed along with a little cotton, wool, or some aw^ 
substance, in any little paste-board box that is of conrenient sise, tmd ns9 €t 
en c loted loote in tk$ Ituer. Botanists like their specimens pres se d as flat as a 
pancake, but entomologista do not. Whenerer possible, larvss (L e. grabs 
caterpillars, maggots, etc.) should be packed alire. in some Ught tin 
box— Che tighter the bettei^-along with a supply of their ^propriate fbod 
sufficient to last them on their Joura^ ; otherwise they generally die on tlie 
road and shrirel up to nothing. Along with the specimens send as iUI an 
account as possible of Uie habits of the insect, respecting which you desire 
information ; fbr example, wliat plant or plants it infbsts ; whether it dcstK^a 
the leayes, the buds, the twigs, or the stem; how long it has been known to 
yon ; what amount of damage it has done, etc. Such particulars are often 
not only of hif^i Mdenttflc interest, but of great practical importance. 

i|^>Our readers will confbr an especial favor by addressing all lottos of a 
business character to the publishers, as the editor has no time to attend to 
such letters. 

DBAUaHTBMAN TRTANTED. 

We cau give employraent to a good Draughtsman, and especi- 
ally to one -wlio has a taste for the studv of Entonio1o|nr, and Is 
dCE'lrous of ImproTiug his knowledge in this department of 
Natural Science. None but those who have had practice in 
drawing minute objects need apply. For particulars and terms 
address tlie editor of this department. 

Wanted..- We are desirous of obtaining living larva; of 
Attacus luna and promethea. Can any of onr entomological 
friends furnish them? 



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§0tanual Jjepttmjenl. 



Vk. (JEOKGE YASEY, Editor, Richview, Ills. 

THE LEAP AS A WORKER. 

BY DR. J. ▲. SBWALL, NORMAL, ILLS. 

AV^e boast of our rich soil, of our magnificent 
forests, of our monster crops, of our vast deposits 
of coal that energizes machinery in a thousand 
ways, but where is the worker that made for us 
this deep, rich alluvium— thesd vast crops of corn 
and wheat — that covered the plain with the lux- 
ui-iaut gmss and beauteous flowers — tliat builds 
up the gi-eat forests — that made tlie inexhausti- 
ble coal beds? AVhere is the maker of all these? 
Can the chemist deteiinine ? Can tlie philosopher 
tell us what, and when, and how? Uave these 
pi-ivileged inteiTogators of natm*e seen and 
knawn? We have aU seen ; we may all know. 

The gi'een leaf is the laborer, the worker. And 
looking out upon the face, of the broad earth, 
there is not a ti-ee or shnib, from the gigantic 
cedars of California to the most delicate moss 
cup, but has been built up by tliis gi'cen leaf. 
Away down the ages, anticipating man*s wants, 
it has built up, and stored away in the caverns 
of the earih, the coal that cheei's our homes — that 
urges the steamship tlux)ugh the storm and wave 
— that drives our locomotives witli feaiiul speed 
over the continent — that energizes machineiy in 
a thousand fonns, and for a thousand ends, in 
our great manufactories. More than this, tlie 
whole animal creation depends for its existence, 
directly or indirectly, upon this apparently feeble 
instrument — this IVagile agent. Utterly destroy 
the whole human i*ace — let it be annihilated tVom 
the face of the caith — and the course of nature 
need not necessarily be i*adically changed — a 
little readjustment, a little reconstruction, would 
be all that is necessary. 

But strip from the tree and shrub and herb 
the leaf (the trees and shnibs themselves may be 
left untouched), and the whole organic world 
would be utterly, completely destroyed. No 
beast would walk the plain or roam the forest — 
no bird float in the air— no fish would people the 
ocean, or lake or stream — no insect hum — no 
verdui'e bloom. The .streams even would be 
dried up, and the broad eai-th's face would be 
one vast desert. The organic would die, and 
naught be left but the dead, pulseless, inorganic 
world — even as it was myriads of ages ago, at 
the evening of the second day. 

Verily the green leaf is the Alma Mater of the 
organic world. 



The leaf supplies us with food, with material 
for covering (you know our first parents made 
a short shitl to accomplish this), and it pumps 
up the water IVom the earth and sends it down 
the mountain sides in cooling streams, and wa- 
ters tlie broad plain, and gives drink to the 
thirsty. It fbmishes us with the very air we 
breathe. 

How passing strangeJ The locomotive, that 
mighty beast, with nerves of steel and sinews of 
brass, plunging through the forest, thundering 
over the plain, with a rush and roar, while the 
leaf sways and trembles at its appreach, though 
it made, wi'ought out, the very fuel that gives it 
power. The rain that falls in plenteous showers, 
refresliing the earth and gladdening the hus- 
bandman, was drawn up fix)m the nether earth, 
and sent out into the ethereal medium, in parti- 
cles so small, that the eye could not see them-.- 
so subtle that even gi*avity could not seize on 
and hold them. The food we eat, whether aid- 
mal or vegetable, tlie leaf has elaborated tor 
us, and, our dress, whether it be of cotton or. 
wool, or the skins of beasts, the leaf has woven 
for us. The air we breathe was prepared for us 
by this little leaf. But these are only assertions. 
Tell us how the leaf works. 

Let us, tlien, consider the leaf as a worker. 
Let us learn what it does, and how it does it. 
In the first place, let us ftilly undei'stand what 
we mean by worker— or let us agi'ee as to the 
definition of the term. To illustrate, we say of 
the locomotive, that it performs a cei*tain amount 
of labor, it turns ho many wheels, drives so many 
looms, draws so many cars so many miles an 
hour — we speak of it as a worker. So, too, of 
man — we speak of him as a worker. He per- 
forms so much labor, physical or mental. Yet 
the locomotive, with all it^^ ponderous bars, its 
mysterious valves, its gi'eat levers, its hidden 
springs, can do nothing. It is dead, inert metal. 
Ti-ue, too, of man— that wonderful combination 
of bones and muscles and nerves and tissues — 
can do nothing— but decay, and be I'esolved to 
dust again. The brain cannot tlnnk, the eye 
camiot see, the ear cannot hear, the neiTes can- 
not thrill, the muscle cannot contract. 

In the same senae the leaf can do nothing. Yet 
in the same sense, that a locomotive can draw a 
ti*ain, or that miui can think, and labor, is the 
leaf a laborer that outworks them all. The loco- 
motive is a combination of material things so 
aiTanged that tlirough or by them, we discover 
the operations of force. Man himself is iio^iing 
more. The leaf is the same. Better, perhaps, 
that we say that these are the workshop, wherein 
force exhibits itself, and produces results. AVhen 



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did the leaf be^n its work? It was the^r*^ to 
rise oil creation's mom and go forth to labor. 
Ere the almost shoi-eless ocean dashed upon the 
low Silurian plain, the leaf was at its work. 
And through all the long ages it has worked — 
worked to develop better and higher forais of 
life. And the earth's broad face is wiitten all 
over with the evidences of its faithfulness. 

Now, what does it d(^ It pumps water from 
the ground, through the thousands of tubes in 
the stem of the ti'ee (the tubes which itself has 
made) , and sends it into the atmosphere in the 
form of unseen mist, to be condensed and fall in 
showci's. The very water, that, were it not for 
the leaf, Avould §ink in the earth, and find its 
way perchance through subterranean channels 
to the sea. And thus it is that we see it works 
to give us the •^ early and the latter rain." It 
works to send the rills and streams, like lines 
of silver, adown the mountain and across the 
plain. It works to pour down the larger brooks 
which turn the wheel that energizes machinery 
— which gives employment to millionn. And 
thus a thousand wants are snpplied-^commerce 
stimulated —wealth accumulated — and intelli- 
gence disseminated through the agency of this 
wealtfi. The leaf does it all. 

It lias been demonstrated that every square 
inch of leaf lifts three five-hundredths of an 
ounce every twenty-four houi*s. Now, a large 
forest tree has about fivQ acres of foliage, or six 
million two hundred and seventy-two thousand 
six hundred and forty square inches. This 
being multiplied by three five-hundredths (the 
amount pumped by every inch) gives us the 
result — two thousand three hundred and fifty- 
two ounces, or one thousand one hundred and 
seventy-six quarts^ or two hundred and ninety- 
four gallons, or eight baiTels. A medium sized 
forest tree, about five barrels. The trees on an 
acre give eiglit hundred barrels in twenty-four 
^ houra. An acre of grass, or clover, or grain, 
would yield about the* same result. 

The leaf is a worker, too, in another field of 
labor, where we seldom look, where it exhibits 
its unselfishness — where it works for the good 
ot man in a most wonderful manner. It car- 
ries immense quantities of electricity from the 
earth to the clouds, and from the clouds to the 
earth. Rather dangerous business, transporting 
lightning, I think it would be considered con- 
traband by the " U. S.," or ^'Merchant's Union," 
or any common carriei-s : but it is particularly 
fitted* for this work. Did you ever see a leaf 
entire as to its edges? It is always pointed, 
and ihxiSQ points y whether they be large or small, 
are just fitted to handle this dangerous agent. 



These tiny fingers seize upon and carry it away 
with ease and wonderful dispatch. There must 
be no delay ; it is " time freight." True, some- 
times it gathers up more than the trunk can 
cany, and in the attempt to crowd and pack 
the baggage the trunk gets terribly shattered, 
and we say that lightning struck the tree. Bat 
it had been struck a thousand times before. 
This time it was overworked. 

As we rub a stick of sealing-wax or a glass 
tube with a waim silk handkerchief, so the wr 
is always rubbing over the face of the earth 
with greater or less rapidity. And what a huge 
electrical machine ! But be not afraid, the leaf 
will see that it is taken care of. As we guard 
our roofs from the destructive action of light- 
ning — dashing to the earth — crashing, rendiu?, 
burning on its way — ^by erecting the lightning 
rod, whose bristling points quietly drain the 
clouds, or failing to do this, receive the charge 
and bear it harmless to the earth — so God has 
made a living conductor in every pointed leaf, 
in every bla<ie of gi'ass. It is said that a com- 
mon blade of grasSf pointed by nature's exqui- 
site workmanship, is three times as eflectual as 
the finest cambric needle; and a single twig of 
leaves is far more efficient than the metallic 
l)oints of the best constructed rod. What, then, 
must be the agency of a single forest in disarm- 
ing the forces of the storm of their terror. 

Nature furnishes the lightning, and it fur- 
nishes the lightning rods. Take a hint, then, 
and plant trees. 



PRESEEVATION OP PORESI TREES. 

It should be an object with us to preserve, 
in our villages, towns and cities, specimens of 
the native forest trees. If those having the care 
of public grounds would give a little attention 
to this subject, much beauty and interest would 
be added to these places. Even the rows of 
trees along the streets of our towns and cities 
might be made to represent the ancient forest, 
now rapidly being defaced and swept away by 
the all-devouring axe. What lasting beauty 
and variety would thus be secured for those 
grounds and streets! A public square filled 
mostly with trees of any single species, is a 
beautiful object ; but how much more beautiful 
and interesting it would be if it contained sixty 
different trees, and an undergrowth of hand- 
some and ornamental shrubs. Such places 
would at once give character to the locality, 
and attract to it people of taste and refinement. 

J. A. Lapham. 



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THE OAKS. 

The genus Quercus, which embraces the Oaks, 
is very widely diffused over the countries of 
the Northern Hemisphere. Different countries 
vary much in the number of species which they 
produce. Thus, in the British islands, there 
are but two species ; one with sessile or stalkless 
acorns (Qtterctis sessilifloraf Salisb.), and the 
other with acorns on a stem or peduncle (Q. 
pedunctUmta, L.) Indeed, these two forms have 
by some botanists been considered as but varie- 
ties of one species (Quercus robur). 

The countries of Northern Europe are mainly 
limited to these two forms, but in France, Spain, 
and the Mediterranean States, several other 
species are introduced. New species occur 
again in Asia Minor, Koordistan, the Himal. 
ay as. Eastern Asia, and the Indian islands, so 
that some two hundred species have been de- 
scribed in different parts of the world. 

The North American Oaks are a very inter- 
esting group, and include a large number of 
species, each having a more or less extensive 
range. In the district east of the Rocky Moun- 
tains we have about twenty species ; new ones 
occur in Texas, Mexico and California. 

The different kinds of Oaks manifest a dispo- 
sition to hybridize quite freely, so that we fre- 
quently meet with intenmediate forms which 
are quite puzzling. 

We propose to give, in a series of articles, an 
account of the Oaks of this country, illustrated 
in most cases by such figures as may help our 
readers to a determination of the various kinds 
they may meet with. 

The principal chai*actei*s of the genus are 
mainly as follows: Trees or shrubs, with alter- 
nate leaves, and with sterile and fertile flowers 
separate; the sterile ones on slender, thread- 
like, drooping stems; the fertile ones small and 
inconspicuous, consisting of a three-celled ovary, 
enclosed by a scaly covering, which when en- 
larged becomes a kind of cup to contain the 
fruit or acorn. Although the ovary is at first 
three-celled, with two ovules in each cell, yet 
but one of the ovules is fertile, and that enlarges 
to fill the whole cavity. 

All our species of Oaks are divided into two 
sections, distinguished by the time occupied in 
the ftill development of the fruit, viz : first, those 
which mature the fruit in one season ; and sec- 
ond, those whose fruit is two years in acquiring 
maturity. The first section includes the White 
and Chestnut Oaks, also the Live Oak of the 
Southern Stat^. Of these the leaves usually 
have blunt lobes, and the acorns are sweet or 



sweetish, and some of them edible. In this 
section the acorns are produced on the new 
twigs, and are generally more or less stalked. 
In the second section the leaves are either entire, 
or lobed and bristle-pointed; the acorns are 
bitter, and are matured on the twigs of the last 
season, and below the new shoots. This sec- 
tion includes the Red and Black Oaks, the 
Spanish and Pin Oaks, and the Willow-leaved 
Oaks. 

We present in this number the White, Bur, 
and Post Oaks, belonging to the first section. 

[Fig. 106.] 




White Oak— (Qii#nni« tUba, L.) 

The White Oak is one of our largest and most 
valuable forest trees. It is found in almost all 
the wooded portions of the country, particular!} 
on uplands and bills. Its wood is compact, 
white, strong and durable. The bark of young 
trees is smooth and whitish, on old trees it is 
somewhat furrowed and roughened, but still of 
a light ash color. The leaves present consider- 
able diversity both in outline and in the number 
and depth of the side lobes. They are usually 
oblong, when mature five or six inches long, 
and more than half as wide ; with from three 
to six oblong, obtuse lobes on each side, the 
middle ones longest, the divisions extending 
sometimes half way, and sometimes nearly to 



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did tlie leaf begin its work? It was ihe first to 
rise on creation's morn and go forth to labor. 
Ei-e the almost shoreless ocean dashed upon the 
low Silurian plain, the leaf was at its work. 
And through all the long ages it has worked— 
worked to develop better and higher fonns 
life. And the earth's broad face is wiitt*^ 
over with the evidences of its faitlifulne 

Now, what does it Aoji It pumps t 
the ground, through the thousands 
the stem of the tree (the tubes wl 
made), and sends it into the atr 
form of unseen mist, to be conr* 
showers. Tl^w ry water, th .^ ; 
the leaf, would ^iiik in th' ''-^ 
way perchance through 
to the sea. And thus Y 
to give us the *^ early 
works to s^eud the 
of silver, adown * 
plain. It works 
which turn thr 
— which giv 
thus a thoii 
stimulate'* 
gence d' 
wealth 

It 
inc' 
or 
f 



These tiny '* 
with eas 



Moh long, and usually nearly 
flie cup, which is deep, and exter- 
^? ^'^ ^' -/I, with pointed scales, at the edge 
* rlong and loose to form a mossy fringe 



^.yong 
.>7rder 





Overcnp Oak— (Qtt«rjtt» JiMicrocarpa, 3iichx.) 

5ttr Oak, or Overcnp Oak, is mainly a 
' of the Mississippi valley, extending spar- 
^^^. into some of the Eastern States. It is a 
^^Zgre tree, of irregular shape, with long angular 
I'mbs, »o^ hBxk rather I'ougher and darker than 
jjie Wiite Oak. It is the principal tree of the 
oak openings of the "Western States, in which 
situations the wood is coarse grained and brittle ; 
but when growing in a dense forest the tree is 
0iore regular in shape, and the timber of a bet- 
ter quality. The leaves are obovate in outline, 
broad at the top, and narrow at the base, with 
three to five lobes on each side, the lower ones 
small, and the divisions reaching nearly to the 
midrib, the upper ones longer and broader. 
The under surface is white with a fine down, 
the upper surface glossy green. They are nar- 
row, wedge-shaped at the base, and with stalks 
an inch or more in length. The acorn is round- 



Post Oak— (Qu«rc«< obtutiloba, Michx.) 

The Post Oak is usually a much smaller tree 
than either of the preceding. It is not very 
common in the Northern States, but becomes 
abundant at the South. In Southern Illinois 
are large tracts of low, flat land, principally 
covered with this species, and hence called post 
oak fiats. Its wood is very compact and dur- 
able, and is highly valued for making fence 
posts. The leaves present considerable vaiia- 
tion, being generally obovate in outline with 
fewer and larger lobes than in either of the 
preceding species. The upper part of the leaf 
usually presents three large rounded lobes, be- 
low is a triangular portion running to a point 
at the base. They are thick and leathery when 
mature, and of a yellowishrgray color on the 
under side. Th© acorns are smaller than those 
of the White Oak, one-half to two-thirds of an 
inch long, and about half covered by the saucer- 
shaped smooth cup. 

• » • 

As THE influence of flowers is always refin- 
ing and ennobling, so the associations they bring 
are always the purest and sweetest. Who can 
imagine a person giving flowers to any but a 
friend? And did you ever know of a very bad 

Serson who loved and cultivated flowers?— 
frs. T. A. JS. Hblcomb. 



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THE HOP-TREE OR WAFER-ASH. 

iPieUa trifoUata, Z.) 

UV DB. E. M. HALX, CHICAGO. 

(FlK. 1C9,) 




Hop- tree or Wafer Ash (P/c/m trifoliata, L.) 

The Hop-tree ( JYe^ea trifoliata, L.) is a shrab 
or small tree of the natural order ButacecR, to 
which belongs also the Rue of the gardens, the 
Prickly-ash {Zanthoxylum Americanumy Mill) 
and the Southern Prickly-ash (Z. Carolinianum, 
Lam.) In some respects these last-named are 
medicinal as well as botanical analogiies of the 
Hop-ti'ee. The genus Ptelea has polygamous 
flowers, i, e., the perfect and imperfect flowers 
are variously mixed. They have four or flve 
stamens, and a thin, wing-like fruit, which is 
two-celled, but one cell only perfects seed. Its 
name, Ptelea, is the Greek for Mm, given be- 
cause of the resemblance of the wing-like or 
mmaroid fruit. Its six known species are all 
North American. Three are Mexican. One 
Southern species (P. mollis) is clothed with a 
silky pubescence. Another species, Ptelea Bald- 
winix, of East Florida, has minute leaves with 
obtuse leaflets. The remaining species, the sub- 
ject of our sketch, known in Britain as Shrubby 



Trefoil, is indigenous throughout the United 
States, from the East to beyond the Mississippi, 
and even to Texas, in moist shady places, and 
on the borders of woods and among rocks. It 
is a tall shrub, but under cultivation at Gordon 
Castle, Scotland, it had, in 1835,* reached the 
height of forty-five feet, with a trunk fifteen 
inches in diameter, and with branches extend- 
ing twenty-seven feet from side to side. Two 
varieties have been found — one with five leaflets 
(P. Pentaphylla, Moench), the other with the 
branches, petioles and under surface of the leaves 
clothed with a soft tomentose pubescence, even 
when old (P. pubescens, Ph.) It was originally 
sent to England by Bannister, but being lost 
was reintroduced by Catesby in 1724 from Car- 
olina. It is common in the gardens of Europe; 
and in the Jardin des Plants, at Paris, a tree 
may be seen the crown of which had in sixty 
years from planting attained a diameter of forty- 
five feet. 

The first mention of the Ptelea in the medical 
litei-ature of this country is found in Hafln- 
esque's Medical Botany. He observes that *Hhe 
leaves are vulnerary, used for poultices, and an 
anthelmintic." It is mentioned in Griffith's 
Medical Botany: **The native species, Ptelea 
trifoUata, is said to be anthelmintic, for which 
purpose the leaves and young shoots ai*e used 
in strong infusion. The fruit is aromatic and 
bitter, and is stated to be a good substitute for 
hops." In Howard's Botanic Medicine, 1836, 
it is described under the vulgar names of Cure- 
all, Ague-bark, Pickaway, Anise, and Wing- 
seed. It is in more or less repute by all the 
different medical schools for various medicinal 
virtues. It certainly is deserving of greater 
notice for cultivation than it receives in this 
country. 

ZANTHOXTLUM CliAVA-HERCUIJS. 

During the summer of '64, while a resident of 
the central part of the State of New York, my 
attention was called to a tree growing about 
flfleen miles south of Syracuse and two miles 
south of the place of the Cardiff Giant notoriety. 
The gentleman who pointed the tree out to me 
said he thought there was a tree I could not find 
a name for. The tree was standing in an open 
field, and looked stately and majestic at a dis- 
tance, having a symmetrical top, the trunk be- 
ing, I should judge, about eighteen inches 
in diameter, and free from limbs till it reached 
the height of twenty feet. The leaves were 
decompound, something like the Honey-locust, 
though much larger, many of them measuring 



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over two feet in length, one I measured being 
twenty-seven inches. The tree owed much 
of its beauty to the multitude of leaflets that 
made up a single leaf, as the branches, when 
stripped of, their foliage, had a rough club- 
shape, about as beautifnl as ^ome of our Sumacs 
under similar circumstances. I could not find 
any name in my botany, either scientific or 
common, that I was willing to call it, and all 
the name I could find by inquiiy among the 
inhabitants, was " The Tree." People who had 
lived there more than forty years knew as little 
as I did about it ; only that the tree had stood 
there fh>m their earliest recollection, and had 
changed but little during that time. Being 
different fh)m the rest of the forest trees, it had 
been left when the land was cleared, probably 
as a curiosity. I found upon inquiry that there 
was an old surgeon living at Pompey— a small 
place ten miles northeast— who could tell me 
about this wonderful tree. I wrote to him, 
and in reply he gave me not only the name of 
the tree but some other facts concerning it; 
however, I will give his description, using such 
parts of his letter as applies to this subject: 

"The tree you speak of on Mr. WinchePs 
farm I recollect, as it was a rare specimen which 
I did not expect this side of Mason and Dixon's 
line. This tree is the Zanthoxylum davorHer- 
ctUis, and it is a native of the West Indies, and 
, not of the United States ; it is also found on the 
coast of the Chesapeake Bay. The Zanthoxy- 
lum frcuxsineum is indigenous to the Northern 
and Middle States, and was considered by Lin- 
naeus as a variety of this species. A.bout forty 
years ago there was a tree of the same kind 
growing in this town (Pompey), which attracted 
much attention, and was visited by DeWitt 
Clinton, former Grovemor of this State. He 

Eronounced it the Zanthoxylum, and said he 
new of no other tree of the kind this side of 
Louisiana. The original tree was cut down, 
but a few sprouts have been preserved, and are 
considered beautiful shade trees. A medicine 
has been extracted from the bark called Zanr 
thoxylin, which is found useful in rheumatism, 
and in quickening the blood. It imparts its 
virtues to water by boiling, or to spirits. This 
tree is so rare I think it would be profitable to 
cultivate all you can. Jehibl Stearns." 

I wrote to Prof. "Wood upon the subject a short 
time afterward, but he seemed to be ignorant 
of any such tree, nor have I seen this species 
referred to by Gray. The only reason I could 
assign for its being so far north was that it had 
been brought there by the Indians in some of 
their migrations from the shores of the Chesa- 
peake, perhaps, and planted there for its medi- 
cinal properties. In substantiation of this view, 
there are abundant evidences that the ground 
where both these trees stand was used long 
before the plow of the whiteman touched its 



soil for an Indian camping ground, as Indian 
relics are found there in such abundance as to 
indicate that it was not the transitory lodge for 
a day or two, but an often frequented resort, if 
not a steady dwelling place. Again, the tree I 
observed, though not very large, is old. I counted 
the concentric rings of a limb less than an inch 
in diameter, and found that there were twenty- 
six yearly additions ; another, a little more than 
an inch through, lia<l over forty : so that if the 
body of the tree grew as slowly as the limbs, a 
hundi'ed years would make but very little change 
in its size. I find, then, in a specimen I have 
before me, there are eighteen wood circles in 
five-sixteenths of an inch. That climate does 
not seem to be natural for it, as I noticed the 
next spring that it did not leaf out till long 
after the other trees had spread their leaves to 
the sunshine. It seems to be somewhat accli- 
mated, however, for though late in putting forth 
its leaves, and also not maturing its young shoots 
always so but that they die near down to the 
beginning of that year's growth, yet it thrives 
and braves the winter winds and snows, slowly 
assimilating earth and air to its use during the 
more genial part of midsummer, when the cli- 
mate is nearer that of its native West Indies. 
Though it grows so slowly there, I am satisfied 
fix>m its appearance that it would be a tree of 
rapid growth where the climate is more favor- 
able. G. H. French. 
IRVIXGTON, Ills. 

[Note. — We invite attention to the subject of 
the above article. Zanthoxylutn fraxineumy 
referred to in Dr. Steam's letter, is a synonym 
for our American Prickly Ash {ZaTithoxylwm 
Americanum, Mill), which was also called by 
Linnaeus a variety of Zanthoxylum Clava-ffer- 
culis. The Angelica tree (Aralia sptnosa, L.), 
which grows in the Southern States (reaching 
also into Southern Illinois), is sometimes called 
Prickly Ash, and is found in cultivation under 
the name of Hercules' Club. I f dried specimens 
of the leaves of the tree in question could be 
sent to a well informed botanist, we do not doubt 
the species could soon be determined. — Ed.] 



A WORD or two, supposing we have flo wei-s ; 
In the genial spring time, after the close con- 
finement of winter, outdoor work is happiness. 
To hoe, to rake, to dig in the moist fragrant 
earth, seems to be what we shall always like to 
be doing. But it is not always spring. Plants 
are the most tyrannical of pets; they must be 
tended in season and out of season. Neglect 
is death ; or woi*se, deterioration. Better have 
only a grass plat, than a garden gone to waste. 
It makes one think of the garden of Eden after 
the fall. 



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[Fig. 1800 




The Prlokly Pear— One-half natural 

THE PRICKLY-PEAR FAMILY. 

Raflnesqtu^B opuntia {0, rafinetquii.) 

[From the Journal of Agriculture.] 

This family comprises a number ot genera of 
different habits and appearance. They ai*e 
mostly natives of sandy, arid soils, and are of a 
fleshy, succulent natui*e, destitute of ordinary 
leaves, having a skin or epidermis of such a 
nature that they part very reluctantly with any 
of their juices by exhalation, and hence are 
peculiarly fitted for growth upon our great 
Western plains, and especially on the more 
southern, almost rainless districts of Arizona 
and New Mexico. 

In the eastern part of , our countiy we have 
only one genus, Opuntiay and but very few 
species . The common Prickly Pear of the East- 
em States is Opuntia vulgaris^ Mill. In some 
of the Western States, we have also Raflnesque's 
Opuntia (Opuntia Baflnesquii^ £ngel.), and 
Opuntia Missouriensis, D. C. As we proceed 
westward and southward we find many new 
species, and several new genera. All travelers 
over the great Plains will remember the profu- 
sion of these plants in that region — so plentiful, 
indeed, as to seem to form the principal vegeta- 
tion. Many, too, will remember the grand and 
beautiful display sometimes seen, of miles in 



extent, covered with 
their large and hand- 
some yellow and red 
blossom^s. 

Dr. Engelmann, of 
St Louis, has carefblly 
studied our Cacti, and 
classified them in the 
following genera : 1, 
Mammilaria ; 2, Echi- 
nocactus ; 3, Cei'CM ; 
and 4, Opvntia, The 
last named genus is 
roost numerous, and 
comprises within our 
limits over twenty-five 
species. 

It is divided into 
two sections, viz: the 
broiad or flattened 
kinds, and those of a 
cylindrical form. Some 
of these, in Arizona 
and New Mexico, are 
woody and arbores- 
cent, giving a very 
peculiar appearance to 
those regions. 
The fVuit of many 
species is pulpy and edible, and in some regions 
is an important article of sustenance for the 
Indians who inhabit the country. The seed and 
pulp of others famish food for many small 
animals, and in the Rocky Mountains a species 
of rat, which makes its abode in the rocks, col- 
lects large piles of Prickly-pear and the spiny 
branches of Grease-wood, to barricade the en- 
trance to its nest. 

Our engraving gives a view of the Opuntia 
Baflnesquii, Engel., one of the handsomest of 
the genus. This is now introduced into cultiva- 
tion by some of our florists, among others, by 
Michel Bros., St. Louis. 



size. 



The love of flowers is such an acknowledged 
virtue that many claim it who do not possess 
it. It seems to me that a lady who only hii-es 
a sti-anger to cultivate and cut her flowers, and 
has no other use for them than the adornment 
of her house or her person, evinces more admir- 
ation for herself than for her flowers; and I 
cannot help questioning the genuineness of that 
affection, which permits the last novel to make 
one forget to water plants, or the delicacy of 
one's hands prevent cultivating them.— JWr*. T. 
A. E. Holcomb. 



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THE ROSE. 

The liose is preeminently the flower of the 
millione. History, romance and poetry would 
not be complete without the rose. Many flowere 
are more distinguished for paHicular features 
of interest, but none possess so many elements 
of attraction and interest as the rose. Beauty 
and fragrance are here conspicuously wedded 
together. Not only has Nature made the rose 
the type of one of the largest Orders of the 
Vegetable Kingdom; but, in some form, she 
has diffused it over almost every portion of the 
globe. Over two hundred distinct species are 
enumerated by botanists, and the varieties that 
have been produced by cultivation and hoi'ti- 
cultural skill are almost numberless. 

Although the rose is in all nations a public 
favorite, it is not so because it has ever been 
made to serve the primary wants of man for 
food or clothing. But as an agent in the ele- 
gancies and refliiemeuts of life, where has it an 
equal? Attar of roses, conserve of roses, vinegar 
of roses, honey of roses, and rose water, are 
various preparations known to commerce as so 
many embodiments of the delicious perfume of 
this universal favorite. 

The North Amei*ican species of this genus are 
few, perhaps not exceeding a dozen, and not 
more than half of these cast of the Mississippi 
river. The Praii-ie Rose (liotsa setigei^aj Michx.) , 
which grows wild in nearly all the Western and 
Southern States, is a vigorous grower and pro- 
lific bloomer, and by cultivation has given rise 
to several double-flowered and highly prized 
varieties. It is our only representative of the 
section with united and protruding styles. The 
Swamp Rose {Rosa Carolina, L.) is a large 
shrub growing in swampy ground, or on low, 
w^et margins of streams. It produces an abun- 
dance of large and showy flowers. Two other 
common indigenous species of wild rose, the 
Rosa bianda, Ait., and Rosa lucida, Erhr., are 
small shrubs of similar habit, and in some of 
their forms approach so near each other as to 
make it doubtful if they should not be reduced 
to a single species. 

But the wild, or natural, state of the rose is 
not that condition which is most commonly ad- 
mired. The double condition of the rose is what 
gives it value with the horticulturist, although, 
in the eye of the botanist, that is regarded as an 
abnormal condition. If we examine a wild rose, 
we shall see that it has but Ave petals, while its 
stamens are very numerous, often fifty or more. 
These stamens arise from the same part of the 
flower as the petals, i, e., from the calyx. Now, 



if we examine a double rose, we shall find that 
its petals have multiplied wonderfully, while 
the number of stamens has been greatly reduced, 
indeed in some instances there are hardly any 
discernible. Uow, then, has this change been 
effected ? In answeiing this question we must 
refer to the fact that all the partsV>f a flower are 
but modifications of the leaves. The beautifal 
petals are but delicate colored leaves, and the 
stamens are but contracted leaves, altered to 
adapt them to a particular purpose. If we com- 
pare a fully expanded petal with a stamen, we 
notice a great difference, both in shape and size, 
but by examining a double rose we shall find 
some stamens just a little enlarged, others a 
little more expanded, so as to present some re- 
semblance to a leaf or petal, and so on through 
all the stages of transition to perfect petals. 
Hence we find that, under the stimnlus of culti- 
vation, the stamens take on the leafy develop- 
ment, instead of contracting to their normal 
form. Occasionally we find roses which unfold 
to us still more clearly the structure of the floral 
organs, by a reversion of the pistils to the leafy 
state, so that the appearance is presented of one 
rose growing up through another. 

The subject of vegetable transfoimations is 
one possessing intense interest, and one which 
we shall have occasion to refer to again. 



DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE VEGETABLE DEVIELOP- 
MENT. 

Plants inhabiting temperate and northern 
latitudes in which the seasons do not admit of 
indefinite growth, complete their gix)wth and 
mature their seeds in longer or shoi-ter periods 
of time as their situation in respect to length of 
period of growth may require. This is espe- 
cially true of those species that perform their 
functions in a single process, as Maize in culti- 
vated plants, and the Oaks of the indigenous. 
This definite or indefinite character of species 
in development and growth enables the cultiva- 
tor 10 determine approximately the latitudes of 
their natural habitats, and to give them that 
special treatment they require to obtain the best 
results. Species with a definite growth, as Maize, 
suffer from loss of time by neglect of the culti- 
vator, or by the unflavorable conditions of season 
or situation, but species of indefinite growth, 
as Cotton, the Castor-bean, and plants of the 
Squash family (CucurhitacoB), can be subjected 
to loss of time with comparatively little detri- 
ment, except from loss for want of time at the 
end of the season. Cultivators having thj^se 
facts in view can more satisfactorily determine 



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the several treatments required for each species. 
Premature planting of the definite class, or the 
neglect of suitable conditions, or of proper early 
cultivation, or any treatment that gives them 
age without corresponding growth, invariably 
diminishes the product. The definite class of 
tropical species requiring a high temperature 
for their development soon acquire the habit of 
suiting themselves to their new conditions, and 
complete their vegetative processes throughout 
in a much shorter time than when in their na- 
tural habitats, as if not to be defeated, by those 
unfavorable conditions, of the object of their 
existence, viz., the production of seed — the 
ftinctions of growth are suspended in due time 
to allow for this to be accomplished, while the 
indefinite class go through the whole season 
maturing and producing vegetable growth as 
well as seed, and as the best results with this 
class are obtained by the longest time, the earli- 
est planting is most successful — age with tliis 
class is in nowise detrimental, rather profitable. 
The Squash family {Cucurbitacece) , Potato fam- 
ily (Solanacece) , Mallow family (Mdlvacecei), 
the Pea family, in part, and many other orders 
to some extent belong to this indefinite class. 
All the cereals, the Compositm, and also the 
great majority of other orders belong to the 
definite class. E. Hall. 



VEGETABLE CELLS. 

BY DR. FELIX SGHAAM, CHICAGO. 

PART II. 

The second part of the vegetable cell is the 
nitrogenous or primitive utricle (utriculus pri- 
mordialis) . It is a half solid delicate membrane 
of nitrogenous matter lining closely the interior 
of the cellulose membrane. 

[Fig. 161.] 




In all cells mentioned above I was unable to 
discover the existence of this membrane, and 



some days ago I wrote a note tending to de- 
monstrate that this membrane does not exist in 
fact. But being careful I discovered it in the 
hair which grows on the stem of Geranium. 
This hair has the shape of a pharos or light- 
house. It is composed of four cells, the infe- 
rior in connection with the epithilial cells is 
conical, having a large base, and diminishing 
until the half of the length of the hair where it 
is attached to the two other quadratic cells, also 
both conical in shape. On the top ot the third 
we find a larger spherical body which presents 
also the side wall of the cellulose membrane 
(Fig. 161, a^) and lay shrunken on one side. 
During this time the cytoblast was distinctly to 
be seen. 

I was not satisfied with that result because I 
could not distinguish the membrane isolated, 
and the retiring of the contents could be ex- 
plained as a folding of any nitrogenous sub- 
stance without any genuine coat. That doubt 
left me considering the following experiment 
with the spherical head-cell of the hair. 

The successive action of the sulphuric ether 
upon it gave place to a hole in the cellulose 
membrane, which here also grew successively 
larger by the retiring of the contents. (Fig. 
161, 6* 6'). I remarked in this case also the 
cytoblast more distinctly. I also observed a 
double contour on the retiring membrane, but 
the conviction that it was really a membrane 
was enforced by the partial isolation of the 
utriculus primordialis, which I performed by a 
rubbing pressure of the covering-glass. The 
design presented itself as a leak or crevice (Fig. 
161, g) in the cellular membrane, permitting the 
primitive utricle to escape in part, prolapse-like, 
showing its cytoblast clearly. Was that a mem- 
brane? 

The ether evaporated rapidly and formed a 
concave meniscus between the two glass-plates, 
like every fiuid wetting the glass. The power 
of this i*etiring meniscus can be calculated by 
stated physical laws, into which I will not here 
enter. I will only state that this power of the 
retiring concave meniscus of the evaporating 
ether was strong enough to bend the prolapsed 
primitive utricle over the inferior e^ge of the 
leak in the cellular membrane. (Fig. 161, h). 
By adding a drop of ether, the elasticity of the 
membrane equalized the bending again, and the 
prolapse took its prior shape. Was it a mem- 
brane? 

Acetic acid reabsorbed most of the contents. 
(Fig. 161, i) . This part of my study was troub- 
led by losing the object out of sight a moment, 
and when I found it again, the primitive utricle 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



had Fhrnnken at the inside corner of the oella- 
lose membrane. The prolapse was gone, and 
the edges of the leak conld be observed very 
fairly. It was a membrane, and this membrane 
was composed of nitrogenous snbstances, cor- 
roded by acetic acid ! 

PART III. 

The third part to consider is the contents of 
the vegetable cell. This content conducts us 
into a labyrinth, because every thing we win 
out of the plants can be searched in the contents 
of the cell. Proceeding with order we may 
find Ariadne's thread. 

We may divide the contents into starch, fat, 
crystals, chlorophyll, granular substances, gases ; 
or we may have nothing but the cytoblast or 
uacleos. 

1. Starch is so well known that I need not 
remind that it is colored by an aqueous solution 
of iodine, deeply blue, that it often has an amor- 
phous form, aa in the root of Valerian, or a 
form of granules, or that of roundish bodies (as 
in the Potato) in most of the grains, and that 
of compound granules in Sarsaparilla. (Fig. 
141.) 

2. Fat is found in many cells. It looks under 
the microscope like a white or colored round 
spot. The microscope alone gives not the con- 
viction of the fatty constitution of these globules. 
It is by dissolving the fiat in ether that we see it 
disappear, and after the evaporation of the ether 
we see the fat spots disseminated around the 
object-glass, often very distant from its primi- 
tive situation in the cell : a good object for this 
observation is the rind of an orange (Citrtis 
Aurantium, L.) A fine slice displays large cells 
filled with yellow round spots. Before adding 
the ether, I added acetic acid to resolve the 
nitrogenous matters which might surround the 
fat-drops. The ether is known to coagulate 
these matters, and so its access to the fat might 
be obstructed. By the addition of ether the 
fat^rops disappear quickly under the develop- 
ment of gas, whose globules show a rapid move- 
ment in anv direction. 



The Natural Order Leguminosa furnishes 
many of the most valuable vegetable products : 
peas, beans and lentils for food ; the Tonka bean 
and sweet clover for fi*agrance ; the Brazil wood 
logwood and indigo for coloring matter; the 
rosewood, locust, and other trees for valuable 
timber ; and a long list of medicinal substances, 
as liquorice, tamarinds, gum-kino, gum-catechu, 
gum-Arabic, gnm-tragacanth, balsam of Peru, 
balsam of Tolu, senna, &c. 



ANSWERS TO COKRBSPONDBNTS. 

Pois«noits Plant*.— We notice with pleunre that 
Botany has been wedded to EDtx>inology in yonr pnbti- 
cation, and beg your attention to Uie enclosed plants, 
which were received from the weatem borders of our 
State, with statement that a lamily had used them at« 
greens, and almost immediately sickened with 8yiup- 
toms of poison, two of them having died already. 

Geo. T. Anthony. 

LSAVmWOKB. KAHt. 

The specimens as they reached us were bo wilted and 
dried up as to be in a bad state for recognition. They 
represented two herbaceous plants*— one of them con- 
sisting of young and small specimens of Troximon aupi- 
eUUumj Pursh, a plant of the Natural Order Compoitta, 
having relationship in botanical characters to the Dan- 
delion, and sometimas called the Prairie Dandelion. It 
occurs sparingly in Northern Illinois, beconiiig more 
conunon in Iowa and westward. It lias a long thiek root 
with a milky juice, much like that of the Dandelion. 
We can hardly suppose that this plant Lb poisonous. 
We do not know that any American plants of this fiunily 
are strictly poisonous, though some of them are iciid, 
and would be too distigreeablc to be eaten in any quan- 
tity. The other plant we are not yet able to detennine. 
It has the appearance of some species of Artemesia, but 
there is not sufficient material lor identification. It 
has just started its growth, and consists of a small tuft, 
about three inohes high, oi rather wedge-shaped leaves, 
gashed near the top, and whitish wooly below. Let it 
be watched until it comes into flower, then it can be 
determined. If these arc the plants which caused the 
poisoning, the public welfere requires that they should 
be known so as to be avoided. 

Flamia to Name— Jfr. S, A. Forbes, jBenton JIU>— 
The plants you send are from one of the most interesting 
botanical regions of thlx country, f.«., Southern Illinois. 
A large number of plants arc found there whose native 
home seems to be much fluthcr South. These are 
mostly well dried and easily determined. No. 1 is the 
large flowered Synnndra {Synand^^ grandi/hra, Nutt), 
a handsome plant of the Mint family. No. 2 is the 
Lyre-leaved Sage {Salvia lyraia, L.), also a member of 
the Mint family. No. 3 is a Wild Cat-briar {SmiUe 
tamnoidet, L.) No. 4 is a species of Ground Phlox 
{Phlox hifiida, Beck.) No. 5 is Oholaria VirgitUeay L., 
without a common name, a small and delicate flower of 
the Oentian family. No. 6, is one of the Winter-berries 
{Hex decidua, Walt.), belonging to the same genus as 
the Holly. It is a shrub growing six or eight feet high, 
and in places where it is abundant the appearance of 
the bushes in the winter is very beautiful from the 
abundance of the bright red bci-ries. No. 7 is the low 
Blue-herrj ' {Vaeeinium vaeiUam, Sol.) No. 8 is the 
Farkle-berry of the South ( Faeeinium arhoreum, Mar- 
shall), which Im an evergreen bush growing on rocky 
hill sides. No. 9 is the Small-flowered Valerian ( FoZ^- 
rianapauei/loraf Michx.) No. 10 is the Narrow-leaved 
Fever- wort {TriotUum angutti/oUum, L.) considerably 
smaller than the conunon species, T. per/oliaium, L. 
No. 11 is the Buffalo-clover {Tnfolium r^fleantmj L.; No. 
12 is the Butterfly Pea {ClUoria Mariana, L.), a hand- 
some large-flowered plant of the Pea family, worthy of 
cultivation. No. 18 is the Water-locust {QUdiUchia 
monotperma, Walt.) No. 14 is the Cucumber-tree {Mag- 
nolia aeuminatay L.), a large and beautiful tree, which 
is hardy much fiarther north, and ought to be cultivated 
for shade and ornament. 



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THE 

A\i!l Em lJ0A\Ml 




VOL.2 



ST. LOUIS, MO., JULY AND AUGUST, 1870. 



NO. 9. 



CHARLES V. BILKY, Editor, 
SSI N. Main it., 8U l^uU, Mo. 



THE WHITE-LINED MORNING SPHINX. 

( iMiUphUa Hneata, Fabr.)"^ 




Colors — White, olive and rose. 

The very great diversity of form and habiti^ ta 
be found amongst the larva) of our butterflies 
aud moths, lias much to do with the interest 
which attaches to the study of these masked 
forms. We are moved to admiration and won- 
der as thoroughly to-day as in early boyhood, 
every time we contemplate that within each of 
these varied and fan- 
tastic caterpillars — these 
creeping and gi'oveling 
"worms" — is locked up 
the future butterfly, or 
moth, which is destined, 
fairy-like, to flit through 
tlie air on its gauzy wings, 
so totally unlike its fonner 
self. Verily the meta- 
morphoses of the lower 
animals must prove a 
never -failing source of 
joy and felicity to those who have learned to 
open the pages of the great Book of Nature ! 



But, beyond the general satisfaction experi- 
enced in studying these transient forms, there 
will be found ample food for the philosophic 
mind in the larval variations to be met wath in 
the same species. In other part^i of this present 
number we have instanced several curious varia- 
tions in larvae, caused by the character of their 
food-plant, and have also shown how some 
species (e. g, the common Yellow Bear) vary 
very much without regard to food- 
plant. Our Sphinx lai'vae, more par- 
ticularly, are subject to these variations, 
and it is for this reason that lai'val 
characters alone, unaccompanied by 
those of the peiiect insect, are of so 
little value in classification. 

The White-lined Morning Sphinx 
(Fig. 162) presents one of the most 
striking cases of larval variation, as 
may be seen by comparing the dark 
form of Figure 164 with the light form 
of Figure 163. In the summer of 186:1 
we took both these fonns on the same 
plant, and have repeatedly met with 
them since; but the moths bred from 
them sho\v no diflerences whatever. 

This beautiful moth is called by Hams tlu! 
White-Hned Morning Sphinx, though its generic 
name means '* Evening Friend.'' It is distin- 
guished principally by its roseate undcr-wings, 
and by a broad, pale band running from the 
apex to the base of the dark-olive front wings. 

[Fig. 163.1 




Color 



3— Green, crimson, oran^* and yellow. 

It is a tolerably common insect, and may quite 
frequently be seen at twilight, and even during 



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the day, hovering, luimming-bh'd-fashion, over 
verbenas and other flowers. The lai-va feeds 
upon purslane, tuniip, buckwheat, watennelon, 
and even apple leaves, upon any of which it may 
be found in the month of July. It descends into 
the ground and, within a smooth cavity, changes 
to a light brown chiysalis, from which the moth 
emerges during the month of September. 

The most common form of this laiTa is that 
given at Figure 163 ; its color is yellowish-green, 
with a prominent subdorsal row of elliptical 
spots, each spot consisting of two curved black 
lines, enclosing superiorly a bright crimson space, 
and inferiorly a pale yellow line — the whole row 
of spots connected by a pale yellow stripe, edged 
above with black. In some specimens these 
eye-like spots are disconnected, and the space 
between the black crescents is of a uniform 
cream-yellow. The breathing-holes are either 
sunx)unded with black, or with black edged with 
yellow. The other form is black, and character- 



[Fig. 16t ] 




Colore— Black, orange and yellow. 

ized chiefly by a yellow line along the back, and 
a series of pale yellow spots and darker yellow 
dots, as represented in our illustration (Fig. 164) . 
Even this dark form is subject to great variation, 
some specimens entirely lacking the line along 
the back, and having the spots of different shape. 
This insect has a wide range, as it occurs in 
the West Indies, Mexico and Canada, as well as 
throughout the United States. Feeding as it 
does principally on plants of but little value, and 
being very commonly attacked by tlic larva of a 
Tachina-fly, this insect has never become suffi- 
ciently common to be classed as injurious. 



DESCRIPTIVE ENTOMOLOGY. 

In a paper on the laiTal history of certain 
moths, from the pen of that earnest entomolo- 
gist, J. A. Lintner, of Albany, N. Y., the fol- 
lowing passage occurs: 

Every faithful student will welcome each con- 
tribution, however trivial, which shall hasten 
the day when of each insect the egg, the laiTa, 
the pupa, and the imago, or perfect form, shall 
all be known, described and 'figured, and the 
discovery of a new species, however mici-oscopi- 
cally minute it may be, shall be a triumph.* 

•Proc. Ent Soc. Phil., Ill, p. 645. 



This is a noble burst of entomological enthu- 
siasm ; but let us pause here for a moment and 
make a few calculations as to the probability of 
a consummation so devoutly to be wished ever 
being achieved. It is usually estimated that in 
the whole extent of this terrestrial globe, there 
exist about half a million distinct species of 
insects. We strongly incline to believe that, 
even if we double this number, we shall still be 
rather under than above the connect estimate. 
Nevertheless, to be on the i?ale side — for we 
always dislike to overstate a case — we will con- 
sider tlie customary estimate as a tolerably near 
approximation to the truth. Let us suppose 
now that Mr. Lintner's idea is about to be car- 
ried into practical effect, and let us ask ourselves 
the following three questions : 

1st. How much space upon our bookshelves 
will a work occupy, which describes and figures 
eveiy insect in the world in each of its four 
stages? 

2nd. How much time will 
it take to write such a work, 
and how much to execute 
the requisite drawings ? 

3rd. Wliat will be the cost, 
in dollars and cents, of pruit- 
ing, say 10,000 copies of such 
a work, and of executing 
tlie requisite colored draw- 
ings and colored engravings to illustrate half a 
million insects in their four distinct stages? 

Suppose we consider these three questions in 
the order in which they stand, numbering tlie 
answer to each, so as to correspond with the 
question itself. 

1st. It will be allowed by every one, who has 
had much experience in such matters, that the 
four stages of an average insect cannot be accu- 
rately and satisfactorily described in less than 
one octavo page of ordinary brevier or bourgeois 
type. "We should be inclined to double this 
estimate, but we are determined not to overstate 
the case. The illustrations of an insect in its 
four stages — considering that there are many 
insects so large in the perfect or winged state 
as to cover the whole surface of an octavo page, 
and considering further, that even such as are 
exceedingly small must be considerably magni- 
fied by the artist, in order that the dmwing may 
be worth anything at all— will certainly occupy 
one-fourth of an octavo page. Thus, as an aver- 
age insect will occupy 1 i octavo pages, it results 
that, to describe and illustrate 500 insects will 
require i^25 octavo pages, which is about the 
number of pages contained in one stout octavo 
volume. Moreover, it fuither follows, that to 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



259 



describe and iUusti-ate 500,000 insects will, of 
course, require just 1,000 times the space re- 
quired for 600, or 1,000 octavo volumes of 625 
pages each. Now, with paper of ordinary tliick- 
ness — weighing, say 50 pounds to the ream — 
such a volume when bound occupies just two 
inches of space on a book-shelf. Consequently, 
to hold 1,000 such volumes would require a length 
of shelving slightly exceeding IGO feet ; or sup- 
posing the shelves to be 1 inch tliick and allow- 
ing 11 inches space between each pair of shelves, 
the whole 1,000 volumes would just fill seven 
book-cases each 6 feet high and 4 feet wide. 
Truly, this w^ould be a snug little entomological 
work, altogether ahead of tlie Japanese novel 
which was commenced forty years ago, and after 
being continued yearly at the rate of three vol- 
umes per annum, has at length, in the year 1870, 
been brought to a prosperous conclusion by the 
simultaneous death of the heix), the heroine, and 
the autlior! 

2nd. Our own experience is that we cannot 
properly determine and describe any insect, in 
the winged state alone, at a more rapid rate than 
tlu-ee species per diem. We know very well that 
many of the published descrix)tion8 extant have 
been thrown off by authors — currente calamo— 
in half an hour or an hour; and we may find, in 
the Proceedings of one of our Natural History 
Societies located not 5,000 miles from the very 
" Hub of the Universe," descriptions that have 
been quite i-ecently published, and from wliich 
not one pereon in five hundred will recognize 
the insect described. What ai-e such descrip- 
tions worth? Nothing at all! They are often 
w^ritten with entire neglect of the preparatory 
states, variations, or habit8 of the insect, and 
instead of laboriously examining several dozen 
specimens of either sex, and noting down care- 
fully in the description every considerable varia- 
tion that occui*s in any one specimen of either 
sex, such authora often describe ft'om isolated 
specimens without mentioning the fact. In this 
way our synonomy is multiplied, and the author's 
work is often lost to the world, as it well de- 
serves to be, unless he is fortunate enough to 
leave behind him ticketed specimens of those 
insects he has himself described, so that subse- 
quent inquii-ers can recognize the insect intended, 
and give the world assurance of its identity. 
Instead of giving us the differences, whether 
sti-uctural or colorational, that on the most dili- 
gent search can be found to occm* in a certain 
number of individuals, whether of the male or 
female sex, that belong to the species, some 
authors in describing, are in the habit of coolly 
throwing aside all but one which they pick out 



and ai'e pleased to call the " typical" specimen; 
so that such a description merely gives the tWt- 
indual and not the species. And yet such bas- 
tard scribblings are every day foisted upon the 
scientific world — not by the neophite, in whom 
such a course might be pardonable, but by some 
entomologists of experience — and in the estima- 
tion of many a young student, he that can publish 
the gi'eatest quantity of such trash per annum, 
is the greatest entomologist of the day I Verily, 
X>osterity will be of a different opinion as to this 
matter; for, unless we are greatly mistaken, 
such descriptions will be confined to the same 
dusty immortality in which quietly repose, un- 
disturbed by the cuiious fingers of all genuine 
naturalists, the learned lucubrations of Kafin- 
esque, and of other authors of that stiipe. 

But let us return from this digression, wliich 
was somewhat necessary to prevent our being 
accused of ovci*8tating the case, and to relieve 
tlie tedium caused by so much diy calculation. 
We will assume, to be on the safe side, that it 
requires not the third part, but only the fourth 
part of a day, accurately to describe an average 
insect in its perfect or winged stage. We will 
make no exti-a allowance for the time expended 
in tracing the species through all its four stages, 
and making sure of the fact that we are not 
describing the egg of the bug A, the larva of the 
bug B, the pupa of the bug C, and the winged 
form of the bug D, as all belonging to the same 
species, which may bo either A, B, C or D. 
Surely, therefore, when we coiisider that to 
thoroughly investigate the history and figure 
the four stages of many beetles requires from 
one to six years, and of certain Cicadas from 
thirteen to seventeen years, we shall not be 
accused of exaggeration when we assert that it 
requires at least one entire day's hard work to 
describe any particulai* insect in all its four 
stages. On the contraiy, those who have had 
most experience, will best understand how very 
low this estimate must be. Now there are 
500,000 species to bo thus described. Conse- 
quently, upon the above assumption, it will 
require 500,(X)0 days to execute the work. Sup- 
pose we allow 300 days as the working year of 
a naturalist, which, though fewer than he may 
sometimes have to work, is surely driving him 
hard enough in all conscience. Then it follows 
that, for the manuscript alone of our little Cabi- 
net Encyclopoedia of Entomology, there wiU be 
required the labor of 1,666 years. Now let us 
talk about the illustrations that will be required. 
We have considerable personal experience in 
this matter, and we assert unhesitatingly that 
few artists can execute good colored di*awings 



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260 



THE AMERICAN 



of an average insect in its four stages in anything 
like a day's time. Indeed, in most cases, it takes 
much longer to make a good figure than to write 
out a good description, and, in our estimation, 
the person who makes a good and diagnostic 
figure of any of the transient preparatory states 
of an insect, is entitled to fully as much credit 
as the one who wiites out the description ; and 
we have always felt inclined to give West wood 
as much credit for Ids excellent out-line block- 
illustrations, as for the still more excellent text 
in his Introduction, But let us put the time 
I'equired for this purpose at one day, which 
makes the time devoted to the drawings exactly 
equal to the time devoted to the manuscript of 
our proposed Pocket Edition of the little World 
of Insects. Then it follows, on the assumption 
that we have to add another 1,666 years to the 
1,666 years already taken into account; which 
makes the sum total 3,332 years. Now, it is 
notoiious that naturalists — ^being as a rule usu- 
ally moral and regular in their habits — live to 
a good old age, and we will make for them the 
liberal estimate of an avei*age life of 80 years ; 
but on the other hand, artists are generally loose 
in their mode of life, and we cannot, with the 
statistics before us, grant them a longer average 
term than 50 years. Consequently, the average 
life of the two classes of persons required, in 
equal numbers, for our Cabinet Encyclopcedia 
will be only 65 years ; and allowing 25 years for 
the education of eaeh individual naturalist and 
artist, therc \vill remain a clear available average 
surplus of 40 years as the average working life 
of eacli class. Let us now divide the sum total 
of 3,832 yeai-s by 40, which represents in yeai-s 
the working life of each of our workmen, and 
we an'ive at the astounding conclusion that it 
will require the entire working life of 83 persons 
to execute the manuscript and the drawings for 
the little work wliich the eye of Mr. Lintner 
has pictui'ed to himself as likely to exist, perhaps 
before he liimself sinks into the grave ! 

3rd. The cost of printing, in the style of the 
Amkrican Entomologist, 10,00(J copies of an 
octavo volume of 625 pages, inchiding type- 
setting, proof-reading, press-work and pai>er, 
but charging nothing for any wood-cut illustra- 
tions, would foot up about $1,(K)0; and as we 
wish to be liberal, we will charge nothing for the 
binding. The cost of the 125 pages of colored 
illusti-ations, including the pay of the artists 
who execute the drawings, would range from 
$125,000 upwards into the clouds, according to 
the style of work required. Tliis gives a total 
of at least $126,000 for each octavo volume ; and 
as there are to be 1,000 such volumes, we shall 



require for the practical carr>ing out of Mr. 
Lintner*8 poetical conceptions, the snug little 
sum of very nearly one hundred and twentv- 
six MILLION dollars. Thc Statistical reader 
will no doubt have noticed long before this, that 
we allow no pecuniary pay whatever to the 
naturalists who execute the manuscript of our 
imaginary work. We could not in conscience 
do so ; for we believe there are scores of ento- 
mologists anxiously knocking every day at the 
doors of our Scientific Academics and Associa- 
tions with manuscripts in hand containing de- 
scriptions of their new species ; and these MSS. 
arc most distinterestedly offered for publication 
in thc printed Transactions of such societies, 
their authors never dreaming of receiving the 
least pccuniaiy compensation for all the labor 
and trouble they have been at in preparing their 
I)apers for the press. 

The question is perpetually put to us, "• Why 
is there no work on the Entomology of thc 
United States, which will enable us to identify 
and name any particular insect of the country 
with as much ease as the Botanical student can 
identify and name any particular one of our 
plants, by referring to Gray's Manual of Bo- 
tany?'' To such questions as these we beg leave 
to reply as follows: In the first place, it is not 
true that Gray's Manual covers the flora of the 
whole Union ; for it professedly only comprises 
that of a region which forms less than one-eighth 
part of the territory now owned by Uncle Sam. 
In the second place, even in this very limited 
region, it entirely omits the most difldcult and 
perhaps the most interesting part of the floi-a, 
that is the Mosses and Lichens, the Funguses 
and the Seaweeds (Algm); and even with such 
other families of the Cryptogamous or Flower- 
less plants as are treated of therein, namely, thc 
Horsetails, the Ferns, the Club-mosses, and the 
Water-fems or HydropterideSy the space allotted 
to these groups is scarcely one-thirtieth pari of 
the space allotted to the Phanerogamous or 
Flowering plants. For any one, therefore, to 
consider Gmy's Manual— and we fully acknowl- 
edge thc unrivalled excellence of this work, so 
far as it goes— as a complete Flora of the whole 
United States, would be pretty much like claim- 
ing that the works of Dr. J. L. LeConte, on the 
one single Order of Insects out of the whole 
eight Orders, namely, the Beetles or Coleoptei-a, 
are equivalent to a complete Entomological Fauna 
of all the Insects found in the entire Union. i» 
the third 2)lacey it is generally estimated that the 
number of insects exceeds at least four or five- 
fold that of plants to be found in any particular 
region. Calculating upon severAl distinct bases 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



261 



we have estimated that the number of distinct 
species of insects to be found within the limits 
of the United States amounts to at least thirty 
thousand ; and from what has been said above, 
as to the labor and expense of describing and 
figuring half a million of species, we may easily, 
by the simple Rule of Three, form a pretty cor- 
rect idea of how much labor and money it would 
require to describe and figure even as small a 
number as thirty thousand. 

Perhaps, in thus bringing to the test of hard dry 
facts and figures the rose-colored dreams of one 
whom we have learned to esteem as a conscientious 
fellow-laborer, we shall be accused of being a kind 
of entomological Mr. Gradgrind. Perhaps it will 
be said that, by throwing cold water on the 
brilliant aspirations of many an ardent youn^^ 
naturalist, we are in effect injuring the very 
cause which we profess to serve, and that we 
are a matter-of-fact cynical calculator, wholly 
devoted to the duU unpoetical Real, and careless 
of the beautiful etherial Ideal. Well, " we are 
not careful overmuch about such things;" but 
in thus considering the improbability of any such 
result ever being attained, as that which Mr. 
Lintner dreamed of, we nevertheless admire the 
spirit which gave birth to the thought, and only 
wish that more of our entomologists were im- 
bued with the same. It is good sometimes to 
seek after the Unattainable, and though we may 
not always reach the goal, and the distance 
gained in advance be but a few inches, yet at 
every step we are so much further on the road 
towards perfection. 

As the very term " species " is arbitrary, and 
many an one is ground out from what ujwn 
closer study and better knowledge would prove 
to be but a variety, we are fully of the opinion 
that the man or woman who, for the first time, 
gives to the world the complete history of any 
one insect in its four stages, does infinitely more 
for the cause of Entomology than the person 
who publishes dry descriptions of a dozen sup- 
posed species. In a private letter to us, that 
well-known and experienced entomologist, P. 
C. Zeller, of Stetten Prussia, says : ** I care very 
little for the honor of being the author of a new 
species ; it is far more meritorious and honorable 
to correctly obsei-ve and describe the natural 
history of a single species, than to describe — 
often with ridiculous and meaningless names — 
two dozen species after the reckless fashion of 
some authoi*s;" and we cannot more fully en- 
dorse the sentiment expressed by Mr. Lintner — 
however fanciful and impracticable the project — 
than by commending to careful consideration 
this opinion of one of the leading entomologists 
of the day. 



THE TENT-CATBRPILIiAR OF THE FOREST. 

{CUtiocampa tyltatica, Harr.) 

[Fig. mj 




Colors— (a) brown; (& and c) cream-color; (d) rust -brown. 

In accordance with the promise made in our 
laH number (p. 245), we here give a brief ac- 
count of the Tent- caterpillar of the Forest 
(Clisiocampa sylvatica). We do so the more 
willingly because, as we shall presently show, 
this insect is very generally confounded with the 
common American Tent-caterpillar {CL ameri- 
canOf Harr.) , and because much confusion and 
uncei*taiuty with regard to its habita exist in the 
minds of most farmers. In many parts of Mis- 
souri it has been verj^ destructive during the past 
two summers, and we have had good opportuni- 
ties to closely and carefully study its habits. The 
species was first described by the great Massa- 
chusetts entomologist, Dr. Harris, who unquali- 
fiedly states that it lives in communities under a 
common web or tent; but with this exception 
gives a veiy clear and tnithful account of it.* 

ITS NATURAL HISTORY. 

The egg-mass from which the Tent-caterpillar 
of the Forest hatches (Fig. 165 a, showing it after 
the young lai-v«e have escaped) may at once be 
distinguished from that of the common Tent- 
caterpillar by its being of a unifoim diameter, 
and docked off* squarely at each end. It is usu- 
ally composed of about 400 eggs, the number in 
five masses wliich we coimted ranging from 380 
to 416. Each of the eggs comjwsing this mass is 
of a cream-white color, 0.04 inch long and 0.025 
inch wide, narrow and rounded at the attached 
end or base, gi'adually enlarging towards the top, 
where it becomes slightly smaller (Fig. 165 d), 
and abruptly terminates with a prominent cir- 
cular rim on the outside, and a sunken spot in 
the centre (c) . These eggs are deposited in circles, 
the female moth stationing heraelf, for this pur- 
pose, in a transverse position across the twig. 
With abdomen curved she gradually moves as 
the deposition goes on, and when one circle is 



'/«/. 7iM., p. 376. 



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completed, she commences another — and not 
before. With each egg is secreted a brown var- 
nish which firmly fastens it to the twig and to 
its neighbor, and which, upon becoming dry, 
forms a carinated net-work of brown over the 
pale egg-shell. These eggs are so regularly laid 
and so closely glued to each other, that the sides 
are often so appressed, that the moth economizes 
space almost as effectually as does the Honey-bee 
in the formation of its hexagonal cells. In confine- 
ment the moth very seldom succeeds in forming 
a perfect ring, but in her abortive attempts, 
deposits them in different sized patches ; and as 
we have found such unfinished patches attached 
to an oak leaf out-of-doors, we may conclude 
that either from injury or debility of some kind, 
the parentis instinct sometimes fails it even when 
all the conditions are normal and natural. 

The eggs are deposited, in the latitude of St. 
Louis, during the latter part of June. The em- 
biyo develops during the hot summer weather, 
and the yet unborn larva is fully formed by the 
time winter comes on. They hatch with the 
firet warm weather in spring— generally from 
the middle to the last of Marcli — and though the 
buds of their food-plant may not have opened at 
the time, and though it may freeze severely 
afterwards, yet these little creatures are won- 
derfully hardy, and can fast for three whole 
weeks, if need be, and withstand any amount of 
inclement weather. The very moment these 
little larvsB are born, they commence spinning a 
web wherever they go. At this time they are 
black with pale hairs, and are always found 
either huddled together or traveling in file along 
the silken paths wliich they fonn when in 
search of food. In about two weeks from tlie 
time they commence feeding they go through 
their first moult, having first grown paler or of 
a light yellowish-brown, with the extremities 
rather darker than the middle of the body, with 
the little warts wliich give rise to the hairs quite 
distinct, and a conspicuous dark internipted line 
each side of the back. After the first moult, 
they are characterized principally by two pale 
yellowish subdorsal lines, which border what 
was before, the dark line above described. Aftxir 
the second moult, which takes place in about a 
week from the first, the characteristic pale spots 
on the back appear, the upper pale line be- 
comes yellow, the lower one white, and the space 
between them bluish : indeed, the charact-ers of 
the mature lai-va are from this period apparent. 
Very soon they undergo a third moult, after 
which the colors all become more distinct and 
fresh, the head and anal plate have a soft bluish 
velvety appearance, and tlie hairs seem more 



'7' 




dense. After undergoing a fourth monit with- 
out material change in appearance, they acquire 
their ftill gi-owth in about six weeks from the 
[Fig. 166 ] time of first feeding. At this time 
they appear as at Figure 166, and 
for those who are interested in such 
t matters, we quote below* Dr. Fitch's 
r^ description of the full-grown larva, 
P as it is the first accurate and detailed 
^ description that was published, and 
^ as we have occasion to refer to it 
S^ further on. 

g At this stage of its growth the Tent- 
'g catei-pillar of the Forest may be seen 
^ wandering singly over different trees, 
along roads, on the tops of fences, 
etc., in search of a suitable place to 
^ form its cocoon. It usually contents 
^ itself with folding a leaf or drawing 
^ul^wh?S s®v®r*l together for this purpose, 
and rufous, though it frequently spins up under 
fence boards and in other sheltered situations. The 
cocoon is very much like that of the common 
Tent-caterpillar, being formed of a loose exterior 
covering of white silk with the hairs of the larva 
interwoven, and by a more compact oval inner pod 
that is made stiff by the meshes being filled with a 
thin yellowish paste from the mouth of the lai-va, 
which paste, when dried, gives the cocoon the 
appearance of being dusted with powdered sul- 
phur. Three days aft^r the cocoon is completed 
the caterpillar feasts its skin for the last time and 
becomes a chrysalis of a reddish-brown color, 
slightly dusted with a pale powder, and densely 
clotlied with short pale yellow hairs, which at 
the blunt and rounded extremity are somewhat 
larger and darker. In a couple of weeks more, 

• The Catcri>illar, as seen after it has forsaken its nest ancl 
is wandering about, is an inch and a half long and O.aOthicK. 
It is cylindrical and of a pale blue color, tinged low down 
on each side with greenish gray, and is everywhere sprinkiea 
over with black points and dots. Along its back is a row 
of ten or eleven oval or diamond-shaped white si>ot8 wnlcn 
are similarly sprinkled with black points and dots, and are 
placed one on the fore part of each segment. Behind each oi 
these spots, is a much smaller white spot, occupying the mia- 
dle of each segment . 'I he intervening space is black , wiiicli 
color also forms a border surrounding each of the spots, and on 
each side is an elevated black dot from which arises uaoaiyr 
four long black hairs. The hind part of each segment is 
occupied by three crinkled and more or less interrupted P«e 
orange- vellow lines, which are edged with black. And on 
6:1 ch side is a continuous and somewhat broader stripe of tnc 
same yellow color, similarly edged on each of its sides witn 
black Lower down upon each side is a paler yellow or 
cream-colored stripe, the edges of which are more jagg^ 
and irregular than those of the one above it, and this stripe 
also is bordered with black, broadly and unevenly ou Its 
upper side and very narrowly on its lower side. The back is 
Clothed with numerous fine fox- colored hairs, and low down 
on each side are numerous coarser whitish ones. On toe 
under side is a large oval black spot on each segment except 
the anterior ones. The legs and urolegs are black and clothed 
with short whitish hairs. The head is ot a dark bluish color 
fVeckled with numerous black dots and clothed with snort 
blackish and fox-colored hairs. The second segment or 
neck is edged anteriorlv with cream whit<, which color is 
more broad upon the sides. The third and fourth segments 
have each a large black spot on each side. The instant it is 
immersed in spirits the blue color of this caterpillar vanishes 
and it becomes black. 



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or dunng the forepart of Jane^ the moths com- 
mence to issue, and fly about at night. This 
moth (Fig. 165, 6 ? ) bears a considerable resem- 
blance to that of the Conmion Tent-catei'pillar 
(Fig. 167, S), being of a brownish-yellow or 

[Fig. 167.] 




Color— Rust- brown . 

rusty brown, and having two oblique transverse 
lines across the front wings. It differs, however, 
in the color being paler or more yellowish, espe- 
cially on the thorax ; in the space between the 
oblique lines being usually darker instead of 
lighter than that on either side ; but principally 
in the oblique lines themselves being dark in- 
stead of light, and in a transverse shade, often 
quite distinct, across the hind wings. As in 
Ameft^icana, the male is smaller than the female, 
with the wings shoi-ter and cut oflTmorc squarely. 
Considerable variation may be found in a given 
number of moths, but principally in the space 
between tlie oblique lines on the front wings 
being either of tlie same shade as the rest of the 
wing, or in its being much darker; but as we 
have found these variations in different indi- 
viduals of the same brood, bred either from Oak, 
Hickory, Apple and Rose, they evidently have 
nothing to do with the food-plant. The scales 
on the wings are very loosely attached, and rub 
off so readily that good specimens of the moth 
aiHj seldom captured at large. So much for the 
natural history of our Forest TentKiaterpillar. 

THE LARVA SPINS A WEB. 

From the very moment it is born till after the 
fourth or last moult, tliis caterpillar spins a web 
and lives more or less in company ; but from the 
fact that this web is always attached close to the 
branches and trunks of the trees infested, it is 
often overlooked, and several writers liave falsely 
declared that it does not spin. At each succes- 
sive moult all the individuals of a batch collect 
and huddle together upon a common web for 
two or three days, and during these periods — 
tliough more active than most other caterpillars 
in this so-called sickness— they are quite slug- 
gish. Dunng the last or fourth moult they 
ver>- frequently come low down on the trunk of 
the tree, and, as in the case of the gregarious 
larvae of the Hand-maid Moth (Datana minis- 
tra), which often entirely denude our Black 
Walnuts, they unwittingly court destruction by 
collecting in such masses within man's reach. 



IT FEEDS BOTH ON ORCHARD AND FOREST TREES. 

In the summer of 1867 this insect did great 
damage in Western New York, where it is falsely 
called THE "Army-worm." From the fact that 
Mr. Peter Ferris, of Millville, Orleans county, 
N. Y., was greatly troubled with it that year in 
his apple orchard, and that he did not notice any 
of the same worms on the Oak and Walnut tim- 
ber of that section, he concluded that his Apple- 
feeding worms must be different from those 
feeding on forest trees. In an article signed 
" F., Orleans county, N. Y.", which appeared 
in the Country Gentleman of July 23d, 1868, 
the same writer endeavors to prove his Apple- 
feeding worms distinct by sundry minute char- 
acters, as may be seen from the following extract : 

Now I am not an entomologist, but still must be 
allowed to believe that there are several points, 
if not " distinctive characters," in winch our 
catei-pillar differs from the Tent-caterpillar of 
the Forest, as described by Dr. Mtch. H is laiTa 
is of a pale blue color, tinged lower down on 
each side with gi'eenish-gray. In ours the pre- 
vailing color on the back is black ; there is a sky- 
blue stripe on each side but no greenish-gi^ay. 
Both have the white spots on the back much alike, 
though perhaps ours are moi-e club-shaped, look- 
ing to the naked eye nearly the shape of ten-pins. 
Both have these spots suiTOunded with black ; in 
ours there is quite a broad black stripe on each 
side of the spots. This black stripe is more or 
less filled witli fine, crinkled, bright orange lines. 
In some, these oi*ange lines are so plenty as to 
be seen plainly without the glass ; in others the 
color to the naked eye is a fine velvet-black. In 
the larva described by Dr. Fitch there is much 
less of black and of the fine crinkled lines, which 
are pale orange-yellow. There is a somewhat 
broader stripe of the same yellow color, in place 
of a nan-ow orange one in 6ui*8. The lower yel- 
low stripe may be much alike in both, but what 
is sky-blue in one is greenish-gra}^ in the other. 
In both, the head is of a dark bluish color, but 
in his it is freckled with numerous black dots ; 
in ours, both to the naked eye and under a glass, 
it is plain. In his " the second segment or neck 
is ed^ed anteriorly with cream-white, which 
color IS more broad on tlie sides. The third and 
fourth segments have each a large black spot on 
each side." Both the cream-white edge and 
black spots are entirely wanting in our cater- 
pillai-s. 

The habits of the larvae also appear to be dif- 
ferent. According to Harris and l<1tch, the Tent- 
caterpillar of the Forest lives in large societies, 
under a tent or cob-web-like nest placed against 
the side of the tree, and comes out to feed on the 
leaves. Others, as well as myself, have watched 
our caterpillars and entirely fail to discover that 
they livea in communities, or in any one place 
that they went from and returned to. While 
small, they remain scattered over the smaller 
branches and on the leaves, and are first seen to 
begin to get together when about half grown, 
on some of the higher limbs in the sun. They 
only collect in large bunches on the trunk ana 
lower limbs ; when nearly full grown, and the 



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weather is hot, they get in the shade ; and then 
they never have any web or particular place they 
i-eturn to, or show any uniformity in tlie size of 
the bunches. But they only manage in this way 
while the leaves last. As soon as one tree is strip- 
ped they go to another, and when one orchard is 
used up leave for another. They are great trav- 
elers ; on a smooth track, like a hai^d road or a 
fence cap-board, they get alonff quite fast. They 
do not try to keep together, but each one goes 
on his own hook. There is veiy little said about 
the Tent-catcrpillai* of the Forest traveling in 
this way. 

Then our larvae appear decidedly to prefer the 
leaves of the Apple-tree, and onfy feed on the 
kiaves of other trees when the former are not to 
be had. Though I am not prepared to say that 
they will not feed on Oak, Walnut or Hickory 
trees, under any circumstances, I have repeatedly 
found these trees in l\ill leaf when not only Apple 
trees, but Ash and Basswood trees near by, 
were entirely stripped. The eggs are sometimes 
laid on Harii Maple shade trees, but the cater- 
pillars leave these trees as soon as they get much 
size, evidently in search of food more suitable to 
their taste. This may be the case in regard to 
Oak and Walnut trees. 

They also select different places for their co- 
coons. Dr. iltch says the Tent-caterpillar of 
the Forest selects a sheltered spot for its cocoon, 
such as the corner or angle formed by the meet^ 
ing of two or three sides. In this the cocoon is 
8uspendc»d . Our laiTa selects one or more leaves 
on any tree that is convenient. The edges of 
the leaves are drawn together, forming a shelter 
in which there is ^enemlly one cocoon ; though 
when the space is large, and they are very 
numerous, there are often two or three cocoons 
together. The cocoon is not suspended, but 
fastened to the leaf. Thev spin their cocoons in 
the forepart of Julv, and the moths appear in 
the latter part of the month. The Tent-cater- 
pillar of the Forest spins its cocoon about the 
20th of June, and the moth appears in the fore- 
part of July. 

Now I think enough has been given to show 
that two distinct insects are under consideration, 
but, being only a farmer, I mav be mistaken. I 
would like to see Dr. Fitch's views on this ques- 
tion. Undoubtedly he has read Dr. Walsh's ar- 
ticle on " The Three so-called Army-worms," in 
the Pmctical Entomologist, and can tell whether 
our caterpillar is a distinct insect, or only shows 
the variations that may be expected in the Tent- 
cateri)illar of the Forest. 

Now since Dr. Fiteh has not, to our knowl- 
edge, complied with Mr. Ferris's couileous wish, 
we shall have to do so ourselves. "We have taken 
upwards of 200 specimens ftx)m the same bateh 
of Oak-feeding worms, and upon critically ex- 
amining them, find that Dr. Fitch's description 
is accurate, and that the differences or variations 
mentioned by Mr. Ferris arise in every case, 
either from a misapprehension of Dr. Fitch's 
meaning, or from variations which may be found 
in the same brood. The only real difference 
between the two writers lies in the statement of 
Dr. Fitch that the worms live under a large cob- 



web-like nest, and that of Mr. Ferris that they 
do no such thing. Both statements should have 
been qualified, and were made without sufficient 
observation ; for though the normal habit of the 
worms is to collect outside of their neste, we 
have seen exceptional instances of their collectr 
ing within or underneath it, especially when 
young. 

Now it is just barely possible that, in Western * 
New York there may be a race of tiiese worms 
that has taken to feeding on Apple and has lost 
all appetite or become incapacitated for feeding 
on forest trees ; in other words, that there is a 
phytophagic variety, or a phytophagic species in 
process of formation. We could mention several 
similar occurrences among insects,* and to those 
who believe in the immutability of species these 
occurrences are incomprehensible enough; but 
to those who accept the more modem Darwinian 
views, and believe that species are slowly being 
formed to-day, just as they have been for long 
ages and ages in the past, they are most signifi- 
cant, and exactly what we should expect. But 
that such a race has yet been formed is rendered 
highly improbable ft*om the following facts : Ist. 
It is spoken of both by Dr. Fitch and Dr. Harris 
as occuiTing on Oak, and by the latter as also 
occurring on Walnut, Apple and Cherry in the 
New England States. Geoi-ge E. Brackett, of 
Belfast, Me.,t in referring to its ravages in the 
orchard, states that it also ravaged the forests in 
the summer of 1867, eating the leaves of most 
kinds of deciduous trees, though Poplar and Ash 
seemed to be their favorites. 2nd. We have, in 
this section, successfully transferred them £i*om 
Oak to Apple, and from Apple to Oak, and now 
have a suite of moths bred from larvae which 
were fed half the time on the one and half the 
time on the other. Given an equal quantity of 
Oak, Apple, Plum, Peach, Cherry, Walnut, Hick- 
ory, Rose, they have invariably seemed to prefer 
and thrive best on the Apple. 

IS rr EVER VERY DESTRUCrrVE? 

Tliis question is raised by Dr. Fitch, who, on 
insufficient grounds, discredited the previous 
assertion of Abbot, that it "is sometimes so 

• For an account of such insects as are known to have phy- 
tophagic varieties or phytophagic species we must refer the 
rejtfler to Mr. Walsh's papers on the subject in the Proceed- 
infw of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia for 18W 
and 1865 But, as the most familiar and striking examples 
we will mention, first— the polyphagous black- pencilled larva 
of Haletidota taaellata, 8m and Abb., found feeding on 
Oak, Hickory, Elm, Plum and other trves, and ihe mon<>: 
phagous orange-ijencilled lar^a of H. Harritii, Walsh, found 
exclusively on Sycamore; the moths ftt)m the two beinif 
absolutelv undistingiiishable. Second— the yellow-necked 
larva of /)a/ana miniatra. Drury, found on Apple and other 
trees, and the black-necked larva of tlie same moth found 
on Black Walnut and Hickoij. Third— the large Butternut 
and Walnut-feeding form of the common Plum Carcnllo 
{Conotracheltu nenuphar , Uerbst.) 

fAmer. Jour. ofHort., Sept., 1887. 



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plentiAil in Virginia as to strip the Oak-trees 
bare." The destruction it caused in some of the 
Eastern States in 1866 and 1867 is sufficient to 
decide this question ; but thei'e is every reason 
to believe that in the South and West its injuries 
are of still vaster extent. We published last 
month (p. 245) an account of its injuries at Des 
Ai-c, Arkansas, and for the past two yeats it has 
been quite destructive both to forest and orchard 
trees, in many parts of Missouri. In the Oak 
timber these worms prefer trees of the Black Oak 
group, and will seldom touch the White Oak in 
bodies, though when scattered among the other 
kinds, they attack it also. 

ARTIFICIAL REMEDIES. 

From the time they are bora till after the third 
moult these worms will drop and suspend them- 
selves mid-air, if the branch upon wliich they 
are feeding be suddenly jarred . Therefore when 
they have been allowed to multiply in an orchard 
this habit will suggest various modes of destroy- 
ing them. Again, as already stated, they can often 
be slaughtered en masse when collected on the 
trunks during the last moulting period. They 
will more generally be found on the leeward 
side of the tree if the wind has been blo^ving in 
the game direction for a few days. The cocoons 
may also be searched for, and many of the moths 
caught by attracting them towards the light. 
Bui preeminently the most effective artificial 
mode of preventing this insect's injuries is to 
search for and destroy the egg-lnasses in the 
winter time when the trees are leafless. Not 
only is this coarse the more efficient because it 
i8 more easily pursued, and nips the evil in 
the bud, but for the reason that, in destroying 
the eggs only, wo in a great measure evade 
killing, and consequently cooperate with, the 
natural parasites presently to be mentioned, 
which infest the worms themselves. A pair of 
pruning shears attached to the end of a pole, 
and operated by a cord, will be found very 
Qseful in clipping off the eggs ; or, as recom- 
mended by Mr. Ferris, a more simple instru- 
ment may be made by fastening a piece of an 
old scythe to a pole. If the scythe is kept sharp, 
the twigs may very handily be clipped with this 
instrument. Tarred bandages, or any of the 
many remedies used to prevent the female Can- 
ker-worm from ascending trees, can only be 
useful with the Forest Tent-caterpillar when it 
is intended to temporarily protect an uninfested 
tree from the straggling worms which may travel 
from surrounding trees. 

NATURAL REMEDIES. 

It is always wise to cooperate, whenever we 
can, with our little friends among the Bugs, and 



it is consequently very necessary to be acquaint- 
ed with them. It happens, fortunately, that 
we have several which aid us in keeping the 
Tent-catei-pillar of the Forest in check, and in 
the nafural forest we must trust entirely to 
these auxiliaries, as the mechanical means that 
can profitably be employed in a moderate sized 
orchard are impracticable in broad extents of 
timber. Indeed, these cannibals and parasites 
do their work so effectually that this caterpillar 
is seldom exceedingly numerous for more than 
tw^o successive years in one locality. It pre- 
vails suddenly in great numbers, and again is 
scarcely noticed for year^ , very much as is the 
case with the true Army-worm. Thus, after 
attracting such general attention in 1867 in 
many parts of the East, it has scarcely been 
noticed since. This is it« history everywhere, 
and we may reasonably hope that in those parts 
of the West where it has been cutting such a 
figure the present summer, it will suddenly be 
so snbdued as not to be noticed for some years 
to come. Its undue increase but combines the 
assaults of its enemies, until they multiply so 
as to gain the ascendency. Then, from insuffi- 
ciency of food these enemies suddenly decrease 
in numbers, and their natural prey has a chance 
to increase again. And so it goes on in the 
"Struggle for Life," and in the great compli- 
cated net-work in which every animal organism 
is involved: a check here and a check there, 
and no one of all the myriad forms allowed to 
keep the ascendency beyond a limited time* 
The most efficient cannibal insects in checking 
the increase of this Forest Caterpillar, are the 
larger Ground-beetles belonging to the genus 

[Fig. 168] 




Colors— Metallic green, purple and oopiM»r. 

Colosoma, These beetles will pounce upon the 
worms with astonishing greed, and are especially 
prone to attack them when helplessly collected 
together during the moulting periods. The 
Rummaging Ground Beetle (Colosoma scruta- 
tor, Fabr.), which ever3rone will recognize from 



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the figure (168) ^ is especially fond of them. The 
most common parasite which occurs abundantly 
in the West, as well as in the East, and which 
we have bred from several other caterpillars, is 
a maggot producing a Tachina-fly, which differs 
only from the Red-tailed Tachina-fly {Exorista 
leucanicB, Kirk.)> which infests the Army-worm, 
in lacking the red tail.* The other parasite 
which infests it in the East, but which we have 
not yet met with, is a species of Fimpla very 
closely allied to P, melanocephala, Brull^, but 
differing ft*om that species in the head being 
red and not black.f 

SUMMARY. 

The Tent-caterpillar of the Forest differs from 
the common Orchard Tent-caterpillar princi- 
pally in its egg-mass being docked off squarely 
instead of being rounded at each end ; in its 
larva having a row of spots along the back 
instead of a continuous narrow line, and in its 
moth having the color between the oblique lines 
on the front wings as dark or else darker, in- 
stead of lighter than the rest of the t^ing. It 
feeds on a variety of both forest and orchard 
trees; makes a web which from its being usu- 
ally fastened close to the tree is often over- 
looked ; is often very destructive, and is most 
easily fought in the egg state. 



•Exorista leucania, Kirk|)atrick=f;. militarU, Walsh. We 
have bred the varie y lacking the red at tip of abdomen from 
laryie of Attacut cecropic^ Linn., Datana minittraf Dniry, 
Agrotit inermUf Hi\ey, and ot two undetermined A grot idians. 

^Practical EntomologUt, U, p lU. 



A Plague of Beetles. — A very serious pla^ie 
of small brown beetles has occurred in Yorkshire, 
and during the last few days the Swede-turnip 
crop has been destroyed. This is especially so 
in the Wold district, many farms having no plants 
remaining. At Malton, on Saturday, the farmers 
obtained new stocks of seed, and re-sowing would 
commence on Monday. The beetles in myriads 
have also attacked the tare and pea crops.' The 
long drought is supposed to have favored this 
dcstnictive visitation of insect life. 

[We find the above in a late number of Scien- 
tiflc Opinion; but why talk about such an un- 
usual visitation w^ithout even hinting at the 
species?— Ed.] 



A correspondent of the New England Farmer 
says that last year he saved his onions from the 
maggot by removing the earth from the bulbs 
with his fingers, being careful not to disturb the 
roots wliile weeding them. A pound of copperas 
dissolved in a pailful of soft soap, and, when 
thinned with water, applied to the onions, is 
good to keep off the maggot, and to promote the 
growth of the onions. . 



HOW TO COLLECT AND STUDY INSECTS-No. 4. 

ItT F. O. 8AXBORX, BOSTON, MASS. 
[Fig. 169 ] 




ExPLAXATiON OP CuT - («) Larva; (ft) winged male; (f) 
worker, (d) soldier; (<) Urge female; (J) nymphe. 

There may be something under this old slab, 
which lies so flat on the surface of the -ground; 
turn it over carefully. Sure enough, besides the 
earthworms of all sizes and ages that retreat 
hastily from th^ garish light of day into their 
smooth, cylindrical burrows, and the active 
spider that scampers off in the grass, here are 
some little whitish insects — a whole colony of a 
hundred or more — many upon the under surface 
of the slab, which seems to be channeled and 
grooved shallow ly, exposing the cleaner color of 
the wood ; and many more moving briskly about 
in coiTosponding channels on the ground, occar 
sionally disappearing down the holes. 

These are the " White Ants," as they are im- 
pi*operly termed, Termes flavipes of Kollar. 
Those stupid and clumsy ones, with immense 
heads and long black jaws, are called soldiers ; 
touch this one with a spear of grass and see how 
ho rushes to seize it, snapping his jaws and ex- 
hibiting every sign of auger and ferocity. There 
is always a regiment of these soldiers or fighting 
men attached to every respectable colony of 
Termites, and their mission is solely to defend 
their weaker vessels, the workers, against ma- 
rauders of all kinds. These round-headed ones 
are the workers, and those tiny, white, helpless 
fellows are the young. Notice, if you please, 
how indefatigably the workers are seizing the 
little ones, one by one, in their mandibles, and 
carrying tliem carefully below to some place of 
security. They pinch up their tender skins on 
the back, with just sufficient force to get a good 
hold without harming the tender little creatures, 
and lifting them up, as a cat carries its kittens, 
convey them safely away. What are these long, 



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black insects that seem to have something to do 
with the colony, but are furnished with long, 
white shining wings? These are the males, 
they are hurrying down out of sight as quickly 
as possible; you will never see one of them 
troubling himself about the care of the young. 
Nor will you ever see the soldiers doing this 
good work either; they, cowardly creatures, 
have retreated into the burrows, and only occa- 
sionally the head of one appears at an opening, 
nearly filling it, and obsti*ucting the way of this 
nurse-worker, who is obliged to kick and punch 
the military blockhead repeatedly before he will 
suffer her to pass with her load. 

Make haste to secure the specimehs you want 
of the males, put them in a small, dry vial and 
give them a drop of chloroform. If you pin them 
now, they won't have a wing left on their shoul- 
dei-s when you get home, so loosely are these 
appendages attached. Put a few soldiers in 
alcohol in a small vial, and you will have ample 
time to secure some of the brave little workers, 
who are eo earnest in their duties that they have 
removed almost all the young to the vaults be- 
low. There are only a few left, at the extreme 
points of the gallery, and here are two or three 
ravening enemies, in the shape of true ants, 
seizing and carrying off to their own homes for 
food the tender young Termites. Where are the 
soldiers now ? Like policemen, not to be found 
when wanted, they ai*e safely ensconced within 
the chambers of the dwelling. But we will do 
them the Justice to say that, had not the terrible 
earthquake (from their jwiut of view) unroofed 
tlie edifice and bewildered their faculties, they 
would have boldly combated the piratical ants, 
and sacrificed unhesitatingly their own limbs 
and lives to save the helpless offspring of their 
queen. See this poor worker, with its feeble 
might endeavoring to rescue the little one from 
the powerful jaws of the mai*auder; regardless 
of danger and wounds, she opposes the two or 
three strong black kidnappers, but at last her 
soft body is gashed, and her tender limbs are 
torn off, by their powerful jaws — she has sacri- 
ficed her life in the vain attempt. 

And now the surface of the Termite's hokne is 
deserted ; most of the young have been saved ; 
the soldiers are keeping guard in the subter- 
ranean galleries, and the workers are ministering 
to their little charges in the dark nurseries 
below. If we now dig a trench at the side of 
the space foimerly covei'ed by the slab, and slice 
off cai'efully, with a spade or large-bladed knife, 
the earth in thin sections, we shall get a fine view 
of the labyrinth of burrows, galleries and cham- 
bers of the Termite's home. We shall perhaps 



discover, in a large commodious chamber deep 
down near the centre of the dwelling, a large, 
soft-bodied female, the true mother of the next 
generation. Her head, thorax and limbs are 
about the size of those of the workers, but her 
abdomen is expanded to a prodigious size, mak- 
ing it impossible for her to leave her cell, in 
which she is carefully tended and fed by the 
workers. They remove also the young as soon 
as they are born, and take the entire charge of 
nni*8ing them up to maturity. 

Many naturalists believe the workers to be 
females which are unfit for becoming mothers ; 
the development of the ovaries being arrested, 
and the insect remaining in an immature con- 
dition, devotes itself to the cai*e of its com- 
panions. Some also consider the soldier as a 
sort of undeveloped male ; and moi-e than one 
student of zoology regards the soldier and worker 
as pupal forms corresponding to the chrysalis 
condition of the butterfly. These questions re- 
main to te settled ; and, as you will find in the 
pursuit of this class of studies, a vast field is 
open to every careftil observer of Nature for in- 
vestigation and study. 

If you have been so successful as to find a 
female, deposit her carefully in a separate vial of 
alcohol, and, cutting out a cube of earth that 
contains the section of her cell, wrap it in your 
handkerchief, if you have not a box of the right 
size for it, and cany it in your hand ; it is of 
sufficient value to be worth some labor and in- 
convenience in securing it for your cabinet. If 
you will presei-ve some of the workei^s and 
young alive in a small box with earth, or the 
fragments of their dwelling, you can place them 
under the compound microscope when you i*e- 
tum, study the interior of their bodies, and 
witness the contraction and expansion of the 
great dorsal vessel that serves insects for a heart. 
Their beautifully transparent skin enables us to 
investigate their internal anatomy while their 
vital functions are in full operation. 

You will find it most convenient to place the 
insect to be examined in a " live-box," as it is 
called, and if you have not got one, you can 
easily make a good substitute out of a strong 
pill-box and two round pieces of thin glass. 
Push the bottom of the box out, then fit both of 
the pieces of glass to the size of the inside of the 
cover; this you can easily do, if they are too 
large, by nipping off very small bits around the 
edge with a pair of common pliers. Now, cut a 
hole in the cover of the box, leaving enough of a 
rim to hold the glass cover pretty firmly ; wipe 
both pieces of glass clean, and place the thicker, 
if there be any difference, in the cover. Put 



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youi* specimen of Temies upon the middle of the 
glass, and lay the other piece of glass upon it; if 
the weight of the glass alone is sufficient to pre- 
vent its moving out of the field of view, you will 
not require the rest of the box ; but if not, you 
will find, by gently pressing the box into the 
cover, that the friction is sufficient to hold the 
little insect without crushing it, or destroying 
life. A box for this purpose is generally made 
of brass ; thinner glass is used in it than can 
easily be procured in most localities, and the 
cover slides or sci*ews down upon the specimen. 
A skillful American boy can, without much dif- 
ficulty, consti-uct one of permanent utility of 
brass, softer metal, or even of wood, and will 
find it of continual benefit to him if he owns, or 
has permission to use, a compound microscope. 
He will find it a more convenient instrument to 
use if he soldera the smaller ring of the live-box 
to a slip of metal about the size of an ordinary 
slide as cut for the microscope — that is to say, 
about three inches long by one in widtt, and not 
so thin as to bend readily. He must, of course, 
cut or file a hole in the centre of this piece of 
metal of nearly the size of the ring which is at- 
tached to it, and both surfaces of the slip must 
be smooth and even. 



THE RANSOM CURCULIO REMEDY. 

It is Ideally laughable and amusing to those 
person*) who have no particular ** axe to grind," 
to calmly look on and watch the rankling dis- 
cussions which have been caused by the an- 
nouncement of Mr. Ransom's method of fighting 
the Cnrculio. And it is likewise passing strange 
how ridiculously partial and unjust bias will 
render a man, and how often it acts as a stum- 
bling block to his clear and candid reason. 

Dr. Hull, upon his return from St. Joseph, 
published an account of his visit, and gave us 
his opinion of the value of the new process. 
The facts as he found them are almost precisely 
as we stated them to be in our last number, but 
when he gets on to opinions, the warp of the 
mind is clearly manifest, and he evidently 
deems the new method of but trivial import- 
ance, as may be seen from the following para- 
graph, which we quote from that article — the 
italics being our own : 

A query here presents itself, and one, too, 
of much pi*actical importance. For example: 
Supposing no bugging by traps or otherwise had 
been done, up to the very morning of the day 
when Curculios commenced stinging the fruit, 
and on that morning a Curculio-catcher or other 
contrivance for thoroughly jarring the trees had 
been used, would not all the Curculios have 



been taken which had previously come into the 
orchard and been trapped, together with those 
which did not enter the traps? This quen- 
seemg to us all the more important from the 
fact that at the time Curculios began to sting, 
the peaches on those trees which had b^n most 
thoroughly bugged seemed to have Curcolios 
enouffh on them to destroy all the fruit in a 
few days. If all the Curculios on entering the 
orchard would go down under the cover pro- 
vided for them, then the new mode of catching 
them would be best, since the labor could be 
performed by women and children. But any 
method of catching which fails to take all the 
insects, would not lighten the labor of jarring 
the trees. We have long since determined that 
it makes no difiference how many Carcnlios 
come together in the orchard for mating, or how 
long they are in doing so, provided the orchard 
is run in time to jar the trees twice before any 
of the fruit is stung. I'or aught we can now 
see, jarring trees mag safely he delayed as long 
when trapping is not resorted to as where it is; 
anti for this reason, we cannot understand how 
results of much practical importance can be 
realized by laying traps for Curculios. 

Of course. Doctor, you cannot understand 
how any good is to result from this new method. 
Don't you see that the Curculio-catcher is in 
the way ? But let us look at the other side of 
the question, for Mr. Ransom evidently views 
the matter in a different light, having but a few 
chips instead of a great machine, to intercept 
the clearness of his vision. We find in tlie 
cohimns of the same good old Prairie Farmer 
for June 11th, a long article from his pen, in 
which not one word can be found i-egarding the 
jarring process. On the contrary, the trap- 
i*emedy is held to be a ** perfect success," and 
sufficient to save the fruit in the face of the 
many facts lo the contrary that were confirmed 
both in his own and his neighbors' orchards 
before the article in question was written. 
There are a few statements in this article that 
will not bear criticism, but, with the exception 
of the apparent bias that pervades it, and a silly 
fling at the professional entomologist, Mr. Ran- 
som has narrated some important personal ex- 
perience, and we quote the last paragraph, 
which gives the gist of the whole : 

We have to gather some facts for future pub- 
lication. I have devoted much time for a month 
in watching and discovering their habits, and 
have many facts, as well as theories, which 1 
cannot put into this already much too long com- 
munication. One thing is certain — it has been 
a success. I feel confident they can be destroyed 
easily, and our fruit saved. The method of 
preparing around the trees, or which late in the 
season is as good, or better, of putting cloth, 
leather or anything for them to crawl into and 
hide in the forks of the trees, will be prepared 
and published in season for next } ear. I have 
many facts of importance. 



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It may be laid down as a rule, which will 
generally hold good, that editors are the most 
pngnacious of men — with their pens. A woman 
in her silken robes is vain; an Indian in his 
war-paint is vain ; a turkey gobbler in his feath- 
ers is vain ; but of all vain things on this earth 
of ours an editor is, perhaps, the vainest I There 
is scarcely one of them— from the scribbler for the 
penny novel to Disraeli or Victor Hugo — who 
does not think his productions unequalled and 
unsurpassed; and he who wonld take excep- 
tion to any of them must needs give mortal 
ofiense. It is not surprising, therefore, that the 
respective editors of the 8t, Joseph Herald and 
of the Benton Harbor Palladium, have had a 
pitched battle at pen's point on this Curculio 
remedy. Nor is it surprising that their mode 
of reasoning is far more vicious than that of the 
champions of the two different methods. It 
appears that Dr. Winans, whom we know to 
be a perfect gentleman and an excellent obser- 
ver, recommended the Ransom process in the 
columns of the Palladium, and that the editor 
of that paper actually had the audacity to asseit 
that " it was practiced many years ago in the 
central part of New York ; but like many other 
discoveries seems to have been neglected and 
forgotten''! Whereupon the Herald cries, 
" shame " — ** preposterous " — ** this discovery 
ought not to be belittled by any one in the St. 
Joseph Fruit Belt." Of course the Palladium 
mildly replies to these cutting attacks, and the 
Herald finishes the discussion by reiterating in 
two different editorials that Mr. W. B. Ransom 
is the discoverer of the new method of Curcu- 
lio Extermination [II]. That paper likewise 
(very justly) takes considerable credit to itself, 
and implicates us in the following manner: 

The Herald claims honor for what it did do. 
It claims that without its 'Extra, the Palladium 
would have attempted to steal the honor for 
some other one ; that the jealous entomologists 
of Illinois and Missouri would have attributed 
the discovery to one of themselves, and for the 
pi-oof thereof appeals to the intemperate article 
of the Palladium. 

Now, we are perfectly willing that the par- 
tics should, like the martyrs mentioned in Don 
Quixote, each heroically frizzle on his own coals ; 
but we do implore you, gentlemen, to "stop 
this pother," and, like men, admit the facts. 
The editor of the Herald does himself no great 
honor in the blind manner in which he vents 
his wrath on his bitter rival ; but in making the 
astounding assertion that "the jealous Ento- 
mologists of Illinois and Missouri would have 
attributed the discovery to one of themselves," 
he makes himself supremely ridiculous, and 



simply pollutes his pen with the vilest slander. 
No doubt Dr. LeBaron is as capable as our- 
selves of proving that he had no grounds what- 
ever for any such assertion. 

With regard to the benefits accruing from this 
discovery, we must repeat what was said in our 
last number, namely, that it would be unwise in 
the extreme to rely on this method alone, and to 
abandon the jarring process. Since the method 
was first noised abroad it has been tried contin- 
uously by ourselves, by the horticultural editor 
and the Illinois correspondent of the Country 
Gentleman, by Dr. Trimble of New Jersey, by 
Dr. Hull, and by many other persons in different 
parts of the country, as well as at St. Joseph, and 
in every instance with the meagre and unsatis- 
factory results we predicted. Per contra, it 
would be equally unwise to follow the reasoning 
of Dr. Hull and abandon the Ransom method, 
for, from our own experience, we venture the 
assertion that it will pix)ve the better remedy 
of the two for the million; fii*st, on account of 
its cheapness and simplicity, and, second, be- 
cause an energetic and united effort for a few 
days early in the season, will do much — very 
much — to lighten the subsequent summer'H jar- 
ring in any given district. 

As to who is entitled to the credit of the dis- 
covery, we reiterate our former opinion. As 
then stated, we have often captured Plum Cur- 
culios early in the season under chips, bark, 
and other sheltered situations, and so have other 
persons; but these facts do not in the least de- 
tract from the honor due Mr. Ransom, but, on 
the contrary, they reflect discredit on us for not 
being wise enough to make a practical applica- 
tion of them. With the case of Mrs. Wier, 
however, it is quite different. She not only 
captured a large number, but suggested the 
method to others through the columns of an 
influential journal; and although her sugges- 
tions have never since been worked upon, she 
nevertheless made the flrst discovery and ap- 
plied it. It may be truly said that he who, 
by persistent appeal and untiring effort, suc- 
ceeds in applying and introducing to public 
notice a new and valuable invention, de- 
serves more credit than the inventor himself; 
and we repeat that all credit is due Mr. Ran- 
som. All honor to him or to any man who will 
give to the fruit-grower any practical and hith- 
erto unemployed method of destroying those 
insect pests which render fruit-growing so pre- 
carious. We presume he would not — suppos- 
ing he could — claim any particular recompense 
for the valuable fact« he has made public ; but 
he can rest assured that an appreciative public 



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will ever be grateful, aud for our part we shall 
hereafter always speak of this remedy as the 
'^ Ransom Process." 

Let it not for a moment be supposed that, as 
the Herald intimates, we envy any one who 
makes a discovery in economic entomolgy. No 
one but the veriest charlatan would ever enter- 
tain any such feeling. It is our province to 
disseminate the knowledge gained by others, 
and we take as much pleasui*e in doing so as 
in imparting what little we may have of our 
own. Our columns are fi-ee to all I To the 
practical cultuiist especially we say: learn to 
think and obsei-ve for yourself, and do not think 
these small ''bugs" beneath your study and 
attention. The professional entomologist is 
constantly bu«y in studying the habits of the 
thousands of different insects that affect the 
genei*al farmer and gardener, and he cannot 
devote all his time to experimenting with the 
few that more particularly affect one set of men 
without doing injustice to some other set. The 
unprofessional man, on the contrary, very often 
has to deal with but two or three species, and 
as he is battling with these constantly he is, 
of all others, best situated for studying and 
experimenting with them ; especially if he has 
acquired some knowledge of entomology. A 
thousand pair of observing eyes, scattered over 
a wide extent of country, will accomplish far 
more than a single pair possibly can in any one 
locality ; and to imbue the producer with a due 
sense of the great practical importance of such 
observations — to show how these studies will 
render his business more pleasant, as well as 
more profitable — in short, to incite tlie cultiva- 
tor to observe and study these tiny and gener- 
ally despised creatures, and to show him how 
best to do so, is, in gi*eat part, the mission of 
this journal. 

Moi-e Upon the Same Subject. 
Since the above article was written we have 
spent a few days among the well-cultivated, 
neat and thrifty orchards of St. Joseph and 
Benton Harbor, Mich., and among the plum 
orchards around London, Ontario. We were 
highly delighted with the thorough and intelli- 
gent manner in which fruit-culture is there 
carried on, and were glad to observe that duo 
reward is attending their efforts. Last year they 
shipped by boat from St. Joseph, over 708,000 
baskets of peaches, besides nearly 40,000 bushels 
of the smaller fruits ; and the present year the 
latter have been abundant, and there is a very 
fair crop of the former, with the exception of 
the late Crawford, which has overborne for the 
three preceding years. 



Our visit was made partly to examine more 
closely into Mr. Ransom's Curculio remedy, so 
as to give our readers the benefit of fnll and 
impartial instruction. We found that so few 
Curculios had been caught under the chips after 
the first week in June, that nearly everybody, 
except Mr. Ransom, had for some time aban- 
doned the method, and were jarring their trees. 
In fact, it has tui-ned out very much as we pre- 
dicted it would. Consequently most of the 
extensive gi'owers are using a Curculio-catcber, 
aud Mr. L. M. Ward has made some improve- 
ments on Dr. null's machine, which, in our 
estimation, render it so much moi'e useful and 
valuable, that we shall give a description of it as 
soon as the proper figures can be engraved. 

Mr. Ransom himself, by dint of unusual per- 
severance and great care in setting his traps^ 
has had much better success than we had ex- 
pected he would. On the 15th June he caught 
78; on the 16th, 97, and on the 17th, 71. For 
about a week after this, he scai-cely caught 
any,. but from the 24th to the 27th inclusive, he 
caught about 300. On the 6th of July wc ac- 
companied him around the outside rows of his 
orchard and caught five under the traps. We 
had no opportunity to use the sheet, but are 
satisfied that more could be jari*ed down. Mr. 
R. has a very fair crop of peaches, and— for- 
getting that crops have often been grown before 
with very little care, and that others around 
him who have not bugged so pei-sistently have 
fY*uit also this year — is very sanguine of his 
new method, and too much inclined, perhaps, 
to attribute his crop solely to this remedy. 
Nevertheless, contrary to the impression made 
by his published views, he was candid enough 
to admit that it might be found necessary to 
resort to the jarring process, after a certain sea- 
son of the year ; and indeed the number of stuog 
peaches on the ground showed too plainly that 
there is no hopes of extermination by the chip 
plan alone. The soil arannd St. Joseph is, for 
the most part, a light sandy loam, never pack- 
ing, and very easily kept in good cultivation. 
To this character of the soil must be attributed 
much of the success with the Ransom method; 
for we are satisfied, after full experiment, that 
in the warmer climate and heavier soil of St. 
Louis, it is of no practical use after the middle 
of May, or at the farthest, after the first of 
June. The few specimens that we have cap- 
tured by this method at St. Louis, have been 
found under small pieces of new shingle; an<^ 
Mr. W. T. Durry, who has 2300 trees in bis 
orchard at St. Joe., also found this the best 
kind of trap. Mr. Ransom, however, pi'efers 



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small pieces of oak-bark, which he places close 
around the tree with the inner or concave side 
appi'essed to the ground. Stones do not answer 
well, and corn-cobs are objectionable because 
it requires so much time to discover and destroy 
the Curculios, whith hide in their deep cavities. 

Mr. D. N. Brown has apparently suffered more 
this year from the Curculio than any one else. 
He made the great mistake of supposing that 
there were none in his orchard early in the 
season ; and ere he commenced to battle with 
them they had become a mighty host. After 
killing the beetles, he throws into barrels all 
the fruit which falls or is jarred off. In escap- 
ing from the fruit the worms naturally collect 
at the bottoms of the barrels, where they are 
killed by pouring water on them. The many 
barrels of shrivelled, shrunken and rotting fruit, 
epoke plainly of Mr. B/s untiring efforts, and 
of the immen!^e work he had on hand. We 
doubt if he will ripen a single plum. 

Passing into Ontario, we found the plum- 
trees overloaded with fine, unblemished fruit, 
and the contrast was great indeed. We found our 
friend, Mr. Wm. Saunders, of London, also much 
occupied with, and interested in, the Curculio 
question. He was, in fact, carefully counting 
different lots of this insect which had been re- 
ceived from different parts of the Dominion; 
for be it known, that the enterprising Fruit- 
Growers' Association of Ontario, in its praise- 
worthy efforts to check the increase of the Cur- 
culio, offered a cent per head for every one 
which should be sent to our friend, who hap- 
pens to be secretary of that body. What would 
the people of the Western States think, if their 
diffei*ent Legislatures, or their State Horticul- 
tural Societies should offer an equally liberal 
premium per capita for every little Turk cap- 
tured ? Wouldn't they set about capturing them 
in earnest, though I The Legislature might 
stand it, and we are not sure but that some such 
inducement, held out by the State to its fruit- 
growing citizens, would pay, and prove the 
most effective way of subduing the enemy. But 
the Horticultural Society that should undertake 
it, would have to be pretty liberally endowed. 
Just think of it; ye who catch from three to five 
thousand per day I The bugs would pay a good 
deal better than the peaches. However, veiy 
fortunately for the Ontario Fruit-Growers' As- 
sociation, their good offer did not get noised 
abroad as much as it might have been, and the 
little Turk occurs in such comparatively small 
numbers, that up to the time we left only 10,731 
had been received. 

We have much else to say, and some import- 



ant facts to communicate about this destructive 
insect, but must defer till our experiments are 
completed at the end of the season. Besides 
the parasite which we bred through the kindness 
of Dr. Trimble, we have discovered another 
which has this year destroyed nearly two-thirds 
of the Curculio larvae around St. Louis. 



A NEW HESPERIAN. 



An undescribed species was found by the 
writer, abundantly, on a gi'assy prairie slope, at 
Griunell, Iowa, June 21, 1870. Thirty-one c?, 
two ? were taken, all fresh. I have named it 
from the county, which was named from a 
friendly chief of territorial times. It is of the 
size of Hobomoky without spots, and is dark 
brown, with ochre-yellow on front border and 
nerves of fore wings; the underside of the hind 
wings is thickly powdered with pale yellow or 
ashy-white, with conspicuous white veins. The 
writer would exchange for butterflies not refer- 
red to in his list in the American Entomolo- 
gist, April, 1870. The following is a more 
particular description ol this new species : 

Hesperia PowESHEiK— n. 8P.— (jT and $. Ex- 
pands 1. 16— 1.26. Primaries trigonal, the edgeh neariy 
Htralghl, angles but slightly rounded, and the length of 
the costal border to the internal as 68 to 40 . Seconda- 
ries more rounded. Ground-color of both win^s, above 
and beneath, silky dark brown, with a purplish gloss. 
Primaries are ochre between the co«tal eai;;e and subcos- 
tal nerve, the color narrowing and shading off near the 
apex, where it appears mostly , if at all, on the uervules, 
as it does also brokenly and in varying amount on the 
basal half or more ot the other nerves, nervules and 
inteiual border. Sometimes the yellow scales encroach 
on the interspaces. Secondaries with long yellowish 
hairs, tinged green or brown in different lights, on the 
basal and central area. Fringe on both wings, above, 
is black in most ^ specimens, with an intermixture of 
yellowish -white anci ashy scales on the primaries, ex- 
cept near the angles; in a few individuals this inter- 
mixture, with pale roots and tips, occurs on both wings, 
more distinctly so in one of the two $ $ collected, the 
fringe becoming almost wholly gray in the other. 

The underside of the primaries has the costal color 
somewhat narrower ana paler, and the color is still 
paler as it is carried around the apex, whence it ex- 
tends, most often narrowly, two-thirds the length of 
the external edge, shading into the ground color to- 
wards the disk; and there Is a similar but lighter color 
on the branches of the subcostal and median nerves, 
sometimes almost gray . The underside of the seconda- 
ries is occupied by ochrey hairs and scales between the 
costal edge and costal nerve, and has a thick s|)rinkling 
of either pale yellow or hoary white (variable) in all the 
interspaces except a segment between the internal nerve 
and the second nervure therefrom, widening of course 
from the base to the exterior edge, where it occupies 
one-third of the marginal length; this space is wholly 
dark brown. -All the other nervures are conspicuous 
with hoary white, and the internal border lilcewise. 
At a little distance, the surface generally seems to be 
nearly white. 

The body, of the same length as the secondaries, is 
of the ground color above, with profUse yellow hairs on 
the sides of the thorax anu top of the head, and is white 
and hairy beneath. The hairy palpi, the antennas and 
the legs simply correspond in all particulars with the 
coloring of the body, above, laterally and beneath, with 
tho exception that the le^ have not a dark shade 
of brown, and the short antennae, which are clubbed 



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only, show mostly the yellow, and are not annulated. 
On the posterior legs are two pairs of short spurs, the 
lower equal, the upper differing in length by one-fourth . 
White encircles the eyes, obscurely so above. 

The Q differs fl-om the male in a larger proportion of 
light color in the (Hnge, above and beneatli. In both, 
on the inferior surface, the basal half of the fringe is 
ashy white, then nearly black, and barely tipped with 
yellowish white. The $ antennae show annulations. 

This Hesperian agrees in some striking points 
with H, altemata, Gr. and Rob. (Georgia) 
Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, Vol. I, page 3, but has 
marked differences. H. W. Parker. 

Grinmell, Iowa. June 23, 1870. 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE-YINE.-No. 10. 
The Common Yellow Bear. 

(SpUosoma virginica, Fabr.) 
[Fig. 170.1 




Colors— (a) Yellow or brown; (ft) shiny brown; (c) white, 
black and orange. 

This is one of our most common North Ameri- 
can insects. The moth (Fig. 170, c) which is 
veiy generally dubbed " the Miller," frequently 
Hies into our rooms at ni^ht ; and there are quite 
a number of our Western farmers who, somehow 
or other, have got the idea that tliis ** Miller" is 
the insect that infests their bee-hives — that it is, 
in short, the Bee-moth. Of course no such ridi- 
culous idea could for a moment prevail among 
the readers of the Entomologist; but, unfor- 
tunately, thei-e are yet many good souls in the 
country^ who think they know all about Bugs, 
and who would scout the idea of taking a journal 
devoted primarily to the history and habits of 
these little beings. 

Though the moth is so common, how few 
persons ever think of it as the parent of that most 
troublesome of caterpillars, which HaiTis has so 
aptly termed the Yellow Bear (Fig. 170, a). These 
caterpillars are quite frequently found on the 
Grape-vine, and when about one-fourth grown 
bear a considerable resemblance to the mature 
larva of the Grape-vuie Plume figured in our last 
number. They seldom appear, however, till that 
species has disappeared, and may always be 



distinguished fix)m it by their semi-gregarious 
habit at this time of their life, and by living 
exposed on tlie leaf (generally the under side) 
instead of forming a retreat within which to Mdc 
themselves, as docs the Plume. 

The Yellow Bear is found of all sizes from 
June to October; and though quite fond of the 
Vine, is by no means confined to that plant. It 
is, in fact, a very general feeder, being found on 
a great variety of herbaceous plants, both wild 
and cultivated, as butternut, lilac, beans, peas, 
convolvulus, corn, currant, gooseberry, cotton, 
sunflower, plantain, smart -weed, verbenas, 
geraniums, and almost any plant with soft, 
tender leaves. These caterpillars are indeed so 
indififerent as to their diet, that we have actually 
known one to subsist entirely, from the time it 
cast its last skin till it spun up, on dead bodies 
of the Camel Cricket {Mantis Carolina), 

When young they are invariably bluish-white, 
but when full-gi*own they may be found either of 
a pale cream-color, yellow, light brown, or very 
dark brown, the diflerent colors often appearing 
in the same broo<l of worms, as we have proved 
by experiment. Yellow is the most common 
color, and in all the varieties the venter is dark, 
and thero is a characteristic longitudinal black 
line, more or less interrupted, along each side of 
the body, and a transveree line of the same color 
(sometimes faint) between each of the joints: 
the head and feet aro ochre-yellowy and the hairs 
spring from dark yellow warts, of which tiiere 
are 10 on each joint, those on joint 1 being 
scarcely distinguishable, and those on joint 12 
coalescing. There are two broods of these 
worms each year, the broods intermixing, and 
the last passing the winter in the chrysalis state. 
The chrysalis (Fig. 170, h) is formed in a trivial 
cocoon, constructed almost entiroly of the cater- 
pillar's hairs, which, though held in position hy 
a few very fine silken threads, are fastened to- 
gether mainly by the interlocking of their minute 
barbs, and the manner in which tlie caterpillar 
interweaves them. 

The moth makes its appearance as early as the 
first of May in the latitude of St. Louis, but may 
often be found much earlier in stove-warmed 
rooms. It is easily recognized by its pure white 
color, by its abdomen being orange above, with 
three rows of black spots, and by the black dots 
on its wings. These dots vai-y in number, there 
being usually two on each of the front and tlirec 
on each of the hind wings, though sometimes 
they are all more or less obsolete, except that on 
the disk of the front wings. 

It is fortunate for us that this caterpillar is 
attacked by a large number of insect parasites; 



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for, were this not the case, it would soon multiply 
to such a degree as to be beyond our control. 
We know of no less than five distinct parasites 
which attack it — some living singly in the body 
of the caterpillar, and issuing from the chiysalis 
without spinning any cocoon of their own ; othei's 
living singly in the body, but forming a cocoon 
of their own inside the chrysalis of their victim, 
and still others infesting the caterpillar in great 
numbei's, and completely filling the chrysalis 
with their pupae.* 

The best time to desti-oy these worms is soon 
after they hatch from their little round yellow 
eggs, which are deposited in clusters; for, as 
already intimated, they then feed together. 

With the exception of the Grape-beiTy Moth 
{Penthina vitivorana, Pack.f), of which we gave 
an account, which it is needless to repeat, on 
pp. 177-179 of our first volume, we have now 
described all the insects belonging to the Scaly- 
winged flics (Lepidoptera) that can be considered 
injuiious to the Vine. There are several other 
species of Lepidoptera which may occasionally 
be met with in the vineyij-rd, but they are either 
very general feeders, which only exceptionally 
sti-ay on to the Vine, or of such rare occuiTence 
that they cannot possibly be included in the list 
of G rape- vine depredators. In our next we shall 
commence on the different Beetles (Colcoptera) 
that belong to this list of bad Grape Bugs. 

* For the benefit of the scientific reader we enumerate the 
Are parasites which we have ascertained to Infest ttiis cater- 
pillar: 1. Anomalon Jlavicome (Brulle. Hj-m. IV, p. 171). 
i, IchneutMn tubcydneuiy Cress. (Proc. Ent. Soc. Phlui., Ill, 
p. 148), and Jch.pullatut, Cress. (Pro. E. S. P., lU, p. 14«), 
described as distinct species, but puUatut is evidently the 
Hiale and iubcyaneut the female of the same species, as we 
have bred from SpiUnomm virpinica three males all answer- 
ing to the description of the former, and two females both 
answering to the description of Uie latter. 3. Ichneumon 
tignatipe*. Cress. (Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, I, p. 308). 4 
Ophion bUineatui, Say . (Ent. of N. A . . I . p. S70) . 6 A small 
undetermined, and probably nndescribed, Dipteron belong- 
ing to the MuscAD.c 

tMr. F C. Zeller, of Stettin, Prussia, alter examining 
specimens of our N. A. species bred Irom grapes, informs 
us that this moth is nothing more than tlie European LobeHa 
botrana^ which has long been known to ii^iure grapes in 
Southern Europe. Our Grape-berry Moth is therefore an 



imported species, and, in accordance with the law of 
priority, must henceforth be scientifically known by the 
Knropefl^ name. Thus we have still another; of our most in- 



jurious species to add to the list of Imported Insects, and 
there is so great a similarity between our insect fauna and 
that of Southern Europe, that a knowledge of their species is 
eUten of great advantage in determining our own. 

• ♦ • 

In a lecture on " Insect Pests," delivered by 
Mr. Treat, before the Vineland Agricultural and 
Hoi-ticultural Society, the lecturer advised his 
hearers to carry all the toads they can find into 
Uie garden, as they devour immense quantities 
of insects. A toad will swallow the largest 
specimen of a tomato worm, although sometimes 
he evidently has a hard time of it. 

Erratum.— Page 244, col. 2, line 24, for "(C. 
thyoxdesy read "(C distichay Linn.)" 



ENTOMOIiOGICAL JOTTINGS. 

C We propoM to pabliah fVom time to time, under the above headinK. raeh 
extracts from the letten of oor coneipondents as contain entomological tkcU 
worthy to be recorded, on account either of their edentillc or of their practl- 
oal importance. We hope our readere will contribute each their eeTerai mites 
towards the seneral fbnd ; and in ease ther are not perftctlr certain oi the 
names ol the Insects, the peculiarities of whkh arc to be mentioned. wiU sand 
specimens along m order that each speeies may be duly IdentifledO 

Cypress-Gall — The Wrong Tree. — Savan- 
nahf Tenn., June 24, 1870. — ^The Cypress-gall 
which I sent you, and which you figured and 
described on page 244 of this volume, was taken 
from the Taxodium distichum of Kichard (Cup- 
ressjis distichay Linn.) instead of the Cupressus 
tkyoidesoilAvLXividxxQy as stated in the description. 
The latter, growing in the lower Southern 
States, is a small tree known to us by the com- 
mon name of White Cedar, while the former is 
our Cypress of the swamps — the only tree we 
refer to as Cypress when not talking science. I 
take all the blame to myself, for the mistake 
doubtless grew out of my neglect to mention 
upon what kind of cypress the gall occurred. 

J. P. S. 

Fighting Curculio— Cen/ra/ta, llU.y May 18, 
1870.— We have made a grand war on the Cur- 
culio, and I think have saved our peach crop. 
The Little Turk has been caught here by thou- 
sands this season, and we never had so fine a 
prospect. M. M. Hooton. 

Radish Maggots— iV^ett^arA;, N. J, Jane 8, 70. 
— I send you some pnpse of Radish Maggots. 
These maggots spoil the greater part of my first 
crop of radishes, operating a little below the 
surface of the ground. At first there is a streak, 
slightly discolored, near the centre of the radish 
about an inch under ground, and soon there 
will be a depression opposite that part. In a 
little time this part of the radish will be com- 
pressed in size, and within, it will be perforated 
through and through, jast as the apple is with 
the Apple Maggot ( Trypeta pomoneUay Walsh.) 
Radishes planted later do not suflfer. We now 
have the second planting, and it is almost free. 
I gathered the whole crop that was infected, 
putting them in boxes of earth, and then cover- 
ed them about two inches with more earth, and 
I have hundreds in the pupa state — some to send 
to you, more for myself, and still more for some 
pet chickens that follow me closely in all my 
garden operations. Occasionally I have to 
shoot some roving torn cats, that think young 
chickens their game. Such dead cats I allow to 
lie in the walks, as a warning to other cats, till 
they become too offensive to be longer above 
ground. They are then buried about a foot deep. 
In eight days more, if the weather is hot, the 
little chickens scratch over those graves from 
morning till night. Sometimes I help them 



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fSE AliERiCAN 



with a hoe, and how we do find maggots, and 
how the chickens do grow as long as the mag- 
gots last ! What think you about the morality 
of the transaction ? The maggots eat the cats, 
the chickens eat the maggots, and we eat the 
chickens — so it goes. 1 feel no compunctions 
till it comes to killing the chickens. 

I. P. Trimble. 

[These Iladlsh Maggots we have long since 
been acquainted with . They are the larvae of the 
Radish-maggot Fly {Anthomyia raphani, Harr.), 
a little ash-colored, two-winged fly, with a sil- 
very gray face and copper-colored eyes. The 
best way of destroying them is by means of 
hot water.— Ed.] 

Chip-trap Curculio Catching— iVeirarA:, 2f. 
J. — ^You are right in stating that the St. Joseph 
method of catching Curculios can only be useful 
during a few days early in the season. I have 
been testing this trap business in the fruit 
orchards of my friend Pierson, following all the 
direction^ given. I catch a few spiders, a good 
many lulea, but never a Curculio. 

I. P. Trimble. 

Depths to which Cicadas go — Savannah, 
Tenn.y June 16, '70. — ^I am now opei'ating in the 
Indian mounds for the Smithsonian Institute, 
and in digging we frequently take up Cicada 
pupsB from the solid earth, from six to nine feet 
below the surface. J. P. Stelle. 

Ego op Imported Currant- worm not Insert- 
ed IN Leaf — London, Can,— I have looked into 
that matter I referred to before, regarding the 
eggs of Nematus ventricosus, and have fully 
satisfied myself that they are not imbedded in 
the leaf-stalk at all, but fastened very slightly 
to the surface. Wm. Saunders. 

Ash-gray Blister Beetle on Beans — Chica- 
go, Ills,, June 24, 70. — I raise in my garden 
two patches of a large bean, which is little known 
here. It is eaten green, and known in Germany 
by the name of "Grosze Bohnen ." I have had the 
greatest trouble to save them, and have picked 
off" thousands of Lytta cinerea, Fabr., every 
morning. It is wonderful how they continue 
to come in a straight line, pouncing on the leaves 
and greedily devouring them. I have wondered 
how they manage to find out a strange plant so 
unerringly. Chas. Sonne. 

[Mr. Walsh, many years ago, had a similar 
experience in attempting to raise this bean, 
which is popularly known as the English Broad 
Bean. He found it almost impossible to keep 
ofi* those Ash-gray Blister-beetles. They must, 
we think, be. guided by an exquisitely keen 
sense of smell. — ^Ed.] 



The Three-lined Potato BEETLE---4m€86ttry, 
Mass., June 26, 1870.— Enclosed I send you 
specimens of insects that are injuring my Early 
Hose potato vines to a considerable extent The 
Round Reds have a few individuals of the sings 
(as I call them), and considerable numbers of 
the beetle. My attention was first called to tiie 
Early Rose vines by seeing the leaves curled 
upward from the sides to the centre; others were 
rolled up on one side, and were dead and dry. 
While opening the leaves, my attention was 
called to the enclosed striped beetle, which I at 
first took for the Striped Cucumber Beetle, but, 
on catching one, its red body and dark brown 
stripe, in place of the black body and straw- 
colored stiipe of the Cucumber Beetle, showed 
me the mistake. On looking further, I found 
scores of them, some feeding singly, others 
coupled, on the vines. I found small nests of 
eggs in double rows, which I take to be the eggs 
of the beetles. In hunting for the beetles I first 
discovered the slugs, which were covered with 
their own excrements, and were of different 
sizes, some quite small and others full grown. 
I have never met with this insect before, and 
have asked one or two other persons about them, 
but no one seems to know them. Please inform 
me what they are. Jason E. Cowden. 

[The insect is the Three-lined Leaf-beetle 
criR. 171.] (Lema trilineata, Olivier), a po^ 
trait of which we herewith repro- 
duce (Fig. 171). A full account of 
it, with illustrations, may be found 
on page 26 of our first volume. A 
second brood of the larv», or slugs, 
will appear in August. So, be 
prepared for them. — Ed.] 

Trout Web-worm — Mawford, 2f. T. June 
10, 70.— After I wrote to you last about Seth 
Green's "spinning worm," I endeavored to ob- 
tain some more specimens ; but a slight rise of 
water in the stream seemed to have the effect of 
sweeping them all away. Now, however, anew 
batch is making its appearance. The worms 
are to be seen by thousands on the stones m 
swift running water. I am endeavoring to hatch 
some of them out, and will soon send you (if Jl 
am successful) specimens of the worm, the case 
and the fiy. I will pack some in glycerine, and 
also endeavor once more to send you some alive. 

A. S. Collins. 

[Our correspondent, Sarah J. McBride, of 
your town, has, by praiseworthy perseverance, 
succeeded in rearing the perfect fiy from these 
Web-worms, and has been kind enough to send 
us specimens. It is, as we supposed it would 




Color*— Palo yel- 
low and black. 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



275 



be, a species of Stmulium, and appears to be an 
nndescribed species. As soon as we can find 
time to make the proper investigations, we shall 
pablish a description of it. — ^Ed.] 



THE WALSH ENTOMOLOGICAL CABINEr. 

We are very glad to learn that Dr. LeBaron 
has at last been successful in getting the State 
of Illinois to purchase the valuable collection 
of our late associate. We have not yet received 
any particulars of the purchase ; but the cabinet 
has been temporarily deposited in the museum 
of the Chicago Academy of Science. There 
may it long remain I No better place could be 
fouud for it. Accessible as it is from all parts 
of the State; secure in a perfectly fire-proof 
buihling, and guarded by a curator who can 
appreciate it— we rest satisfied of its safety. 
Moreover, those excellent and experienced en- 
tomologists, Messi*s. Charles Sonne and A. 
B»lt<»r, will take pride in its proper preserva- 
tion, in memory of him who with his own 
hands prepared each specimen. 

^ m 

The Currant Worm! — Some of our more 

pretentious horticultur.al exchanges are still 

giving to their readers effectual remedies for 

THE Currant- worm, and publishing accounts 

of how IT was kept from the red and white 

currants by interspersing them with bushes of 

the black variety. When will they learn that 

there are three distinct Currant-worms, and 

that what applies to one will not always apply 

to the others? We expect such looseness from 

corres( ondents, but editors ought to be able to 

give their readers more precise information. 
» ♦ • 

^In speaking of the time of year in which 
an insect first makes its appearance, in one stage 
or another, we have reference, unless otherwise 
stated, to the latitude of St. Louis. It may be 
laid down as a rule which will almost invariably 
hold good, that the same insect will appear 
about a month earUer as far south as South Caro- 
lina, and a month later as far north as Vermont 
and New Hampshire. 

• ♦ • 

BPOur notices of new books and pamphlets 
received, as well as many " Answers to Corres- 
pondents," are unavoidably crowded out of this 
number, for want of space. Such of the latter 
as are most urgent we shall send by mail. 
Articles that have been communicated will be 

published as soon as possible, unless returned. 

• » • 

BT Those who do not understand why the 
present number covers the months of July and 
August, will bear in mind that the volume of 
twelve numbers is to end with the year. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



NOTICE —Such of our corrMpondrntf m have alreadr Mnt, or maj henv 
afUr lend, ramll eoUecttoiM of lnMctt to be named, will ploaae lo idbrm na 
If any of the ipeciei eent are from other tftatee than their oim. LUts of 
Inaecta found in any particular locality are of rapecial interaat, a« throwins 
HRht upon the Keographical di«tribotlon of apeciea But to make them of 
real vaiuo, it la requiaite that we know for certain whether or not all the 
inaecta in any particular lift come ftom that particular locality, and if not, 
from what locality they do come. 

We have lately received aeveral amall collectiona of inaecta to be named, 
and have, ao fkr aa our time would allow, anawerni by letter, becauae a lonfc 
atrinff of namea ia dry and nnintercating to the Reneral reader. It require* 
much time to conaclentioualy name the many lota of inaecta that reach ua, 
and hereafter we can take no notice of them, unlea* they are properly 
mounted on entomoloKioal pina. and the locality fnven In which th^ were 
fband. At leaat two aMcimena of each apeciea ahould be aent when te ta poe- 
aible to do ao. and each apeciea ahould be aeparately numbered. When there 
•re but ffew, we ahall anawer •• hervtofore in the columna of the Emtumui.- 



OGiar, but when there are many we ahall a 



rby malL 



IVater L.arTa— /WJ. Mathery Honeoye FaUt, N, Y, 
—The aquatic larva which you found with young trout 
was too much ii\)urod to enable its proper recognition; 
but, from the fhigmentary tail appendages, we suspect 
that it was the larsa of some species of May-fly {Fphem- 
era). These larvaj hide themselves in holes In the banks 
of ponds and rivers, and feed on other minute aquatic 
animals. 

Insects In Com Roots — C, R. Edwards, BowUng 
GreeUf JTy.— The com roots you send seem to have been 
injured by some borer. We found a few maggot lanie 
of some Two-winged Fly in one which was rotten, but 
incline to the belief that they were produced after the 
stalk was killed by the original depredator. We should 
like further specimens of these diseased roots, contain- 
ing, if possible, the culprit. 

Larire Black Potato Beetles—^. S, EUiotty In- 
dustrial Ag^ty Wilton Creek Station^ Kantat Pacific R, R, 
— The large black beetles, which are so effectually 
stripping the potatoes between two and thjee hundred 
miles west of Kansas City , reached us in such a putres- 
cent and mutilated mass, that, notwithstanding our 
olfactory nerves have been well trained to endure such 
things, we were glad to fling the beetles very far from 
us the moment the lid was opened. From the glimpse 
we got of them, however, we have not much doubt but 
they are a large black species of Blister-beetle {Spicaida 
eorvina, Lee.) common to Colorado and the West. Try 
and send us other specimens in alcohol, and not in an 
empty box. 

BestroylniT Clkerry Plant-lice— (?. C. JBracheti, 
Lawrence, Kansas. — ^The same methods employed to de- 
stroy other plant-lice will prove effectual in destroying 
the Cherry Plant-louse. Your method of dipping the 
extremities of the limbs in a weak solution ot * 'concen- 
trated lye" is good, but you could do much better 
work by obtaining a garden syringe, and douchoing the 
trees with the same solution, or with whale-oil soap- 
suds, or even tobacco water. Dr. Hull, of Illinois, 
recommends dusting slacked lime on the trees when the 
dew is on. 

Caterpillars on Grape Vines— (7«o. A. Watson, 
Mdysville, Ky. — One of the caterpillars found on your 
Grape-vines is the larva of the 8-Spotted Forester, which 
we recently flgured (Fig. 100. p. 150). The other is the 
larva of a speckled gray moth {Acronycta oblinata, Sm. & 
Abb.), a very common species, found on a great variety 
of plants, and especially on the common Smart-weed. 

Asli-irray Blister Beetle— P. ff, Foster, Babylon, 
N, y.— The beetles found feeding on the Three-thomed 
Acacia ( Gleditsehia tricanthos) are tlie Ash-gray Blister 
Beetle {Lyttacinerea, Say). 



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THE AMERICAN " 



Specimens Liost— C7. H. BoleHSf PoughhttptU, N, T, 
—The specimens you sent escaped on their way, as we 
found no signs of insects in the peaches. From your 
description of it as a **dark brown worm wliich bores 
into the stems of peach trees, and into the peaches them- 
nelves," we conclude it must be one of two Innccts; but 
of course there is very little use in guessing, and we 
shall therefore be glad to receive other specimens. The 
striped livid-brown and yellow larva of Oortyna nit^la, 
known popularly as the Stalk Borer, infests peach twigs 
as well as the stems of a variety of other plants (See A. 
E., I, p. 206). But there is another smaller brown 
worm that is doing considerable harm the present 
year, which infests both the fruit and twigs. This worm 
produces a small, dark-gray, undetermined moth, of 
which we have lately received specimens— bred from 
the twigs of the peach and the fruit of the nectarine— 
from Mr. J. Pettit, of Grimsby, Ontario. This last is, 
in all probability, the insect which has troubled you. 

irmte iriUow \¥orm—S, H. JT.— The black, 
slug-like worms, with six black homy legs and fourteen 
pale blue prolegs, and ornamented with a row of twelve 
cream-colored spots along each side, are the lar\'se of a 
small black four- winged fly, kno>vn as Nematxu verUralis, 
Say. Its transformations were first described by us, in 
an old number of the Prairie Farmer, This insect is 
quite abundant the present season in many parts of 
Missouri. It occurs -on different species of willow, but 
being very partial to the white willow, it may appro- 
priately be called the White Willow Worm. The same 
remedies used for the Imported Currant Worm {Nematui 
V€ntrico$ue)f or for the conmion Rose Slug (Stlandria 
rosm), will prove effectual for this willow worm. 

Bark-lice on Grap<!«Tine, and Raspberry 
Safr*ny — €aml. Thomptan, M.D., Albion , Jlh.— 
The large brown scale-insects on your Grape-cjines are 
the Grape-vine Bark-louse {Lecanium [Pulvifiarid] vitisy 
Linn.), a tolerably common insect both in this country 
and in Europe. The white cottony substance encloses 
the eggs of the female, and these eggs were hatching 
when they reached us. The translucent green, sprang- 
ling, false-caterpillar on the Raspberry is, in all proba- 
bility, the lar\'a of the Raspberry Saw-fly {Selandria 
rubiy Harr.), and may easily be destroyed by dusting 
with air-slacked lime, or what is better, with white hel- 
libore. 

CanlKer-'vrorm Trap—/. JB. Hanibly, PortsnunUhf 
Ji, /.—Thanks for your description of the trap used in 
your neighborhood. It is good, but too expensive, and 
there are several others, both patented and unpatented, 
which are preferable for many reasons. Wc cannot, 
therefore, publish your description; else our columns 
would soon be flooded with many others Irom parties 
interested. 

CiuryeaUdfl Named— «9. W. Oarman,— The chrys- 
alids of which you send sketches are— 1st, that of the 
Girdled Sphinx {Macrosila ctngulata, Linn.); 2nd, that of 
either the 5-Spotted Sphinx {S. quinquemacalata^ Haw.), 
or of the Carolina Sphinx {S, Carolina, Linn.) 

Specimens L.o«l— iV^ S, Mead, Chandlerville, His,— 
The Alder-galls you speak of never came to hand. Try 
and send more. 

If o Pine for Sale— <S. If. II., Clarinda, Jowa,—Wc 
have no pins for sale. See what was said in answer to 
**G. C. B." on page 245. 



Apple-lree Borer ; Tariatione in tMe Twe- 
•friped Saperda— i>. £. TFmt, Lacon, JlU.—Ym 
send figures and description of the perfect form of a 
Round-headed Apple-tree Borer, bred by you from a 
Duchess of Oldenburg. This specimen has the whole 
underside pearly-gray, and has two cinnamon-colored 
spots on the shoulders, one on each of the white bands, 
and you think that, as these characters are not men- . 
tioned by Harris, your beetle must be distinct ttom the 
Saptrda hiviUata which he describes. Such, however, 
is not the case, and your specimen is but a variety ol 
Say's Saperda liviUdtay the same insect which was pre- 
viously named eandida by Fabriclus. We have often 
beaten this variety from Crab-apple trees, as well as tbe 
variety described by Harris, which has no shoulder 
spots and is pure white underneath ; and if you had 
bred fifty specimens instead of a solitary individual, 
you would doubtless have found both forms. The 
variety with the spots is, if anything, more conunou iu 
the West than that without them; but the latter is by 
far the most common in tlie Eastern States, owing, 
perhaps, to the fact that the thorn bushes have become 
more scarce there. Some Eastern entomologists, not 
aware of the above facts, have attempted to grind out 
two species from these two forms, but the fkct that 
individuals are frequently met with by collectors, with 
a spot on one elytron and none on the other, is sufficient 
to prove that the spots have no specific value. The 
Tarnished Plant Bug {Capms ohlineatue, Say), which 
has injured your crops to the amout of $1,000, is very 
common this year all over the country. We shall have 
something to say about it in our next number. 

The Plnm Cnrcniio Breed* in Apple — JS» Lem- 
inffy South Pasty Ills. —The eight Curculios which you 
bred from five apples are the genuine Plum Curculio 
( Conotrachelus nenuphar). The assertion which Dr. Hull 
is said to have made to the people of St. Joseph, Mich., 
namely, that this insect does not breed in the apple, is, 
of coiu*se, erroneous. He made the same strange as- 
sertion in his essay on the Curculio, and in TiUon^s Jour- 
nal of ffoHicuUure for June, 1808. Since 1867 we have 
repeatedly bred it from apples, and published the fiict 
on page 114 ot the transactions of your State Horticul- 
tural Society for that year. 



€e€ropia -wortn—J, F. Thompson, Corinth , Mist* 
—The immense worm which sometimes strips your 
apple-trees, is the Cecropia worm, of which we recently 
gave a portrait (Fig. 62, p. 100). 

GIsantic Rhinoceros Beetle— Z. 0. Shaffer , 
Flizaheth, /«<£.- The immense beetle you send is a dark 
variety of the Gigantic Rhinoceros-beetle {Dynctits 
TUyuty Linn.) Some specimens are uniformly dark 
brown ; others pale green, with but a few black 
blotches. 

Roman-nosed Pupa- Z*. V, Van WinlUy Pleat- 
ant Bill, JTan*.— The pupa found attached to a Siberian 
Crab, and of the exact form of one given in our last 
number (Fig. 155), belonged either to the Ursula But^ 
terfly {Limenitit ursula) or to the Disippus Butterfly 
(Z. ditipput). It was dead when it reached us; but, 
from the fact that (Trsula often feeds on the Crab, while 
DisippuM is confined more especially to the Willow 
family, it may with tolerable assurance be referred to 
the former species. 



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§0tanwal ^ti^uximtnt 



Dr. GEORGE VASEY, Editor, RIclivIew, Uls. 



ORIGIN OP PRAIRIE VEGETATION. 

Various theories have been propounded to ac- 
count for the existence of the Western prairies. 
By some they have been attiibuted to the an- 
nual burning of the grass by Indians ; by some 
to the extreme fineness of the prairie soil, and 
by others to humidity and sourness of the soil, 
&c. One of the most recent theories on this 
subject is that of Prof. Winchell, whose views 
are developed in an article in the American 
Journal of Science and Art, Nov., 1864; and 
again presented, somewhat amplified, in his 
recent work, entitled "Sketches of Creation." 

These views are peculiar, and as the points 
involved come somewhat within the field of our 
department, we propose to discuss the principal 
propositions which Prof. 'Winchell advances. 

The first proposition is that " the prairies are 
of lacustrine origin;" from which statement 
we see no reason to dissent, especially as it ap- 
pears to be the view entertained by geologists 
generally. 

The second proposition is that "lacustrine 
sediments contain no living germs." This is a 
somewhat sweeping assertion. Let us consider 
it a moment. It is well known that lake borders 
are the chosen locations of very extensive vege- 
tation. Wherever there is a shallow margin, 
some species of plants find a favorite home. 
Extensive patches of gigantic bulrushes {Scirpus 
validus, Vahl) grow in water six or eight feet 
deep, and stretch up sevei-al feet above the 
water, spreading out in many cases a mile 
inward. Great beds of Water-lilies {Nymphea 
and Nuphar), and allied plants, spread their 
broad leaves and expand their beautiful fiowers 
on the bosom of the tranquil lake. Numerous 
kinds of Pond-weeds, (Potomageton) Eel-grass, 
Water- weed (AnacJiaris) , &c., form large sub- 
terranean meadows, through which the canoe 
of the Indian finds it difiicult to penetrate. Ilere, 
too, on the lake margin, the Indian finds his 
spontaneous fields of wild rice (Zizania aquati- 
ca, Ii.) Sagittarias, Sparganiums, and water 
weeds of various kinds, inhabit the shallow 
borders in abundance. Every year these plants 
mature an immense crop of seeds, which, except^ 
ing such as are devoured by birds and other 
animals, fall into the water, and generally by 
their own gravity sink to the bottom, where 
they find, in the soft mud, a suitable place for 



their future germination. We know not how 
many of these seeds are carried out into the 
deep portions of the lake, beyond the reach of 
those conditions necessary to their gi'owth. 
Evidently Natui*e intended these seeds to ger- 
minate at the bottom of the shallow lake margin, 
and the only means they have for reaching that 
locality is their specific gravity. As in the case 
of land plants, Nature provides a surplus of 
seeds in order to insure a continuance of the 
species in spite of all ordinary contingencies. 

We then present a counter-proposition to that 
of Professor W., viz: that liicustrine sediments 
abound with living germ^. We do not, how- 
ever, desire to make use of this proposition in 
accounting for the vegetation of the prairies, 
tor whenever our lake bottom is drained it fur- 
nishes no longer the conditions necessary for 
the germination and growth of these plants, and 
tlie seeds would probably soon perish. But, 
whenever the soil is thus drained, the aquatic 
plants are speedily succeeded by others adapted 
to the new circumstances, the germs or seeds of 
which are introduced from outside. 

The third proposition of Prof. Winchell is as 
follows: ** Diluvial deposits, on the contrary, 
are found everywhere replete with living germs." 
By diluvial deposits we undei*stand those collec- 
tions of sand, gravel, clay, &c., which have been 
carded down by fioods, or heaped together by 
violent action of the sea, or have been plowed 
up before the onward march of glaciers. Such 
deposits. Professor W. says are replete with 
living germs. In other words, they are filled 
with living seeds. This proposition is illus- 
trated by some examples which seem pertinent, 
and by some which do not. 

It is stated that forests cleai^ed of their timber 
are almost ** always followed by the appearance 
of certain unwonted plants known as fire-weeds, 
and it can hardly be doubted that the germs 
existed in the soil ready to germinate whenever 
free sunlight, warmth and atmosphenc air 
should be permitted to rouse their vital energy." 
The term fii*e-weed is commonly rather loosely 
applied to several different plants, chiefiy to 
those botanically known as Erechtites hieraci- 
folia and Erigeron canadenae. These are al- 
most as common as thistles, and like them have 
light feathery seeds, adapted to be earned to 
great distances by winds. Now, it appears to 
us to be a good rule to explain any phenomenon 
by the simplest and most obvious causes ; and 
to our mind it seems much more natural to 
account for the appearance of the fire-weeds by 
the introduction of the seeds by means of winds, 
than to do so by supposing that the seeds of 



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THE AMERICAN 



those plants had lain doimant in the earth for 
generations. 

The appearance of the Loblolly Pine npon 
abandoned plantations in the Southern States 
presents to our view no greater difficulty. The 
Professor inquires, "Let the waters of a brine satu- 
rate a meadow, and how long before we would 
witness the appearance of Scirpus maritimus, 
Triglochin maritimumj or some other salt-loving 
plant, whose germs, unless spontaneously de- 
veloped, must have lain dormant in the soil at 
a greater or less depth." We cannot answer 
the inquiry as to how long, but we feel well 
assured that so much time will elapse that we 
shall not have to accept the dilemma of spon- 
taneous generation or preexistent germs. One 
of the plants mentioned, Triglochin maritimum, 
is not well chosen inasmuch as it occurs in vari- 
ous places in the interior of the country, from 
the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, without 
any regard to salt springs. It is true that, in the 
vicinity of salt springs in the interior, we often 
find plants which are otherwise confined to 
the sea coast, but this is not more difficult to 
explain than the occurrence of strictly Alpine 
plants on widely separated mountain peaks. 
We will not undertake to say how every 
mountain, sea, river, lake, forest and plain is 
first stocked with \U appropriate vegetation. 
We confess ignorance. 

Again, Professor W. says: *' How soon does 
a dressing of undecomposed muck or peat de- 
velop a crop of acid-loving sorrel, and how 
readily it is again repressed by a dressing of 
some alkaline manure." Now, we are not 
very well informed in agricultural chemistry, 
nor in practical agriculture, but we would like 
to know if this method of producing and destroy- 
ing sori*el can be relied upon, particularly in a 
country like ours, where sorrel (Bumex aceto- 
sella) is considered to be a foreign weed. We 
know plenty of places where it has made its 
appearance without any such agency, and have 
no doubt that many unfortunate farmers will be 
ovei joyed to learn that it can be easily repressed, 
if not eradicated, by the application of a dress- 
ing of alkaline manure. 

One more assertion under this proposition 
deserves notice, it is this : " Earth thrown out 
of cellars and wells is generally known to send 
up a ready crop of weeds, and not nnfrequently 
of species previously unknown in that spot." 
This statement is unsuetained by any instances, 
except under the next proposition, where a case 
is related of the appearance of some Beach-plum 
trees on ground that had been covered by sand 
braught up from a well at the depth of twenty 



feet. It is concluded that, inasmuch as no other 
Beach-plum trees were known to be within forty 
miles of the place, the seeds of these trees must 
have been brought up with the sand taken from 
the well. This example is hardly sufficient to 
sustain so general and sweeping a statement. 
But let us bring it to the test of experience. 

There are many thousand cellai-s and wells 
dug every year, there are thousands of places 
where the drift has been exposed in grading for 
railroads, hundreds of places where the soil has 
been brought up from great depths in digging 
for coal and minerals — and we ask, with what 
result ? In all this country how many new 
species have been brought to light by these 
means ?. We venture to assert not one. Is it 
true that earth brought up from even a few feet 
in depth sends up a "ready crop of weeds," for 
whose appearance we cannot readily account by 
the aid of winds, birds and water? 

We admit that there arc some facts connected 
with the succession of forest trees that seem 
difficult to explain ; but, even if we admit that, 
in such cases, the seeds of one kind of trees have 
lain dormant in the soil for the lifetime of 
another kind, and then have taken their turn in 
the production of a forest of a diffei*ent kind, 
the adoption of that view does not give license 
to the opinion that these seeds would have re- 
tained their vitality for a geological age, if 
buried hundreds of feet beneath the surface. 

Some very absurd stories have been related 
respecting the vitality of seeds, and once started, 
these stories seem to pass without a question. 

Even Prof. W. is compelled to doubt some of 
the stories which he brings to the support of bis 
theory ; for instance, that of a beautiful Dahlia 
having grown from a biilb found in the hands of 
a mummy 2000 years old. It is also stated that 
**it is generally believed that wheat is now 
growing in England which was derived from 
grains folded in the wrappings of Egyptian 
mummies, where they must have lain for two 
or three thousand years." We confess that we 
fully share the doubts of Prof. Gray on this 
subject. 

We now come to the foui'th proposition of 
Professor W., viz: "The living germs of the 
diluvial deposits were buried during the glacial 
period." 

The argument in support of this statement is 
that the fossil plants which have been discovered 
in the Tertiary deposits show a correspondence 
of genera, and in some cases of species, with 
those of the present date. During this Tertiary 
period the seeds of plants accumulated in the 
soil ; then came the change of climate and de- 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



279 



struction of vegetation which attended the 
glacial period, during which the surface was 
plowed up hy glaciers, and afterward exposed 
to the commotion of the sea, which overspread 
the laud, burying everything in promiscuous 
ruin ; but yet by this very means storing away 
the seeds which, when brought to the surface 
after the lapse of a geological age, are possessed 
of vitality and able to reclothe the barren earth 
with verdure and beauty I Who can say that 
this prolonged vitality of seeds is impossible ? 
Who can say that it possesses the slightest degree 
qf probability? 

Most cordially do we assent to the following 
observations of Prof. W: "It must be confessed 
that the crucial observation is yet to be made. 
If vegetable germs exist in the drift they can be 
discovered beforehand ; and until they have been 
actually detected, it is probable that even the 
convincing facts cited above will fail to secure 
universal assent to our proposition involving 
the prolonged vitality of the seeds of preglacial 
vegetation." It is the misfortune of science 
that too many plausible theories have been 
promulgated without first obtaining the crucial 
experiment. 

We pass to the consideration of the fifth prop- 
osition : " In proportion as the diluvial surface 
became exposed, the flora of the preglacial epoch 
was reproduced." We may readily believe this 
to have been the case, if the fact be established 
that " the diluvial deposits were everywhere 
replete with living germs." 

It will be observed that this proposition ap- 
plies, not to the prairie region, but to the older 
portions of the continent. The former became 
•*a vast inland sea, upon whose bottom gathered 
the lifeless sediments that were to be the soil of 
the praines." When this surface was finally 
drained, it was left ''a naked and lifeless expanse 
of vegetable slime," containing no vegetable 
germs, and by its nature preventing the develop- 
ment of any, in the diluvial matter below. 

But we hasten to the consideration of the 
final proposition — ** The vegetation which finally 
appeared on the drained lacustrine areas was 
extra-limit al, and was more likely to be herba- 
ceous than arboreal." The substance of this 
proposition seems to be that the vegetation 
which first clothed the prairie region was intro- 
duced from beyond its limits, by the three 
natural agencies of winds, running water and 
animals ; and that because the seeds of trees, as 
the oak, hickory and walnut, were heavier than 
the seeds of grasses and herbs, they were not so 
easily dispersed, and therefore the prairie became 
covered with herbaceous vegetation exclusively. 



We do not see that in this proposition any use 
has been made of the theory which has been so 
extensively elaborated by Prof. W., unless it be 
to account for the occuiTence of that extra- 
limital vegetation which formed "a shining 
ridge of forest trees around the margins of the 
prairies." Where were these margins ? The 
ancient lake, which finally became the prairie 
region, reached its arms into Iowa, and into 
northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan. 
The margins of this lake, then, were in Iowa on 
the west, and in Indiana and Michigan on the 
northeast. The northern and southern bound- 
aries are not directly given, but we may reason- 
ably suppose them to have been as widely 
separated as those of the west and east. Here, 
then, was a "naked and lifeless expanse of 
vegetable slime." 

Is this meant for a picture of a lake region 
rapidly drained ? If rapidly drained, a large 
portion of the lacustrine. sediment would have 
been washed away, exposing, in thousands of 
places, the diluvial deposits ; the living germs 
with which they were replete would then have 
been exposed to the gonial infiuences of sun and 
air, and would have reproduced the ancient 
vegetation. But no — the vegetation of the 
prairie region was "extra-limital," and brought 
in by the agency chiefiy "of winds, animals and 
loinning waters." We have great faith in these 
agencies, and believe they are sufficient to ac- 
count in great measure for the vegetation, not 
only of the prairie region, but of the continent. 
In the prairie region the forests principally 
form belts around the large water-courses. These 
drainage channels furnished favorable localities 
for the growth of certain kinds of trees, particu- 
larly the Willows and Cotton woods. These 
may be called the pioneers of the forest ; their 
seeds are light, and covered with a cottony 
down, which causes them to be easily carried 
before the winds for great distances. They 
would naturally find lodgment and development 
in advance of many other forest trees with 
heavier seeds. But having established a line of 
trees, or of scattered gi*oves, on the margin of a 
stream, they would be constantly visited by 
birds and animals, which would gradually in- 
troduce the seeds of other forest growths, and 
thus the boundaries of the forest would be ex- 
tended. The ftuit of the wild cherry and plum, 
the mulberry, hackberry. black gum, and many 
other trees, are eagerly eaten by birds, and the 
pits are voided uninjured for purposes of vege- 
tation. 

As the veins of a leaf all converge from the 
circumference to a common point, so the lines 



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278 



those plaots h^ 
generations. 
The appef 
abandoned 
presents to 
Professor- 
rate a me 
witness 
IVigloc 
plant, 
velop 
a gr^ 
the 



f^ 






0' 









some 
in 



asf 

sb 

t 



''/a^ **" ^^^^ ^'^l .a*r/r or quite 



" V^' 
i*'^^ 



tl^' 



\jje Kentucky 



^V^ ^^ 



iffl. 



,0011, 



roll solution of the 
f^>^^ ,fer '^^'t'tho .unuaJ burnings 
'^.?r^''<»'-^'*Sflr influences not yet 



.^./e. 



!^''1!7^'^t^ukeii in'<> consideration in 



«/«!"»* 



osU*''>\,^^ rhomboideusy 
fian^^"^ j^^otih Amorpha 
Jji^^^.t^a Oeum triflorum, 



. eiv^' "e this subject is the peculiar 
'^lf^''^''"jHe vegeU^^^ If it shall ap- 
^ ci^''^^^ ia a class of vegetation which 
^^tb^ ^'^ r'outside of the prairie region, we 
f^uot ^f\g in other influences than those 
^^^ 0en ^jjg theory under consideration. 
^ fer to some of the plants which are 
'^ arded as of this character, viz : 
Viola ddphinifoliay 
caneacens, Baptisia 
_ __ ^ Potentilla arguta, 

j€uc<^^ Jj^ yuccoBfoltum, EulopJius Americanusy 
^^^!*f^fjo ^iddellUi Silphium laciniatum, Silph- 
^^^* ^^ebinthaceunif Ambrosia bidentata and 
*^^lostachya, ffelianthus rigidus and mollis, 
^j.gopsispalmata, Cacalia tuberosa, Hicracium 
i^yfiaipilf^^* Troximon cuspidatum, CastiUeia 
sessilifloi'a Lithospermum longijlorum, Asclepias 
jgullivantii, Flatanihera lencophea. 

We present these criticisms on the theory we 
have been discussing, not in a captious spirit, 
but under a conviction that the cause of science 
demands a most rigorous investigation of all 
gcientific theories. 

Prof.AViuchell,in his "Sketches of Creation," 
manifests a profound knowledge of geological 
phenomena, and has woven together those 
phenomena into a world-history, with such skill 
and with such an agreeable style as to present 
all the charm of a romance. As a popular r€suw4 
of Geology, we believe it will do much good. 

»«-•'- - 

In South America the gigantic Guaduas, an 
arborescent grass, attains a height of 60 to 60 
feet. It blossoms so very seldom, that in the 
course of four years Humboldt was able only 
twice to procure the flowers. 




Swamp Wliite Oak (querciu hicolor) Willd. 

In the June number we gave an account of 
the White, Bur and Post Oaks. Next in order 
we may consider the Southern Overcup (Quercus 
lyrata, Mx.) This is a native of the Southern 
States, from North Carolina to Florida, and west 
to Louisiana. It grows in swamps, and attains 
about the same magnitude and height as the 
Bur Oak of the Western States. Its leaves are 
long and smooth, with oblong, nearly acate, 
lobes, expanded above and contracted below. 
The acorns are nearly round, and are almost 
entirely covered by the cup. 

In this section, also, we may briefly notice 
several species occurring in California, Oregon 
and the Rocky Mountains. The California 
White Oak {Quercus Hindsii, Benth.) is a noble 
tree, having very great resemblance in leaf and 
general appearance to the White Oak of the 
Atlantic States, distinguished particularly by 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



281 



the long, pointed acorn, two inches longhy two- 
thirds of an inch thick. It grows, either singly 
or in open groves, on low mountain slopes, 
along the streams which course down to the 
coast. The wood is porous and hrittle, in th's 
respect quite unlike its congener of the East. 

The Oregon White Oak (Quercus Ganyanaf 
Dong.) is a large tree, sometimes reaching 100 
feet in height. The wood is fine, hard-grained, 
and very white, strong and durable. Its acorns 
are sweet and edible, and constitute an import- 
ant article in the support of the Indians of that 
region . Several other species of less importance 
occur in California and New Mexico. 

But to return to the Eastern part of the con- 
tinent, we next come to a consideration of the 
Chestnut Oaks, which are distinguished from 
the White Oaks by having their leaves toothed, 
but not lobed. 

Here we have, first, the Swamp White Oak 
Quercus bicolor, Willd., and Q. PHnus, var. dis- 
color ^ !Michx.), a figure of which (Fig. 172), 
and of the next species, we copy from Dr. 
Brcndel's article on Oaks, in the 111. Agr. Soc. 
Transactions. 

This tree is very widely diffused through the 
Eastern, Wcptern and Southern States. Its 

[Fig. 173 J 




long, with large and coarse blunt teeth, or with 
a wavy, coarsely toothed margin, with a soft, 
whitish down on the under surface, usually 
tapering to an acute base, and with a very short 
stem or petiole. The acorns are usually elevated 
on a stalk, or peduncle, sometimes an inch long. 
They are quite large, equaling, at least, those 
of the Bur Oak (§. macrocarpay Michx.), with 
the scales of the cup prominent and sometimes 
mossy fringed on the border. In low bottom 
lands it fruits abundantly, and in some of the 
Western States the acorns are an important 
article for the fattening of swine, and with other 
hard fruits of the forest are called mast. 

The Chestnut Oak {Quercus castanea, Muhl., 
and perhaps also of Willd.) (Fig. 173) next 
claims our attention. 

This tree differs from the preceding in its size, 
being a much smaller tree ; in its favorite situa- 
tions, which are rough or rocky hills; in its 

[Fig. 174.] 



Chestnut Oak {Cluerats eastanea, Mutil.) 

favorite abode is in rich, alluvial lands, often 
forming a considerable portion of the forests 
covering the bottom lands of the Western rivers. 
The leaves vary in outline from obovate to ob- 




Clilnqiiapin Oak {querctu prinoides , Willd.) 

leaves, which closely resemble those of ^ the 
Chestnut; and in the acorns, which are only 
about half the size. These points will be readily 
noticed in the accompanying figure (173). 

Dr. Gray, and most botanical authors, describe 
in this group, as a distinct species, aChestnut Oak 
under the name of Quercus PriniLS, L., which is 
said to be **common southward and scarce north- 
ward." We have not yet identified this species 
in the West. A variety of this species, called 



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Kock Chestnut Oak (var. monticola, Mx.) is 
also given as occurring in the £astern States. 
There has evidently been much confusion in the 
nomenclature of tliis group of Oaks. Michaux, 
indeed, united into one species, Q, prinua, L., 
not only the typical form (which is it?), but as 
vai-ieties four forms, several of which are now 
regarded as good species, including those above 
described, and another which is known as the 
Chinquapin Oak, or Dwarf Chestnut Oak. 

This is made a distinct species by Willdenow 
under the name Quercus prinoides, and it is 
considered a good species by late botanical 
authors. It is a shrub of from two to six feet 
in height, with leaves closely resembling those 
of the Swamp White Oak (Q. bicolovy Willd.), 
but much smaller, with an abundance of small, 
sweetish acorns, and is usually found on poor 
soil. It is common in the Eastern States, and 
occurs also in Wisconsin and Iowa, but not, so 
far as we are aware, in Illinois. 

We next take up a group of Evergreen Oaks, 
in which the maturation of the fruit is like the 

[Fig. 176.1 




Live Oak— (QuerctM virera^ Ait.) 

preceding, annual. (Another group of ever- 
green species comes in the next section.) In 
Mexico and California are several species of this 
kind, but on the eastern side of the continent 
we have only one, the Live Oak (§. virens, Ait.) 
This species is confined to the Southern and 
Southwestern States, being found from the coast 
of Virginia southward and westward. It has 



entire or nearly entire leaves, oblong and blunt, 
almost leathery in thickness, shining on the 
upper surface and whitish beneath. They are 
rather small, usually from 4 to G inches long. 
The acorns are oblong and pointed, the sraooth- 
ish cup enclosing about one-third of the fruit. 
This species furnishes valuable timber. Michaox 
and some of the older writers classed this with 
the biennial fruiting species, but DeCandolle 
and later authors place it in the annual fruiting 
section, where, from its swoct acoi*ns and the 
absence of bristle-pointed leaves, it would nata- 
rally seem to fall. 



BOTANICAL MISCELLANY. 

Classification of Oaks. 

Dr. F. Brendel, in the American Naturalist 
of May and June, furnishes a very elaborate 
article on the history, nomenclature and classi- 
fication of American Oaks. He goes back to 
the first mention by a botanical author of an 
American oak, in 1640, and follows up the his- 
tory of new discoveries, and of methodical 
arrangements, down to the latest enumeration 
of DeCandolle. We make the following ex- 
tracts, in which we think our readers will be 
interested : 

Andre Michaux exploited, from 1785 to 1796, 
the forests of Eastern North America. He pub- 
lished in 1801 his '^Iiistoii*e des Chenes de 
TAm^rique Sept^ntrionale,* in which, for the 
first time, is pointed out a character very im- 
portant to the methodical arrangement of the 
Oaks — the time of maturation. His arrange- 
ment is the following: 

I.— The leaves not bristle -pointed; fruit peduncled, 
annual. 

Under this division he fiirther classifies : 

1. Leaves lobed: Quercus oUusilohafmaerooarpaylyraia, 

alba. 

2. Leaves toothed : Q, prinut, with five varieties, 
palusiris, moiUicola, acuminata y pumila and tomen- 
tosa. 

3. Leaves entire : Q. viren$; but the tVuits are, ac- 

cording to him. biennial. (This is corrected in his 
later enumeration . ) 
U.-— Leaves bristle-pointed; ihiit sessile, biennial. 

1. Leaves entire: Q, pheUoty with three varieties, Q. 

dnerea, Q, imbricariaj Q. lauH/olia, 

2. Leaves with short lobes : Q.aquatica, Q, nigru, Q. 

tinctoria^ with two varieties, and Q. triloba, 
2. Leaves deeply lobed: Q. bantnteri, Q, falcatay Q. 
Catesbceif Q. coccinea, Q. patuetris and Q. rubra, 

Persoon, in his "Synopsis Plantarum," 1805, 
enumerates eighty-five oaks, of which forty-six 
are American ; thicty from the eastern part of 
North America, two Californ?an, and fourteen 
Mexican. 

In Pursh's "Flora," 18U, ai-e mentioned 
thirty -four species; all are eastern except 
agri folia, and comprising all the species of 
Michaux, with the additions of the younger 
Michaux and Willdenow. In his arrangement, 
the ripening of the fruit takes the first place as 
a dia^ostic character ; the second, the presence 



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or absence of the bristles of the leaves ; third, 
the form of the leaves. Nuttall, in " Genera of 
North American Plant?/' 1818, follows the same 
disposition, but the number of his species is 
thirty-two. 

Spach, in Vol. XI of his "Histoire Natarelle 
des Veg. Phanerog." 1842, gave a natural ar- 
rangement of the oaks, which is founded on the 
form and duration of the leaves, the cup, and 
the ripening. 

Endlicher maintained the same disposition and 
characters, only changing the name of one of 
the sub-genera, and establishing for it three sub- 
divisions of the sub-genus Lepiaobalanua, which 
includes nearly all our American species. 

De Candolle adopts the three sub-genera of 
Endlicher, adding two more, viz : the sub-genus 
Androgyne, formed by the single Californian 
species, Q. demsifloray Hook, which has the 
flowers of both sexes in an upright spike, male 
above, female below, the abortive ovules at the 
apex of the seed ; the other new sub-genera is 
PasanUj with south Asiatic species. All the 
other American species belong to the sub-genus 
Lepidobalanus. The arrangement in the "Pro- 
dromus" is thus : 

I.— Lepidobalanus. 

i 1. Abortive ovules below; maturation annual. 
*Zeaws d^cidtwut, 

1, Querent lyrata, Walt.; 2, Q, macrocarpa, Michx.; 3, 
Q, olifXEformtty Michx.; 4, Q, hicolor, Willd.; 5, Q, 
prinus, L. (here he places as varieties Q, eaatansa, Muhl., 
var. morUicola and var. vrifioides); 6, Q. stellata, Wg. 
(which is Q, ohtuttloba, Michx. ; there are three varieties 
of tills species given, one in Florida, (J. Jloridanay Shnt., 
the var. depretsa, Nutt., on the Upper Missouri, ana 
var. yiaherutf, the only oak between Salt Lake and 
Sierra Nevada); 7, Q. alba, L., with two varieties, 
rtpanda and microcarpa. Then follow five Californian 
and New Mexican species, which are nearly related to 
the European Q, rohur, and of Mexican and Central 
American species twenty kinds. 

*Leaw8 persistent. 

Of tliis section one only, Q, virene, Ait., belongs to the 
eastern part of the continent , the others are chiefly 
Central American . 

3 2. Abortive ovules below ; maturation biennial . 

The species in this section are all New Mexican. 

§3. Abortive ovules above; maturation biennial. 
* Leaves deciduoue. 

The Eastern species in this section are, 1, Q, falccUa, 
Michx.; 2, Q. illicifolia, Wg.; 3, Q. rubra, L.; 4, Q, 
paluatrisj l>\x)^o\', 5, Q, Georgiana, A. Curt.; 6, Q. coc' 
eineaj Wg.; 7. Q, Leana, Nutt.; 8, Q. phellos, L.; 9, Q. 
imhncaria, Michx,; 10, Q. nigra, L. 

* Leaves persistent [evergreen). 

1, Q. aquatica, Walt.; 2, Q, cinerea, Michx. 

De Candolle supposes that of the species no^ 
known and described, about two- thirds are 
provisional, and that when all the species of 
America and Asia now adopted are as well 
studied as the European, the *' good species" 
will be reduced to about one hundred; then tlie 
American species would scarcely be more than 
fifty. This is credible when we perceive that 
the single species, Q, robur, as proposed by De 
Candolle, includes thirty-two varieties, and 
nearly a hundred synonyms. 

The American Agriculturist is undoubtedly 
doing much to form a popular taste for Natural 
History, by its numerous articles on that sub- 
ject, rendered doubly attractive and useful by 



its excellent illustrations. In the June number 
we find the following: 

The Prairie Apple {Pomme blanche). 

The species of our native plants are very 
numerous, but among them there are but few 
which furnish articles of food. Berries and 
penshable fruits are more or less abundant in 
their season ; but those native products which 
can be stored up are limited in number, and as 
articles of food are at best indifferent. Neither 
in the variety nor in the quality of his food does 
the savage equal the poorest among the civilized. 
Acorns and grass-seeds are poor substitutes for 
corn and wheat ; and, among the several more 
or less edible roots used by the Indians, there is 
none which approaches the potato in excellence 
and nutritious quality. A large share of the 
vegetable food of some of the Western tribes of 
Indians is the Praine Apple, or Pomme Blanche, 
as it was named by the French voyageurs. It is 
the root of a Psoralea (P. esculenta), which is 
I'oiind ft*om Wisconsin westward to the Rocky 
M«>nntains. 

The plant grows about a foot high, has leaves 
with five divisions, and its flowers are clustered 
in a dense head much resembling a large clover. 
The flowers are purplish-bine. The root is tur- 
nip-shaped, and somewhat farinaceous; and, 
though it would be considered scarcely edible 
by us, is gathered in large quantities by the 
Indians, and stored for the winter. 



THE AMERICAN HOLLY. 



[Fig. 17G.1 




The American Holly (Ilex opaca, Ait.) 

We have lately been shown a twig of the 
American Holly {Ilex opaca, Ait.) which was 
collected on the banks of the Mississippi near 
Vicksburg. The leaves are evergreen, thick, 
and of a lively green color, and about three 
inches long. In this specimen they are nearly 



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THK AMERICAN 



oval in outline, with several short, stiff, prickly 
teeth scattered on the edge. Close around the 
stem and among the leaves arc five or six dull 
red berries, about the size of peas. 

The Holly is a small tree growing near the 
seacoast from Maine to Florida; not common, 
however, to the North. It attains a height of 
from twenty to forty feet. Our botanical works 
do not mention the occurrence of the tree so far 
from the seacoast as the specimen from Yicks- 
burg. Our tree closely resembles the European 
Holly, but differs in several particulars: the 

[Fig. 177.] 






■J 




The European J lolly {lltx aquafolium^ L.) 



leaves are not so wavy in outline, less glossy, 
and the berries of a darker color. We have a 
specimen from Florida, in which the leaves are 
smaller, obovate or almost wedge form, and 
with teeth only near the summit. 

In an article recently published in the Journal 
of Agriculture on the Holly, the writer, Mr. J. 
Parish Stelle, assumes that the Holly of the Gulf 
States and the Mississippi Valley is the Ilex 
aquifoUum^ L., identical with the European 
tree, and that it differs from the Holly of the 
Atlantic coast. This is a question which must 
be decided by careful observation, and the pre- 
paration of good botanical specimens. We com- 
mend this work to the attention of our botanical 
friends in the South. 



Sometimes an inch of water falls in a day, 
or even in a single shower. This is equivalent 
to about three hundred and sixty hogsheads to 
the acre. 



THE LEAP AS A WORKER-No. 2. 

BY DR. J. A. 8KWALL, XORMlX, ILL. 

But if we regard the leaf only as a drawer ot 
water, a lifter of earthy matter, a carrier of 
lightning, a gatherer of nourishing gases, a de- 
fense against zymotic diseases, we give it an 
inferior place — it is only a humble, common 
laborer. Man might invent and apply machinery 
to pump the water and evaporate it; he can 
enrich the soil, can put on his roof metallic con- 
ductors, and can escape epidemic diseases if he 
will breathe pure air, "Ah I there's the rub !" 
for he can get pure air only as the leaf prepares 
it for him. Man can, in a measure, do the work 
of the leaf, but science has failed to demonstrate 
a way to do the chemical work that the leaf 
does. 

The leaf is not a common laborer, then ; for, 
though it deigns to do this drudgery, its great 
field of labor is elsewhere. It is an analytical 
chemist of the noblest order, and, as such, per- 
foims labor that Liebig, and Fresenius, and 
Regnault, attempted in vain, and such as uo 
chemist can ever perform. Here it is that the 
leaf asserts its superiority as a worker— becomes 
a right royal laborer. Here it uses the same 
re-agents that man is permitted to use, but with 
which he cannot succeed. And so the leaf looks 
down upon the great and learned chemist, and 
regards him a^ a bungler. Every exhaled 
breath of man, and of every animal on the face 
of the globe, is loaded with poison. The pro- 
duct of combustion, whether arising from the 
cheerful home fire, from the fire-box of the 
locomotive, ft*om the furnace of the factoiy, or 
belching forth in terrible profusion from the 
yawning crater of the volcano, is pregnant with 
the same life-destroying agent. Millions of 
cubic feet of this dread destroyer, one foot of 
which is sufficient to produce death, is being set 
free every second of time. It is escaping from 
your lungs every four seconds. But be not 
frightened — ^no harm can come to you ; for God 
has ordained the leaf as his agent to care for 
you — to disarm this deadly foe of its terrors — 
to sei^e upon it, anatomize it, take to itself a 
part, and give up the remainder as the life-giving 
air of heaven I 

And what is the measure of its force — what is 
the sum of its acting energies ? I can only tell 
you what is its equivalent, I can give you the 
exact measure of its strength, and at your longest 
leisure you can reduce it to the ordinary stand- 
ard of mechanical force, and determine the 
measure in horse-power. How much mechani- 



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cal labor, can all the meu, women and children, 
all the animals of the earth, and all the loco- 
motiyes and engines on sea and land perform? 
The leaf does just as mnch as all those combined. 

We haye said nothing of the aesthetics of 
leayes — of their beanty and variety (we must 
not forget that all flowers are leaves). There 
is not a leaf in the whole vegetable kingdom 
that does not excite emotions of the beautiftil, 
either by its form, color, or odor. There is 
beauty in the leaves of the solitary palm, and 
beanty in those of the dense forest, crowded so 
thick that beneath them the '' shadow hardly 
moves." Beauty in the microscopic moss-cap, 
as well as in the palm whose leaves expand to 
thirty feet in circumference — ^beauty and glory 
in them all. 

Not only, then, does the leaf supply all the ma- 
terial wants of man, but it also ministers to his 
spiritual nature— reveals the character of Grod, 
blesses man, makes him nobler, wiser and bet- 
ter. In autumn, when the cold winds blow and 
the leayes turn yellow and red, it is the popular 
belief that the frost has colored and killed the 
leaves, and caused them to fall away. Not so. 
We mistake here a coincidence for a cause. The 
time for frost and for falling leaves is the same 
— one has no relation to the other. There has 
been no work of violence wrought— no destruc- 
tion. The leaf has finished its allotted task, it 
has built up its appointed cycle, stored up the 
food for its successors, and now its work is 
done — Ah I well done. No duty has been 
neglected ; it has finished its course ; and now 
it arrays itself in its most gorgeous hues, for its 
hour of glory has come, and it rests upon the 
bosom of its mother earth. 

May it not teach us here a lesson — a marvel- 
ous lesson — how to live and how to die ; how a 
true life is crowned by a triumphant death? 



POISON IVY. 

{Rhut toHcodendroUy L.) 

I will pluck a leaf with a pair of fire-tongs, at 
arm's length, press it dry so as to make an exact 
drawing of it, and wnte a full account of this 
venomous plant. I will try to make the whole 
matter so plain that everybody can detect and 
avoid the vile thing which is making me so 
much trouble. These were some of my mid- 
night thoughts, as I feverishly turned in bed 
while sufiering from its efiects. Water, satu- 
rated with salt, was my only remedy. The 
poison was followed by two generous crops of 
boils, about fiifty in number^ lasting for over two 



weeks. Now I can only look at the plant with 
a sort of subdued feeling, as though it were 
more than a match for me. Look out for Rhus 
toxicodendron, which trails in the sand, or 
among the bushes, or lurks in the grass like a 
treacherous serpent I To touch it means a face 
swollen to blindness, great irritation, itching, 
and smarting and burning of the paHs afiected. 
Poison Ivy, or Poison Oak, is a humble 
shrubby vine, with light-green leayes and clus- 
ters of greenish flowers looking something like 
the flowers of the grape vine. The leaves are 
compound, consisting of three leaflets, the size 
and shape of which are shown by Figure 178, 

[Fig. 178 ] 




Poison Ivy (Rhut toxicodendron, L.) 

which illustrates the veins of the underside. It 
belongs to the Sumach family, a group of plants 
which has rather a bad reputation, on account 
of several poisonous species it contains. 

To some people it is harmless, even when the 
sap is rubbed on the skin, while others are sure 
to be affected even by touching the naked stems 
and buds. I have known instances in which 
some members of the same family were easily 
poisoned while others were not at all affected. 
Why do we not get vaccinated, as it were, and 
never get poisoned a second time? Do our 
entomological friends find any insects that can 
eat the leaves? 

The plant most likely to be mistaken for 
poison Ivy is — 



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THE AMEEICAN 



The Virginia Creeper, 

{Ampelopsis qutnque folia, Michx.) 

Both are woody vines, and more or less orna- 
mental in autumn. The Virginia Creeper 
belongs to the Grape, or Vine family ( Vitacece), 
bears blue berries like grapes, and hangs on by 
tendrils. The Creeper has five leaflets to a leaf, 
the Ivy three. 

[Fig. 179] 




Virginia Creeper (Ampelopsis quinque/olia, Michx.) 

The Virginia Creeper is one of the favorites 
as a climber on old trees, shrubs, stone walls, 
and churches, on account of its rapid growth, 
hardiness, graceful appearance, and beautiful 
red leaves in autumn. Its manner of holding 
fast is worthy of notice. The tendrils grow 
veiy much like those of the common grape vine, 
and hold fast in a similar manner. But it can 
climb where the grape cannot — up the side of a 
brick or stone wall, bark of a tree, or siding of 
a house. This it does by expanding the tips of 
the tendrils, covering them with a sticky sub- 
stance— a natural prepared glue. This is held 
patiently to the place until the glue hardens, 
when the tendril makes a double twist, and 
hugs the vine closer to the wall. The tips of 
the tendrils which take hold of small limbs often 
make the coil more secure by sticking the end 
fast to the support. W. J. Beal. 

Chicago, May 25, 1870. 

Figs grow very abundantly in South Carolina ; 
they ripen twice a year, and compete, when 
dried and packed, with the foreign imported 
ones in the home market. 



SEA-SIDE CROWFOOT, 
{Ranunculut eymhalaria, Pursh.) 

BYE. M. HALE, M.D., PBOF. OF MEDICAL BOTANY, CHICAGO. 
[Fig. 180.] 




Seaside CYowftwt (Ranunculut CfmbaUrUit Pursh.) 

Among all the Ranunculacs, none are more 
beautiful than the little " Sea-side Crowfoot.' 
We present a figure of this little plant, by which 
it will be seen that it is one of the smallest of 
the Crowfoot family. It is also one of the most 
interesting. The plant has a short stem, which 
sends off long runners from the base that are 
rooting and leafy at the joints. The leaves are 
all roundish, mostly heart-shaped at the base, 
crenate-toothed, rather fleshy, and on long peti- 
oles. The flower stalks are leafless, and bear 
from one to seven or eight flowers. The 
petals are flve to eight, and of a beautiful bril- 
liant yellow. Carpels (pistils) are in oblong 
heads, very numerous, short-beaked, and striatc- 
veincd on the sides. 

The flowers usually begin to appear about the 
first of June. In Chicago, for several years, I 
have found the first flowers on the 25th and 28th 
of May, but this year (1870) I found a few on 
the 20th of May. It has delicate, white, fibrous 
roots, two or three inches long. The fine slen- 
der runners are sometimes several feet in length. 



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Many of the RanunculacaD are used in medi- 
cine, having acrid and Btimulating properties. 
This species has but little of these acrid qualities. 
The root has a very slight pungent taste — a taste 
peculiar to all of this genus — which the leaves 
do not possess at all, but are succulent and 
rather pleasant. The seeds are, however, quite 
pungent, or "peppery," when chewed. It is 
not probable, however, that this plant will ever 
be used in medicine. 

The most interesting thing relating to this 
pretty little plant is its habitat. Prof. Gray 
says it is found on the sea shoi*e from Maine to 
New Jersey, and adds that it is also found at 
the Salt Springs, Salina, New York, to Illinois 
and westward. The question arises in the mind 
of the botanist, Why is it found away from the 
sea shore, if it is a marine plant? The fact of its 
being found near the Salt Springs In New York 
would seem to show that it has a liking for 
saline earth. Why should it be found on the 
shores of the great Lakes? I do not know that 
it is found an the shores of Ontario, Erie, Huron 
or Superior; Foster and Whitney, in their re- 
port on the Lake Superior region (Geological), 
do not enumerate it among the plants found 
there. 

When I came to Chicago, in 1860, 1 found it 
growing all over the city, even to Twelfth street 
on the south, or as near to the river as was pos- 
sible on account of the population. From the 
mouth of the Chicago river, its habitat Extended 
on the north, west, and south sides to a distance 
of two or three miles. Beyond that area it can 
not be found ; at least I have not observed it in 
other localities. 

Why has it selected this locality? If it was 
once a marine plant, and has become accustomed 
to inland soils, why is it not found more exten- 
sively distributed all over ^he country? We 
know that there are several species of plants, 
supposed to be marine, which have apparently 
become accustomed to a different soil, and 
flourish in inland localities. Would it seem too 
fanciful to suppose the theory taught by some 
geologists, that the great Lakes, now fresh, 
were once salt, or that a sea once existed in the 
same location? If such was the case, we may 
suppose that, when the change occurred, it was 
so gradual that the flora on its shores was not 
subjected to such a sudden transition as to 
destroy it, but gave it, or a few species of it, 
sufficient time to become accustomed to its new 
soil and atmosphere. We must cither accept 
this theory, or another, namely, that the seeds 
of this species and others have been transported 
from the ocean, or salt water, to this locality. 



I would like to inquire of the readers of this 
journal, if they have found the B, Cymbalaria 
on the banks of the Mississippi, or on the shores 
of the smaller lakes of the Northwest; and I 
hope this brief paper will call out some discus- 
sion on the subject broached herein. 

[The R, cymbalaria occurs on the sandy and 
muddy banks of many Western rivers, as on the 
Platte at Denver, and on the west side of the 
Mountains in Middle Park, and still farther west 
on the Green river. We do not see that it has 
any claim to be considered a saline plant.— Ed.] 



Corrections. — In an article on **Our Woody 
Compositas," in the May number, it was stated 
that, east of the Mississippi river, we had no 
woody Composite. This statement was based 
on a hasty review of the Compositce of the 
Northern States. Our attention has been called 
to the fact that in the Southern States there are 
several shrubby membera of the family in ques- 
tion, for instance, several species of Baccharis, 
one species of Iva, and a Borrichia, We make 
the correction with pleasure. 

In our June number we gave, under the head 
of " Plants to Name," a list of specimens from 
Mr. S. A. Forbes, in which we unintentionally 
did him injustice; as really the larger portion 
of the specimens were correctly named by him, 
and were contributions to the cabinet of the 
editor. 



In the Natural Order LeguminoscB there are 
no doubly-pinnate leaves belonging to the sub- 
order PapillionacecB; but in the sub-orders 
CesalpinicB and Mimosce the pinnate form of leaf 
is found. No pinnate leaves are known in Gen- 
tianaceoB and Bubiacece. Simple and compound 
leaves frequently occur, n#t only in the same 
family, but in the same genus. 



" It is singular that no mention of the beauti- 
ful arborescent ferns is to be found in the classic 
authors of antiquity ; while reference is made to 
Bamboos, to the Banyan, or Indian Fig tree, 
and to Palms. The first mention of arborescent 
ferns is by Oviedo, a Spanish writer, in 1535, 
in describing the vegetation of Hayti. *Among 
ferns,' says this traveler, Hhere are some which 
I class with trees, because they ai'e as thick and 
high as pine trees. They mostly grow among 
the mountains, and where there is much water.' 
Between the tropics, on the declivities of the 
Cordilleras, the true region of arborescent ferns 
lies between about 8,200 and 5,350 feet above 
the level of the sea. They seldom descend lower 
toward the plains than 1,280 feet. The mean 
temperature of this region is between 64° and 
70<^ Fahr." 



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NEW PLANTS. 

We have received from Mr. S. A. Forbes spe- 
cimens of two plants, which, if not really new 
species, are so remarkable in their appearance, 
and so different from the ordinary forms of any 
species to which they ai*e related, that they cer- 
tainly merit description at least as marked vari- 
eties. They ai'e a Saxifraga and a Heucheray 
both growing on shaded cliffs near Makanda 
and Cobden, Southern Illinois. The Saxifhiga 
in general appearance is intermediate between 
Saxifraga virginieTisis, Mx., and S, pennsyU 
vanica, L., or, as Dr. Gray suggests, between 
8, erosa, Pursh., aod S. virginiensia, Mx., ap- 
proaching nearest to the last-named. It is an 
herbaceous plant, presenting at the ground a 
cluster of half a dozen soft, hairy leaves, four to 
eight inches long, thin, lanceolate, and toothed 
on the margin, or sometimes nearly entire. 
From the root rises a flower-stalk two to three 
feet high, without leaves, but with a few slender 
bracts at the base of the branches. The upper 
half or third of the stalk divides into six or eight 
branches, forming a pretty large open panicle ; 
the main branches again subdivide into very 
slender pedicels, with small flowers having the 
general character of the genus to which it 
belongs. The stem or scape is clothed with 
rather sticky or glandular hairs. We append 
a botanical description and dedicate the species 
to the enthusiastic young naturalist who first 
detected it: 

Saxifraga Forbesu (n. sp). — Leaves lanceo- 
late, or elliptical-oblong, rather thin and pointed, 
tapering into a short margined petiole, pubescent, 
especially on the margin, veins and petiole, cre- 
nate or repand dentate, 4 — 8 inches long. Scape 
leafless, slender, viscid pubescent, two to three 
feet high ; upper third or half forming au ample, 
loose and open panicle of 6 — 8 branches. Flow- 
ers small, in cymose clusters at the extremities 
of the branches ; pedicels slender, bi'acts linear ; 
sepals obtuse reftexed, shorter than the linear 
^two lines long) white petals; filaments slen- 
aer, nearly eqnaling the petals ; pods two, small, 
slightly united below, divergent at the summit. 
Shaded cliffs. Southern Illinois. 

The plant differs from the ordinary form of 
8. Virginienns, Mx., in its much larger size, 
in its larger and differently shaped leaves, in 
its more difiuse panicle, more slender pedicels, 
smaller flower, smaller ^ linear petals, and small- 
er » more pointed and reflexed pods. 

Of the other plant mentioned, the Henchera, 
wc have not received suflBLciently mature and 
perfect specimens to give it a complete descrip- 
tion, and we therefore will refer to it at a future 
time. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

Plants 'Swp^9&.^Samud Thompson, M. Z>., Albion^ 
UU.—Thei specimen you send is the Goat's Beard 
{Spirea arwictu, L.), one^of the few dioodous plants of 
the Order Rosaces. It is not inArequent in rocky woods 
in Southern Illinois. 

Jonathan Feriam, Chatst€orthy JUe.—Your plant is the 
Buflfalo Clover {Dn/oUum fvJUxum, L.); as Dr. Horse 
says, it is practically of no value— too stalky, and foli- 
age too scanty. 

Arthur Bryant f Princeton, ///*.— No. I "is the Bed 
Ash {Fraximvt pubatcent) common in the northern and 
other sections of this State?' * We have met with it 
frequently In Northern Illinois, near Elgin and Chicago, 
also near Pooria and Springfield . The Green Ash {F. 
vitidit, Michx.) is of frequent occurrence in the same 
region, and still more common in the bottom lands of 
the Mississippi river, and some forms of these species 
approach closely to each other, and are not easily dis- 
tinguished 2. ''In what part of the State is the Bed 
Maple most common? All the soft Maples for miles 
around here produce apetatous flowers, and the broad- 
winged greenish seeds of Aeu dascpcarpum. I have 
procured what was called the Red Maple from Ellwan- 
ger & Barry, of Rochester, and from Phocni.v, of Bloom- 
lugton, but they were in no respect different fh)m those 
growing here . ' » The true Red Maple occurs in consider- 
able abundance on low rich river borders in Soutliem 
Illinois. We doubt if, in Illinois, it extends much north of 
the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. We have noticed that 
the Soft Maple shade trees of Bloomlngton are nearly 
all the Silver-leaved Maple {A, dascpcarpum), 3. "An- 
other matter about which I am puzzled relates to the 
Populus anguUUa and P. monUi/era. The two species 
are usually confounded under the name of Cottonwood, 
and certainly the botanical difference is not very strongly 
marked. Cottonwood trees are usually difficult to split, 
and when sawed into lumber, warp and twist in every 
possible direction. Yet some ofthem, which have heart- 
wood of a yellowish color, like that of the tulip tree, can 
be split into rails and shingles, and do not warp when 
sawed into lumber. Are these the P. angulata, or a 
variety common to both species?' ' We have observed 
with great care the Cottonwoods in all parts of the State, 
and have failed to establish distinguishing marks for 
the two species referred to above, and have concluded 
that there was really but one species. We know some 
thorough Botanists in the West who coincide in this 
opinion. The distinction with respect to the wood, 
mentioned by Mr. Bryant, may fUmish a clue by which 
to unravel the difficulty, and we hope that the trees 
which present these wood-differences may be carefWly 
observed, so that if any distinctive botanical characters 
exist they may be noted and recorded. 

Mise Mary Murtfeldi, Kirhwood, JTo.— No. 1, Scirpta 
Uneatus, Mlchx. , a coarse sedge with graceful drooping 
brown spikes. No. 2 is the Hair-grass {Agrosiis seabra^ 
Willd.) very common on damp clayey soils. When old 
the culms break off and are sometimes thrown into 
heaps against fences, Ac. No. 8 is the common Bush- 
grass {Juncus tenuis, Willd.), too comtnon In many placw. 
No. 4 is Melic-grass {Mdica mutiea, Walt), » **"i°h 
handsome CTass growing in thickets and in low.ncn 
ground. No. 6 is a sedge, a species of the verv large 

genus Carex, and a form of Carw triceps, the Tnree- 
eaded Carex. No. 6 is the purple flowered MUkweea 
{Asclepias purpttrascens , L.) 



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VOL. 2 



ST. LOUIS, MO., SEPTEMBER, 1870. 



NO. 10. 



CHARLES V. BILEY, Editob, 

m N. Main it., St. Louis, Mo. 



THE ONWARD MARCH OF .THE COLORADO POTATO 
BEETLE. 

A WORD TO Oina CANADIAN NEIGHBORS. 

Last July, while spending a few days in On- 
taiio, we ascertained that this most destioictive 
insect had just invaded the Dominion at two 
different points, namely, near Point Edward, at 
the extreme south of Lake Eui'on, and opposite 
Detroit, near Windsor, at the southwestern 
corner of Lake St. Clair. These are precisely 
the two points at which we should naturally 
expect to first meet with it on the Canadian 
boi*der ; for all such beetles as fly into either of 
the lakes from the Michigan side would natuitilly 
be drifted to these points. As we know from 
experience, many insects that are either quite 
rare, or entirely unknown, on the western side 
of Lake Michigan are frequently washed up 
along the Lake shore at Chicago ; and these are 
so often alive and in good condition, and so often 
iu gi*eat numbers, that the Lake shore is con- 
sidered excellent collecting ground by entomolo- 
gists. In like manner grasshoppers are often 
washed up on the shores of Salt Lake, in Utah, 
in such countless numbers that the stench from 
their decomposing bodies pollutes the atmosphere 
for miles around. We have not the least doubt, 
therefore, in view of these facts, that tlie Colorado 
Potato Beetle could survive a sufficient length of 
time to be drifted alive to Point Edwai-d, it* 
driven into Lake Hui'on anywhere within twenty 
or thirty miles of that place, or if beaten down 
anywhere within the same distance while a1> 
tempting to cross the lake. 

How truly is Mr. Walsh's pi'ophecy being ful- 
filled, that the northeini columns of this great 
army would spread far more rapidly than the 
logging southei*n columns.* 

• Practical ErUomologitt^ I, p. 14. 



Now, what will our Canadian brethren do? 
Will they stand by and listlessly see this per- 
nicious insect spread over their territory like a 
devouring flame, as it has done over the Western 
and Central States ; or will they make some de- 
termined and united effort to prevent such a 
catastrophe? Of one thing our friends across the 
border may rest assured — they have not here a 
sham and braggart Fenian army to deal with, 
but an army which knows no retreat, and whose 
members, though of small and insignificant 
stature, will ftiUy make up in number what they 
lack in size. 

When we calculate the immense loss, amount- 
ing to millions of dollai*s, which this insect has 
cost the Western States during the past nine or 
ten years — when we contrast the healthftil and 
thrifty aspect of the potato fields in Ontario and 
in those States to which this potato plague has 
not yet spread, with the sickly, denuded, or Paris- 
gi-een-besmeared fields at home — ^but above all 
when we reflect that, nothing preventing, it will 
infest the whole of Ontario within, perhaps, the 
next two, and at farthest within the next three, 
years — we feel that it is high time to make some 
effort to prevent its onward mareh through On- 
tario, if ever such an effoi't is to be made. The 
warnings and iustinictions given by the agiicul- 
tural press, and through our own columns, will 
avail but little, as they reach the few only. It 
may be, and doubtless is, true that successfbl 
culture, as our country becomes more thickly 
settled, will be conflned to the intelligent and 
well-informed ; yet the fact nevertheless remains, 
that the masses will do nothing to ward off an 
evil until they are forced to it frem necessity. 
The plodding, non-reading farmer will take no 
notice of the few bugs he flrst sees in his potato 
field, because they do him no material injury ; 
but when the bugs have inci*eased so as to make 
it a question of " potatoes or no potatoes " with 
him, then his energies will be aroused. But 
alas ! his best effoi-ts, at this time, often prove 
unavailing, and he has to spend days to accom- 
plish that which a few minutes would have 
accomplished before. We therefore ftilly expect 
to see this great army of bugs continue its east- 



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ward march without Iiindrancc, unless other 
preventive measures are taken than those ah'eady 
employed. A standing premium offered by the 
Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Carding, for a given 
number of beetles, or for the greatest number 
collected and killed in one season, or for the 
cleanest and best field of potatoes, of a given 
number of acres, within the infested distncts 
along the eastern shores of the lakes mentioned 
and those of the St. Clair river; might, and 
undoubtedly would, be the best means of 
stamping it out, and of keeping it out of the 
Dominion. 

No doubt that, in suggesting any expenditure 
of money for such purposes, our Canadian 
brethren will deem us over-enthusiastic about 
" small things," and over-anxious for their wel- 
fare. Well, be that as it may, we don't forget 
that there is considerable of Uncle Sam's terri- 
toiy beyond Niagara. It is a mere matter of 
dollars and cents, and we venture to say that, 
when once this insect shall have spread over 
Ontario, a million dollars would be freely spent 
to accomplish that which will then be almost 
impossible, and which a very few thousands 
would effectually accomplish now — namely, its 
extermination from the Dominion. 

An excellent chance is now afforded in Ontario 
— almost surrounded as it is by lakes — to keep 
this destinictive enemy at bay. In the summer 
of 1869, reports of this insect's ravages, and of 
its progress eastward, came thick from Wiscon- 
sin and Indiana; but no organized effort was 
made to niheck it, and indeed there was very 
little chance of doing so. It is now fast spread- 
ing through Ohio ; and, according to Dr. Tiimble 
of New Jersey, has already reached Pennsylvania. 
Uncle Sam can not well prevent its onward 
spread around the southern shore of Lake Erie, 
through Pennsylvania and eastward ; but, if it 
can be effectually resisted between Point Edward 
and the Detroit river, there will be little diffi- 
culty in preventing its crossing at Niagara. A 
victoiy would indeed be gained if, by intelligent 
effort, this grievous pest could be kept out of 
Upper Canada, while it is devastating the potato 
fields on all sides in the States ; and Minister 
Carding would add to his well-deserved popu- 
larity by making the effort, whether it succeeds 
or not. 

PARIS GREEN AS A REMEDY. 

While on tliis subject it may be well to say a 
few words about the use of Paris green. Tliis 
substance has now become THE remedy for the 
Colorado Potato Beetle, and it is the best yet 
discovered. Having thoroughly tested it our- 
selves, and having seen it extensively used, we 



can ft*eely say that, when applied judiciously, it 
is efficient and harmless. If used pure and too 
abundantly, it will kill the vines as effectually 
as would the bugs, for it is nothing but arscnite 
of copper (often called " Scheele's green " by 
druggists), and contains a varied propoi*tiou of 
arsenious acid, accoi*ding to its quality — often as 
much as 69 i>er cent., according to Brands & 
Taylor. But when used with six to twelve parts, 
either of flour, ashes, phister or slacked lime, it 
causes no serious injury to the foliage, and just 
as effectually kills the bugs. The varied success 
attending it« use, as repoited through our many 
agi'icultm'al papers, must be attributed to the 
difference in the quality of the drug. 

We hear many feai*s expixjssed that tliis poison 
may be washed into the soil, absorbed by the 
i-ootlets of the plant, and thus poison the tubers ; 
but persons who entertain such feai-s forget that 
they themselves often apply to the ground, as 
nourishment for the vines, either animal, vege- 
table or mineral substances that ai'e nauseous, or 
even poisonous to us. Animal and vegetable 
substances, of whatsoever nature, must be essen- 
tially changed in character and i^sndered harm- 
less before they can be converted into healthy 
tubei-s, and a mineral poison could only do hann 
by being taken with the potatoes to the table. 
That any substance, sprinkled either on tlie vines 
or on the gi-ound, would ever accompany to the 
table a vegetable which develops undei^round, 
and which is always -well cooked before use, is 
rendered highly impix)bable. There can be no 
danger in the use of sound tubei-s. But the wise 
and well-informed cultivator will seldom need to 
have recourse to Paris green, as he Avill find it 
more profitable to use the different preventive 
measures that have from time to time been 
recommended in these columns. 

The poison may do harm, however, by being 
carelessly used, and it is most safely applied 
when attached to the end of a stick several feet 
long, and should not be used whei-e children are 
likely to play. 

NATURAL CHECKS INCREASING. 

In many parts of the West this insect is being 
cng. wi.] kept in due check by its canni- 
bal and parasitic enemies, which 
are still increasing. Thus we 
learn from many sources, tliat 
in Iowa and Kansas it is not 
nearly so injurious as it for- 
merly was, while in some parts 
of Illinois and Missouri it has 
^'''''i^\iaJk!bmr."*''°also bccomc less troublesome. 
Last year I^Ii-. T. Glover published the fact that 
the Great Lcbia {Lebia grandis, Ilentz, Fig. 




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291 



181) was found devouiing ite larvse,* and though 
hitherto considered rare this Lcbia has sud- 
denly fallen upon it the pi-esent year in many 
pails of Missouri. During a recent trip along the 
Missouri Bottom we found this cannibal veiy 
abundant in some potato fields belonging to Mr. 
AVm. Coleman, where it was actively engaged in 
desti-oying both the eggs and lai-vw of the Potato 
Beetles. The head, thonix and legs of this 
cannibal are yellowish-brown, in high conti*ast 
with its dark-blue wing-covers. 

This makes fourteen conspicuous enemies of 
our Colorado Potato Beetle which we have 
iigui-ed, and a dozen more, mostly of small size 
and inconspicuous markings, might easily be 
added to the list. Moreover, chickens have 
learned to relish the eggs, and have even acquired 
a taste for tlie young larvae. So we need not 
wonder that the army is being dechnated in those 
States first invaded by it. 

BOGUS EXPEKIMENTS. 

It was recently reported to us that a neighbor 
had succeeded in driving away all his Potato 
bugs by strewing Elder branches among the 
vines. AV^c went to examine the field, and found 
our friend enthusiastic over his discovery ; and 
indeed, though the vines were nearly devoured, 
there were but a few full grown larvae to be 
found. But, as he could not tell us what had 
become of the " slugs," we undertook to show 
him where they had gone, and after digging a 
few moments with a trowel, unearthed dozens 
of them, the majority in the i)upa, but a few yet 
in the lai*va state. Our neiglibor had, in fact, 
been misled by appearances, for want of better 
knowledge of his enemy. The lai-vae as they 
acquired tlieir growth suddenly became so de- 
sti-uctive, that to save his vines he was obliged 
to try some means of killing them, and as an 
exxxjriment he tried the Elder. The lai-vae were 
just ready to disappear of theu* own accord, and 
as the great bulk of them did really disappear in 
two or three days after the application, the appa- 
rently logical inference was made that they had 
been di-iven away by the smell of the Elder. 

How many of the published remedies that 
flood the country owe their origin to just such 
defective proof ! The sun-scorching remedy, 
wliich consists of knocking the bugs oft' the lines 
on to the heated greund between tlie rows, and 
which has been so often recommended the present 
year, partakes a good deal of this character ; for 
it can only be of benefit in a very dry season, and 
at a time of year when the bugs have done most 
of their damage. A goodly proportion of the 
larv» that are thus knocked off TViH always 

•Dept, of Agy. Bcp. 1868, p. 81. 



manage to burrow into the ground and trans- 
fonn, or to get back upon the vines ; and 

THE TRUE REMEDY 

consists in preventing tliem from becoming 
numerous so late in the season. Watch for the 
beetles in early spring, when the vines are just 
IKjeping out of the gi'ound. Ensnare as many of 
them as you can before they get a chance to pair, 
by making a few small heaps of potatoes in the 
field planted : to these the beetles will be attracted 
for food, and you can easily kill them in the 
morning. Keep an eagle eye for tlie eggs which 
are first deposited. Cultivate well, by frequently 
stirring the soil. Surround your fields on the 
outside by rows of such tender-leaved varieties 
as the Mercer, Shaker Russet and Early Good- 
rich ; but, above all, isolate your potato field as 
much as possible, either by using land surrounded 
with timber, or by planting in the centre of a corn 
field. Carry out these suggestions thoroughly 
and you will not have much use for Paris green, 
and still less for the scorching remedy. 




[From the Missouri Entomologrical Reiiortfor 1889.] 

THE TARNISHED PLANT- BUG. 

{Capsus ohlineatut, Say.*) 

CUETESOPneSA, oapsidje.] 

Quite early last spring while entomologizing 
[Fig. 182.] in Southern Illinois, I spent 

a day with Mr. E. J. Ayres, 
of Villa Ridge, and was sur- 
prised to learn that he had 
become quite discouraged 
in his efforts to grow young 
^ / WKHSS V P^^^' trees, on account oi 
the injuries of a ceitain bug, 
which, upon examination, I 
found to be the Tarnished 
Plant-bug, represented en- 
larged at Figuie 182, the hair line at its side 
showing the natural size. The family to wldch 
tliis bug belongs is the next in a natural ar- 
rangement to that which includes tlie notorious 
Chinch-bug, and the insect is, like that si>ecies, 
a veritable bug, and obtains its food by sucking 
and not biting. The Capsus family is a very 
large one, containing numerous species in this 
country, but among them, none but the species 
under considerj^tion have thrust themselves upon 
public notice by tlieir e^il doings. 

• This bug wa« originally described by Beauvois hb Coretu 
lineolarii, but, acconliug to Mr. Uhler, thai author names It 
lineaHt urnler his plate. It was subsequently described as 
Capsut oblineatut. Say. Harris, in speaking of it, refers it 
to the genus Phytocorig. and ])oi>ularly calls it the •* Llttle- 
linwl Plant-bug " It in reality belongs to Fleber's genus 
Lygtu. As Say's description is the only one 1 have access 
to, I have retained the name he gave it as being eminently 
appropriate. 



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The Tamished Plant-bug is a very general 
feeder, attacking very many kinds of herbaceous 
plants, such as dahlias, asters, marigolds, bal- 
sams, cabbages, potatoes, turnips, etc. ; and sev- 
eral trees, such as apple, pear, plum, quince, 
and cherry. Its puncture seems to have a pecu- 
liarly poisonous eflfect, on which account, and 
from its great nambei*s, it often proves a really 
formidable foe. It is especially hard on young 
pear and quince trees, causing the tender leaves 
and the young shoots and twigs to turn black 
as though they had been bui'ned by fire. On old 
trees it is not so common, though it frequently 
congregates on such as are in bearing, and causes 
the young fruit to wither and drop. I have 
passed through potato -fields along the Iron 
Mountain Railroad in May, and found almost 
every stalk blighted and black from the thnists 
of its poisonous beak, and it is not at all sui*pris- 
ing that this bug was some years ago actually 
accused of being the cause of the dreaded potato- 
rot. 

This Bug is a very variable species, the nuiles 
being generally much darker than the females. 
The more common color of the dried cabinet 
specimens is a dirty yellow, variegated as in the 
figure with black and dark brown, and one of 
the most characteristic marks is a yellow V, 
sometimes looking more like a Y, or indicated 
by thi*ee simple dots, on the scutel (the little tri- 
angular piece on the middle of the back, behind 
the thorax). The color of the living specimens 
is much fresher, and frequently inclines to olive- 
green. The thoi'ax, which is finely punctured, 
is always naiTOwly bordered and divided down 
the middle with yellow, and each of the divisions 
contains two broader longitudinal yellow lines, 
veiy frequently obsolete behind. The thighs al- 
ways have two dark bands or rings neai' their tips. 

As soon as vegetation starts in the spring, the 
matured bugs, which winter over in all manner 
of sheltered places, may be seen collecting on 
the various plants which have been mentioned. 
Early in the morning they may be found buried 
between the expanding leaves, and at this time 
they are sluggish, and may be shaken down and 
destroyed; but as the sun gets wanner, they 
become more active, and when approached, dodge 
frx>m one side of the plant to the other, or else 
take wing and fly away. They deposit their 
eggs and breed on the plants, and the young and 
old bugs together may be noticed thi'ough most 
of the summer months. The young bugs ai'e 
perfectly green, but in other respects do not dif- 
fer from theii' parents except in lacking wings, 
they hide between the flower-petals, stems and 
leaves of diflTerent plants, and are not easily 



detected. Late in the fall, none but Aill grown 
and winged bugs are to be met with, but whether 
one or two generations ai'e produced during the 
season I have not fully ascertained, though in 
all probability there are two. 

Remedies. — In the great majority of cases, we 
are enabled to counteract tlie injui-ious work of 
noxious insects the moment we thoroughly com- 
pi'ehend their habits and peculiarities. But there 
are a few which almost defy our effbrts. The 
Tarnished Plant-bug belongs to this last class, 
for we are almost powerless before it, from the 
fact that it breeds and abounds on such a great 
variety of plants and weeds, and that it flies so 
readily from one to the other. Its flight is, how- 
ever, limited, and there can be no better pro- 
phylactic ti*eatment than clean culture ; for the 
principal damage is occasioned by the old bugs 
when they leave their winter quartet's and con- 
gregate on the tender buds and leaves of young 
fruit stock; and the fewer weeds there are to 
nourish them during the summer and protect 
them during the winter, the fewer bugs there 
will be. The small birds must also be encour- 
aged. Applications of air-slacked lime and sul- 
phur have been recommended to keep them off 
but if any application of this kind is used, I 
incline to think that, to be effectual, it must be 
of a fluid nature ; and should recommend strong 
tobacco-water, quassia-water, vinegar, and ci*©- 
sylic soap. Some persons who have used the 
last compound have complained that it injures 
the plants, and every one using it should bear 
in mind what was stated in the preface to my 
First Report, namely, that the pure acid, no 
matter how much diluted with water, will sep- 
arate when sprinkled, and bum holes in, and 
discolor plant texture ; while if properly used 
as a saponaceous wash it will have no such in- 
jurious effect. It must likewise be borne in 
mind, that the so-called " plant-protector,'' which 
is a soap made of the same acid, will bear very 
much diluting (say one pai-t of the soap to fifty 
or even one hundred parts of water), and tliat 
it will injure tender leaved plants if used too 
strong. I have noticed that the bugs are ex- 
tremely fond of congregating upon the bright 
yellow flowei*s of the Cabbage, which, as every 
one knows, blooms very early in the season ; and 
it would be advisable for persons who have been 
seriously troubled with this bug, and who live 
in a sufficiently southern latitude where the plant 
will not winter-kill, to let a patch of cabbages 
run wild and go to seed in some remote comer 
of the faim, in order that the bugs may be atr 
ti*acted thither and more readily destroyed than 
when scattered over a larger area. 



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[This iiisect has been ven*^ injarioas the pres- 
ent year, and by request we give the above ac- 
count of it. Mr. J. P. Jones, of Keytesville, 
Cliai-iton county, Mo., complained bitterly to us 
this spring of its injuries to pear and apple trees 
in his section ; and later in the season we found 
our friend H. D. Emeiy, of Chicago, almost 
baffled by its injurious punctures in his effoi'ts to 
raise late-planted cucumbers. Mr. D. B. Wier, 
of Lacon, Ills., considera that it has damaged his 
crops to the amount of $1,000 ; and the ad interim 
committee, which lately visited his orchards, re- 
port but little fiiiit on the pear trees on account 
of its having poisoned and killed the blossom 
buds. No doubt the exti'eme dry weather has 
had much to do with the increase of these pests. 
Ml'. Ayres tried many applications of different 
kinds this spring to ward them off, but even 
some cresylic soap, which we sent him for tliat 
express purpose, proved ineffectual, as the foUow- 
ing experience will show. He writes, April 12,70 : 

I first tried it according to directions— one 
pound of the soap to ten gallons of watei^ — and 
It was impossible to kill the bugs with it except 
by drowning; and they would swim in it an 
unaccountably long time before they would die. 
I then doublea the strength, using one pound of 
the soap to five gallons ot water. After immers- 
ing one of them in this twice, he would get dry 
and fly away ; but by keeping him wet wiUi it 
for ten minutes, it would mially kill him. I am 
inclined to believe that it will iiJi kill insects or 
keep them off the trees, unless made strong 
enough to kill the ti*ees also. I thoroughly sa1> 
urat^ several rows of ti'ecs with it at the sti-engtli 
above stated, and three hours afterward fouud 
the bu^s as thick as ever, and sucking away at 
the buds and leaves as if nothing had happened. 

Not discoui'aged by this want of success, Mr. 
A. afterwards went over all his pear trees, about 
2,000 in number, with a basin of soap-suds early 
in the morning, and shaking each branch, caused 
the bugs to fall into the water. It took about 
three horn's' time of three men, and by com- 
mencing early they were enabled to get through 
before it got warm enough for the bugs to be- 
come active. After pursuing this coui*se for thi-ee 
successive mornings, during which time many 
thousands were killed, he had the satisfaction 
of seeing his trees unmolested, and thus saved. 
From the fact that these bugs suck the sap from, 
and do not masticate the plant, we have found 
the poisonous applications which are so effectual 
in killing many other insects of no avail here ; 
and there is no better way of killiog them at 
present known than by shaking them off early 
in the morning. It will also be well to bear in 
mind that, as they winter mostly in the woods, 
they are at first found most numerous on the 
oatiside of our fields and orchai*ds.] 



OSAGE ORANGE FOE THE MULBERRY SILK-WOEM. 

Utah County, Utah. — Having been engaged 
in silk culture for three years past, I take the 
liberty of submitting to you a report of what I 
have done. 

In 1867 the Hon. Albert K. Thurber, of this 
place, on his return ft'om a visit to London, Eng- 
land, pi-esented me with a few silk-worm eggs 
of the old French vaiiety. They made sixteen 
cocoons, producing three female moths. The fol- 
lowing year I raised five hundred worms, but not 
having sufficient mulbeny leaves to feed them, 
I fed part of them on Osage orange ; they ate 
it with avidity, all did well, and miade cocoons 
of good size and color. Last season (1869) I fed 
five thousand worms on Osage orange, and they 
made five thousand cocoons. This season I am 
feeding ten thousand worms on Osage orange, 
and they ai'e doing well. I would heve remark 
that I have never found a diseased woinn since I 
commenced raising silk. 

I have fed a pomon of my worms each season 
on mulberry and a portion on Osage orange, and 
those fed on the latter have thrived and done as 
well as those fed on the former. I do not sup- 
l)ose Osage orange Is preferable to mulberry to 
feed silk-woi-ms, out it may be of importance to 
some to know that they will do well upon it. I 
have fed wonns on the two kinds of feed in close 
proximity, and have known them to leave the 
mulberry and go to the Osage orange. The dry- 
ness of our climate and the absence of thunder 
storms during the feeding season render Utah 
particularly adapted to the raising of silk, and 
perhaps may be more favorable for feeding Osage 
orange than a moist climate. 

Not having sufficient knowledge of the quality 
of silk to test it, I sent some cocoons to Mr. Mul- 
ler, of Nevada City, California, to be reeled and 
tested, and he reports that the silk is, to all ap- 
pearances, sti'ong and of excellent quality. I 
intend to make a business of silk culture as &st 
as circumstances will permit. 

[Professor Glover, of this Depai*tment, four 
years since fed the silk-worm (Bombyx mori) 
with the Osage orange with success coirespond- 
ing with the above experiment.] — Mmvthly Rep, 
Dept. Agriculture for May and June, 

[When facts of such vital importance as these 
are published, they lose the greater part of their 
significance by having no signature. No one 
can rely on statements of this character when 
given in such a mythical manner. Five thousand 
cocoons from five thousand worms is something 
80 unusual and unprecedented, that, under the 
circumstances, one is wan*anted in discrediting 
the statement. Prof. Glover, it seems to us, would 
have given weight to the above item by attaclf- 
ing the date and the writer's name. We thor- 
oughly experimented with Osage orange this 
summer, but could not succeed in making any 
wonns spin up on it, though some few were fed 
into the last stage. — Ed.] 

ly The Colorado Potato Beetle is said to be 
doing more damage than ever in Minnesota. 



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HOW TO COLLECT AND STUDY DTSECTS-No. 5. 

IIY F. O. SAKBORN, BOSTON, MASS. 

While speaking of the microscope and its uses 
in studying living insects, I should mention a 
method of preparing specimens and fragments 
illustrating the structure or anatomy of these 
minute beings, so that they may be preserved 
indefinitely for future use. The ordinary size 
of a " slide " for the microscope is, as I previ- 
ously said, tliree inches in length by one in 
breadth. The slide should be cut from clear and 
rather thin glass, free from flaws and air-bubbles, 
and a few dozen should be kept constantly on 
hand ; they can be easily and cheaply got out by 
any glazier from his waste slips. If the student 
wishes to have them finely finished, he can grind 
the edges smootli upon an emery wheel, a com- 
mon grindstone, or even upon a flat surface with 
emery powder and water, at the expense of a 
little more time and labor. The " covers " will 
cost him rather more care, as the exceedingly 
thin glass which is prepared for this purpose is 
not to be procured except in large cities, where 
an ounce of circular covers of various sizes gen- 
eraUy costs about three dollars. The thinnest 
glass he can procure will answer for many ob- 
jects if clear ; and even mica, which separates 
readily into thin plates, and can be readily cut 
with scissors, serves a very useful puiT^ose, al- 
though liable to injuiy from scmtches. The 
covers need not be round ; square or oblong ones 
are just as good. Cut on an average one-half 
inch square ; few will be required larger, and the 
majority of specimens will be covered by a one- 
quarter inch cover. Having a supply of these 
ready for use, obtain a vial of fir or "Canada" 
balsam, tliin it with chloroform and keep tightly 
corked. Whenever a small insect, a mite, a 
gnat, or a young larva, just from the egg, is to 
be preserved, place it upon the centre of a clean 
glass slide, let a drop of the balsam fall upon it, 
and apply the cover. A little experience will 
enable one to avoid " ah*-bubbles " and such 
inconveniences, and show how long the pi-epar- 
ation I'equires to dry and harden, as well as what 
weight to apply to the cover. English opera- 
tors use a veiy effective and simple contrivance 

[Fig. 183.] 




of wire as in Figure 183, and easily made of 
different powers of compression suitable to the 



object* The specimens thus prepared should 
be kept in boxes lined with grooved slips of 
wood as in Figure 184, having the grooves op- 

[Fig. 184] 

-7 ^" #7 r%—t-r - 





posite, and of such depth and distance apart 
as to keep the slides sepai*ate and safe from 
breakage. The slides may be numbered or la- 
belled on the glass with a diamond, or bit of 
hard stone, such as a quartz crj^stal; or have 
paper " adhesive tags " pasted on one end, as in 
our sketch, according to the taste and skill 
of the student. To return to our collecting. 
Let us follow the course of this old stone wall, 
from which have fallen at various times numbers 
of loose rocks; under many of these will be 
found forms of life to repay a careful search. 
But here on the very top of the wall is a crawl- 
ing thing which we drop into our vial of alcohol 
with some little repugnance at the touch. "An 
Earwig?" Not precisely, but sometimes impro- 
perly so called. It is not even a true insect, but 
belongs to the Centii>ede family of articulated 
or jointed animals. As you will see, it has too 
many feet for an insect, or even the larva of an 
insect. Some naturalists would by a carele^ 
use of tciTOS consider it an insect, but we prefer, 
in accordance with the laws of priority, to con- 
fine tliat title to the time three-joiuted articulates 
which liave in the adult condition six legs only. 
This, as you see, has many joint* or segmeufci, 
and numei-ous feet, although ftill gi-own. The 
Class to which it pertains is called Myriapoda, 
or many -footed animals, from this feat -urc 
(no pun intended) of its stimcture; and this 
species, Lithobius americanus, or the American 
dweller under stones, is very much unlike the 
true Earwig, Forflcula, in eveiy thing but color, 
and is very abundant throughout the United 
States in damp localities beneath stones and logs. 
In fact, we should not have seen this specimen 
so high above the gi'ound were it not for the 
moist condition of the lichen-covered wall after 
the recent shower. Here are others of the same 
kind beneath this stone, and a coiled Myriapoda 
looking like a small shell, closely related to the 
preceding, but ver>' cylindrical and with a much 
harder covering; as we disturb it, and it en- 
deavors to make its escape, you perceive tliat its 
feet are still more numerous than those of Litho- 
biiis, and move with a very beautiful continuous 
undulating motion along the sides, reminding 
one of ripples passing along the sides of a boat. 



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Its name is lulitSy and from its fonn and hard- 
ness it is known in some sections of our country 
as the " wire-worm." The true " wire-worms," 
baptized long before, however, are the lai-vae of 
the Snapping-beetles, or Elaters. This lulus 
will preserve well in alcohol. 



mSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE-VINE.— No. 11. 

The Spotted Pelidnota. 

{Pelidrota punctata, LinnaeiLs.) 

[Fig. 185.] 




Colors— (a) glaasy- white; (b) yellowish; (r) clay-yellow 
wilh black upots. 

This is the largest and most conspicuous 
beetle that attacks the foliage of the Grape-vine, 
and in the beetle state it seems to subsist entirely 
on the leaves of this plant, and of tlie closely 
allied Virginia Creeper. Though some years it 
becomes so abundant as to badly riddle the 
foliage of our vineyards, yet such instances are 
exceptional ; and it usually occurs in such small 
numbers, and is so large and clumsy, that it can 
not be considered a very redoubtable enemy. 

Its lar\'a ha«?, for a number of years, been 
known to feed on the decaying roots of different 
trees, but has never, so far as wo are aware, 
been described, for which reason we append 
below a description of it. It is a large . clumsy 
grub (Fig. 185, a) beanng a close resemblance 
to the common White Grub of our meadows, 
and differs fvom that species principally in being 
less wrinkled, and in having the chitinous cover- 
ing (or skin, so-called) more polished and of a 
purer white color, and in the distinct heart-shaped 
swelling above the anus (Fig. 185, d). Towards 
the latter part of June we have found this larva 
in abundance, in company with the pupa (Fig. 
185, 6), in rotten stumps and* roots of the Pear. 
In preparing for the pupa state, the larva forms 
a rather unsubstantial cocoon of its own excre- 
ment, mixed with the surrounding wood. The 



pupa state lasts but from eight to ten days, and 
the beetle (Fig. 185, c) is found on our vines dur- 
ing the months of July, August and September. 
It is not yet known how long a time is required 
for the development of the larva, but from 
analogy we may infer that the insect lives in 
that state upwards of three years. 

This beetle was named about a century ago 
by Linnseus, who met with a specimen in the 
magnificent collection of shells and insects be- 
longing to Queen Louise Ulrica of Sweden. It 
occurs throughout the States and Upper Canada, 
and is even met with in the "West Indies. It 
flies and feeds by day. The wing-covers are of 
a slightly metallic clay-yellow color, with three 
distinct black spots on each, and the wings 
themselves are dark-brown inclining to black ; 
the thorax is usually a little darker than the 
wing-covers, with one spot each side ; the abdo- 
men beiioath, and legs, are of a bronzed-green. 
It is easily kept in check by hand-picking. 

Pklidnota punctata, Linn.— L«n>a (Fig. ia5, a)— 
Length 2 inches; cliimflv, nriovlng on the side. Head, bright 
chestnut-brown, smooth, roonded, with a short, impressed, 
longitudinal line on the top, and three shallow impressions 
in Iront; e))istoma trapezoidal and darker; labrum rough, 
irregularly punctate, and beset on the margin with a few 
stiff rufous haii-s; antennae (Fig. 185, e) as long as epistoma 
and labnun together, 4-Jointed exclusive of bulbus or tubercle 
in which they are inserted ; Joints cylindrical, proportioned 
in length as 2, 6, 4, I, the terminal joint being often a mere 
bud; mandibles strong and blacky with thi*ee denticulations 
at tip, and a very slight tooth at inner basal portion : raax- 
illsB brown and subcylindrical on outside, angulated on in- 
side, bearing two lobes, each terminating in an inwardly 
curved coriaceous tooth, and each furnished on their inner 
narrow edge with stiff bristles, the outside one arising close 
by base of palpus, the inside one extending lower down, and 
recalling, by its form, the terminal Joint of the front leg of a 
scorpion; maxillary palpi 4-Jointed, Joints cylindrical, short, 
very gradually longer and longer from 1 to 4, the terminal 
Joint more pointed and narrower than the others; labium 
quadrangular, labial palpi 2-Jointed, the palplgerous piece 
strongly beset with bristles. Body, smootn with but a few 
wrinkles on thorax; polished transhioent white, with faint 
bluish marblings on all but thoracic Joints, which are slightly 
narrower than the rest; a narrow vesicular dorsal line, and a 
verj' slight yellowish hornv plate in a depression on Joint 1: 
a very slight pubescence observable, and a transverse tergal 
row of sparse but tolerably long hairs on posterior part of 
each Joint; more dense and conspicuous hairs on lower sides 
of anal Joint, which Joint is short, cut off squarely, with a 
heart-8hai)ed swelling (Fig. 185, d) sunk into a circular de- 
pression, each lobe ofthe heart with adarker oval coriaceous 
elevation; spiracles sub-elliptical, dark chestnut-brown, 
placed on a prominent swelling, the lateral oi)enings all fac- 
ing the heaa, the 1st on Joint 1, the rest on Joints 4, 6, 6, 7, 
8, 0, 10 and II, gradually becoming smaller and smaller from 
first to last Ibegs (Fig. 186. /) homy, light-brown and 
covered sparsely with hairs; coxie long and stout, with a 
rounded swelling at lower anterior edge; femora cylindrical, 
sometimes distinctly, at others indistinctlv, separateil from 
tibiie, sometimes prolonged into a thoni below, with a distinct 
carina along the inside, at others not; tibia; cylindrical, in- 
craseated anteriorly, especially below; tarsi cylindrical and 
terminating in a distinct claw. 

Pupa iFig. 18.'), b) of the form of LaoAno»/erm». 

Described from 12 living specimens. 



EP We learn that the Chinch Bug did much 
damage in some parts of Illinois and Wisconsin 
during the dry weather. 



ly Upwards of 1,200 lbs. of Paris green have 
been sold at LaCrosse this season for the destruc- 
tion of potato bugs. 



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THE SLUG ON P£A£ AND CHERRY TREES. 

"The insect generally called the pear or cherry 
tree slug (Selandria ceraH, Peck) has in our 
grounds been so few and so little injurious this 
season that we had almost forgotten to notice it, 
until, passings the orchard of one of our neigh- 
bore a few days since, we saw his pear ti'ees 
almost entirely denuded of their foliage by rea- 
son of the slug. It is a Uttle singular that any 
cultivator can neglect to jguard against such 
results, when merely dusting the roliage with 
lime, plaster, or even the ordlnaiy dry soil, will 
at once destroy the insect. The first brood is 
now about over, but a second one may be looked 
for from the fifteenth to the last of this month, 
and they should be carefully watched for and 
destroyed by all who wish health and vigor to 
their young pear or cherry trees." 

The above is ft*om a correspondent of the 
Journal of Agriculture^ who writes over the 
signature of " Addi," and whose articles abound 
in common sense, and are usually very correct; 
but, in stating that the Pear and Cheny Slug can 
at once be destroyed by ordinary road dust he 
has made a very pardonable error, and has been 
deluded either by hasty observation or by the 
um'eliable testimony of others. 

Though not very troublesome in the West, this 
insect often does much damage in the more 
eastern States, and it has this year absolutely 
stripped many orchards of eveiy vestige of green 
along the line of the Michigan Centi'al railroad, 
leaving nothing but the seared and yellow leaf 
robbed of ite parenchyma. We found that the 
popular remedy was sand, there being an abun- 
dance of this commodity along the Lakes ; but, 
as our friend Mr. Wm. Saunders, of London, 
Ontario, has abundantly demonstrated, and as we 
have oui^selves proved, simple sand does not kill. 
It stic^ to Mr. Slug, so that he frequently falls to 
the ground, and thus it appears to kill him, but 
he very soon manages to divest himself of his 
sand-covered coat. In fact he naturally sheds 
this coat several times during his gi-owth, and if 
the sand is appHed at the proper time it proves 
a positive advantage to him, by stifiening his old 
and useless skin and thus enabling him the be1> 
ter to crawl out of it. If it be applied a day or 
two before the proper time to moult has come, 
then, like a good philosopher, determined to 
make the best of the circumstances, he concludes 
with some reluctance to let the soiled habit go 
before it is quite worn out. Common road-dust 
is equally harmless, and even plaster will prove 
ineffectual, unless applied before the last moult 
takes place ; for after this moult the slug bids 
adieu to his slimy coat. Moral: Never use sand 
or road-dust for the Cherry Slug, but rely on lime, 
which will bum through the skin to the fiesh ; or 
on white heUebore water, which will poison. 



APPENDIX TO JOINT-WORM ARTICLE PUBIJSHED 
IN YOI.. I, NO. 8. 

The following Paper is the only one of a truly 
scientific nature which our deceased Associate 
left behind him. It was originally written as 
an appendix to the '^Joint-worm " article pub- 
lished in No. 8 of our first volume, and is twice 
referi'ed to (pp. 156 and 157) in that article; 
but, after preparing it, Mr. Walsh concluded 
that it was too bulky, and of a too purely scien- 
tific character, to interest the majority of our 
readers. He thei*efore concluded to more thor- 
oughly elaborate it, and send it to Philadelphia 
for publication in the Transactions of the Ameri- 
can Entomological Society. Accordingly he 
notified Mr. Cresson, Secretary of that Society, 
that he should scud him such a paper for publi- 
cation. About this time we were fortunate 
enough to breed, from the eggs of Phylloptera 
oblongifolia, DeGeer, both sexes of the curious 
little pai-asite, Antigaster mirabUiSj n. sp., which 
is described at the close of this paper, and which 
Mr. Walsh had, till then, only known in the $ 
sex. On the 23rd of March, 1869, wo trans- 
mitted to him specimens of both sexes, with 
such facts regarding them a9 we possessed, and 
upon receiving them he deferred sending the 
Paper to Philadelphia until he should find j 
time to add these facts, with a description of S 
Antigaster. But for a long time subsequently 
Mr. Walsh was too sick to do any but the most 
urgent and necessary work. When once his 
health had improved, and he had succeeded, in 
a measure, in attending to his accumulated 
correspondence, he wrote to Mr. Ci'esson, under 
date of October 15th, 1869, as follows: " I hope 
in about a week from now to send that article. 
There is about two days' work to do on it, and 
for the last two months I have been trying in 
vain to get two leisure days to myself." Suffice 
it to say that, from that time to the day of the 
fatal accident, he never found the needed leisure, 
and after his death the Paper was found un- 
finished. Aware of Mr. Walsh's intention, we 
immediately sent this paper to Mr. Cresson for 
publication in the Transactions, accompanied 
with such of our own correspondence with the 
deceased as related to the matter. 

Upon being recently informed by Mr. Cresson 
that the amount of other MS. on hand was such 
that this Paper could not well be published there 
before next winter, and that there was a di - 
position to stop publishing for a few years so as 
to accumulate the income to iuci*ease the capital 
of the Society; we concluded to publish it in 
our own columns, and thus carry out the 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



297 



original intention of the author, and render 
more complete the "Joint-worm'' article already 
alladed to. This paper, from its importance, 
will commend itself to the scientific portion of 
our subscribers; and the generalizations con- 
tained in it will amply repay its perusal by the 
more general reader. We shall, as far as we 
are able, complete it, by adding a description of 
c? Antigaster mirabilU, EDrrou. 

On the Oroup Eurytomides of the Hymcnopterous 
Family Chalcididaj: 

WITU RBMAKKB ON TUB THKORY OF SPECIES, AND A 

OB8€RIPTION OF ANTIQASTEB, A NEW AND VEBY 

ANOMALOUS OBNU8 OF CUALCIDID^. 

UT BKXM. D. WALSH, M.A. 

7AKILT 0HALCID1D2. 

rrrnit Wing* veined on the pattern shown in Figtiree 1 , 2, 3, 
4, 7 and 9.* 

This very difficult and very extensive family has hitherto 
bein ahnost entirely neglected by the entomologists of the 
United Sutes. I have materials for the revision of all the 
different groups found in this country- ; but to complete such 
a work would require far more space than is here available. 
Consequently, I shall in this Paper confine myself chieily to 
^e discussion of one subordinate gproup, Eurytomideif first 
defining and limiting such genera of that group as I find in 
my collection, and secomlly describing the species in my 
possession appertaining to those genera, with such brief 
notes on their natural history as I am able to furnish . Of tlie 
other two Chalcidian genera that I shall have occasiou to 
refer to, one is well known to N. A llymenoptt^ririts, and the 
other is a decidedly new and most anomalous and n^mark- 
able genus. In the latter case, I shall, of courne, be com- 
pelled to publish a new generic name; in the former case, 
for lack of space to treat the subject as it ought to be trcatetl, 
I shall simply adopt the established nomenclature. 

It will be seen at once, fh>m my notes on the habits or the 
various species of Eurytomides, which it will be necessary 
to describe, that many of these Chalcie flies are parasitic 
upon several different species, and that occasionally the very 
same Chaleii Ay is parasitic upon species belonging to differ- 
ent Orders. (E. g. Eurytoma ttudioea^ Say, and Dccatoma 
nubUistigmaf n. sp.) In several cases Eurytomidous form:;!, 
that appear to belong to the same species, present certain 
more or less constant differences when they infest different 
species of insects. Such forms seem to deserve a distinctive 
name, which I have accordingly given to them, classifying 
them as mere varieties. Whether they be really varieties, 
or whether they be distinct species, depends—according to 
my views — upon the difficult and almost insoluble question, 
whether such so-called varieties attack indiscriminately the 
different insects upon which the so-called s)>ecies to \^hich 
they are referred is found to be parasitic, or whether each of 
them exclusively attacks the particidar insect upon which it 
is itself found to be parasitic, in the former case I should 
classify them as varieties, in the latter case as species ; for I 
have always considered the promiscuous interbreeding of two 
forms— whether actually ascertained or analogically infen*ed 
—as the true test of specific identity; and if such so-called 
varieties attack promiscuously the different insects upon 
which the whole so-called species is parasitic, the inference 
is that they derive that propensity, by the Laws of Inhe it- 
ance, from interbreeding habitually with the other forms 
comprehended under the so-called siiecies If, on the other 

* It b moper for me to Mknowl«dg< here Uiat I have no aoqualntance with 
rsreler'* Monograph of Cksteulidat^ publbhcd in the Gemwn language ia 
18H, under the tStle of ** HymenopCcrologlKhe Stodlen, Fart IX, ChalchUds, 



hand, such a so-called variety confines itAelf exclusively to 
that particular insect which it is actually found to infest, 
then I should infer that it can not interbreed habitually with 
the other forms referred to the same 8o-called species; be- 
cause, if it did so, it would inevitably, by the Laws of 
Inheritance, acquire a ))ropensity to attack all the different 
insects which are attacked by the other forms provisionally 
referred to the same species Consequently, upon this latter 
supposition, I (Should pronounce such a so-called variety to 
l>e in reality a distinct species. 

It is a very interesting fact that a Hymenopterous parasite 
found in Ilurope {Chryeie ignita)^ which is exceedingly vari- 
able,, both in size, in coloring, and in the structural peculi- 
arities of the four terminal teeth of the abdomen— two of 
these teeth being in one variety {Merope) actually obsolete— 
is also exceedingly variable in the groups of insects upon 
which it is Dsrasitic. Some, for example, attack the genus 
Odynenu (True Wasps), some the genus Cercerie (Digger 
Wasps )i and some the genus Veepa (Social Wasps ) Mr. Fred. 
Smith has suggested, that the variation in size of this Chryeis 
is perhaps due to the variation in size of the lar>'io upon 
which it i)i'eys.» May not the structural and colorational 
variations, also, be due to similar causes, and may there not 
be distinct races— or, as 1 should call them, distinct species— 
of this insect, which prey exclusively or almost exclusively 
upon distinct groups of Wasps, and have transmitted such 
propensities by the luws of inheritance to their descendants? 
In that case, as well as in the hypothetical cases just now 
referred to among the Chalcis flies, we should have Ento- 
mophagic Varieties and Entomophagic Species, strictly an- 
alogous to what I have described as Phytophagic Varieties 
and Phytophagic Sjiecies. {Proc. Ent. Soc, PAf7.,IlI., pp. 
40:i-430; v., pp. 191-21G.) 

The club of the Chalcididous antenna appear) to be nor- 
mally comi>osed of about three connate and often more or 
less confluent joints. European authors, in describing the 
number of joints in the Chiilcididous auteimu, seem to have 
always counted the typical joints of the club as true joints. 
This I have never done, ist, becauHe they really are not true 
tona ^de joints, and, secondly, because in the same species 
some specimens look as if lliey Imd a two-jointed, some as if 
they had a three-jointed, and some almost as if they had a 
four-jointed club. But, to prevent confusion, after stating 
the number ot veri able free Joints in the antenna— say, for 
instance, eight— I have always appended the formula "Scape 
+G-fClub," or '*Sc.+G+Cl.'' 

As to certain very minute joints which certain European 
authors have described as existing in certain genera between 
the pedicel or second joint of the antenna, which is generally 
short, and the generally elongate third joint or fli-st joint of 
the flttgellum; I believe them not to be true homy joints at 
all , but mere wrinkles of the connecting membrane . Cer- 
tainly, in the typical antenna, whether in Hymenoptera or In 
Coleoptera, the third joint is always a more or less elongate 
joint, and never a very minute one, as is so often the case 
with the pedicel or second joint t 

SUBFAMILY EURYTOMIDES, Westw. 

Collate very long and trantverse-quadratef ae in Figure 8, 
B, c,- hind thighe not ewelled. 

Genus Eurytoma. (Fig. 1, a $, ^ <^ ) Body partially 
contractile, as in Chryeididce, with a deep, finely-sculptured 
groove for the reception of the middle femora, reaching A*om 
the base of the middle coxa to a iioint immediately beneath 

*For the f^cta roapecting thU ChrvHt, eoe Mr. 8mlth*« Paper in Stalnton'f 
Bntomologm't ArmMot fur 1802, pp. 80 and K7. 

1 1 have th«oughout thlt Paper called the first or long joint of the antenna 
ihe ' * Rcapc," aiid considered the " flagcllum " at commencing with the third 
joint, calling the small second joint, whenever I have occasion to give it a 
dUtincUve name, the *- pedicel." Vhl* agrees with bay's definition of theee 
terms, except that he Irrais ihcpromioence or "radicle." as it is technically 
tcnucd, from which the antenna springs, as a dIsUnct joint of the antenna. 
It appears also to agree with the tcrakinology generally adopted by Ooleop. 
terims and Uymenoplcrists: at all evcitts,Xam inromied by Baroo Osten 
^acken that tne terms are aefined as above by Schiodte so lar as regards 
Coienptera. Uut in Diptcra. as I am informed on the same authority, the 
universal practice is to consider the first and second joints of the antenna a« 
forming collectiToiy the "scape," instead of calling the flnt joint alone 
the scape. 



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the insertion of tfte fh>nt wing. Antennse (^ $ osnally as in 
Figure 1, « $ , / (^, 8-Joiuted or 9-jointed (Sc -H6+C1. or Sc. 
4-7 -f( 1.) , with a club composed of two or three connate and 
almost confluent joints. Head and thorax very coarsely 
punctate Abdomen as in Figure 1, c $, d f^, 8-jolnted, 
polished, and compressed, especially $ ; the peduncle or 
first joint sculptured, ^ about as long as the rest of the ab- 
domen, 2 short; (^ with the fourth joint, $ with the fifth 
joint very long and finely and closely punctate below. Stig- 
ma (^ $ simple. 

It is not very easy to see the sutures between the joints in 
the antenna of ^ Eurytoma; but by examining a great num- 
ber of (^^, where the antenna} were much convoluted, I 
ascertained that the crook or elbow was always at the tip and 
never at the base of any peduncle. Consequently, the real 
suture is at the tip of every peduncle, as shown in the figure. 

Gknus Dkcatoma. (Fig. 2, a $ , 6 (5*) Body contractile 
as in Eurytoma and with a similar groove for the middle 
femora. Antc^nmne (^ $ as in Figure 2, e $ , f (^, (^ 7-jointed 
(Sc.+5+Cl.), filiform, the club slightly compressed, $ 
8-jointed (Sc.-ffi-f CI.), gradimlly clavate, the club consider- 
ably compressed . Head and thorax very coarsely punctate. 
Abdomen as in Figure 2, c $, d ^, 8-Jointed, polished, and 
compressed, especially $ ; peduncle sculptured, (^ not quite 
as long as the rest of the abdomen, $ about half as long; 
(^ with the fourth joint, $ with the fifth joint very long. 
Stigma (5* $ thickened, widened and blackened. 

Genus Isosoma. (Fig. 3, 6 $ ; fig. 4, a $ , 6 (3* ) Body 
not contractile and with no groove to receive the middle 
femora. Antennas (^ $ as in Figure 4, e $,/(5', 9-jolnted 
(Sc.-fT-fCl.), (^ filiform and with joints 3-9 subequal in 
length, $ gradually clavate, joints 2 and 4-8 all equally 
short, 3 longer, 9 about as long as 7 and 8 put together. 
Head aud thorax rather finely rugose. Abdomen as in 
Figure 4, c 5, d (^, 8-jointed, polished, cylindrical, (^ with 
the peduncle short and sculptured, $ almost sessile; (^ with 
joints 4 and 5 long, $ with joints 5 and 6 long. Stigma ^ $ 
simple. 

GKNUS EURYTOMA. 
Synoptical Table tojind the apecies described below. 

4. Antenna: female. 8-jolnted (Sc . -HH-Cl.) 

a. Head and thorax [.artly pale bioolor, n. «p. 

b. Head and thorax entirely black. 

1. ijef(a, includinj( coxa; and trochanten , en- ? 

tirely or almost entirely pale S 

tFace niaie with white hair«; abdomen > nrnnieola n an 

female bandt-d with pale \ prunicoia, n. »p. 

tt Face male with golden hairi ; abdomen < ««-4«««- « .« 

female all bl..ck , \ aurtcepo. n. up. 

2. T^Cf. except the black coxte, entirely pale. 

t Antennie tiemale normal punctiventris, n. tp. 

tf Antonnic female with joint 8 much > „>,««,„ i««_-,i- „ --, 
longer than club ^ abnormloomls. n. tp. 

3. All a coxoa black , femora and tibio) partly ^ 

black, eacn »ucceaaive pair more and > 

more to ) 

t 8ly.e large diastroplii, n. «p. 

tt Slate imall atuoiOBa, Hay. 

B. Antenna! female distinctly 0-jointcd (Sc. +7-1-01.) eljrantia, n. ap. 

Earytoma bicolor, n sj).— <^$ honey-yellow. He<i (2 sub- 
opaque, confluently and very coarsely ]mnctate and with 
short whitiHh decumbent hairs; dibk of occiput, and a spot 
enclosing the three ocelli and occasionally (1 ^) extending 
in a salient angle nearly to the origin of the antennas, but 
usually expanded in front so jis only to leave a more or less 
wide pale orbit on each side, and UHually more or less witlely 
confluent behind with the occinital spot, all black. Antennae 
i"?* $ 8-jolnted, ^ with no pecmncle at the tip of joint? aud 
jouitSonly >3 longer than 7, $ with joints 4-7 subequal in 
length; rf $ with the scape noney-yellow except at tip; 
joint 2 glabrous, shining and black, the remaining joints 
browu-biac'-k. Thorajc sculptured as the head, but still more 
coarsely and with whitish i>ube8cence Coliare sometimes 
(1 ^) with only a dorsal black triangle, usually black on il« 
entire superior and partly on its lateral surface, the black 
part occasionally (1 $ ) enclosing on each side a pale dot. 
Mesothorax and metathorax above, except sometimes (I (^ 
2 $) lor a small space above the wings, black. Abdomen 

golished and glabrous, but a little hairy towards its tip; 
lack (^, ^ black with the venter, and more or less of the 
lower part of the dorsum, honey-yellow. Legs, incluaing 
coxaB and trochanters, honey-yellow, sometimes (1 (3* i $) 



immaculate, generally with the femora and tibiae, especially 
$ , more or less lightly tinged or viltate with dusky superi- 
orly, each succeeding pair of legs more obviously so. Win^t 
hyaline; veins brownish- white, usually towards their tip 
end ranging into brown-black Length (J 0.11, $ 0.08— 
0.11 inch. 

Described from I (3* 2 $ bred June 3d, from a rough, 
woody, subglobular, black ftmgoid swelling upon the twigs 
of Black Oak, which is infested by an undescribed Gali-fiy, 
and which also, occurs upon Bed Oak, but in both caaes 
always very sparingly and sparsely, and never in profusion 
and locally like the true Cynipidous gall , Q. podagra, Walsh 
This fungoid growth is the supposed gall referred to by 
Ostcn Sacken in Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil. IV, p. 365, note. A 
very similar but more elongate fungoid growth, which pro- 
duces no Qall-ny whatever, but from which, as well as from 
the Oak- fungus, I have bred Trochilium Ao«pe«, Walsh, occare 
locally, but in the greatest prof^islon upon the Pig-nut Hick- 
ory iCarya glabra). From this Hickory-fungus, I have bred 
the following Beetles: 1st, the rare Chramerut icoria, Lee. 
{Scolytida)i 2nd, a Magdalinus'i resembling at first sight M. 
barbitusy Say, but structurally distinct, and 3d, a Ci* which 
according to LeConte is most probably C, pumicatiu, Mellie. 
I have no doubt that the Gall-fly obuined from the Osk- 
fungus is inquilinous, as well as the undistinguishable form 
bred by Mr. Bassett from galls on the stem of some plant 
suijposed to be mustard. (See Osten Sacken, I. c ) Not 
improbably, the real gall-maker of these mustard-galls was 
some Gall-gnat {Cecidomyia) . I shall have occasion on a 
subsequent page to quote several cases, where gall-flies be- 
longing to notoriously inquilinous genera are inquilinons in 
'>cidomyidous galls. Authors have been sometimes a little 
too apt to jump to the conclusion that, because a particular 
insect is bred from a particular gall, therefore it is the author 
of that gall . No mode of reasoning can be more unsafe awl 
unsound . 

[Fig. 1.1 




Enryioma prnnicoliM n. sp. ^ <^ (Fig D K^*^*'- 
Head subopaque, confluently and very coarsely punctate, 
and with short white decumbent hairs dense ni>«.n. ^''J: 
face. Antennas (^ often distinctly 9-jolnted wilh jomi ^ 
rufous, and always with a peduncle at tip of joint 7 but none 
at tip of joint 8; in the same (^ one antenna is 8-jointea »nu 
ihe other distinctly 9-jointed; antennas 2 always 8-jointea. 
with joints 4-7 subequal in length, and tlie club w ^^^fj^ 
6 and 7 put together; (^ $ with the scape except sometime^ 
the extreme tip rufous, the other joints brown-black exccp 
sometimes the 9th joint ^. Thorax sculptureil «« the newi 
but still more coarsely, and with white pubescence, .^'"fj'' 
men polished ami glabrous, but a little hairv towanii* 'tf ni • 
(j* immaculate, $ with the long mi»dial or Sth jouit ai^aj^ 
rufous and the 4tu generally piceous. Legs^ incuidingcoxse 
and trochanters, honey-yellow or rufous; the tarsi »» 
sometimes the tibiaj verging on white. Wings hyaline? »<"J" 
brownirth-white, generally shading into bi-own ^J" !J .« 
brewn-black towards their tips. Length (J O.U— " ^•*' 
$ 0.10— 0.15 inch. 

Described from 12 (^ bred Tune 9th— 19th, a single ^ '"^ 
August 23d, and 31 $ bred June 9th— July 1st, all fVom the 
Cynipidous oak-gall Q. pruntu, Walsh, of the precetling 
year's growth. I observe in this species of EurytoiM, ** 



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290 



well as in several others, a remarkable variation in the con- 
tour of the eye, which might readily be mistaken for a 
specidc character. In most specimens (^ $ the eyes are as 
smooth as they usually are in mature Hymenoptera; but in 
8 <? 5 2 the sur&ce of the eye is elevated in a number of 
large rounded whitish or gray tubercles— giving it a very 
singular appearance. 

Variety globollcoU. Two $ bred June 6th ft-om the 
Cynipidous oak-gall Q. globului. Fitch, of last year's growth, 
have the abdomen entirely rufous except some more or less 
extensive basal black stains, but do not otherwise differ. 

EnrytoniA amrlceps, n. sp. -HI*. Differs from the pre- 
oe<ling (^ only in the hairs of the head and body, being 
golden-yellow not white, so that the face has a bright golden 
insteadof a white reflection; in the (^ antennse bemg always 
8-Jointed and never 9-jointed, joint 8 being long and com- 
posed apparently of two connate joints, the apical one some- 
times ruious; and in the hind coxa being occasionally tinged 
with black externally. The $ differs firom the preceding $ 
in the abdomen being black immaculate, and the hind coxa; 
and occasionally (2 ^) a cloud on the anterior middle of the 
hind femur being black, or (1 $ ) in the entire middle of the 
hind femur being black. Generally, but not always, the 
middle and front cox^ are also more or less black. Length 
(} 0.10— e. 18 inch, $ 0.10— O.U inch. 

Described from 8 ^ 10 $ bred Aug. 31st— Sept. 80th from 
the Cynipidous oak-gall Q. erinaceus, Walsh (=Q. pUum^ 
Pitch?) of the same year's growth, and 1 $ bred May 6th 
fh>m the same gall of the preceding year's growth . A single 
nomoal (^ was bred June 2d from the Cynipidous oak-gall Q. 
tpongiJUa^ O. S., and four normal $ from the Cynipidous 
oak-gall Q. hirta, Bassett, Aug. 30th— Sept. 7th. A single 
$, bred from the Cynipidous rose-gall rodiciim, O. 8., is 
only abnormal by having the entire middle of the bind femur 
black, as in one typical $ . 

Variety semlnatrix. Five ^, bred July 2d from the Cynip- 
idous oak-gall ieminatoTf Harris, of the same year's growth, 
only differ from the normal ^ in being on the average con- 
siderably smaller, and in one ^ not only having the hind 
ooxie black, but also the external middle of the himl femur 
and tibia black, besides an abbreviated black line on the 
front and middle femora above. Twelve $, bred from the 
same gall July 2(1— 5th, differ from the normal $ in being on 
the average considerably smaller, and in the legs being more 
generally and more extensively marked with black, the front 
and mt<ldle femora being oAen more or less widely vittnle 
with black above. As in the normal (j*, the (^ has golden 
hair on the face. Length (^ 0.08—0.10, $ 0.07—0.11 inch. 

Enryioma f^nncilveiitrU, n. sp. $ Differs from Eur. 
prtmicola ^ only as follows: Ist. The size Is lai^ger. 2d. The 
longor flflh abdominal joint is finelv and closely puncture<l 
nearly up to the dorsal line. 3d. The peduncle and joints 
2-5 of the abdomen arc always black: but the remaining 
dorsal joints and the venter are occasionally rufo-i>iceou8. 
Ath) All the six coxa; are black. Length $ 16—0.17 inch. 

Described from 2 $ , bretl from the Cynipidous oak-gall Q. 
mamma, Walsh MS , and 1 $ , bred July 26 most probably 
from the fUngoid growth on oaks referre<l to above; (^ un- 
known. Comes pretty near to Eur. auricfpt^ $ n. sp. ; but 
is distinguishable by the larger size and the strongly punc- 
tured fifth joint of the abdomen. 

Emryloma abnormlcomia, n. sp. $. Differs from Eur. 
prunicola $ only as follows: 1st. The size is larger. 2nd. 
The scape of the antenna; is rufous tippi'd with black; joint 
Sis 2i times as long us wide; 4—7 gradually diminishing 
until? is square; and the club is only 1^ times as long as 
wide, much shorter than joint 3 or than lolnts 6 and 7 taken 
together, and also distinctly rulou}. 3d. The abdomen is 
black immaculate, and as itsual is only punctate on its lower 
surfaces 4th. All the coxae are black, and. the hind femora 
and middle tibiae clouded with dusky. Length $ 0.16 Inch. 

Described from 1 $ captured at large; ^^ unknown. 

EnrytomA dlastropbi, n. sp. ^ $ Differ from Eur. 
prunicola on\s u& follows: 1st. In ihe antenna; the scape, 
if rufous at all, is only basally so, and occasionally is black 
immaculate. 2d Antenna; ^ are 8 jointed as in auriceptj 
but much shorter (^ $ than either in prunicola or auricepM, 
and without any peduncle (^ at tip of joint 7, as in (^ 
of those two species. 3d. Abdomen $ is black inmiaculate 
4th. In the legs the coxa; are all black, as also the hind 
femora and hind tibia;, except at the base and tip; and the 
femora and tibia; of the middle legs, and femora of the front 
legs, are often more or less marked with black externally. 
Length cf 0.11-0.19, $ 0.11-0.16 inch. 



Described from 2 (5* 19 $ , bred May 11th— June 1st, from 
the Cynipidous bramble-gall of IHa»trophut nebulonu, O. 8. 
Six ^ two $ , bred May 24th— July 23d fh)m the oak-fhngus 
mentioned above, agree in every respect. I possess also 1 ^ 
9 $ captured at large. 

Variety Bolter i, Riley. $ differs from Eur. prunicola $ 
only aA follows : 1st. The size Ls larger. 2d. The antennal 
scape is black immaculate. 8d. The abdomen is black im- 
maculate. 4th. The hind legs are black except the knees 
and the tips of the tibia;, which are honey-yellow ; the four 
front legs are honey-yellow except the coxse, trochanters, 
the base and outer middle of the femora, and a more or less 
abbreviated external vitta on the tibiae : all the six tarsi verge 
upon white. Length $ 16—0.18 inch. 

Described from 1 $ bred Aug. 27th, from the lepidopter- 
ous golden-rod gall of Gelechia gallasolidaginii, Riley; 
another $ bred May 20th, its parentage unknown, and a 
third $ captured at large; (^ unknown. Mr. Riley has 
described the ^^ in his Firtt Report (p. 177), but almost all 
the characters that he gives are generic and not specific. 

EnrytomA stndiosa. Say. ^ $ scarcely differ from the 
normal type of the preceding except in their much smaller 
size, in the antenna; being as long as in Eur. prunicola, and 
in ihe antennal scape being always black immaculate. 
' ^ ' "Sept. ' * "' ' 



Recognized from six ^ six 2, bred i 

Cynipidous oak-gall O. Jicu*. Fitch, of the same year's 
gi*owth, and seven (^ nine $ , bred May 10th— June 6th, from 
the same gall ot last year's growth.— Length ^ 0.04—0.09, 
$ 0.05— 0.11 inch. 

The following, bred from galls of various kinds, do not 
differ materially either in size, structure or coloration from 
the above. Ist. From Cynipidous oak-galls; 1 <^ S $, 
bred July 2—11, from teminator, Harris; 1 $ , bred Sept, 18, 
(Tom. Q. hirta, Bassett; 1 (5*» from Q. spongi/lca, O. 8.; and 
2 d* 1 $ » ^^^ the undescribcd leaf-gall on Burr Oak, Q. 
fragariay Walsh MS . 2nd . From tkntiikkdixidous willow- 
galls; 8 (^ 1 $ , bred May 5—24, from S. nodut, Walsh; 4 (j* 
2 $ bred May 14—20 from S. gemma, Walsh; 1 c? 4 $ bred 
May 28— June 19, from S. ovum, Walsh; 4 <j» 7 $ bred May 13 
—June, 8 from S, ovulum, Walsh; and 10 $ bred Aug. 13— 
Sept. 6, from S. pomum, Walsh. 3rd. From Cbcidomyidoub 
galls; 1 c^ 1 $ brcil Aug. 2—11, from the wlllow-gall S.brat- 
ticoides, Walsh, and 1 $ ascertained to be piuasitic on Cec. 
comuta, Walsh, which is inquUinous in that gall; 4 ^^^ 2 $ 
bred May 19—22, from the willow-gall ttrobUoidet, O. 8 ; 3 (^ 
7 $ bred May 21— June 9, from the willow-gall S. batatat, 
Walsh; 8 ^ 10 $ from the goldenrod-gall tolidaginiz, O. S. ; 
and 6 (3* 2 2 from the same gall growing on iron weed. 
4th. Two $ bredftwm the Aphidian leaf- gall Caryaglobu- 
iMf Walsh, growing on Shellbark Hickory 5th. From the 
undescribed Coccidous lvaf-qall Carya-fallax, Walsh MS., 
growing on Shellbark Hickory, 7 r^ 3 $ bred June 30. 
6th. One (3* bred from the black fungoid swelling on Pig- 
nut Hickory referred to above . 

The following only differ from Eur. itudiota^ Say, in having 
the base of the antennal scape more or less rufous, espe- 
cially in $ ; 2 <^ 4 $ bred Aug. 31— Sept. 9, Irom the oak- 
gall Q. erinaceu9, Walsh, of the same year's growth, and I ^^ 
bred April 9 from the same gall of last year's growth; also 
1 (^1 $ bred from the oak-gall Q paluttrit, O.S., of the same 
year's growth. 

I possess also 8 (j* 38 $ captured at large, which should 
probably be referred to Say's species. I have been unable to 
identify Eurytoma orbiculatay Say, descrlbe<l in (^ sex only, 
and the laws of coloration seem to me to forbid the existence 
of any species of Eurytoma with such legs as Say describes 
in this species. According to him, the legs ai e ' 'honey -yel- 
low, with the thighs, except at their origin and extremity, 
black." Now, Ist, If the thighs were much marked with 
black, the coxae would necessarily also be more or less black, 
whereas they are by implication described as * 'honey-yel- 
low;" 2ud, if the front femora were mostly black, as he 
describes them, the hind tlbis would most probably be more 
or less black. For it is a very general law in Chalcidida 



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that each successive pair of legs is more and more marked 
with black. In Ephemeridetf on the contrary, the front pair 
of legs is normally by far the darkest, the four hind legs 
being nearly alike in tlieir coloration. And so with other 
families of insects ^-each will be found to be marked accord- 
ing to certain general colorsitional laws. Why, if it be the 
correct doctrine that ever}' species was independently cre- 
ated, the great Author of Nature should have restricted him- 
self, in the caseof each family, to certain definite colorational 
patterns, is a mystery which I have never yet been able to 
solve. Neither do those who still cling to this almost ex- 
ploded doctrine make the least attempt to solve this insoluble 
enigma, but, in the words of Mr. Wallace, are content to 
'* register the facts and wonder." 

Earytoma |{lgantea, n. sp. $ Black. H«a^i subopaqne, 
confluently and very coarsely punctate, and with short 
whitish decumbent hairs. Antenna? 9-Jointed, the Joints 
proportioned to each other as U, 3, n, 5, 5, 4. 4, 4, G, the flag- 
ellar Joints longer than usual in propoilion to their breadth, 
the penultimate Joint being 1^ times as long as wide. Thorax 
sculptured us the head, but still more coarsel^^v Abdomen 
polished and glabrous but a little hairy towards its tip, more 
compressed than usual, and with the usual fine punctation 
on the 5th or long Joint extending almost up to the dorsal 
line. Ventral valve unusually long and acutely porrect. 
Legs black, the knees and the 'tips of the tibiie, and in the 
fh)nt legs the entire tibiic, all honey-yellow; tarsi, except 
their extreme tips, whitish, the anterior tarsi pale honey- 
yellow. Wings hyaline; veins honey-yellow. Length $ 
0.10-0.26 inch 

Described Irom 2 $ captured at large; (^ unknown. By 
far the largest species that I have seen, and readily distin- 
guishable by the 9-Jointed antenna), the suture between the 
8th and 9th Joint being as distinctly a free suture at any of 
the others. 

GENUS DKCATOMA. 

Synoptical table, to find the species described below. 
A—\. di 'tinct attKinatie dark bsnd on tlie fVnot wing. 



a. Body mustly black 

1. Head muftly p«* 

2. Read n<tirely black 



lead muftly pwk ...... Tarians , u. fp. 



h Body almost entirelv pale - 
—No itiKiiiatic dark band, 
a. Body mostly black 
6 . Body almost entirely pale 



nljrrioeps. n. «p. 
- nabllistigma, d. sp. 

hyalipennis, n. sp. 
■ImpUoiatigma, u sp. 



[Fig. 2.] 




I>ecatonia varlans, n. sp.— (^$ (Fig. 2) pale ochre-yellow 
ranging through honey-yellow to rufous. Head Hubopacine, 
confiuently and very coaraely punctate. A black sjiot on 
the veitex, sometimes not extending beyond the ocelli, some- 
times covering the whole vertex, and very rarely (1 $ spring 
brood, 1 $ autumnal brood) extending over the superior 
half of the occiput. Antennie ranging trora. nale honey- 
yellow to rufous, the flagellum very rarely (1 $ spring 
brood, 1 $ autumnal brood) brown-black above. Thorax 
sculptured as the head, but still more coarsely, collare 
generally either immaculate or with only a basal black band, 
rarely with a subquadrate black patch covering the entire 
superior surface, and sometimes with only the lateral and 
biisal limits of this patch black. Mcsonotum and meUtnotum 
black, generally with the .sutures and the entin* postscutellar 
triangles of the mesonotum (Fig. 8, B, d) yellow or rufous. 
Pleura usually inmiaculate, rarely a little varied with black, 
Abdomen highly polished, with the peduncle ^ nearly »,' as 
long, $ 1-5 as long as the rest of the abdomen; (^ $ black 
with the peduncle, two or three of the basal Joints and the 
Tenter often more or less piceoiis or rufous or noney-yellow; 



in one rf the entire abdomen, exceftt a dorsal black patch 
behind, being honey -yellow. Legs rarely immacalate, 
usually with an abbreviated, narrow black superior vitta on 
the femur, which becomes wider and lonser in each succes- 
sive pair of legM, and occasionally in the nind femur covnra 
the whole of it except the extreme base and tin; tibia; the 
same, but the front tibiae are almost always immacalate, 
and the hind tibiw are generally black throaghout except 
their extreme base and tip; ooxas and trochanters immacu- 
late, but the hind coxa; are more or less widely vittatcor 
bivittate with black alK>ve, except their extreme base and 
tip. Wings hyaline; stigma black, veins and stigmatic patch 
brown-black, the latter extending S of the way across the 
wing, and almost always widened behind so as to appear 
bottTe-shap(>d, the stigma forming the neck of the bottle. 
Length ^ 0.0»-0 14, $ 0.10—0 Ittinch. 

Described Arom 20 (j* 25 $ , that came out from the Cyni- 
pidous oak-gall Q. podograf Walsh, of the same year's 
growth, September 4th— Oct. llth, and (^ 2 $ that came 
out from the same gall, only of last year's growth. May Slst 
— Tune 21st. From the Cynipidous oak-gall Q. spongi/ica, 0. 
S., I have obtained 1 (j* 7 $, differing in no respect firom 
those produced by the other gall (Q podagra) ^ except that 
they varied in size still more remarkably, the (^ Iwingonly 
07 inch and the lai^gest $ as much as 0. 16 inch long. From 
the allied oak-gall, Q. inaniSt O. S , I bred a single (^ of aver, 
age size and coloration. A single rather small $ , bred from 
the Cynipidous oak-gall, Q. paluMtriSy O S., growing either 
on the Black or Laurel Oak, has the occiput black above and 
the antennae brown-black above ; but it is otherwise normally 
colored. I possess also 2 (5* 1 $ captured at lai^e, that do 
not differ from the noimal form. This is an exceedingly 
variable species, both as regards size and coloration. 

Variety dabia, ^ $ .—This form differs from D. vsnasi 
only as follows: 1st. The average size is much larger. 
2d. The coloration is darker, nearly the entire occipot, and 
the entire face except the antenna! groove and the anterior 
border, the entire mesonotum including the postscutellar tri- 
angles, (Fig. 8, B, <f), almost the entire pleura, and the en- 
tire abdomen, being black. 8d. The stigmatic dark band it 
never bpttla-shapeci, but is of the same width as the stigm* 
throughout. Length cfO.lo, $ 0.16 inch. 

Described from 1 (jT & $ i bred May ilst— 20th, from the 
Cynipidous Oak-gall Q. mamma, Walsh MS., of the preceding 
year's growth. This gali, it should be obser%'ed, grows not 
only on a different species of Oak (Borr Oak) Amn those on 
which the gaUs producing D variant grow (Black, Red and 
Laurel Oaks), but also on a species belonging to a distinct 
subdivision of the genus. Out of a total of 32 (j* 27 $ of J), 
voriaai, bred from the gall of Q. podagrm, but S $ , measoring 
0.10—0.15 inch, agree with the form duMa. 

Decatoma nigrlcepsf u. sp.— (j* $ differ fh>m the normal 
form of D. varians only as follows: 1st. The average size is 
much smaller, and the average color much darker. 2nd it 
is perceptibly a less elongate species (^ $ . Srd. The head 
is entirely black, as indeed is almost the case with variety 
dubia of the pi*eceding . 4th . The antennae are always basally 
brown- black, though often dull rufous towards their tips, 
the scape being always brown-black, which is never the 
case in varians, even in the dark variety dtU>ia 5th The 
entire thorax and abdomen are black, save that usually 
there is a more or less extensive honey-yellow or rufbus 
spot on the side of the collare, which m one autumnal $ 
extends over its anterior half above, and save that in one 
vernal (j^ the suture at the tip of the al>dominal peduncle 
is rufous, and in one autumnal $ the lower part of the abdo- 
men is plceous. 0th. The legs are on the average more 
heavily marked with black, and the coxae are chiefly black. 
7th . The dusky stigmatic patch is never widened benintl the 
black stigma, is of a pale tint with its posterior boundaiy 
less delinltely marked, and is occasionally reduced to a short 
dusky cloud, reaching only half way or even one- third of 
the way across the wing. Length (^ u.05— 0.10, $ 0.07—0.10 
inch. 

Described from S^ 2 g, bred Sept. 2ind— 24th, from the 
Cynipidous Oak-gall Q. ficus. Fitch, of the same yar's 
growth, and 40 (^ 16 $ , bred May 8th— 20th, from the same 
gall of the preceding year's growth. This species presents 
some remarkable analogies with the variety dubia of the 
preceding; and the gall Q. fictu^ in which it is parasitic, 
grows on White Oak— a species belonging to the same group 
of Oaks as the Burr Oak, on which the gall that pioduces 
dtibia occurs . 



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Variety excrvclant, ^ $ . Three (^ one g , brerl July 2d 
ftpom the Cynipidoos gall $eminator, Harris, which grows 
exoluslYely on White Oak, differ Jrom the normal form of 
nigrfcept only in the scape of the anteunie being dull rufous 
instead of bro wn-blaok . The antennal groove is black . 

Decatoma hyallpeanls, n. sp.—^j* black. Head sub- 
opaque, conflueiitly and very coarsely punctate; orbits, nar- 
rowly interrupted above; the face below the anrennse, cheeks, 
and mouth, pale yellow. Antenna} dull yellow, Joints 2 
and 3 dusky above Thorax sculptured as the head, but 
still more coarsely. CoUare i>ale yellow, except a wide 
dorsal vltta. Wing-scale and a longitudinal line above it, 
palemfoua. ilfrdomen highly polished, plceous below. Pe- 
duncle % as long as the rest of the abdomen. Legs pale yel- 
low, basal % of the hind coxa;, and a patch above on the 
middle of the hind femora, black. W\ngt hvalinc; veins 
brown ; stigma black . No vestige whatever of any stigmatic 
cloud or patch . Length ^ 0.08 inch. 

The $ differs ttom the ^ only as follows : 1st. The orbits 
are wider and not interrupted above, and the face and cheeks 
are yellow higher up. 3nd. The antennware dusky above to 
their tips. 8rd. The black vilta on the ooUare is narrower 
and sometimes abbreviated. 4th. The mesonotal sutures are 
more or loss widely yellow, and the pleura and metathorax 
are stained with yellow. 6th. The abdominal i>eduncle is, 
as nsual in the $ $ of this genus, considerably shorter, and 
the venter, and sometim«s also the lower part of the abdomi- 
nal dorsum, are honey-yellow. Gth. The legs are immacu- 
late 

Described firom 1 (j* 2$ , all three captured at large. Re- 
sembles the paler varieties of vaHant, but is sufficiently dis- 
tinct by the total absence oi any stigmatic dark patch. It 
may possibly be the case that the ^ and $ here described 
belong to distinct species. 

Decatoma •Impllclstlgma, n. sp.~(j* $ pale ochre- 
yellow. Head subopaque, confluently and very coarsely 
CiCtate; disk of the occiput, ocelli, and sometimes a curved 
d connecting the ocelli and which is rarely (1 cT 1 $) 
confluent by a narrow tongue with the occipital spot, all 
black. Antennie with the flagellum slightly obfliscate above, 
and Joint i usually black above. Thorax sculptured as the 
head, but still more coarsely. CoUare rarely (1 $) with a 
nuTow dorsal black line; mesonotum with a more or less 
slender dorsal black triangle, the base ol the triangle usually 
starting from the suture behind the coUare, sometimes from 
the hind part of the coUare, and the apex of the triangle 
approaching more or less nearly, but never unite attaining 
the scutel . Occasionally on each side of this black triangle 
two or three black dots are placed in the suture behind the 
collare. On the scutel a more or less wide dorsal black line 
not quite attaining its tip. Very rarely (I $ ) the entire meso- 
notum is immaculate, mesothorax always with a more or 
less wide dorsal black line, which is almost always pro- 
longed in a curve behind the mesothoracic scutel to the origin 
Of the firont wing. Abdomen highlv polished, with the pe- 
duncle (^ $ as In varianij the yellow color often merging 
more or less into rufous. Peduncle above and below, a dor- 
sal line not attaining the tip, which generally expands upon 
each suture into a lateral tooth, and is sometimes dilated into 
one large dorsal patch, all block. Legs immacnlutc; but 
the suture at the origin of the hiud coxic is black. IVingt 
hyaline; veins brown; stigma black; no vestige of any stig- 
matic cloud or patch. Length ^ 0.06-0.11, g 0.8-0.11 
inch. 

Described lh>m 7 (j* 14 $ , bred Aug. 81st— Sept 30th, from 
the Cynlpidous Oak-gall Q. erinaceut, Walsh (=Q. pitum. 
Fitch?) of the same year's growth, which occurs on White 
Oak. Two (j*, bred June 24th and July 8th, firom the Oyni- 
pidous Oak-gall Q. petiolicola, BaSsett, of the same year's 
growth, which occurs on Swamp White Oak, and one $ 
bred flrom the Oak-fig gaU, which occurs on White Oak, 
differ in no respect firom the described type. 

Decatama nabilistlgma, n sp.— (5* $ differ fix>m the 
preceding only as follows: Ist. The geneitil color is ochre- 
yellow, ranging through honey-yellow to nifous. 2nd The 
ocellar black spot is never confluent with the occipital black 
spot. 3rd. The coUare is always immaculate, anu also (ex- 
cept 5 (j* 4 $) the mesonotum, and (except 2 Q) the scutel. 
4th. The oui'ved black line behind the scutel Is usually ex- 
panded, in connection with the metathoraoic black vitta, 
into a broad black triangle, the apex of which does not 
quite attain the abdominal peduncle. 5th. In the abdomen 
the peduncle is either immaculate or only vittate above with 
bla<». 6th. The ftmora and tibiie have a linear abbreviated 
superior black vitta, scarcely perceptible in the firont legs, 



and more obvious in each successlvepalr of legs. 7th. The 
ftont legs have a pale fuscous cloud, scarcely wider than 
the stigma is long, extending IVom the stigma fi^m }i to ?3 
of the way across the wing, or (I Q) only fX of the way. 
Length ^ 0.08—0.10; $ 0.07—0.12 inch. 

Described from 9 (5* 29 $ , bred May 7th— 14th, from the 
Cecidomyidons Willow-gall S batatas, Walsh, of the pre- 
ceding year's growth. Eleven (^, bred June 2d, from an 
undescribed gall closely resembling Q. tuber, Fitch, but 
occurring not on White Oak but on Swamp White Oak, and 
in all probability Cynipidous, agree in every respect with 
the described types. I i>ossess also a single normal $ cap- 

ture<l at large. 

[To be continued.] 



A WORD FOR THE TOAD. 

During the past week the Striped Potato-bug 
{Lytta vittata) came into my potato patch, and 
in two days defoliated about a thousand hills, 
when four of us set to work gathering them. In 
one hour we gathered a full gallon. Where did 
such a quantity of these bugs come from in so 
short a time? But the most curious pai"t is to 
come. A black boy who was helping me said he 
did not like to gather the bugs, because wher- 
ever they were numerous he found a lot of toads, 
and he was afraid of toads. This attracted my 
attention, as I had seen a number of toads my- 
self; and to my serprise I found that they were 
eating the bugs. One fellow ate twelve bugs, at 
the rate of four per minute. He would not eat 
any faster, although we ran the bugs all around 
and over him. Has any one else noticed this? 
It is certainly new to me, for I did not tliink 
anything would eat these Blister Beetles. The 
Ladybird is shy of them ; and, so far as I have 
observed, none of the common cannibal beetles 
will attack them. S. F. T. 

Hannibal, Mo., July, 1870. 



Insect Depredations. — If I were to estimate 
the averajre loss per annum of the farmer of this 
country from insects at $100,000,000, I should 
doubtless be far below the mark. The loss of 
fniit alone by the devastations of insects, within 
a radius of filly miles from this city, must amount 
in value to millions. In my neighborhood the 
peach once flourished, but flouiishes no more, 
and cherries have been all but annihilated. Ap- 

Eles were till lately our most profitable and per- 
aps our most important product ; but the worms 
take half our average crop and sadly damage 
what they do not utterly destroy. Plums we 
have ceased to grow or expect; our pears are 
generally stung and often blighted; even the 
currant has at last its fruit-destroying wonn. 
We must fight our paltry advei'saries more effi- 
ciently, or allow them to drive us wholly from 
the field.— -ETorace Qredey, 



Errata. — Page 276, column 1, line 8 from 
bottom, for ^^quinquemacalata^' read ^'quinque- 
maculata;^' same page, column 2, line 16 from 
bottom, for " Shaffer" i-ead ** Saffer." 



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ENTOMOLOGICAL JOTTINGS. 



[ We propose to publUh from time to time, under the above headinc, mch 
eztracta from the lenen of our coneniondpntt •• contain cnUirooloKicu fkcta 
worthy to be recorded, on account either of their tdentiflc ur ot their practi- 
cal importance. Wehopr our rmdera will contribute each their MveraT mites 
towards the jreneral ftind; and in case they are not perttetlv certain ot the 
names ot the insects, the peculiarities ot which are to be mentioned, will send 
specimens along m order that each spcoies may be duly identified, j 



Do NOT DISSKMINATE INJURIOUS INSECTS — 

llidgewoody X, J, — A few days ago I was asked 
to puixjliase some damaged gi'aiu for feeding out 
to stock ; but, upon examining the same, I con- 
cluded that the best thing to be done with it was 
to burn or boil tlie same on the premises ; and 
this coui^se I advised without delay. It was all 
infested like the ear 1 send [with larva) of Angou- 
mois Grain Moth]. In the same ix)om there 
were beans, all bored through by the Bean 
Wee\'il enclosed \_Bruchu8 obsoletus, Say]. You 
can well imagine my 8uii)iise to find this insect 
in such lai*gc numbers ; and it is sui^ely time that 
entomologists sounded the tocsin, and waked up 
our agriculturists upon this insect question. 1 
know that thei-c are thousands of farmers in our 
country who will not i)ay two dollars a year for 
tlic Entomologist, just because they tliink it is 
economy not to do so, while at the same time 
they lose hundreds every year in consequence of 
their ignorance of what this periodical teaches. 
Not one farmer in a thousand would know tliis 
com insect if it should come to him in pui'chased 
gi'ain, consequently he would not hesitate to sow 
affected seed, and thereby bring ruin to himself 
and neighbors. 1 bid you God speed in your 
gieatwork. If coaxing will not do, scold, fret 
and condemn, with an unsparing pen, those who 
will pci*sistently ignore the value of entomology 
to our people. It is a pity, as well as a disgrace 
to our nation, that we have no money to aid 
science — wliich is only another word for pros- 
perity — while there are millions to squander upon 
things, and even ideas, which will never benefit 
us as a i>eople, nor bring happiness to one indi- 
vidual. A. S. Fuller. 

A RoVE-BEETLE AS A PARASITE ON THE CAB- 
BAGE Maggot — Boston, Mass,, July 18, '70. — 
Since I sent you the box containing laiTie, &c., 
I have bred a new parasite fi*om part of the same 
lot ; perhaps some of your pupae produced 
tStaphylinadoi instead of Diptera, I believe this 
fact new to science, at least it is so to us here. 
Early this spring my neighbor, Com. John Pope, 
called my attention to a fly lai*va destroying his 
young cabbage plants, just set out. I also found, 
on looking over my own, some tliat were wilted 
during the heat of the day, wliich proved, upon 
examination, to be caused by the same insect at 
work on the ix)ots. 1 found from ten to thirty 
of different sizes on each infested plant. They 



destroy all the tender rootlets, and follow the 
centre of the main stock to the surface of the 
ground, finally killing the plant. This enemy, 
new to this particular location, I immediately 
took steps to become more familial* with. After 
transplanting some of my cabbages to my breed- 
ing cases, I left one strong, healthy stock, which 
I suspected of being infested, to remaui in the 
ground until it was perfectly dead, when I opened 
the hill, June 20th, and took therefi-om twenty- 
six pupae, part of which I put into two boxes, 
one with moist earth the other dry. On opening 
them, July 12th, I found in each a perfect fly, 
which pi'oved to answer exactly to tlic descrip- 
tion given by Dr. Fitch, in the New York State 
Agricultural Report for 1866-7, of tlie Cab- 
bage Fly (Anthomyid brassicce, Bouche). On 
again cxauuning my boxes, July 15th, 1 found 
a pretty little black Hove-beetle (Stapkylinus), 
0.15 inch long, and new to my collection. I 
then presumed it came from a pupa acci- 
dentally put in the box with the soil ; but 
when I again opened my boxc^, July 17th, what 
was my 8ui*prise to find in each three more of 
the same species of beetle. Upon further ex- 
amination, I found six of the fiy pupae with a 
xough hole gnawed through the side, and as my 
boxes were perfectly tight, I had but one con- 
clusion to come to. After a careftil examination 
with the microscope of the i-emaining pupae, I 
could detect no break in them, each segment or 
ring was entire. On examining the balance I 
found one live and one dead imago in one pupa, 
and the rest fly pupae alive ; thus proving beyond 
a doubt that cither the eggs, or what seems more 
probable, the young larvae of this StaphyUnus 
entered the fly larvae long before they had amved 
at maturity. Philip S. Sprague. 

[It would be well for our con'espondent to 
determine the species of StaphyUnus which 
plays in this new role, and we shall be glad to 
hear further from him.— Ed.] 

Ovster-shell Bark-lice in Mississippi; 
Apple-tree Root-louse— Car^/wi^e, Miss., July 
18^ 70.— I am satisfied that we have the Oyster- 
shell Bark-louse in this neighborhood. Hast 
winter cut down and burned about 200 apple 
trees which were infested with it. It was mostly 
on three or four large ti^ees, from which it 
seemed to have spread to the others, which wei*e 
small nursery trees. I kept a few of the limbs 
mostly infested, and thought that I should send 
them to you, but they have been mislaid in some 
way, so that I am unable to find them. There 
is no doubt, however, I think, but that it is the 
real Oyster-shell Bark-louse; it suits your de- 
scription exactly. I examined under a great 



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many of the ** shells" and found ntiost of them 
empty. I found the white ej^gs under only one 
or two of the scales which I examined, the rest 
being apparently empty. I notice that, on page 
2i:5, Vol. II, in answer to B. P. Hanan, you say 
you can not i-epeat what you have already 
written, but refer him to an article in your first 
State Report. That is certainly very unsatis- 
factory to us down here, unless you have the 
Repoi-ts to send out gratuitously to all who may 
be interested in this matter. We take the En- 
TOMOLCHJisT in Order to get information on such 
subjects. I hope you will let us have an ex- 
haustive article on the Oyster-shell Bark-louse. 

The ** Apple-root Plant-louse" does not kill 
most of the trees which it inf»*sts in this part of 
the country. They are very troublesome, and I 
should like to know some expeditious way to 
destroy them; but I think they seldom kill a 
tree outright. The apple trees in this country 
ai*e mostly libemlly supplied w-ih them. 1 
notice that you advise scalding thuni. That will 
do very well where the water is [joured around 
the ti*ee as it stands in the ground ; but, by way 
of experiment, 1 tried dipping the roots of small 
trees in hot water — the water being nearly 
boiling hot — and the trees I **dipped" were all 
killed. J. AV. Mt:RCHANT. 

[We shall defer our remarks on the Oyster- 
shell Bark-lice until we manage to get specimens 
from your locality, for at present we can only 
give opinions. We do not believe that the 
species can thrive, or even exist, in your latitude; 
and, from your remarks, incline to believe that 
your lice were imported and have died out. We 
have never heard of their injuries in Mississippi, 
and if they have over proved injurious it will be 
easy enough to ascertain the fact. There are 
dozens of common aud injurious insects of 
which we wish to give accounts, but, as every- 
thing cannot be published at once, we generally 
give priority to such subjects as are compara- 
tively little understood, and which for the time 
interest the greatest number. It is not necessary 
to have the water in which to dip the apple trees 
too near the boiling point. A heat anywhere 
from 120° to 150° will suffice, and the roots must 
be immersed a difierent length of time according 
to the tempemture. It may be used much hotter, 
however, when poured on the ground. — Ed.] 

Nkst of the Bald-faced IIornet — Carthaf/e, 
Miss, — In your April number, in an article on 
the Bald-faced Hornet, by Henry Gilman, he 
says : " I once found in the woods, on the north 
side of Lake Michigan, a wasp nest nearly twice 
as large as a man's head. ♦ ♦ ♦ xhis was 
the largest nest I ever saw." I have seen them 



here as large as an ordinary water bucket, and 
over a foot in diameter. J. W, M. 

Queen Humble-bee— ZejRo^, i^. Y.,June 1, 
1870. — On May 24th 1 found this queen Humble- 
bee (which I now enclose you) in its nest, which 
was a deserted mouse nest. A mass of pollen 
found in this nest contained twelve eggs, which 
were placed in a circle, and upon their ends, 
around a small central ball of pollen. A single 
cell filled with honey was also found in this nest, 
and this cell had evidently just been completed 
when the queen was captured. I have always 
understood that no honey was coUccttd until 
after the birth of the fii*st bi'ood — the cells thus 
emptied being then- used as honey-cells. Of 
what species is this queen? it is marked 1; the 
other species, marked 2, is much less common 
hei*e. J. Campbell, Jr. 

[No. 1 is $ Bombus pennsi/lvaniciiSyDiiGiHiV, 
aud No. 2 is ? B,fervicluSy Fabr.— Ed.] 

Attuaction of Male Moths to the Female 
—Fairfleldy loway July 22, 70. — Enclosed find 
bl cocoon of Attacus cecropia. It was brought 
from Pennsylvania last fall. Ten days ago it 
gave forth a moth, which was placed under a 
common flour sieve. In a very short time eleven 
moths of the same kind were under the sieve. 
The gentleman insi>t8 that eleven were ^iiatched'* 
from this one cocoon. I suggested that only one 
could possibly have come from it, and that the 
others had been attracted to it, as is often the 
case. But how did the moths get under the 
sieve? There is no possible way for this to be 
done; and the folks are satisfied that the eleven 
moths actually came from the one cocoon — an- 
other impossibility. Can you solve the matter? 
I went to the house, saw the cocoon and moths, 
and am satisfied the people would not wittingly 
practice a deception upon me. 

J. M. Shaffer. 

[The attractive power of the female moths, 
and especially of those belonging to the same 
family (Bornbycidm) as the Mulberry Silk- worm, 
is very great, and the only solution that can be 
given of the above problem [?] is that the moth 
hatched from the cocoon was $ , and that the 
(J c? were attracted to her, and managed to lift 
the sieve and get under it. It is well known 
that these $ moths will collect, or **semble" the 
(Jc? fi'om long distances, though whether by 
some peculiar odor or by some other power is 
not yet satisfactorily decided. If all the circum- 
stances relating to the above occurrence were 
considered in detail, we should doubtless find 
nothing strange about it. Of course, uo more 
than one moth issued from the cocoon. — Ed.] 



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Death to House Flies — Marshall, Mo., July 
18, 70. — Provide yourself with a fine-mesh in- 
sect net, similar to that in common use among 
entomologists, or what would be better, a net 
shaped like an entomologist's water net, and 
about a foot in diameter. Attach to this a handle 
long enough to reach the ceiling. Gel ready a 
vessel of scalding water, a common wash-basin 
filled answeiing very well. About dusk, when 
the flies have gone to roost on the walls, com- 
mence. With a rapid motion move the net along, 
gathering in the flies till the body of them are 
unsettled. What you have in the net make sure 
of, by grasping it next the hoop with the hand. 
Shake the flies to bottom of net, and dip in the 
hot water; and when they arc dead turn the 
net and shake them out. By this time the rest 
will be settled, when proceed as at first. 

J. L. Townsend. 

A Coincidence — Baltimore, Md,, August 4, 
1870. — On a hot summer's night in the country, 
a few years ago, I was reading Grote's descrip- 
tion, and admiring the figure of his beautiful 
WiiXe Philomma Henrietta (Proc.Ent. Soc. Phil., 
Vol. Ill, p. 3, pi. ii). I naturally desired to 
have a specimen of the insect; but as Grote in- 
dicated "Eastern States" as its habitat, I had 
no hope of securing one except by exchange or 
purchase. As I was thus reading and reflecting, 
lo! to my intense satisfaction — I will not say 
frantic delight — the identical species alighted 
upon the very page which I was i*eadiug ; the 
only specimen I had ever observed before or 
have seen since! Was not this strange? I will 
not philosophise about it, but 1 consider it worth 
mentioning. Of coui*se I took this stranger in 
and treated him accordingly. We, down here, 
do not reckon ours among the "Eastern States," 
and if our New York friend does not, he will 
have to give his little beauty a wider geographi- 
cal range in his next edition. Jno. G. M. 

Seventeen- YEAR Locust two Years too 
LATE — Baltimore, Md. — 1808 was our Cicada 
septemdedm year. Early in July of this year I 
found a solitary individual behind time, and 
she looked as if she had no business here. She 
was the most desolate, corapanionless, forsaken 
thing imaginable. Uer family had all perished 
two years ago ; and though she came forth in 
full maturity, and was clean looking enough, 
yet she had not a single beau — the most solitary 
maiden you ever saw I I took her in, and gave 
her a dose of diluted alcohol, but that did not 
revive her, but made her so drunk that she died 
in a surfeit. I thought possibly it might be C. 
Cas9inii, but Uhler compared her with a number 
of specimens of the bi-ood of 1868, and found her 



a true seventeener; she had much more red on 
the vent, and on the sides of the pi*onotura. than 
the C Cassinii. AVhat occasions the retardation 
in the development of some insects? It could 
not be climate or peculiarity of soil, or exposure 
to winds, or anything else I can think of, in the 
instance in question, for in 1868 the number pro- 
ceeding from the very »ame spot was countless. 
This reminds me of iuforming you that oar 
Lancaster friend, Kathvon, was a little mistaken 
in presuming that this would be the year of the 
appearance of the Cicada in Kreutz Creek Val- 
ley, York county. Pa., as stated by him several 
months ago in your journal. I have made 
diligent inquiry of persons familiar with that 
district, and they report no locusts. Now, it 
may be that he gives that title to a district dif- 
ferent from that which I know by that name 
(for I was born in that vicinity), but the Kreutz 
Creek Valley, 7 or 8 miles east of York, and 
bordering on the Susquehanna, was not visited 
this year by this singular Cicada. It is a pity, 
for thereby we lose one proof, at least, of their 
regular periodic appearance, and that is not 
pleasant; but I hope that Mr. R. will be able to 
explain it, so that the old theory may still be 
maintained. Jko. G. M. 

Food-plant of the Southern Cabbage But- 
terfly— Por^ Byron, Ills,— In No. 3 of the 
present volume, you say that you do not know 
that the lai-va of Fieris protodice ever feeds on 
anything but Cabbage. Last summer I found 
one feeding on wild Pepper-grass, a plant of the 
same order as the Cabbage. I once found a 
chrysalis on a low hickory shrub, but that, of 
course, does not prove that it feeds on Hickory, 
else it also feeds on limestone, as the first chrys- 
alis of the kind I ever saw was attached to a 
lime rock. And now I wish to thank you, aud 
your most liberal publishers for the beautiful 
likeness of Cecropia in a late number. It seems 
to me perfect, and the most beautiful wood-cut 
1 ever naw. Marion Hob art. 

Insiccts auound Indianapolis — June 28, ^70. 
—The Currant Worm {Nematus ventricosus)h9& 
made its first appearance this year with us in 
limited quantities. There has also appeared on 
the Alder, in our river bottoms, a similar larva, 
which has completely devoured the foliage of 
these bushes. The Colorado Potato-bug has 
begun its work, and bids fair to be very destruc- 
tive. Jno. W. Btbket. 

Colorado Potato Beetle in Indiana.— The 
Colorado Potato Beetle has so injured many of 
the potato fields in Clark county, in this State, 
that they have been plowed up. L. G. Saffeb. 



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Rearing Eggs of BuTTftUFLiES. — I have been 
80 8ucces8fal this season in persuadinor female 
butterflies to deposit their eggs in captivity, that 
I think it well to mention the matter in the 
Entomologist, Last season I found it impos- 
sible to induce P. marcellus to lay upon leaves 
or stems of pawpaw that had been cut. This 
spring I placed a nail-keg, from which the bot- 
tom had been knocked out, the top being covered 
with cloth, over a low pawpaw growing near 
my honse; and on confining a female Ajax 
therein, she at once began to deposit her eggs, 
and continued till the number reached more 
than twenty. In a few days the young larvas 
came out, and with very little trouble I suc- 
ceeded in raising several of them to the chrysa- 
lis state, in which they now are. (I expect 
to* prove by this brood that Marcellus and Ajax 
ai*e but different broods of the same insect ; a 
fact I have felt confident of for some yeai*8 past, 
but which I could not absolutely establish for 
want of the link which this experiment will 
supply.) I afterwards treated other females of 
Ajax in the same manner, and with the same 
results. A C philodice^ confined in the same way 
with growing clover, at once deposited a great 
number of eggs. So did Nisioniades lycidas and 
N. pyladesy Scudd., upon Hedymrum. In fact, 
in every instance so far tried, the females have 
obliged me with as many eggs as I wanted; and 
I incline to think this mode of taking eggs will 
always be successful.— Tf. i/. iWwyarrf*, CoaL 
burghy West Va,, in Canadian Entomologist. 



ON OUR TABLE. 



Notes on Qkaptas C. Al'reum and Interroga- 
tion is. Fab. By Wm. II. Eilwurdjs. 

The Country Gentleman's Magazine, for June, 
1870. London (Bug.): Simpkin. MurshiiU & Co., 
publiHlicrn. 

Geological Survey ok Indiana for 1869. Also, 
Maps ttud Colored Scctioiin, uccompanyin^ the same. 

Injurious Insects, New and Little Known. 
A. S. Packard, Jr., M D. Mareli, 1870. 

( i Lixf PSES OF Nature . A Magazine of Natural His- 
tory iu all Its branches. Edited by Samuel M. Maxwell, 
Mauch Chuuk, Pa. 

Third Annual Report of the Ohio State Hor- 
ticultural Society, for 1869. 

Monthly Reports of the Department of Agri- 
culture FOR THE Years 1867-8. J. li. liod^e, editor. 
Washingtou, D. C. 

National Education: Ah Address delivered before 
the Uiinow Wesleyan University, at Bloomlngton, IIIh., 
June 14th, 1870, by Rev. A. C. 'George, D.D., Editor of 
the** Weekly Mail.-' 

The Poultry Bulletin. Issued monthly, by the 
Executive Committee of the New York State Poultry 
Society . 

The Canadian Poultry Chronicle, No. 1. To- 
ronto: July, 1870. 

Premium List of Illinois State Fair. Com- 
luencing September 26th, 1870. 



Entomology indeed run mad I — Our friend, 
Mark Miller, in the last number of the Porno- 
logist has an article devoted to THE Currant- 
worm. The article treats ostensibly of the 
Currant or Goosebeny Span-worm (EUopia 
ribearia, Fitch), which is a true moth (Order 
Lepidoptera) indigenous to America; but, by 
way of illustration, we are treated to the figures 
of a fly and sundry worms, which — though the 
first, in the venation of the wings, is unlike 
anything God ever made, and the last might be 
taken for so many young al]igatoi*s — are yet 
evidently intended to represent the Imported 
Currant-worm (Nematus ventricosus, King), 
which is a Hymenopterous importation from 
Europe, and of which not one word is said in 
the text. Is it any wonder that Economic En- 
tomology is under-estimated, or that it makes 
slow progress, when such loose trash will pass 
muster with our leading liorticultural Journals? 
What would our readere think, if we were to 
expatiate upon the excellencies of the Red Cur- 
rant, and, by way of illustration, should refer 
them to a bunch of Concord Grapes? Verily 
we are driven almost to distraction when wo 
find such ignorance foisted on the public for 
knowledge. Mark Twain's first teachings as an 
agricultural editor are gospel compared to the 
reckless and undigested stuff that is sometimes 
spread before the agricultural reader, under the 
cloak of that much abused word, '^practical I" 



Red Spider. — The ad interim committee of 
the Illinois State Horticultural Society report 
great damage done, in the northern part of the 
State, by a now [?] Acarus, or Mite. We pre- 
sume they have got hold of that most trouble- 
some pest, the Red Spider (lYombidium tela- 
Wum, llerm.), which is pale yellow when young. 
The young of most mites differ much from the 
adults, and many of them are 6-lcgged instead of 
8-legged, as they afterwards become. This mite 
is always injurious during hot, dry weather, and 

a good rain will soon diminish its numbers. 

• ♦ • 

IW We frequently refer our readers to back 
numbers of our Journal, in order to save time 
and repetition. We cannot continually repeat 
what has already been written about some par- 
ticular insect, and those who have not been 
subscribers from the start, or have not the num- 
ber to which reference is made, would do well 

to send to the publisher for them. 
♦-•-• - 

S^ We leai*n with pleasure that our Southern 
correspondent, J. P. S telle, has been appointed 
Entomologist to the Tennessee State Horticul- 
tural Society. 



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ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Noi lOK.— Such of our oorrcapondenti ai hare already tent, or mav here- 
after tend, imall collcetione of InMCts to be named , will ploa«e to inform uf 
if any uf the specin lent are from other 8taief than their own> lAat* of 
iniecti found in any particular locality are of especial intcrett« at throwing 
Il^ht upon the K*<^fl:raphical diktribution of •pccie* But to malie them of 
real value, it !• requieite that wc know for certain whether or not all the 
Ineect* In any partitnilar list coniu fhini that particular locality, and if not, 
firom what locality they do come. 

We have lately received several small collections of insects to be named, 
and have, to fkr as our tinte would allow, answerv d by letter, because a long 
strina of names is dry and uninteresting lo Ihc general leader. It requires 
much time to conscientiously name the nuiny lots of insects that reach us, 
and hereafter we can take no notice of tliem. unless they are properly 
mounted on entomological plus, and the locality given In which they were 
found At least two specimens o< each species should be sent when it is pos- 
sible to do so, and each species should be separately numbered. When there 
are but few, we shall answer as her«tuforo in the •■olumns of the Emtomol- 
OOIBT, but when th«>r*- &rc many wc shall answer by mail. 

Insects Named—./. JT, Euld, Lmwoodf Mo. — The 
two flattish beetles with dark brown win^-covers, and 
a yellow thorax having a central dark spot, are carrion 
eaters. There are several species, of which this Silpha 
peltata^ Catesby, is the largest in the genus. They are 
related to the Burving-beetles {Necrophila)f and feed 
almost invariably upon dead animal matter, though 
occasionally on rotten vegetables. The brilliant green 
and copper-colored beetle, which had destroyed all tlie 
c:itcri>illars in a nest on a crab-apple tree, is the Kuin- 
maging Ground-beetle {Colosotna scrutatar^ Fabr.), a 
very predacious antl useful insect, which we illustrated 
last month (Fig, 168). The largo Two-winged Fly which 
hati killed the Bumble-bee, and which so much resem- 
bles its victim in coloration , is the Yellow-necked La- 
phrla {Laphria thoraoieay Fabr.) Wc have here a curious 
instance of mimicry between a pi^edacious Two- winged 
Fly (Order JHpUra) and a honey -producing Four-winged 
Fly (Order Hyme7wptera\ which, no doubt, enables the 
former, by deception, to catch its prey with ease. 
Though these large predacious flies usually attack a 
great variety ol other insects, we have reason to believe 
that the species in question confines its attacks in a 
great measure to bees of the Bombus Family, in which 
the blat^k and yellow are the prevailing colors. 

Caterpillar off Wblte-marked Tussock Hlotli 

— G. 0, B. LatcreMty Aan*.— The caterpillars from a 

young apple tree are those of the White-marked Tus- 

cng.ibe.] 




Colors— Black, white, yellow and red. 

fcock Moth {Or^yia Uucoftigma), We reproduce here- 
with (Fig. 180) an illustration taken fVoin page 79 of our 
First Volume, where you will find some account of it. 
The male moth has curved pectinated antennae, and a 
white spot on each Jront wing near the inner liind angle. 
It sits when in repose in the form of a delta, or rather 
of a heart of which the apex is at the head, and extends 
lorwards its long, heavily clothed front feet to their fUll 
length. The female is wingless, like the same sex of 
the Canker-worm moth, and never leaves the cocoon 
from which she has emerged till her death, having pre- 
viously deposited a great number of rounded white 
oggs, covered with a blanket of froth. In answer to 
your question, *• will Saperda htviUata continue to e^dst 



if a tree dies during its slages of change?' ' it has been 
pretty satisfactorily proven that if it dies before it has 
arrived at the pupa stage, the insect perishes; but if 
tlie pupal condition is attained, it may develop into the 
beetle without hindrance. The Flat-headed Borer, 
however, continues to thrive on the dead wood for 
weeks after life has ceased in the tree. 

Does tbe Apple €iirciillo go nnderyronni 
to transfform !— (Tm. J/iit'r, Fax Creek, Mo,—Xovl 
wish to know^ whether the Apple Curculio ever attacks 
stone fruit, and whether its larva goes into the ground to 
tnmsfoi*m, as stated by Dr. Hull. To the first questioD 
we reply emphatically ** no," as we have never found 
It in stone fruit. To the second, we give it as our firm 
conviction that the larva never goes into the ground to 
trunsfonn. At all events, it never does when itinfest? 
the ^vild crab, as we have abundantly proved the pres- 
ent year; but in our own locality it is so scarce in tame 
apples that we have not yet been able to decide whether 
its habits when infesting the latter fruit are different, 
though we expect to do so before the end of the setisun, 
and have already taken proper steps towards deciding 
the point. 

P. S.— Since the above was written we have heanl 
from Mr. J. B. Miller, of Anna, Ills., to whom we sent 
for specimens of tame fruit that was inle.sted, as we had 
leanied that this insect was abundant in that vicinity. 
Upon cutting open the fruit, Mr. Miller found that it 
has the same habit of transforming within the tame fruit 
as we have found it to have in the wild crabs. 



Walnat Caterpillars— (?. M. Leoette, Indianapo- 
lis, Jnd.— 'The black worms with sparse white hairs, 
which have entirely stripped the Black Walnut trees 
around the State-house, though they have left un- 
touched the other kinds, are the lar>'8B of the Hand- 
Maid Moth {Dot ana nUnittra, Drury) . The habit wliich 
you noticed, of their descending and congregating In 
masses on the tnink of the tree, is characteristic of thii^ 
and a few other species, and gives us a good opportu- 
nity to destroy them. There are two broods of this 
worm each year, the moths bred from the first worma 
appearing during July and depositing eggs which give 
birth to wonns which go into the ground in the full and 
hibemate in the pupa state. 

Striped Blister Beetle— .4/er. Quit, Cretce/U Ml, 
Mb. — The insects on your potato vines, [Hg. w.] 
and which you cttectually killed by tlrlv- 
ing them into tlie fire, are tlie above- 
named beetle, of which we here repro- 
duce a likeness (Fig. 187). It is not so 
abundant in Morthem Illinois tis in your 
present locality, and that is the reason 
you never noticed it there. The remedy 
you have applied will be found applicable 
to all the Blister-beetles that atUick the 
Potato. 

Parasite npon a Syrplius Eiarva— ^. />• £<i^' 
man, M.D., Washington, D, (7.— The litUe << capsule'' 
which you found on a wild rose, is the puparium of a 
species of Syrphus fly; but in the present instance it had 
been stung when in the larva condition by a four-winged 
parasite, and the parasite having destroyed its host 
emerged in place of the true inhabitant. The subject 
of parasitism is extremely interesting, and opens a larj,'e 
field of study. 




Colors-Bltek and 
yellow. 



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307 




Grape-Tine Fidla-V. Heted, Bunker Hill, Jlls,— 
The chestnut -brown beetle on your grape-vines is 
the Grape-vine Fidia {Fidia vitt'eida, CFig. iss.] 
Walsh , Fig. 188). It does much injury 
to the vines by riddling the leaves. 
Luckily this beetle has the same pre- 
cautionary habit of dropping to the 
ground, upon the slightest disturb- 
ance, as has the Plum Curculio, and 
this habit enables us to keep it in check* 
The most efficient way of doing tliis Ooior-ch«tnut-brown 

'' ^ with a xrayidi pub- 

is by the aid of chickens. The late eMence. 

Wm. Peschell, of Hermann, Mo., on whose vines this 

beetle had been exceedingly numerous, raised a large 

brood of chickens in 18({7, and had them so well trained 

that all he had to do was to start them in the vineyard 

with a boy in front to shake the vines, and he himself 

behind the chicks. The chicks picked up every beetle 

which fell to the ground, and in this manner Mr. P. 

kept his vines so clean that he could scarcely find a 

single beetle in 186S. 

Bee Neet— tA H, Muhl^man, Woodbttm, JUs,— The 
small bee spoken ot on page 214, which we supposed 
might produce Ceratina dupla. Say, produced in reality 
Pfogopis affinUf Smith. The species was kindly deter- 
mined by Mr. E. T. Cresson, and you will find the 
original description in Mr. Smith's Catalogue of Hy- 
menoptera in the British Museum, part I, page 24. 

Some InteresttniT Insects— ^4. <^. Fuller^ Ridge- 
wood, N. J. — You have our thanks for your numerous 
kindnesses. The following condensed answers should 
have been published last month: [1 ] The weevil in 
Lima beans, which you suppose to be the imported 
Brtichus granan'tts, are not that insect, but a native 
species {Bruchus ohsoUtuSy Say) which we have several 
times referred to, and which is doing much damage to 
beans in various parts of the country. [2.] The ear of 
flint corn was infested by the larva of the Angoumois 
Grain Moth {Butalu cerealella,* Oliv.), of which you 
will find a ftill account in Ilarris, and in Fitch's Seventh 
Report We have bred many moths from it. [3.] The 
large moth of a beautiful yellow color, sprinkled and 
marked with purple-brown, is the Imperial Dryocampa 
{Dryocampa imperialU, Drury) . [4.] The brown worms 
which fold the leaves of the Hickory together by a tor- 
tuous silken cR.se, were dead on arrival, and are new 
to us. We have bred from similar hickory cases a phy- 
tophagic variety of Phycita nehulo^ Walsh. [5.] The 
smooth, narrow-cylindriciil galls, 0.10—0.15 inch long, 
of a straw color, and inserted in a rough socket, which 
galls you find on the underside of hickory leaves, are 
the Tubular Hickory gall {Cecidomyia tMcola, O. S.), 
and are produced by a gall-gnat. [6.] The blackberry 
borer which arrived during our absence, and was dried 
up, was evidently the larva of the common species or 
Three-spotted Blackberry Borer {Oberea tripunctata, 
Fubr.) [7.] The worms which you think cause what is 
popularly termed ''going blind'' in the blossoms of 
the Blackberry, were dead and dry upon reaching us; 
but one solitary moth had issued from a pupa in the 
quill, and though damaged was readily recognized as 
the notorious Qrapeberry Moth {LoleHa hotrana) reler 
red to on page 273 of our last number. 

* GienMnf referred thia moth to the g«DtM Q*U6hia, (Froc. Acad. Nat. 
Sa Phil., UOO, p. 161.) ^ 



Tbe Green Hafr-IHotli— <9. B, Shaw, OUndale, 
i/b.— The pretty little moth with the abdomen and hind 
wings fulvous, and with the thorax and front wings 
delicate green, the latter bordered posteriorly with 
brown , and having a patch of the same color at base, one- 
third as long and one-half as wide as the wing itself, is 
Gallochlora viridis, Reakirt. It« larva feeds on Cherry 
and Apple, and is of a bright scarlet color, with four 
dark blue-black lines along the back, and with prickly 
yellow horns or tiibercles, which have the power of 
stinging. This moth was originally described by Mr. 
T. Reakirt by the name of LimaeodM viridus, and sub- 
sequently as Paraaa Hride. Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., 
afterwards described it as Callochlara vernata, erecting 
the genus for this species alone. Reakirt's specific name 
has the priority, and our little moth must consequently be 
known as Callochlara viridit. Synonyms enough for 
one insect, you will exclaim I Yes, but the synonyms 
are not the worst of it; lor Mr. Reakirt has briefly 
described as the larva of our moth a worm which he 
found on Chestnut, and which has no relation to it, but 
must belong to some other species. We know this to 
be the case from ourselves having bred several speci- 
mens of tlie moth from the larva state. 

Tbe Antiopa Biitterfl7— ^. S. Most, Fredonia, 
N. y.— The bUick prickly worms which have been con- 
gregating on your willows, are the larva; of the above- 
named butterfly {Vanessa antiopa, Linn.), otherwise 
known, in England, as the <^ Camberwell Beauty." It 
is indeed a beautiftil insect, with its rich purple-brown 
wings and their broad buff-yellow border. This insect 
is at times quite abundant, at others quite scarce; and 
the present year, according to accounts, it is quite com- 
mon in the Eastern States, though rather scarce in the 
West. 

Bose-i^all and Pupa of Arcblppus Butter- 

fly — L. B, Oustar, Logansport, /ik/.— The beautiful 
[Fig. 180. ] chrysalis (Fig. 189) found suspended 

to some oats, is that of the Archip- 
pus Butterfly. The small, round, 
yellowish galls on a rose leaf, cov- 
ered with very short and blunt 
spines, instead of great prickles, as 
in that illustrated at Figure 102, 
are, we have evei-y reason to be- 
lieve, undescribed. Besides these 
two galls, we know of two other 
rose-leaf galls belonging to the same 
^ . ^ group, the one perfectlv smooth, 

(XIor»— Oraen. black and ° ., . . \, , ^, 

gold. the Other having something the 

form of a mangold- wurzel seed. All tliese galls agree 
in having thin shells, and containing a single larva; 
and they are doubtless all formed by gall-flies belonging 
to the genus Rhoditss. 

Wblte Grubs in Strawberry Beds— </. B, Mil- 
ler, Anna, Ills,— The grubs in your strawberry beds, 
very much of the appearance of the common White 
Grub, but only half as large as that species when fUll 
grown, are, in all probability, the larvoe of the Immacu- 
late ChAfer {Oycocephala immaculata, Oliv.), a pale, yel- 
low beetle, not quite one-half inch long, and having a 
dark head and two dusky points on the thorax. We 
have bred this species from similar grubs which occur- 
red abundantly in a strawberry bed belonging to Mr. 
G. H. Baker, of your county. 




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CFlg. 190.] 



Liarva off tbe Tlioas Swallowtail— f. H. 

•Sjpm^*.— The worm which you Kcnd is rather rare in 
Missouri, and may l)e briefly described as of a mot- 
tled-brown color, and marlced with paic grayish-white 
as follows: commencing in a bund at sides of joint 1; 
running upwards and becoming Ichs distinct to sub- 
dorsum of joint 4; occupying the back of joints 5, 6 and 
7, reaching to ])roleg on joint fl, but only to subdoi-sum 
on o and 7, and occupying nearly the whole of joints 
10, 11 and 12. This worm Is ihc larva of the Thoas 
8wallow-Uil {Papilio thoas, Linn.)i our largest and most 
magniticent yellow and black butterfly. Its lood-plant 
in the Southern States is the Orange tree; but you 
neither give your address nor (which we .should like to 
know) the plant fVom which you took the worm. 

Funirns on mrild Plamft — Subscrif/er, PicJcent 
Station, ifi»*.— The 
peculiar soft, yel- 
low, pithy growth 
which we herewith 
illustrate, and 
which you And on 
a small Red Plum 
bush, is some kind 
ofAiDgus. We find 
the same growth 
here during the 
month of June on 
the wild plum ( Pru- 
muafnsrieana). This 
Amgus dries and 
blackens and re- 
mains on the tree 
through the winter. 
We shall leave its 
determination to 
Amgologists, for the 
simple reason that 
we have no time to 
devote to this inter- 
esting part of Na- 
tural History. Color— P»l« yellow when fkMh, black whea dry. 

Larva off Clubbed Tortoise-beetle — ^4 . R, 

BodUy, SturgUf J^wA.— The common Matrimony-vine is 
Lyeium vtdffare, and the Tortoise-beetles which you find 
upon it in company with their larva, are really the 
above-named species The larvie which you enclosed 
transformed on the way, and as we have never seen this 
larva, we should like other specimens . The Matrimony- 
vine belongs to the Solanum family, and your finding 
this insect upon it, furnishes additional proof that, while 
all otlier known Tortoise-beetles which have very flat 
larva (genera Ca*»ida, Coptocycla and Deloyala) feed on 
plants belonging to the Convolvulus family, this si)eeies 
is exceptional, and feeds exclusively on such as belong 
to the Solanum family. 

Tbe Banded Ips In Calyx off Pear— C/. C, B. 

—The small, shiny black beetle with two orange bauds, 
interrupted along the back, on the wing-covers, is Ips 
faseiatut, Oliv. The fact of your finding them cutting 
their way into a pear, and eating into the calyx, is new 
and interesting. It is perfectly in accordance with the 
habits of the genus, however, for these beetles attack 
vegetable growths, though they most often confine their 
attacks to the funguses or to decaying vegetation. 





Tbe Liarder-Beetle — /*. S, SUtper, GaUshurg, 
J/w?A.— The brown hairy worms which have so ruined 
your collections of Lepidoptera are the larvae of the 
larder Beetle (Demustet lardaHus). It is a grievous 



CFlK. Wl.] 



Golort — (a) bmwni (0^ dark-brown 
ana pale ydluwUh-brown. 



pest to all sorts of preserv- 
ed animals, and will soon 
ruin them when not well 
cared for. If you had con- 
stantly watched your col- 
lection, and examined the 
butterflies whenever you 
noticed any powdery ex- 
^^^^ crenient at the bottom of 

i ^ y*flR9frv ^'^^*^ boxes, you wouUI 

■ / ■i?I^!« \ never have lost a specimen. 

That our readers may re- 
cognize this destructive 
beetle, we present at Fig- 
ure 191 enlarged drawing« 
of its larva (a), one of the 

larval hairs, showing its peculiar formation (h), and the 

beetle (c). 

RIotli named— J?. M. Halt, Chicago, 7//«.— The 
pretty blackish moth, with the head above, prothorax 
beneath and tegulx* in front orange, and with the thomx 
and abdomen dark metallic-blue, is Ctenudia latmUana, 
Kirby, an insect which has been unusually common the 
present year in this vicinity. 

Tlie Eilttle Cicada— (?. 0, Ifardeman, Sununit, 
Mo,— The small Cicada collected by you some time ago 
on the prairie, is a variety of 6\ parvula, Say, as kindly 
determined by Mr. Uhler, of Baltimore. It diffei> 
slightly ftom Say*s description, and we were a little 
puzzled with it. It is widely distributed, and occurs 
more especially on the low grounds. 

Tlie Brown IVIantlspian- (?. C. ^.— Your in- 
sect, which <* plays so curiously with his hands," and 
looks not unlike a miniature Camel-cricket, U the Man- 
tispa hrunnea of Say. It is one of our most common 
8i)ecies, and being predacious, is, of course, beneficial. 
The green Tiger- beetle is Tetracha rirginica, (A. E., ^' 
Fig, 45.) 

Golden Tortoise-beetle on Gooseberrr— FF> 

T, Bell, Franklin, Pa.— The pretty golden beetle whidi 
you found on a gooseberry leaf, is the above-named 
insect {Cassida aurichalcea, Fabr., A. E., 1, Fig. l'^> 
tt). It doubtless wandered on to the vfooseberry leaf 
from some other plant belonging to the Convvlvultu 
family. 

Small Beddlsb Snont-beetle on Apple-VoA. 
Weed, Muscatine, /omw.— The small reddish or rufous 
snout-beetle, only 0.10 inch long, and distinguished 
principally by a line of white hairs, more or less con- 
spicuous, extending from the white nculel to the head, 
is the Thorn Anthonomus {A. cratcRgi, Walsh*) » •> 
species which bi*eeds in many diflerent galls made l>y 
either Plant-lice, Saw-flies, or Gall-gnats. From the 
fact that you found it with its snout fully imbedded in 
an ap])le, it perhaps breeds in this fruit also. It w 
not a small Four-humped curculio. No insects chfUige 
or grow after once arriving at the perfect or imago 
state. 



♦ ir 



R 8, p., VI, p. aw, 



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Spotted Pelldnota; Error regarding it— J. 

7). Gros, Darien Centre, N, F.— Your beetle Ih the Spotted 
rclidnotft, of which you will find a full account iu the 
present number. The little bronze-colored ciliated e^i^ 
arc those of a tnic bug {Ileieroptera)^ and you are entirely 
mistaken in supposing them to be the eggs of this beetle. 
No beetle is ever hatched from the egg a perfect hectic, 
any more than a bird is hatched perfect and full fledged 
from its egg. 

Prickly Rose GikW—Suhscriber, Pickens Sta.y Miss, 
—The pretty little prickly [Fig ne.] 

galls which you found on 
a Avild rose, and which wo 
illustrate herewith (Fig. 
192), may be appropriately 
known in popular language 
a.s the Prickly Rose-gall. J t 
is made by a rather large 
gall-fly {Rhodites bicolor, 
llarr.) which hiis a black 
and rough-punctured head 
and thorax, and a smooth, 
highly polished, brownish- 
red body. The color of the 
gall varies with its age ; the 
young gall often being of a 

beautiful rose-color, and Color-EilhcT Rrecn or roU-color. 

reminding one of a strawberry, the mature gall being 
more generally green , and the old last year's galls being 
dull silvery-gray. 

((iiestloiis ans'vrered — JT. Parsons ^ Cambridge y 
Mass. — The small case found on your bister's drps« was, 
so far iis wc could make out, that of some clothes moth. 
The Clothes moths, and many of those moths which 
live upon vegetable substances, construct a tubular 
dwelliug of the material on which they feed, and drag 
it about with them during the larva stage; in most cases 
it serves also as a cocoon for the final transformations. 
Only one larva inhabits each c«se. The cocoons at- 
tached to the skin of the caterpillar you send are those 
of a parasitic Microgadcr. The insects on the hawthorn 
twig arc the common Oyster-shell Bark -louse. The 
young, when first hatched from the oggj are minute 
whitish, oval, six-footed creatures, very active, and 
scarcely visible without the aid of a microscope. As 
they remain active but a few days before fixing them- 
selves to the bark, tliey should be attacked as soon as 
hatched. Ants frequently vary their diet with soft and 
helpless or disabled insects. 

Hog^-caterpillar of tbc Vine infested ^wlXlt 
Parasites— c/. if. Wilson ^ Sterling f Ills.— Your Grape- 
vine worm is the above-named species (Chotrocampa 
pampinatrix) J and the little white cocoons are those of 
the same little Microgasier referred to and illustrated at 
Figure 15 of this volume . 

Eiarva of Abbot Spbinx— ^'. E. Todd, New Yo L 
—The worm which you found on your gnipevines, and 
which measured nearly four and a half inches in length, 
is the larva of the Abbot Sphinx (7%/ra* Ahhotii, A. E., 
II, Fig. 84). The ciitch-'em-and-kill-'em remedy is the 
best you can adopt in this instance. 

Cecropla Worm— ^. G, Ilofman, St, Louis, Mo.— 
Your worm on Plum is the Cecropia worm (Fig. 02 of 
this volume). 



Flat-beaded Uorer In Soft IHaples — L. R. 

Elliott, Manhattan J A'aw*.— The hammer-headed borers 
which you send, and which had killed a fine Soft Maple 
tree, are the Flat-headed Apple-tree Borer {Chryso- 
hothris femorata, Fabr.) This insect Is greatly dam- 
aging the Sotl Maples in many of our Western towns, 
and unless precautions are taken to prevent such a 
catastrophe, this fine tree will soon be as badly iixjured 
all over the country as the Black Locust has been by its 
borer {Arhopalus rohinioi). We wish we could whisper 
into the ear of every man who plants a Soft Maple, that 
unless he thoroughly soaps the trunk and larger branches 
once or twice every summer, his tree will not last pro- 
bably more than half a dozen years. We notice tliis 
beautiftil shade tree dying wherever we go, when a 
little knowledge of these '^ contemptible bugs'' would 
have enabled their owners to save them. Two appli- 
cations of soap during the year— the one as early as the 
beginning of May, the other any time during summer- 
will protect the trees from its attacks. Be careful also 
not to bruise or injure the bark in any way. 

Cberrir Piant-lice and tbefr Foes— 6\ H, Ro' 

berts, Poughheepsie, N. >'.— The Plant-lice on the cherry 

trees are the above-named species {Aphis csrasi, Linn.) 

The maggots **of bcautifUl colors" which feed with 

[Fifriw.] such gluttony on these lice 

tjU are the larvae of some Syr- 

jS ^A^ phus-fly; and the darker, 
A . JS^ ^^^ active larva, is that of 
H ,J^Ps. the Convergent Lady -bird 
^ ( ffippodamia convergens, Gu .) , 

^ which we illustrate herewith 

* ^ ^ (Fig. 193), a showing the 

Colors— (a) blue, unmse and bisck; i»rv!i h flin mma nn^i *u^ 
(6) vcnetlaii-rod anS black; (c) *»rva, d UlC pUpa, and c the 

oranRc-rcd. black and white. beetle. Both these last in- 
sects arc very useflil in destroying the plant-lice, and 
both pass through their transformations on or near the 
place where the larva is found. The Sjfrphvs pupa is 
attached by the whole length of the under surface, 
while that of the lady- bird hangs by the tail trom the 
bark or leaf of the tree. 

Grape- irine Floa-beetle — The steel-blue beetle 
which hits done so much damage to your vines is the 
above-named insect {Haltica chalyhea, III.) The brown 
*» slugs" or **Avorms" accompanying them are the 
young of the same. It is probably the Grape-vine Saw- 
fly {Selandria vitis, Harris) in the larva state, that you 
allude to as having a tadpole form. Harris recommends 
lime dusted on the leaves; also a Avash of one pound of 
hard soap to five gallons Avater— t. <?., strong soapsuds. 

Biood 8aclLer and Pear Slug— Geo, A, Watson, 
MaystUU, ^y.— The black bug, of which you once found 
a specimen, gorged with your own blood, under a mat- 
tress, was too much mutilated to be recognizable, though 
we can tell you with certainty that It belongs to the 
great Reduvius lamily. The fragments seem to be- 
long to the Black Corsair {Pirates picipes, H. Sch.), 
the beak of which we know to be very sharp and 
poisonous. All bugs are suckers either of the juices 
of plants or of the fluids of animals, and many species 
vary their diet at will. Instances are frequent of bugs, 
whose ordinary food is of a vegetable character, pierc- 
ing and sucking the blood of human beings. 

The Pear slug {Selandria oerasi. Peck) is easily de- 
stroyed by dusting the trees with lime. Coal oil will 
injure the tree. Strong soapsuils will be useftU. but 
Blocked lime \& better. 



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^0tattwal Jtpartmml, 



Db. GEORGE YA8BY, Editor, Biohview, UU. 



FOXGLOVE PENTSTEMON. 

{PmtsUmon Digitalisy Nutt.) 

The genus Pentstemon is, in North America, 
au extensive one, comprising, according to Dr. 
Gray's Synopsis of this genus (Proc. Am. Acad. 
Arts and Sciences, Phila., 1862), over sixty 
species ; vastly the larger portion of which are 
inhabitants of the country west of the Missis- 
sippi river. 

One species only (Pentstemon pubescens) ex- 
tends over all the region east of the Mississippi ; 
one species (Pentstemon dissectus. Ell.) charac- 
terized by pinnately-parted leaves, occurs only 
in the Southern States from Georgia to Florida; 
one species (Pentstemon grandiflorusj Nutt.), 
though most abundant west of the Mississippi, 
reaches over sparingly into Wisconsin and 
Illinois; and one other species (P. Digitalis^ 
Nutt.) the subject of our present sketch, ex- 
tends from Ulinois to Arkansas, Louisiana and 
Georgia. The remaining species are variously 
distributed thi*ough California, New Mexico 
and the Rocky Mountain region. 
[Fig. m.] 




Foxglove Pentstemon {PenMemon DigitalU, Nutt.) 

This is one of our handsomest native orna- 
mental plants, growing, in favorable localities^ 



three to four feet high. The stem is smooth, 
unbranched below, with four or five pairs of 
large leaves at intervals of five or six inches, the 
upper half forming a panicle of flowei'S, by the 
development of a pair of branches from each of 
the upper pairs of leaves, the leaves becoming 
smaller and the spaces shorter to the top. The 
flower stalks, or branches, are a little longer 
than the leaves, terminated by the clusters of 
flowers. 

The engraving represents their form and ap- 
pearance, a little less than the natural size. The 
plant belongs to the Natural Order Scrophulari- 
aceo}, to which also belongs the European Fox- 
glove (Digitalis) y from a rosemblance to which 
our plant has received its specific name. The 
flowers are a little less than an inch long, white, 
with a few ftu'nt lines of light purple. The leaves 
are ovate-lanceolate, finely toothed, from three 
to six inches long, and clasping the stem. The 
plant is perennial and showy, and would make 
a good appearance in the garden. 



A NEW AND PECULIAR FORM OP HEUCIIERA. 



We promised, in the July number, to give, 
this montli, an account of a peculiar species or 
form of Alum-root (Heuchera) from Southern 
Illinois. We sent a specimen of this plant to 
Dr. Gray, who considers it a form or variety of 
Heuchera villasa, Michx. He says that Buck- 
ley years ago gave it a name, and that it was 
also distributed years ago in Rugel's sets of 
plants, and distinguished and named by Shnt- 
tleworth as Heuchera Bugellii. The specimens 
as they came to us present very groat differences 
from H, viUosa. We hope it may be attentively 
watched by botanists in whose region it may 
be likely to occur— for instance in Kentucky 
and Tennessee. We give below a description 
of its prominent characters : 

Heuchera villosa, Michx. (?) vanety ; H. Bu- 
gelliiy Shuttleworth. — Scapes slender, somewhat 
declining, 6 to 10 inches long, about equaling 
the leaves ; raceme loose, oblong, 3 to 4 inches 
long of 6 to 8 branches; peduncles almost fili- 
form, each with 3 to 6 small flowers; upper 
bi*acts very small, laciniate; petals oblong- 
spatulate, tapering into a long claw; calyx 
somewhat turbinate; sepals obtuse: stamens 
about equaling the petals ; beaks or the pods 
rocurved at maturity ; leaves roniform, about 3 
inches long by 4 wide, with about 6 principal 
rounded lobes, teeth coarse, rounded, with an 
abrupt point ; petioles villous, with glandalar 
whitish hairs; leaf thin, roughish, with scat- 
tered hairs. Shaded Cliffs, Makanda, 111., July. 
S. A. Forbes. 



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311 



COTTONWOOD-WHICH IS IT, 
FopidiLs monilifera or PoptUits angulaia / 

Dr. J. G. Cooper, iu his IlepoL*t, in Vol. XII 
of the Pacific Railroad Survey in Oregon, says: 

**Two, and perhaps more, species of Poplar 
form the forest growth on the inundated nver 
banks, from an elevation of oOfH) feet down to 
tide-water. They are also found on all the 
rivers running from the Rocky Mountains, and 
perhaps entirely across the continent. One of 
these is the Cottonwood (Fopulus monilifera^ ; 
the other is distinguished as < Balsam,' or * Bit- 
ter Poplar,' it is peculiar to the western half 
of the continent (PopiUus angustifolia) . The 
wood of both is of little value, but they grow 
rapidly and are ornamental. The islands and 
low shores of the Columbia are covered with 
these ti'ees, of larger size than I have ever seen 
them elsewhere." 

Dr. J. M. Bigelow, in Vol. XIV of the Re- 
ports, says : 

" PopuLus MoNlLiFEUA— Cottonwood— Pop- 
lar. — This tree is somewhat different from the 
Cottonwood of the Mississippi, which I believe 
is P. angtUata. It is found east as far as the 
Canadian river, and West until we cross the 
Sierra Nevada. In the Rio Grand valley it is 
used by the Mexicans for building. It is also 
employed for farming utensils, the most unique 
of which is their cart, the wheels being made of 
a section of this tree. They are six or eight 
inches thick, and manufactuivd in 'he ruoest 
manner. The timber is tough and \\\\\\\, It does 
not grow here as tall as on the Mississippi river, 
but occasionally it is quite large and spreading.'' 

Dr. John Torrey, in his report on the plants 
of California and New Mexico, collected in the 
expedition commanded by Captain Williamson 
(Report, Vol. IX) , says : 

^^Populus monilifera, Ait. — This is the com- 
mon Cottonwood, which has a range from the 
Atlantic to the great Colorado, and almost as 
great an extent of latitude. It is abundant in 
some places near Fort Yuma." 

Dr. James, in Long's Expedition to the Rocky 
Mountains, says: 

''As far as our observation has extended, the 
Poplar most common in the country of the Mis- 
sissippi, and indeed almost the only one which 
occui-s, is the Populus angulata. This tree is 
perhaps as widely distributed as any indigenous 
to North America, extending at least from Can- 
ada to Louisiana, and from the Atlantic to the 
lower part of the Columbia river.'' 



A Question. — The northern limits of southeioi 
plants and the southern limits of northern plants 
should be carefully noted. There are three north- 
em plants found as far south as Peoria, viz., 
Arctostaphylos uva-ursiy Spring., Menyanthes 
trifoliata, Linn., and Salix myrtilloides, L. (S, 
pedicellaris, Pursh.) Where are the southern 
limits of these plants iu Illinois ? F. Bbendkl. 



OUR NATIVE OAKS.— No. 3. 



[Fig. 195.] 




Willow Oak muenuji Phillos, L.) 

We would say with respect to the figures 
given of the Oaks, that we have only aimed to 
present correct average outlines, as an aid, 
through the eye, to a clearer conception of the 
differences between the species. As to nerva- 
tion, surface of leaf, &c., we have not attempted 
precision. The form of leaf in different species 
varies so much that our space forbids a full 
illustration. 

We propose in this paper to notice some of 
the biennial fruited Oaks. Firet, in that divis- 
ion we have the entire or willow-leaved species. 
In the eastern portion of the United States there 
are of this section three species. 1. The upland 
Willow Oak {Quercus cinerea, Michx.) This 
is a shrub or small tree, ranging from five to 
twenty feet high, gi'owing in sandy pine barrens 
from Eastern Virginia through the Southern 
States, becoming very abundant in Mississippi. 
The leaves ai*e from li to 2 inches long, thick, 
shining, oblong, on young shoots sometimes 
toothed, and hanging long on the tree, but not 
evergreen except far south. They are bristle- 
pointed, downy on the under surface, with (he 
edge or margin somewhat rolled back. The 
acorn is roundish, about half an inch long, the 
cup shallow and very short stalked. 

2. The Willow Oak {Quercm phillos, L.) 
This is a lai'ge tree gi'owing in low swampy 



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ground fi'om New Jei-sey to Florida and west- 
ward, being probably most abundant in North 
and South Carolina. It varies in height from 
30 to 60 feet, with a straight trunk, and a smooth 
thick bark. The leaves, as the name indicates, 
resemble those of the willow, being narrowly 
lanceolate, three to four inches long, very 
smooth and deciduous. The acorns are small 
and roundish. The timber is coarse grained^ 
and of little value. 

IFig. 196.] 




Laurel or Shingle Oak {i^uerciu imbricarla, Michx.) 

3. The Shingle Oak ( Qiieixus imhricaria, Mx.) 
This is a tree of moderate size, with a roundish 
dense head, smoothish black bark, leaves four 
to five inches long, thick and shining, oblong 
or lance oblong, acute pointed, with a very short 
petiole, sometimes slightly wavy on the margin, 
but not toothed, and the under surface downy 
when young. The acorn is roundish, small, 
half an iuch long, the cup shallow and enclosing 
about one-fourth of the acorn. This tree is quite 
common in some parts of the Western States, 
becoming more abundant fartlier south, and 
reaching west to the headwaters of the Arkan- 
sas river. Its wood is of little value, making 
even poor shingles. It is known in different 
localities by different names, as Laui*el Oak, 
Pin Oak} Black Jack, and Shingle Oak. 



A form or variety of Oak which has been con- 
sidered a hybrid, has been known in a few 
localities for many years as Quercus Leana. A 
description of this tree, by Dr. F. Brendel, in 
whose vicinity it grows, will be found at the 
close of this article. 

[Pig. 197] 




Water Oak {Q^crcu8 etquaticaj CaU'sby) . 

4. The "Water Oak ( Quercus aqaatica^ Catesby .) 
This tree is a native of the Southern States. It 
grows from 40 to 60 feet high, the wood is tough, 
the bark smooth, or in the old trees slightly 
furrowed . The leaves are very peculiar in form , 
being somewhat wedge-shaped, or rather with 
a long and narrow wedge-shaped base, expanded 
at the top into a somewhat three-lobed, obovate 
summit. They are smooth and shining, about 
thi'ee inches long, and the summit one to one 
and a half inches broad. The acorn is about 
half an inch long, cup shallow, half an inch 
broad. 

5. Black Jack, or Jack Oak {Q, nigra^ Linn., 
Wind.) A small sized tree fi'om 15 to 26 or 30 
feet high, with thick, rough, black bark, grow- 
ing mostly in thin, poor soil, usually forming a 
dense roundish head. The leaves are thick and 
leathery in texture, five or six inches long, 
expanding at the top into about three broad, 
bristle-pointed lobes, gradually narrowed be- 
low, and ending in a rounded base, with very 
short petiole — they are covered with a rusty 
down on the under surface, as is also the young 
twigs — the upper surface is shining and veiny. 



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313 



The leaves are liable to much variation in size 
and shape, in some cases the lobes being only 
marked by gentle undulations, in others by 
sharp and deep notches. The acorn is short and 
ovoid, and nearly half covered by the rough- 
scaled cup. 

lFi». 188.] 




Black Jack ((luercut nigra ^ h.) 
• » • 

A LJ8T OP PLANTS ' 

GUOWINC; IN THE VICINITY OF CHICAGO DURIN(; 
MAllCn, APUIL AND MAY. 

UY II. A. WAILNK. 

The district around Chicago might seem to 
one not personally acquainted with the country 
as a poor one for botanical collection, consisting 
mainly, as it does, ot Hat prairie ; but our city 
botanists familiar with the region, have found 
it quite fruitful in species. 

Taking the city as a centre, within the area 
of a circle swept by a radius of thirty miles, I 
am inclined to think a greater variety of plants 
may be collected than within the same space in 
any other portion of this State. In the barren 
sandy soil along Lake Michigan we find plants 
suggestive of the sea shore, including a number 
of species limited elsewhere to the Atlantic 
coast, or the neighborhood of saline deposits in 
the interior. Passing to the prairie within five 
or six miles of the city, along the lines of several 
railroads, where a strip of land has been rescued 
from tillage and protected trom cattle, we may 
still find the distinctive plants of the prairie 
in rich profusion. This is peculiarly true of 
Gi'acoland and Hyde Park suburbs. 



For the species belonging to the woods and 
the moist river region we have our choice of 
following up the north branch of Chicago river, 
or at a somewhat greater distance, the course 
of the Des Plaines. A day's trip to Glencoe 
takes us to deep ravines with their appropriate 
plants; while an excursion to Lake Calumet, 
or the adjoining county of Lake, brings us to a 
local flora of much interest; in the latter case 
the plants are associated with evergreens. 

Within such an area we might reasonably 
expect to find a varied vegetation. Our season 
here opens rather late compared with other sec- 
tions, but advances with rapid strides after the 
middle of April. 

My list for March includes only that odd plant 
the Skunk Cabbage {Symplocarpus fastidus)f 
whose variegated spathes, just thrust above 
ground, suggest at once the tulip and some 
fleshy fungus. This abounds in swampy locali- 
ties north of the city, and along the Des Plaines 
river. It is our first spring flower, but to my 
surprise last fall, just as the Gentians were put- 
ting in an appearance, I found a solitary purple 
and green spathe of this plant. What abnoi-mal 
condition caused this unusual blossoming I am 
unable to decide. It is paralleled in my own 
observation, however, by the appearance in 
autumn of the flowers of Viola pedata. In such 
plants the flower buds are so far advanced at 
tlie close of autumn as to yield to the first 
touches of spring, so that but little stimulus of 
a certain character starts them into bloom. Au- 
tumnal impulses may thus occasionally antici- 
pate those of spring. The Hepatica and May 
flower {Epiged) may doubtless be found in 
bloom under similar circumstances with any of 
the stemless violets. April ushered in the 
Prickly Ash {Zanthoxylum Americana)^ its 
yellowi?h-green flowers clu.stered on the bara 
and prickly twigs, in the river district; while 
along the lake shore the low shrubs of the aro- 
matic Sumac {lihus aromatica) displayed thin 
yellow spikes of blossoms. I noticed that the 
lower branches lying on the sand bloomed a 
week earlier than the upper ones, the warming 
up of the sand doubtless being the cause. 

The country a few miles back from Lake 
Michigan, especially in the i*egion of the Des 
Plaines river, has an earlier season than the lake 
shore by a week or ten days. Ilei'e were found 
about the middle of April Hepatica triloba, var. 
acutilobay Blood-root {SanguinaHa Canaden- 
sis), the white Dog-tooth Violet {Erythronium 
albidum), the Hue Anemone (Thalictrum ane- 
monoides), Dicentra cuctdlaria and Claytonia 
Virginica. Old coUectora report Isopyrutn biter- 



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ematum from this region. We may add to our 
list also the following, collected May Ist at 
Graceland suburb, a few miles north of the city : 
Of Violets, four species, viz., Viola cucuUatay 
V, blandUf V. pedata, and F. aagittata ; Marsh 
Marigold {Caltha pcUustris), Ranunculus fasd- 
cularisy the Wood Anemone {A, neinorosa), 
Phlox bifida^ Antennaria plantaginifoliay Aror 
bis lyrata, Cardamine rhomboidea^ var. purpxir 
rea, and Trillium cemuum. A week later were 
found Uvtdaria grandifiora, and Polemonium 
reptans; and at Hyde Park suburb, the Ameri- 
can Cowslip (Dodecatheon meadia)^ the Hoary 
Stone-seed (Lithospermum can€scens)fihe Lark- 
spur Violet, (Viola ddphinifolia) , the Lance- 
leaved Violet (F. lanceolata)y the wild Lupine 
(Lupinus perennis), Wood Rue (Thalictrum 
dioicum), and Yellow Star-grass {Hypoxis 
erecta). ' 

Along the lake shore here the Bearberry 
{Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) was beginning to 
bloom, but to our disgust was speedily scorched 
and blackened by a fii*e kindled on the shore by 
some vandals. 

Valeriana edulis was found in an old fenced 
field hereabout in the greatest abundance, the 
plants apparently of great age, forming solid 
woody clumps, half a foot in diameter. The 
great abundance of this plant here, though 
sparingly found elsewhere, almost seriously 
suggested the notion of cultivation by the In- 
dians in time past. The white Lady's Slipper 
(Cypripedium candidum) seems to find a con- 
genial home in association with this plant, for 
a week later over a hundred specimens were 
collected in this field. Like its companion, it 
is not common, but occurs abundantly in a few 
places. 

A trip to the rich wooded district along the 
north branch of Chicago river about May 15th 
was quite fruitful, yielding the following species : 
BanunctUus abortivusy Viola pubescens (a form 
with remarkably lai'ge and beautiful flowers), 
Dentaria laciniata, the Creeping Crow-foot 
(BanunctUtLs repens)^ wild Turnip {AHscema 
triphyllum), Trillium recurvatumy Blue Cohosh 
(Caulophyllum thalictroides) yB^d Cohosh (Ac- 
tea spicata), Feverwort (^Triosteum perfolia- 
tum)y wild Geranium (Geranium maciUatum), 
wild Gooseberry (Bibes hirteUum), wild Black 
Currant (Bibes Jloridum), May Apple (Podo- 
phyllum pellatum)y Flve-^iiger (Potenlilla Can- 
adensis) y wild Ginger (Asarum Canadensis) y 
Scarlet Thorn (Crategus coccinea). Black Thorn 
(C. tomentosa), wild Ci*ab Apple (Pyrus coi'o- 
naria)y Shad-bush (Amelanchier Canadensis) y 
wild Plum (Prunus Americana) y wild Black 



Cherry (P. serotina)y Bur Oak (Quercus mac- 
rocarpa). White Oak (Q. alba). Red Oak (§. 
tinctoria). Red Elm (Ulmus fulva, in fruit), 
Blueberry ( Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum),B\&ck 
Huckleberry (Gaylussacia re»t»o«a), with that 
little oddity, the False Mermaid (Floerka pros- 
erpinacoides), in great abundance. 

The procession of the flowers from this date 
to the close of May this season was astonish- 
ingly rapid, fully ten days in advance of tho 
usual time. At Calumet, fourteen miles from 
the city, we found the delicate Bluets (Housto- 
nia cerulea) and Sweet Fern (Comptonia as- 
plenifolia). This peculiar locality affords rari- 
ties throughout the season; while Glencoe, a 
somewhat distant collecting ground, yield? us 
now the Buflalo-bush (Shepkerdia Canadensis), 
Along the lake shore we find on sandy hillocks 
two species of Prunus in bloom, the Choke 
Cheri-y (P. Virginiana)y and the Sand Cherry 
(P.pumila). The shrubs of the latter are ap- 
parently vciy old, and of I'emarkable size for 
the species, some being from three U> four feet 
in height. The Dwarf Birch (Betula pumila), 
is now to be found sparingly in the region of 
Rose Uill suburbs. 

An excursion to Hyde Park (May 29th) af- 
forded, among other things. Golden Alexanders 
(Zizia iniegerrima) and Thaspium aureumji 
handsome wild Coreopsis (Coreopsis ianceo- 
lata)y the large Yellow Lady's Slipper (Cypri- 
pedium pubescens) y Blue-flag (Iris versicolor) i 
Cynthia Virginica, the Painted Cup (CastiUeia 
coccinea), yellow and scarlet varieties. Spider- 
lily (Tradescantia Virginica) y Large Alum-root 
(Heuchera hispida)y Marsh Pea (Lathyrus pa- 
lustris)y Beach Pea (L. maritimus), and wild 
Columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis) . The beau- 
tiful little CoUinsia vema has been collected at 
the Des Plaines river. 

In several excursions during the latter part 
of May the following were collected : In fruit, 
the Witch Hazel (Hamamelis Virginica) y un- 
expectedly found near the city. In flower, at 
the same locality, the High Cranberry-bush 
( Viburnum oprUus), supposed to bo the original 
of the Snow-ball of the gardens, tho Sweet 
Viburnum (F. ^n>a^o), and wild Sarsaparilla 
(Aralia nudicaulis). To this list we will only 
add the wild Indigo plant (Baptisia leuco- 
phea)y wild Hyacinth (SciUa Fraseri), Water 
Crow-foot (Banunculus muUifidus), Seneca 
Snake-i-oot (Poly gala Senega) y Maple-leaved 
Viburnum (F. acerifolium), Smali-flowei-ed 
Honey-suckle (Lonicera parviflora)y and the 
Small-flowei-ed Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium 
parvifiorum). 



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315 



BOTANICAL MISCELLANY. 

At a meeting of the Philadelphia Academy of 
Sciences, Mr. Thomas Meehan said that 'Mio 
one who examined the prevailing theories con- 
cerning the formation of hark and wood with 
numerous living specimens befoi-e him, could be 
satisfied that these theories were in all respects 
correct. He had made numerous obsei-vations 
during the past year, which satisfied him that at 
any rate we had much to learn, lie hoped to 
present these observations to the membei^s at 
some future time, but at present wished only to 
direct their attention to a portion of a trunk 
of Tucca alcBfolia, which he exhibited, the 
structure of which, he suggested, could not be 
accounted for on any theory generally known. 
The general idea was that the sap of plants as- 
cended through the system, and was elaborated 
in the leaves, where the woody matter was 
formed, and afterwards descended — in exogen- 
ous plants forming a regular concentric layer 
over the last year's wood, and in endogenous 
structures returning by the interior, pushing 
these descending columns of wood through the 
mass of cellular matter without oinler or system. 
It would be seen that in this endogenous I^cca 
the woody matter, if it ever descended at all, as 
our present belief demanded it should do, had 
descended in a very regular and beautiful man- 
ner ; quite as systematic, in fact, as most exogens 
would do. The wood was arranged in annual 
rings, not entirely concentric, but some tropi- 
cal exogens did not have the woody annual 
layers always forming an entire circle any more 
than in this. In this case the annual layers of 
wood extended about two-thirds of the distance 
i-ound the axis, and such layer was about the 
eighth of an inch thick. These annual layei*s 
were made visible by the bundles of fibres being 
packed more closely together towards the end 
of the season's growth, just as they are in exo- 
gens, from which, indeed, there was veiy little 
to distinguish this structure on a cursory exam- 
ination but the absence of the so-called medullary 
rays." 

The active botanists of New York city have 
organized a botanical club, which they designate 
the Torrey Botanical Club, in honor of the dis- 
tinguished New York botanist. Dr. John Torrey. 
The club publishes a monthly BuUetiUj the ob- 
ject of which is ^'to form a medium of com- 
munication for all those interested in the fiora 
of this vicinity, and thus to bring together and 
fan into a fiame the sparks of botanical enthusi- 
asm at present too much isolated." We hail the 
advent of every such society as an indication of 



a gi'owing interest in Natural Science, and as a 
means of increasing the number of learners and 
observers, and of thus directing into worthy 
channels much otherwise misemployed time and 
talent. We select from the Bulletin a few items 
which we presume will be of interest to our 
readers. 

Aristolochia s&rpentaria^ L. — ^Mr. Wm. Bower 
has in his garden, in Newark, a plant of this 
species, which, beside the regular flower, sends 
up a number of small buds with flowers that do 
not open, somewhat in the ladoiwev oi SpeculaHa 
perfoliata, probably for self-fertilization. The 
same kind of flowers may be observed in the 
case of many well-grown wild plants of this 
species. These flowers, however, form perfect 
seed-pods. It would be interesting to examine 
whether Asarum Canadense has also two sorts 
of flowers. Mr. Bower was the fii-st to call my 
attention to this peculiarity, and I cannot learn 
that it has ever been noticed before. Judging 
from the plants I have seen, it would appear 
that seeds in greater abundance, and perhaps 
moi-e perfect, are produced by these hermaphro- 
dite fiowers. In the similar case of AmphicarpcMi 
monoica, Nutt, I have found sometimes quite a 
number of pods with apparently well-formed 
seed. On the other hand Apios tuberosa^ Moench, 
seems to compensate by its tubers for the very 
frequent abortion of its pods. These plants, 
with others, SpeciUaria for example, aflford an 
interesting subject for investigation on this 
point. W. H. L. 

Floweuing of tue Darlingtonia. — Dr. Tor- 
rey kindly gave me, early last winter, one of 
the several specimens of Darlingtonia, which he 
received from a correspondent in California. 
An empty aquarium tank was converted into a 
small conservatory for it, and it was planted in 
a mixture of swamp mud and sphagnum, the 
top of the tank being covered with a glass plate. 
The plant was kept iu a cold room, where the 
moss was slightly fl*ozen several times during 
the winter. The plant fiowered early in April, 
and the specimen was placed in the hanas of 
Dr. Torrey, to allow him to confirm his original 
observations, made upon dry materials, and he 
will prebably add what may be necessary to com- 
plete the history of this interesting plant. G. T. 

We leaiii from a correspondent (Mr. John 
Williamson) that New Albany, Indiana, has a 
Society of Natui*al History which has about 200 
members that pay their dues and are interested 
in it« welfare. Geology, Entomology, Conch- 
ology. Botany, etc., are represented by gentle- 
men well posted in those various branches. We 
believe some gentlemen of Louisville, Ky., also 
intend oi*ganizing a society. Dr. £. S. Crezier, 
of that city, edits a column of Popular Science 
in the Louisville Commercial. 



EuRATA.— Page 288, column 2, line 12, for 
^ Fraximus'^ read ^^Fraxinus;*^ same column, 
line 22, for "apetatous" read ^^apetalous ;" same 
column, line 23, for "JLcw" read **-4cer." 



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DESCRIPTION OP QUERCUS LEANA. 

BY DB. F. BRBNDBL, PEORIA, ILL. 
tflg. 109.] 




Qttcrciw Leanaf Nutt. 

Quercus leana^ Nutt, is a biennial fruited 
Oak, with deciduous leaves, which are obovale 
and mostly three-lobed at the apex, the lobes 
are bristle-pointed, toraentose when young, at 
last becoming nearly smooth . The fruit is short 
peduncled, single or in twos, the cup hemis- 
pherical, with a conical scaly base, half an inch 
wide; the acorn globular, half an inch long, 
about half immersed. 

This Oak seems to be a hybrid between Q, 
imhricaria and Q. coccinea; the general ap- 
pearance is that of the former ; the leaves are 
nearly entire, but the texture is not so firm as 
in Q, imhricaria^ and of the old ones both sides 
are glabrous, when in a young state they are 
more tomentose, so that on the upper side the 



nervation is often hardly visible, as in Q. coc- 
cinea^ to which it approaches in the much 
smaller fruit, the cup being deeper than that of 
Q, imbricaria^ the scales looser and more dis- 
tinct; the acorn has at the apex a blunt conical 
knoll, which in Q, imbricaria is smaller pro- 
jecting from a flat areola. The bud is ovate, 
conical, slightly five-ridged, and less tomentose 
than in Q, coccinea ^ whereas in Q. imbricaria 
it is more rounded and smooth. 

A tree of this species in Hancock county has 
been known many years; besides it there are 
two others in Illinois: one in Fulton county 
and one near Peoria — the latter in the neigh- 
borhood of its supposed parents. From its 
similarity to Q, imhricaria, it is likely to be 
overlooked, and may perhaps yet be found in 
other places. 

— ♦♦« — 

EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE. 

We present our readers some extracts from a 
letter of Mrs. Kate N. Doggctt, of Chicago, now 
in Europe. Mrs. i)oggett is an enthusiastic 
Naturalist, and has made large collections in 
Botany and other departments of Natural His- 
tory. There are hundreds of ladies in our large 
cities Avho have time and means to devote to 
mental cultivation and the acquirement of use- 
ful knowledge. How much refined pleasure 
these ladies might find in the study of Nature. 
An active and interesting Botiinical Society has 
been in operation for some time past in Chicago, 
embracin^f not only professional men, but also 
several ladies who are heads of families, show- 
ing that even maternal cares do not necessarily 
interfere with continued mental culture. When 
shall we have Botanical Societies in all our large 
tOAvns and cities which shall interest both ladies 
and gentlemen who have leisui*e for such pur- 
suits? Why should ladies leave all systematic 
pursuit of education when they leave their 
schools? We hope the day will come when it 
will hQ fashionable for ladies to take an int-erest 
in societies for the promotion of science. 

liniENZ, Switzerland, May 3d. 

Your letter came to me just as we were leav- 
ing Tunis, and this is the first moment 1 have 
had to answer it. * * ♦ As yet I have not 
been able to collect any sea-mosses, although 
we have been nearly all winter on tlie shores 
of the Mediterranean, but in towns where, of 
course, were no beaches; but very soon we go 
to the Bnlish Isles, and there I hope to do bet- 
ter. You are quite right in thinking I had not 
lost my interest in Botany. I do not believe 
that I shall do that till I lose my interest in life. 
A few mouths before we left home a half dozen 



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317 



pei*sons foi'med themselves into a Botanical 
Society, doingr me the honor to make me their 
president. When I left we numbered a dozen. 
Prof. Beal is the vice-president, and he is doing- 
much in Chicago to interest his pupils in the 
study of Botany. ♦ * ♦ ♦ ^Ye spent five 
weeks in the north of Afi-ica, which is one grand 
flower garden, and wished we could lengthen 
the weeks into months. At Algiers we made 
the acquaintance of Signor Durande, au Italian, 
who has lived in Africa for twenty years, and 
has been one of the most important contributors 
to the " Botany of Algeria," now publishing by 
the French Government. But, like all works 
brought out by government, it progresses very 
slowly, and will be so expensive it will benefit 
but few. For years Mr. Durande has done what 
I would like to have you do, and what will, [ 
think, do much to excite interest in the study 
of Natuml History, particularly among women'. 
Something akin to it was initiated long ago in 
Salem, by the Director of the Institute, and has 
been so successful that nearly every person in 
Salem knows something of Natural Science. 
One day in the week Mr. Durande makes an 
excursion to some place in the viciniiy of Al- 
giers, taking with him such students of the 
Medical College with which he is conncr.ted as 
choose to accompany him, and gentlemen and 
ladies living in the city or strangers sojourning 
there. We had the pleasure of joining two of 
these excursions; one to Blida, whiiher we 
went by rail, and one to Cape Matifou, to 
which we drove. Our party was made up of 
Danes, French, Germans, English and Ameri- 
cans. At Blida, one of the loveliest spots im- 
aginable, perfectly embowered in orange groves, 
we explored the Botanical Garden (the like of 
which is not in all America, and you must re- 
collect that so far as anything of this sort goes 
Algeria is but forty years old), f-cveral private 
gardens, and a wild ravine whose rocks were 
covered with mosses, ferns and lycopodia, Mr. 
Durande telling us names and explaining afiini- 
ties, modes of culture, &c., &c., in the most 
charming way. At Cape Matifou we gathered 
flowers, one gentleman and lady colled ed shells, 
some sketched the ruins of the Roman city of 
Kusconia, which sent a bishop to the tirj*t Chris- 
tian council ; and we had a most enjoyable day, 
to say nothing of the profit we derived tVom the 
teachings of Sig. Dnranile, and the conversation 
of intelligent people from different pans of ihe 
world. 



NOTES PROM CORRESPONDENTS. 

A Natural Graft Hybrid of Quercus alha and Q. 
tinetoria,—! was recently informed of a remarkable 
* * Indian graft of a Black Oak on a AVhIte Oak," in the 
neighborhood of l*oiersbui*g, HI., and huving the almost 
incredible 8tory from good authority, I was induced to 
visit the locality to learn if it was really true. To my 
great regret I found the tree prostrated by a storm, ap- 
parently about two years ago, and the top principally 
hauled off for fuel, but that portion where the union 
was formed, and the smaller portions of the limbs of the 
hybrid were left on the ground. The story of the In- 
dian graft 1 found to be current in the neighborliood, 
and numbers of people knew all about it. It appears 



that the union was formed in a portion of the top of the 
White Oak about ftfty-tive feet from the ground, and, 
judging from the layers of wood, about 75 years ago. 
It seems that the Black Oak ( Quercus tinctoria^ for such 
it really appeared to be) had fallen into the White Oak 
—as was evident ft'om the remains of a decayed limb 
and the positions of growth— and had by some unac- 
countable means united with it, and had grown from the 
point of union a huge branching limb, more than twice 
the diameter of the limb of the White Oak upon which 
it was attached. No remains of a tree of Quercus tinc- 
toria was now in reach of the White Oak upon which 
this remarkable graft; was growing, and the most pror 
bable explanation of the inodua operandi is that Quercus 
tinctoriaj when falling, had dashed a rather large lind) 
into the lork ol the White Oak top with force enough to 
remove the bark from Ijoth species, and being so firmly 
pressed by the fork that a union was effected. 

But what will most interest the l)ot;mist is, that the 
graft clearly shows hybridism. Of course no leaves 
could now be had, but the wood, bark and buds appear 
about equally to belong to both species, Q. alba showing 
strongly in the smaller limbs, and the rough bark of Q, 
tinctoria most fully developed at the point of union and 
grading to the smaller limbs, where it may be said to 
insensibly disappear. This interesting and remarkable 
protluction may be recoided as adding another to the 
few known graft hyurids in the vegetable kingdom. 

Athens, Ills. E. Hall. 

P. S.— Tell your correspondent, G. U. French, that I 
will **go the cider*' that his remarkable tree (described 
in the June number) is the Kentucky Coffee tree {Oym- 
nocladus Canadensis), 

Botanical Notes.— MR. Editor: In complying 
with your request for botanical notes from this portion 
of the State, I will confine myself, for the present, to 
the counties of Union and Jackson— ft region not less 
interesting to the botanist for the number and peculiarity 
of its species, than to the tourist for the beauty of its 
scenery. 

It embraces a range of nearly 2,R00 vertical feet of 
geological strata; and, as the drift formation is generally 
al)scnt, the soil is jnade by decomposition of the under- 
lying rocks, and varies widely in character according to 
the rocks firom which it is formed and upon which it rests. 

From the Mississippi bottoms upon its western border 
—but little al)Ove the level of the Ohio at Cairo— it rises 
to the Cobden hills, among the highest in the State; 
and its surface \ aries fTom the lagoons and swamps of 
the former to the rocky and precipitous bluffs of the hill 
country in the west. Its southerly situation gives it a 
genial climate, and the great comparative height to 
which portions of it ai*e elevated protects them from 
late and early ftosts. Consequently we find here an un- 
usual variety of species, many of them not known else- 
where north of the Ohio river, and nearly all of tliem 
appearing from two to .six weeks earlier than the dates 
given in Gray's Manual. In the small portion of these 
counties which I have been able to examine, I have 
observed— exclusive of forest trees, grasses, sedges and 
mosses — 450 species, representing 200 genera and 90 
orders. 

The region may be conveniently divided, for the 
purposes of these notes, into the hills and bluffs, the 
creek bottoms, and the Mississippi bottoms, each of 
which has a more or less characteristic flora. Upon the 



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THE AMERICAN 



fifHt are chiefly found our ferns. Of these I have col- 
lected 25 species, including the Polypodium incanvmy 
OyttopUrU fragtlU, OhtUafUhes testUaf Osmunda Clay, 
ioniana, Campiosarui rhizophyllui^AspleniumpifinaUJidwn, 
triehomarut and ebeneum, Afpidtum Ooldianumy Allosorua, 
Pteris, etc. Of the last, a variety occurs quite frequently 
which is peculiar In lacking the temate character of the 
fV-ond. This variety has propagated itself without change 
for three years since I first observed it. 

It is along the borders of the bluffs, however— which 
here repeat in miniature the cascades and precipices of 
mountain scenery — that we obtain the most interesting 
results. Here the soil is mostly shaded by the overhang- 
ing trees, warmed by the heat reflected from the rofks, 
and moistened by the dripping surface waters carried 
ofl' by the underlying strata. In such places only have 
I found, at Cobden, the Phacelia Purshiiy remarkable lor 
the delicate beauty of its light-blue, deeply-fringed co- 
rolla, and at Makanda the MUchella repensy which seems 
to flourish with us rather where it receives the constant 
drippings of the rocks than in dry woods, as farther east. 
Along the bluffs and upon the rocky hill-sides occurs 
also the Azalea nttdiflara^ described by Gray as growing 
in the eastern swamps. The proAision of light-pink 
blossoms which this shrub puts forth in early spring, 
lighting up the gloomy forests of the Pine Hills, or 
drooping in fhigraut, cloud-like masses from the summit 
of tlic lofty cliffs, forms a feature of unusual beauty in 
the scenery of our opening year. Later in the season, 
the hill-sides are blue with the JHpieraeanthug ttrepens 
and D, eiliosus, which remain in bloom until autumn, 
and in thickets the Clitona Mariana, the largest of our 
leguminous flowers, is frequently met. The Agave 
Virginica and Vaceinium arboreum occur only among the 
dry hills, and the V, vacillanSf with its pleasant fruit- 
erroneously called a liuckleberry throughout the coun- 
try — is quite common in the same situations. This last 
occurs especially among the Pine Hills, on the eastern 
borders of the Mississippi bottoms. 

This region consists of a succession of sharp ridges of 
chirty limestone, separated by narrow, steep ravines; 
and frequently terminating, towards the river, in nearly 
Yertical bluffs, from 100 to 500 feet in height. Its flora 
partakes to a great extent of its geological peculiarities, 
and many plants found sparingly elsewhere seem to have 
spread from these hills as a centre. Peculiar to them 
alone, so far as I have seen, is the Yellow Pine (Pinvs 
mitts), found almost exclusively upon the summits and 
southern slopes of the ridges mentioned, the Viola ped' 
data, Verbena aubleiia, etc. 

On the Makanda bluffs, which are frequently fringed 
with cedars, grows the Carydalie aurea^ a Saxi/raga re- 
sembling the eroaa, but apparently not identical with it, 
and a Hettchera of a species unknown to me, specimens 
of which I sent you recently. Among others more 
widely scattered 1 might mention Ascyrum ervx- Andreas, 
Saginaapetala,/ihusaromaticum,7Vi/oliumr^txum{yfh\ch 
I have also found scattered in single stools through low 
woods in Franklin county), Paseiflora luiea and Phyeoe- 
tegia Virginiana. The Passion vine {Passiflara inearnaia) 
has also been found upon the hills near Jonc8boro, and 
grows readily in the open air. The Physoetegia is one 
of the flnest of our wild flowers — one of those **wliich no 
lady's garden should be without." In cultivation it 
grows three or four feet high, sending up a cluster of 
stout stems y each bearing a close, four-ranked, usually 



compound, spike, six or eight inches long by two or 
three in thickness . The flowers are a light rose-color, 
marked with purple spots, and when massed in bloom 
are notable for their light and airy elegance. 

I will write you further of the lower lands and of the 
forest trees at another time. 8. A. Forbes. 

Pine Barren PlanU.— Who, except a botanist, 
would ever dream of the hidden floral treasures to be 
found in tlie uninviting, dreary-looking pine barrens of 
New Jersey? The hills and rocks of New England, the 
fine wootllands of the middle and western States, and 
the rich prairies of the West, must all yield the pahn to 
the despised pine barrens of New Jersey for rare and 
beautiftil plants. 

Years ago, every now and then a charming plant 
would reach me in my wanderings, labeled **pine bar- 
rens, N. J.'' Surely such exquisite flowers must come 
from some enchanted fairyland; but no, there was the 
unmistakable label, with the portentous word ' * pine 
barrens ;" so my dream of fairyland vanished amid the 
white, dreary sand of South Jersey. Still, with each 
sight of these beautifril flowers would come a longing to 
visit the home of their birth. 

My first excursion in the "barrens'' was early in 
April, when, after a wearying march through brush and 
briers, in damp places, 1 suddenly came upon the little 
trailing evergreen, Pyxiduntkera harbulata, Michx. This 
charming little plant is found in the natural Onler IHa- 
pensiacea. Botanists give us only two plants in this 
order, and by many authors these two are made to form 
each a genus by itself. IHapeneia Lapponica, L., is a 
little Alpine plant found in the north of Europe and in 
the northern parts of our own country ; but our little 
pino-barren JHapensia, or, according to Gray and other 
authors, Pyxidanthera, is the one under consideration. 
It is so limited in its extent that it has never received a 
pet name, but no plant more deserves some common 
name suggestive of its rare loveliness. 

True, I had received dried specimens of this plant, 
and thought It very pretty; but I was not prepared for 
the enchanting, graceful lovcliuess that rewarded me 
for my laborious search. It was growing in thick masses, 
studded all over among its numerous, tiny, bright green 
leaves with pinkish and white buds, with now and then 
a fully expanded blossom. It seemed like sacrilege to 
disturb it, hidden away as it was from human eyes, ami 
called forcibly to mind Emerson's exquisite little poem> 
'*Kliodora.'' 

'*In May, when 8i.>a- winds pierced our solitudes, 
I found the fresh UhoUora in the woods, 
Spreiiding i-Cs leafless bloom in a damp nook , 
To please ihe de^^ert and the shiKgish brook. 
The purple itetals, fallen in the |>ool, 

Made the black wuter with their beAuty gay; 

Here might the tted-blrd come hid plumes to cool, 

And court the flower that cheapens bis army. 

**Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why 
This chai*ra is wasted on the earth and sky, 
Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made lor seeing, 
Then beauty is Its own excuse for being: 
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose I 

I never thought to ask—I never knew; 
But, in my simple ignorance, suppose 
The self-Same Power that brought me there bronghl 
you *» 

In April and May we find in most of the shallow ponds 
among the barrens a curious water plant, which, al- 
though it c4innot be strictly culled a pine barren plant, 
yet, ft'om its limited extent and interesting character, 
requires a passing notice. Its scientific name is Onm- 
Hum a^uatieum, L., and it has received the very appro - 



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319 



priate common name of Golden Club. It Is found in 
the natural order Aracem. The leaves are large, ten or 
twelve inches in length and about half as wide; the 
upper surfiice of the leaf is a light velvety green, the 
under surface much paler, and very smooth and shining, 
on long radical petioles; flrom the midst of these leaves 
arise several scapes, or flower-stalks, which, from the 
base up to within a few inches of the top, are of a dusky 
purplish color, which gradually fades into the purest 
white, terminating in a rich golden-yellow spadix, 
covered with small, perfect yellow flowers. 

LUophyllum huxi/olium, Ell., is another charming pine- 
ban*en plant, and has received the characteristic com- 
mon name of Sand Myrtle. It belongs to the order 
^rieae€<BjVf[tb our splendid Azaleas and Rhododendrons, 
which the European floristn have coaxed into number- 
less varieties. Possibly this beautilul little shrub will 
be neglected by us until the European florists sell it back 
to us at high tigures, as they already have many plants 
of this lamily. 

The Letophyllum is an evergreen shrub, witli leaves 
small, dark green, very smooth and shining, and strung 
thickly along the stems, which in May are terminated 
with thick, umbel-like clusters of small white or pinkish 
flowers. Gray and other botanists give the height ol 
this shrub at trom eight to ten inches, and this is its 
usual heighten the dry sandy barrens; but in Atlantic 
county, near the coast, in damp soil, I found an acre or 
more of this shrub with an average height of about three 
feet. I found it while in full bloom, and it stood so 
thick as to exclude almost everything else. It was sur- 
rounded by a thick, almost impenetrable, tangleil mass 
of shrub-growth, bound together by the climbing prickly 
Smilax, through which I forced my way, and was more 
than repaid for my toil by the beautiful sight, which can 
never be efiaced from my memory. 

One of the most stately and beautiflil pine-barren 
plants is Xerophyllum otphodeloidM, Nutt. It is an En- 
dogenous phint, and found in the order Mdantha^iea. 
The foliage consists of a thick tuft of grass-like leaves, 
from the midst of which arises a single flowef-stalk, 
from three to four feet in height, bearing a dense raceme 
of showy white flowers. It is found in moist places, 
and commences blooming in May. Mr. Fuller, of Hearth 
and Home, remarked on flrst seeing this plant, that this 
alone was worth taking a trip f^om >iew York to see; 
and, florist as he is, this remark is u suflicieut guarantee 
of its rare loveliness. 

But I would not have the reader think that the pine 
barrens exclude the charming flowoi's of his acquaint- 
ance : From the latter part of March all through the 
month of April, the air is redolent with tlie sweet fra- 
grance of the Trailing Arbutus {Epigea repens, L.), grow- 
ing with a rich luxuriance in the white sand, with a 
simple mulching of ouk and pine leaves. Also the deli- 
cate, early little Wind-flower {Anemone nemoiosay L.) is 
louud in abundance, with the ever-present, aromatic 
Wintergreen {GauHhera procumbent , Jj.), with its shin- 
ing green leaves and bright scarlet berries. The little 
trailing Partridge vine {MUchella repensy L.), with ito 
scarlet twin berries— like the Wintergreen remaining on 
the plant all winter— greets us often in our early spring 
rambles. As the season advances so does the number 
of beautiful plants Increase among the seemingly dreary 
pine barrens, of which I will try to make ftirther report 
from time to time. Mary Thkat. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Plants t© Name— J7. W, Patterson, Oyuawhay Ills. 
— No. 1, Thaspium harhinoJe, Nutl.; No. 2, Glyesria ner- 
vata, Trin.; No. 8, Erigeron strigosum, Muhl.; No. 4, 
Carex Jfeadii, Dew.; No. B, (EnotAera/rutieosay L.; No. 
8, KaUria crittata, Pers.; No. 9, Panieum pauciflorum, 
Ell.; No. 11, Carex hystrieinay Willd.; No. 12, Erigeron 
Philadelphicum, L.; No. 18, Cryptotasnia Canadensis, D. 
C ; No. 14, Helica mutica, Walt.; No. 21, Hordtum pu- 
sillumy Nutt.; No. 22, Ptelea irifoliatay L.; No. 27, 
Hydrophyllum Virginicum, L.; No. 28, Osmorrhiza longi' 
stylisy D. C; No. 29. Polytcenia Khitalliiy D. C; No. 80, 
Sandcula Canadensis, L. 

Huron Burt, Callaway, Ho.— No. 1, Annual Spear- 
gross {Poa annua, L.) This is probably an introduced 
grass — it seems to follow in the line of advancing civili- 
zation. It is too small to be productive as a meadow 
grass. Mr. C. L. Flint, author of a * * Practical Treatise 
on Grasses, '' says: ^*This modest and beautilul grass 
flowers throughout the w^hole summer, and forms a very 
large part of the sward of New England pastures, pro- 
ducing an early and sweet feed exceedingly relished 
by cattle. It does not resist the drought very well, 
but becomes parched up in our pastures." It is 
called an annual, but comes up as you say in the fall 
fVom seed, ripens its seeils the ensuing summer and dies. 
No. 2, the common Rush-grabS {Juncus tenuis, L.), very 
well characterized as "Wire-grass," and of little prac- 
tical value. No. 8 is called Cleavers, or Goose-grass, 
{Galium aparine, L.) though not properly a grass, but a 
plant of the Madder family {Rubiacea). No. 4 is the 
omnipresent Knot-grass, or Goose-grass {Polygonum 
avieulare, L.), which everywhere takes possession of 
door-yards and paths, and thrives under the roughest 
treatment. 

Geo. L. Bodley, BaUle Creek, Hich.— The leaves you 
send are those of the Red Mulberry {Moras rubra, L.) 
On mature trees the leaves are seldom lobed, being 
ovate heart-shaped . 

Chas. E. Billen, Philadelphia.—^o. 12, the cultivated 
Poet's Narcissus {Narcissus poeticu*). No. 11, Sedum 
tematum, or Tliree-leaved Stone-crop, growing wild in 
rocky wooils, also occasionally found in gardens, and 
often erroneously called a Moss. No. 13, V'ihumum 
pruni/olitim, or Black Ilaw, a large and handsome shrub 
or small tree. No. 14, Winter Cress {Earbarea vulgaris, 
L.) No. 15, Daisy Fleabane {Erigeron bellidifoliam, 
Muhl.) No. 16, Wild Geranium {Geranium maculatum, 
Linn.) 

J. L. Town send, Marshall, Mo., asks for information 
on the following subjects : 1st, Time to commence study- 
ing botany, whether summer or winter. 2nd, Books 
needed, their price, and where tliey can be purchased. 
8rd, Magnifying glass, the size, number of lenses, 
where to be obtained, and price. 4th, Microscope for 
that class of students who wish to pay attention to the 
Cryptogamiu, kind, price , and where obtained. 5tl), 
Collecting box, size, material and cost. 6th, White 
printing paper, cost, whether best purchased of printers 
ordeiiers. 7th, Hints on preserving ripened capsules 
and seeds, so that the pressure will not scatter them. 
8th, How to get the flowers and fhiit f^om high trees. 
9th, Books for the special students, and works describ- 
ing the medicinal plants for those who would be inter- 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



ested in this class. lOtb, Kind of box, case, or cabinet 
in which to place the holders containing the specimens, 
and whether to let them remain loose in the holders or 
fasten by mucilage or otherwise, llth. Make of knife 
to use In dissecting plants. 12th, Full directions about 
milking a portfolio for collecting specimens when on a 
journey. 13th, Method of preparing stone-fruits, so 
that they can be shown when ripe. 13th, How to ex- 
amine dried Hpecimens. 

This is quite a formidable list of questions, but we 
will lake them up geriaihn, and answer as well as we 
arc able. 

1. The best time to commence studying botany is 
during the period of vegetable growth, when plants can 
be observed in a living state. Certainly something can 
be learned about plants by simply reading or studying 
the te.Kt-books; and we know that some teachers pre- 
fer to have their claJ^scs commence in the ^vinter teim 
and study morphology, pliysiology and classilieation , 
and then in the spring term enter upon the analysis of 
plants. This is probably a good plan for colleges and 
schools, for all the analytic botany that is obtained there 
Is that obtained during the spring term, as the schools 
generally close in June, and do notreSpen until Septem- 
ber, when tlie best part of the season has passed away. 

2. There is no lack of good books on structural 
botany . No man has done more to extend the knowledge 
of botany in the United States than Prof. A. Gray, 
whose series of botanical works are not to be excelled. 
Prof. Wood has also a number of excellent works on the 
same subject. Students of Botany In that part of our 
country lying east of the Mississippi river will And in 
the Manual of Dr. Gray and the Class-book of Prof. 
Wood descriptions of nearly every plant they will be 
likely to find, exclusive of tlie lower cryptogamic orders. 
As we go westward of the Mississippi river, we find 
species which are not described in the works mentioned; 
these species become more and more numerous as we 
advance to the Rocky Mountains. Botanic4il students 
in that region of country will be unable to identify many 
of the plants they meet with. Probably within a few 
years some work will be published embracing all our 
vast territory . We have not at hand a list of prices of 
the botanical works we have mentioned, but they may 
be obtained through the booksellers of the country. 

3. Good pocket lenses of two or three glasses may be 
obtained in most large towns. These will answer for 
the ordinary purposes of botanical investigation. There 
is a very neat arrangement of lenses, called Dr. Gray*s 
microscope for the use ot botanists, so contrived that the 
lenses may be fixed on a sttmdard, and both hands lelt 
IVee to manipulate the object. This, we believe, costs 
from $2.50 to ;f 4. 00; but we do not know the manufac- 
turers. 

4. That class of students who wish to study crypto- 
gamic plants, and to investigate the minute structure of 
the cells and tissues, etc. , will need a compound micro- 
scope. We are hardly prepared to recommend any 
particular kind, fUrther than to say that we would buy 
an American instrument. Excellent ones are made at 
Philadelphia, Boston, and other places; Chas. Stodder, 
66 Milk street, Boston, advertises microscopes in the 
American Naturalist, and will undoubtedly l\irnish price 
lists, etc., on application. 

5. The common collecting box is made of tin, in a 
cylindrical form, about two feet long and six inches in 



diameter, witli a door or lid nearly the whole length. 
Specimens may be collected in this box, and if moistened 
will keep fV-esh for a day or two, and may be analysed 
at leisure. A box of this kind is especially useftil to 
collect and keep material for analysis by a class; but 
most botanists, we apprehend, after a time drop the tin 
box and employ the portfolio, or collecting book. This 
is made of strong binder's board, eighteen or twenty 
inches long and ten or twelve wide, and may be either 
a simple cover, to be filled with loose sheets, or the 
sheets may be bound in with blank pieces alter the 
manner of a scrap-book. The paper should be a strong, 
smooth and thick manilla. Into this book the specimens 
should be placed when collected, and may remain there 
several hours, or a day, until an opportunity occurs to 
transfer them to the press. Tlie book may be fastened 
with straps and buckles at the side and ends, and a 
handle may be attached for convenience of carrying. 

6. White printing paper may be procured either of 
printers or dealers, as may be most convenient. The 
price varies with the quality ; it is usually sold by weight, 
or rather the price per ream depends on the weight. 

7. Specimens containing capsules or pods should be 
collected before the fhiit-vessels are fUlIy ripe, when 
little trouble will usually be experienced ftom their 
bursting. If, however, the seed is likely to be scattered, 
it may be kept in a small paper sack, in the same paper 
with the specimen. Indeed, it is a good plan to have 
some seeds of every species kept in this way for ready 
examination . In cases where the seeds are too lai^ge, 
as in the oaks and hickories, tiiey may be kept in suit- 
able boxes, properly labeled and numbered. 

8. For getting specimens of flowers and firuit ftom 
high trees, the usual mode is by climbing. Nurserymen 
and orchardists have contrivances, such as shears at- 
tached to a long handle, long-handled chisels, etc., 
which might be turned to advantage In some cases. 

9. Students wishing to pursue only special depart- 
ments of botanical investigation will require special 
works— as, for instance, Sulllvant on the Mosses aad 
Liverworts of the United States; Harvey on the Marine 
Algse of North America. The medical iwes and proper- 
ties of our plants are treated of in the American Dis- 
pensatory, tht Eclectic Dispensatory, BIgelow's Ameri- 
can Medical Botany, and probably in other works with 
which we are unacquainted . 

10. As to the final disposition of plants in the Herba- 
rium; some keep them in folios, some in pasteboard 
boxes, and some in drawers. In every case they should 
be excluded fVom sunlight, and IVom the approach of 
insects. Wherever tlie collection cannot be made sta- 
tionary and permanent, it will be better to use paste- 
board boxes. At some future time we will give details. 
We will only say now that the specimens should l>e 
gummed to the sheet, either by the direct application 
of mucilage, or by means of narrow strip.<* of gummed 
paper fastened across the stems of the plants at suitable 
intervals. We prefer the latter method. 

11. We know of no special pattern of knife for dis- 
secting plants. Any one with a shari), thin blade wiil 
answer most purposes. 

12. This has been answered under No. 5. 

13. We know of no better way of preserving stone- 
fVuits than by drying or keeping in alcohol. 

14. In order to examine dried specimens, the flowers 
and small parts must be first thoroughly softened by 
immersion in hot water, or by means of steam. Tlioy 
may then be dissected in the usual way. 



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VOL. 2 



ST. LOUIS, MO., OCTOBER, 1870. 



NO. 11. 



criAULES V. BILKY, Editor, 
Room 20, Incunmce Building, St. Louti, Mo. 



ANNOUNCEMENT. 

Wc hereby aiiuounce, by the mutual consent of 
both publishers and editors, that the American 
Entomologist and Botanist will be suspended 
during the year 1871. It is unnecessary to ^ve 
the several retisons which have induced us to 
adopt this course. Few [)er8ons are aware of 
the labor required to conscientiously manage a 
journal of this character, and the health of the 
entomological editor has bemi so i)Oor of late, 
and his other duties are so pressing, that he will 
be glad of the respite which this suspension will, 
in part, afford. 

The suspension of a journal is generally looked 
upon as portending failure and discontinuance; 
but in the present case it has no such meaning. 
One more number, which will complete Volume 
II, will be issued before the end of the year, and, 
notliing preventing, Volume III will commence 
with the year 1872. All those who receive this 
announcement witli regret, and who intend to 
renew their subscriptions in 1872, will do well 
to signify such intention to the publishers. 



THE CODLING MOTH. 

{Carpocapsa pomonella, Linn:cii8.) 

hay-band vs, rags — one or two brooded. 

After a series of experiments, instituted the 
past summer, we have proved that, ailer all, the 
hay-band around the trunk of the tree is a more 
effectual trap for the Apple-worm than the I'ags 
placed in the fork of the tree. There is no superi- 
ority in the rags over the hay-band, unless the 
former are made to encircle the tree as thorougly 
as the latter. Where rags arc placed simply in 
the forks, many of the worms pass down the tree 
from the outside of the branches. If the rag is 
tied around the trunk, it will impede almost 



every worm that crawls down the tree from the 
fruit which hangs on, or that crawls up the trunk 
fmm the fruit which falls; and it then has a 
decided advantage over the hay-band, becau.se 
it can either be passed through a roller or scalded, 
and used again. 

It has been very genei'ally accepted in this 
country that the Codling Moth is double-brooded, 
and in all our writings on the subject we have 
stat<3d it to be so, though no one, so far as we arc 
aware, ever proved such to be the case beyond a 
doubt. Mr. P. C. Zeller, of Stettin, Prussia, 
informed us last winter that it is only single- 
brooded in that part of the world, and Harris 
gives it as his opinion that it is mostly so. 
Now, 8Ut;h may not improbably be the case 
in northern Prussia, and the more northern 
of the United States, though we incline to 
believe otherwise. At all events, this insect is 
invariably double-brooded in the latitude of St. 
Louis, and its natural history may be briefly told 
as follows : The first moths appear, and begin to 
lay their eggs, soon after the young apples begin 
to form. The great bulk of the wonns which 
hatch from these eggs leave the fiiiit from the 
middle of May to the middle of June. These 
spin up, and m from two to three weeks produce 
moths, wliich pair and in their turn commence, 
in a few days, to lay eggs again. The worms 
(second brood) from these eggs leave the fruit, 
some of them as early as the fii*st of September, 
othei*s as late as Christmas. In either case they 
spin their cocoons as soon as they have left the 
apples, but do not assume the pupa state till to- 
wards spring— the moths from the late matured 
worms appearing almost as early as those from 
the earlier matured ones. The two broods inter- 
lock, so that in July wonns of both may be found 
in the fruit of one and the same tree. We have 
repeatedly taken worms of the first brood, bred 
the moths from them, and obtjiined fix)m these 
moths the second brood of worms; and we have 
done this both on enclosed friut hanging on the 
tree in the oiMjn air, and on plucked fruit in- 
doors. In the latter experiments the moths 
would often cover an apple with eggs, so that 
when the worms hatched they would enter from 



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all sides, and soon so thoroiiglily pei'forate and 
devour the fruit as to die of starvation. This 
is a clear case of misdirected instinct in the 
parent, caused doubtless by confinement. 

From the foreg-oin^^ facts, it becomes obvious 
that the rags or the hay-band should be kept 
around the tree, say from the tirstof May till the 
fruit is all off; and to be thoroughly effectual, 
the insects collected in or under them should 
be destroyed regularly every fortnight during 
that time. 



BOOK-WORMS. 



BV QKNKY SIIIMER, M D. 



[Fig. 200] 




In contemplating this subject, it is not my 
purpose to dwell on that inappropiiatc and in- 
elegant definition of this term given by Webster — 
" a student closely attached to books, or addicted 
to study " — but to briefly notice the work of in- 
sects in some of our libraries: for even our 
treasured volumes ai^e not exempt from the 
ever-annoying pest of injurious insects. 

When the lover of books finds that his choice 
and elegantly bound volume, wliich was placed 
in its case for safe keeping, has been riddled and 
marred, and may be ruined, by some ruthless 
worm, he is as much annoyed as the polished 
gentleman who finds that his fine cloth suit has 
been the prey of moths ; or the careful lady, 
who finds the fur separated from the skin of her 
mutt', or cape, by the same i-elentless foe. 

Books have been infested with caterpillars, 
mites, and beetles, in foreign countries ; and in 
our own country books have been occasionally 
injured by some of these insects ; but, so far as 
I am informed, insects have not been very annoy- 
ing in American libraries. Harris, in his general 
work on injurious insects, makes no allusion to 
them. I have obsei*ved worm-eaten volumes 
occasionally in some old eastern libraries, espe- 
cially in New York city. 

Several species of Boring beetles belonging to 
the family Ptinidm destroy books, as well as 



many other kinds of property, even furniture, 
clothing, produce, pictures, etc., etc. M. Piegnot 
informs us that one of these i)enetratcd directly 
through twenty-seven lai'ge quarto volumes iii 
so straight a line that he was able to pass a string 
directly through and suspend the whole sericH 
of volumes. (Homer's In trod, to Bibliography, 
311.) 

During the past year I was not a little annoyed 
and surprised to find the larva of a species of 
Ptinus in some books in my office, from which 
I have bred the perfect insect, which proves to 
be the common Brown Ptinus (Ptinus brunneu^, 
Dufs.=P. frontalU, Mels.)* They had injured 
several of my books, as well as many of the 
volumes of a small law libi^ary that had been 
recently sliipped here from Keokuk, Iowa. Be- 
sides these, I have only seen one or two volumes 
in other libi'aiies in Mount Carroll containing 
the marks of tlieir work. 

They usually operate in leather-bound or half- 
bound volumes, by boring galleries along in the 
leather where it is joined to the back of the 
leaves of the book ; most frequently about the 
linial angle formed by the board-back, and the 
edge of the back of the leaves. Sometimes they 
ai'e in the middle of the back, or about the cor- 
ners of the book-back. They usually boi-e along 
quite under tJie surface of the leather, cutting it 
almost through ; occasionally a small round hole 
penetrates through the leather to the outer sur- 
face. The galleries are filled with tlie debris. 

This account of their work is, as I see it, where 
the insects are not yet very numerous ; but I can 
readily foresee that they may, if unmolesti»d, 
become so niunerous as to eat up the binding 
and entirely ruin the volumes of a libraiy . 

Sheep-bound books seem to be, their favorite 
resort; but I have found one larva in a cloth- 
bound volume about one of the binding conls 
where it is attached to the board, in all pi^oba- 
bility feeding on-the paste used in the binding. 

These insects may be well enough in sonic 
places, at least on the pins in an entomological 
collection, but I do not like their notions of 
book-gnawing. So to teach them better habits, 
I searched carefully and destroyed all I could 
find, and afterwards subjected the volumes to 
baking in an oven, being careful not to heat 
them sufficiently to burn the leather brittle. A 
better plan would be to put them into some 
water-tight box, and to iumierse the box witli 
its contents in boiling water long enough to heat 
the books through and through to near 212° Fah. 
If this does not clean them out, I shall brush the 



•niis and the following described insect were kindly de- 
termined by Dr. Ilorn. 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



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books over thoroughly with a strong solution of 
coiTosive sublimate. 

Should these insects become more numerous , 
I shall prefer a cloth-bound book because of less 
liability of such books to be attacked by the in- 
sects. The bookbinder might easily remedy the 
difficulty by adding a little corrosive sublimate 
to the i)astc he uses ; but to him there is an ob- 
jection on the score of health. 

This is an imported insect, and thei-efore is all 
tlie more to be feared according to tlie teacliings 
of Mi\ Walsh, who endeavored to prove that all 
imi)orted insects are worse than the indigenous 
ones. The causes of this may be various, but 
the gi"and i*eason is supposed to be that the 
natural enemies in their native country do not 
accompany them in their migi'ations. Some en- 
tomologists, however, say that this Species docs 
but little hann. 

Another Boring beetle of the PHnus family 
(Silodrepa panicea^ Hhovas^&^^Anobium pani- 
ceumy Fabr.), feeds on capsicum and other spices, 
wafers, faminaceous meals, etc., and are numer- 
ous about di'ug stores, as I have seen in tliis 
town. The same insect was found in a hand- 
some red bead made of some kind of colored 
paste, much to the annoyance of the young lady 
who was wearing it: for, strange as it may ap- 
l>ear, noUiing much more annoys a young lady 
than a harmless worm. I have had these beads 
in a close box, and there has been developed a 
new bi-ood every year since I placed tliem in this 
confinement. The eggs are white, ovate, and 
probably each female only produces a few. By 
crushing a pregnant female I obtjiined six eggs. 

The laiTa of tliese bead beetles is somewhat 
hairy, yellowish-white, 6-lcgged, and coiled up 
by i-etracting the abtlomen under the thoi*ax. It 
is considei-ably corrugated, especially along the 
sides. The head is smooth, honiy, and wliite, 
and the mandibles and parts about the mouth 
arc black. It lives in the bead, and feeds so 
carefully that one would not suspect its presence 
wei*c it not that the perfect insect cats a hole 
through the same to make its escape. Some- 
times, but i*arcly, two were found in a bead. 

When gi'ound capsicum contains these insects 
it will be found cemented into somewhat irregu- 
lai* hollow balls, attached around the sides of the 
vessel in which it is contained. It is sti-ange 
that they will live and thrive cijually as well in 
such a pungent substance as they do in barley 
meal, if, indeed, they be one and the same insect, 
and I am not able to detect any marked difference 
between the capsicum, barley moal, and bead- 
inhabiting insects. 

The laiTa of the Brown Ptinus, or Book-bee- 



tle, is similar in appearance to that of this Spice- 
beetle (Sitodrepd), but close examination shows 
it to be much more hairy. I have taken them 
from the books and placed them in small corked 
vials, and obsei-ved that they soon buried them- 
selves in the cork, where they lived and fed for 
as much as two or three months. The Brown 
rtinus matures in April and May, and at tliis 
time I have so often taken them in a basin or 
pail of water, during the past four years, that I 
conclude that it would be a good plan to set pans 
of water in the library for tlie purpose of enti-ap- 
ping the perfect insects. 

These two insects, though belonging to the same 
family, are quite different in appearance. Com- 
pared with the Book-beetle {IHinus), the Spice- 
beetle (Sitodrepa) is of a lighter brown, and is 
more nearly cylindrical. The antennas are much 
smaller and mostly retracted after death. The 
Book-beetle is of a darker brown, usually con- 
siderably hump-backed, with the thoi*ax consid- 
erably narrowed just in front of the wing-covei'8. 
It is more densely covered with hairs, and with 
a lens the hairs are seen much more conspicu- 
ously — stiff and bristle-like. I thus speak of 
their differences in conti*ast because some have 
considered them the same. 

These insects produce a peculiar sound, which 
is supposed to be caused by striking their jaws 
against some foreign object, and which is, per- 
haps, made to attract their partners. This sound 
somewhat resembles tlie ticking of a watch, and 
ignorant and superstitious people believe it to 
be ominous of death — " the death taatch,^^ 

When apples are stored near the libraiy, tlie 
Codling Moth, upon leaving the apple and seek- 
ing a place to ti*an6form, may locate itself in a 
book, as I have upon several occasions observed. 
When it enters the book between the back and 
leaves, it gnaws and mutilates them very much 
to make a desirable place in which to spin its 
cocoon. On one occasion I observed that the 
lai-va, after cutting thiough thi-ce or four leaves 
and spinning a good deal of silk, left for more 
desirable quai*tci*s. In this way many other 
cateii)illai*s may injure books, when by accident 
they gain access to them. 

We reatl of various book enemies that have 
attracted attention from time to time* A cater- 
pillar {Anglossapingui7ialis)y said sometimes to 
subsist on butter and lard, does no little damage 
to books by fixing itself and spinning a web on 
the binding. Still another, according to Kirby 
and Spence, does much damage by taking its 
station between the leaves. 

A mite (Celeius eruditus) eats the paste of 
the binding, and thus is a treublesome enemy. 



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(Scliaiih AuRtrallan Insects.) Many other ex- 
amples of book enemies might be collected. Bnt 
let us not mourn over our fate in this country, 
but leather rejoice that our insect enemies are no 
worse. No one can contemplate the ravages of 
White Ants^ or Tennites, in tropical climes, upon 
furnitui'e, clothing, books and papers, and even 
houses themselves, or anything not (composed of 
brick, stone or the metals, without rejoicing that 
our little pei-plexities are no worse. Humboldt 
informs us that in all Equinoctial America where 
the White Ant abounds, it is inflnitely rare to 
find papcre or books that go back fifty or sixty 
years. 

[We present at the head of this article (Fig. 
2(K)) outline figures of the two insects described 
by our correspondent (a, Sitodrepa panicea ; b, 
its antenna); c, Plivus brunneus). Among the 
insects wliich would come under the hejul of 
" Book-worms," and which do considerable dam- 
[FiR. 201.] age in this latitude, 

may be mentioned 
two species of P^e?^ 
I doneuroptera. The 
first of tliese is the 
apterous form of a 
mhnitePsocus^comr 
mouly termed the 
"Book-louse." The 
most common spe- 
cies seems to be an 
apterous fonnof P^. 
domesticus, Burm., an imj)ortation from Europe ; 
though Ps, amabilis and Ps, geologtts, Walsh, 
are also found in like situations. Both these last 
forais are normally apterous, and it is difficult to 
separate them from domesticus. The second 
book i>est is the common Termite, or Wliite Ant 
(Termes Jlavipes)y the different forms of which 
we illustrated on page 266. Tvvo years ago it was 
found that many of the books and public docu- 
ments in the vaults at tlic capitol in Springfield, 
Illinois, were utterly ruined by the gnawings of 
some animal, which was subsequently proved to 
be this common N. A. Temiite. These insects had 
made large irregular gnawings through many of 
them, and had discolored the leaves by their 
excrement. There is also now on exhibition at 
the St. Louis Mercantile Library, a largo law- 
book, presented by llobt. McKenna, Esq., wliich 
was in like manner injured by these Termites 
while it lay in the St. Louis Coui*t House. Our 
Figure 201 represents the outline of the gnaw- 
ings. The entrance was made through the 
leathern cover, but did not quite reach through 
to the other side. In both these instances the 
books were kept in a ratlier damp place. — Ed.] 




THE RED ANT OP TEXAS. 

[Fig. 202.] 




It is not often that I can find leisure moments 
to devote t-o wi'iting, but as I have never seen 
anything in your periodical devoted to the Red 
Ant of Texas, and as wo have for the past few 
days been digging them out in my yaixl and ^r- 
den, I thought I would wiitc you a few lines in 
i*egard to them ; and herewith I enclose speci- 
mens of the same. The large Ant with wings is 
the female, of which few are found in a nest 
where there are countless millions, billions or 
trillions of workers. Now, no man probably 
ever saw one of these female ants appear at tlie 
surface of the earth voluntarily ; and if they 
never come to the sui'face why are they provided 
with wings? You may say that they probably 
do come to the surface and that they have never 
been noticed, but I have seen many old men 
who were born in Texas, and have lived here 
for years myself, and none of us ever saw one of 
these female ants until a few years since, when 
one of tlieir nests was dug out, and great was 
the astonishment of every one who beheld these 
cnoiinous ants with wings; and at first few 
would believe that they were ants, but believed 
the story about them a hoax. 

There are two varieties of the Red Ant here, 
one of which does but little damage (almost 
none), and works in the day time, in tlie bright 
sun, altogether. Their nests are comparatively 
small, usually having but one entrance. The 
workere differ in form from the "Cut Ant" in 
tliere not being such a disproportion between tlie 
head and the body. Little is known about their 
Mbitation, as they do but little damage, and 1 
presume no one ever took the trouble to dig out 
their nests. The other variety of Red Ant is 
[Fig. 203.] commonly known hci-e as the 

" Cut Ant " (approi)riately 
named), and offetimes it is 
very destructive. Its habita- 
tion is underground, and con- 
sists (in a large nest such as 
we have just finished digging 
out) of many thousand apai't- 
ments, varying in size from a walnut to a ban-cl. 




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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



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and all connected by underground passages or 
tunnels . Some of these rooms are within two feet 
of the surface, whilst others are twenty feet be- 
neath. The nest proper we have just dug out 
covered a space fifty feet squai-e, or 2,500 square 
feet, and descended beneath the surface more 
than fifteen feet, and the earth was completely 
honeycombed. As the earth separating the dif- 
ferent rooms was frequently not more than an 
inch and a half thid^ there were thousands of 
these rooms, and it would be impossible to esti- 
mate the number of ants present, some old and 
some just hatched (being as white as snow), 
others very small but able to navigate without 
assistance. We also found many million eggs. 
Like the spider, they seem to have gi'eat affec- 
tion for their young and eggs, and even when 
their nest is destroyed and sure death awaits 
them all (for they, like the bee, ai-e evidently 
doomed when the female is lost) they will pick 
up their helpless young and carry them off*, and 
will die rather than release their burden. Their 
nest proper seldom occupies a space exceeding 
fifty or a hundred feet square, but I'adiating in 
eveiy direction are underground passages ex- 
tending sometimes a quarter of a mile from head- 
quartei*s, and often passing under wagon-roads. 
These are their roads by which or through which 
they convey the material in which are deposited 
the eggs. This material iLsually consists of the 
leaves of trees, shrubs and some vegetables. The 
young leaves of the elm, china and peach trees, 
of the i*ose bush, pea, carrot, strawberry, etc.,' 
are favorite subjects of their attention, and the 
number of trees they will entirely denude in the 
course of a single night (for they only work at 
night and on cloudy days) is surprising. These 
leaves are conveyed throngh these underground 
passages to their home and deposited in one of 
their chambers, and, 1 presume, they excrete 
some substance that they pnt with the leaves, 
for if a handful of the leaves is taken in the hand 
and squeezed, a ball is made very much resem- 
bling coarse beeswax, and when dried is as hard 
as dry putty. I judge the leaves by their decay 
produce a gentle heat, or, at least, maintain a uni- 
form temperature whereby the eggs are hatched. 
Fonnerly it was supposed that these leaves con- 
stituted a store of food, but such is not the case. 
Whether they feed upon vegetable or animal food 
I cannot say. I have known them to carry off* a 
barrel of wheat in a few nights, and I have 
seen them destroy and cany off" caterpillars and 
other small worms ; and if a snake be killed and 
thrown on the ground near their nest, they will 
in a very short time sti-ip every particle of flesh 
fix>m tl^ boQOS| leaving a mere skeleton. 



To the stranger the sight of these little marau- 
ders when at work is an interesting one, forming 
as they do a long procession of many thousands, 
closely following one another in the same path, 
each with a leaf or portion of a leaf, much larger 
than himself, elevated over tlie body, and ixisem- 
bling an umbi*ella. 

Their bite and sting (for they have a minute 
sting) is very severe in a tender part of the 
human body ; much more so than the sting of a 
bee, and as they rush to the attack when dis- 
turbed, one must provide himself with boots and 
tuck his pants into the tops when he proceeds to 

dig out a nest. 

Ben J. R. Townsend. 

Austin, Texas. 

[The ant i*cfen'ed to, which our correfei)ondent 
sent, is the Cutting Ant of Texas (Aita ferens, 
Say*). We present above figuixis of the queen 
(Fig. 202) and of the worker (Fig. 208), bor- 
rowed from the American Naturalist, Accord- 
ing to Mr. Edward Norton, the females of all 
ants remain in their nests, except at pairing 
time, when tliey api>ear for a short time in great 
numbers, males and females, and then scatter 
for the purpose of founding new colonies. To 
pixjvent their departure, the workers cut off the 
wings of many females, wliich then die or re- 
turn to the nest. 

Dr. Sumichrast states that this ant atoarms at 
the commencement of the rainy season (May), 
and probably in the night, for one finds the neigh- 
borhood of the formicary strewn with the dead 
bodies of the males and females in the morning. 

Our correspondent may be right in stating 
that, as with the bees, sure death awaits the nest 
of ants if the female is lost, for few females ai'e 
found during the greater part of the year; but 
thei-e must be at the pairing or swarming season 
above referred to, a great many females which 
then lay their eggs and die — the workers taking 
charge of these eggs. 

We hope Mr. Townsend will make further 
observations on this subject, and we shall be glad 
to receive more perfect specimens, as those ac- 
companying the comnmnication were all broken. 
—Ed.] 

•Th'iH is the (Ecodoma Mexicana of Smith (Brit. Miw. Cat , 
VI, 185, ami Norton, Am. Nat., II, i» (hJ. Myrmica Tex- 
ana, Buckh-y, Troc. Acad. Nat >ci I'hil., IMJl, page 9. 
(Ecodoma Texana, Buckley, Troc. Ent. 8oc. Thil., V, p. 
Ml. 

Labor on, good entomologists I and find out 
the secrets of these and similar little enemies of 
mankind, and we will heartily tdd your cause 
by disseminating the knowledge you acquii*e as 
widely as we may, for we deem the subject of 
insect pests to be the most important question 
now before the agricultuml community of tlm 
countiy.— iSoeni^^c American^ 



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SOME GOOD THOUGHTS PROM AN EMINENT ENTO- 
MOLOGIST. 

In the chapter on Diptera, in the " Record of 
American Entomology for the year 1869," we 
find the following i-cmarks from Baron Osten 
Sacken, which we heartily commend : 

" However meagre dipterology has appeared 
among us in 1869, there is a good deal of comfort 
to be derived ft'om the healthy direction it is 
taking. Together with the other branches of 
entomology in this country, it has assumed an 
eminently pi*actical tendency. By practical I 
do not merely mean the relation of entomology 
to the dollai-s and cents question, but its relation 
to living nature in general. The more tliis science 
progresses in America, the more it becomes ap- 
parent tliat its development does not depend on 
the necessity of putting in order a museum and 
classifying some boxed up specimens, but from 
the Cleaving to understand living nature and the 
desire to master it when necessary. This craving 
for knowledge among the masses in America is 
as remarkable as the keen eye for obsei^vation, 
and the open mind which are brought into play 
to satisfy this instinct. Entomologists often re- 
ceive letters of inquiiy fvom farmers, gardeners, 
mechanics and other pei-sons, mostly deficient in 
a prepai'atory knowledge of natural history ; and 
they generally have every reason to be astonished 
at the fulness and accuracy of the observations 
of these men of manual labor, as well as at the 
shrewdness displayed in the management of their 
experiments. Very often an investigation is fully 
carried out by them, and all that they apply for 
to a scientific entomolo<p8t is the scientific name 
of Uie specimen. But here lies the diflSculty. In 
a great many cases this name cannot be given 
with any dcgi-ee of certainty, on account of the 
insufliciency or tlie absolute want of specific 
descriptions. 

"If we have reason to rejoice at tlie healthy 
direction American entx)mology is taking, it is 
not without an eye to those, unfortunat^ily very 
numereus, i)crson8 who seem to think that the 
so-called descriptive entomology is the aim and 
end of science. "When a (^haini)ollion, or a 
(irotefend attempt to study hycroglyphic or 
cuniform inscriptions, do they look upon the 
compilation of a dictionaiy of these modes of 
writing as the ultimate aim of theh' eflTorts? It 
is evident that the dictionary in this case is only 
a stepping-stone towards the real end in view — 
the bringing to light the treasures of facts buried 
in ancient inscriptions. Descriptive natural liis- 
tory furnishes the dictionary of nature ; it gives 
names to objectS| which without these names it 



would be impossible to designate. When a 
gardener lias observed the operations of some 
noxious fly, he applies to you for its name, be- 
cause the knowledge of the name will enable hun 
to communicate to others the knowledge he has 
acquired of the habits of the insect." 



INSECT SOUNDS. 



For many yeai*s it has been alternately asserted 
and conti*adicted, that the Death's-head Moth 
(Acheron I ia atropos) possesses the power of 
emitting sounds on certain occasions; and re- 
cently it has been contended that tlie caterpillar, 
and also the pupa of this moth, possess a eimilar 
power. Newman, 1 believe, in his work on 
"British Moths," brings foi-ward authority to 
preve it; and DeGeer, lleaumur, Kirby, and 
other authoi-s, believe in the fact. 

A coiTespondent of Science Oossip, over the 
signature of "A. Mercer," relates the following 
circumstance, which would seem to settle the 
question. He states that he had placed tlie pupa 
of A, atropos in some damp moss, and says : " in 
this position it was kept for about two months, 
during which time I repeatedly heard the noise. 
On being touched it would emit a noise i-esem- 
bling the chiniip of the grasshopper." 

Another correspondent states that he never 
heard the noise from the pupa, " but had fre- 
quently heard a sound from the caterpillar. It 
was generally short and abrupt, like the tick of 
a watch. I could always induce the creature to 
make a noise by touching it rather smartly with 
the finger." Other cori-espondents testify to the 
same thing, so there would seem to reniaui no 
doubt that A. atropos emits sounds in every 
stage of its existence. But is tliis power of 
s])cecli, as it may be c-alled, peculiar to this in- 
sect? Very unlikely. 

Another correspondent of Science Gossip ssLyB 
that, ** In several butterflies I have noticed that 
when caught they have emitted a sound like tliat 
of a blow-fly. Having caught a specimen of the 
small Tortoise-shell ( Vanessa articm), on pro- 
ceeding to nip it near the nose, I was stiiiek by 
the sound it made, only differing in intensity 
from that made by a fly under similar circum- 
stances.'* Here, however, I imagine tlie sounds 
were occasioned by the vibration of the confined 
wings. 

But that caterpillars are capable of making 
sounds may bo fully ascertained by almost every 
one that i)ossesses a grape-vine. The laiTa of 
Thyreas Abbotii, as is generally well known, 
has the habit, when touched, of violently jerking 
itself, and biinging the head and tail nearly to- 



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gether, fivst on cue side and then on the other. 
Each act of jerking is accompanied by a sharp, 
creaking sort of noise, not nnlike the subdued 
chirp of a grasshopper. It may be necessary 
for some persons to bring the ear rather near the 
larva to hear the sounds, but to persons haAdng 
good auditory nei-ves the noise is patent enough, 
and I have no doubt it is audible enough to 
Ichneumon flies and other parasites. Now, how 
ai'c these sounds produced? Is it by a sliarp 
emission of air through tlie breathing holes? 

It is remarkable that when attacked this cater- 
pillar always elevates its Uiil, whicli, in that 
position, looks like a snake's head, the glossy 
tubercle adding to the deception; and this Cy- 
clopean appearance renders it a quite fonnidable 
animal to look at. 

W. V. Andrews. 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE- VINE.-No. 12. 
The Grape-vine Plea-beetle. 

{Baltica chalyhea, llligcr.) 
[Fig. 204] 




Colors— (fc) shiny brown and blaolc ; (d) steel-blue or metallic 
green and purple. 

Is there a grape-grower in the United States 
who does not know, to his sorrow, what the 
Grape-vine Flea-beetle is ? Hardly one I And 
yet how few ever connect it with its disgusting 
little shiny brown larvie, which generally prove 
still more injurious than the beetle, by riddling 
the leaves in the middle of summer. 

The Grape-vine Flea-beetle (Fig. 20 1, d) often 
goes by the cognomon of " Steel-blue Beetle," 
and is even dubbed ** Thrips " by some vine- 
yardists. The latter term, as most of oar 



readers are well aware, is entirely inapplicable.* 
The former name is not sufficiently character- 
istic, because the color varies from steel-blue to 
metallic-green and purple, and because there 
are many other flea-beetles to which it would 
equally apply. 

The Grape-vine Flea-beetle is found in all 
parts of the United States and in the Canadas, 
and it habitually feeds on the Alder (Alnus ser- 
rulaia)j as well as upon the wild and cultivated 
Grape-vine. Its depredations seem first to have 
been noticed in 18J^1, by Judge Darling of Con- 
necticut, and in 1834 Mr. David Thomas, of New 
York, published an account of it in the 2Cth 
volume of Silliman's American Jouinal of Sci- 
ence. Its transformations were, however, un- 
known till some time after Dr. Harris wrote 
his excellent work on Injurious Insects, and no 
figure of the larva has been hitherto published. 

The beetles hibernate in a toi*pid state under 
any shelter which is afforded them in the 
vineyard, such as the loose bark and crevices of 
stakes, etc., etc., and they are roused to activity 
quite early in the spring. The gi-eatest damage 
is done by them at this early season, for they 
often bore into and scoop out the unopened bud, 
and thus blight the grape-grower's bright ex- 
pectations. As the leaves expand, the little 
jumping i*a8cals fe^d on the leaves, and soon 
pair and deposit their small orange eggs in clus- 
ters, very much as in the case of the Colorado 
Potato Beetle. These eggs soon hatch into 
dark-colored larva), which may be found of all 
sizes during the latter part of May and early 
part of June. They are generally found on the 
upper surface of the leaf, which they so riddle 
and devour as to give it the appearance repre- 
sented at Figure 204, a. When very numerous 
they devour all but the very largest leaf-ribs, 
and we have seen the wild vines throughout 
whole strips of country rendered most unsightly 
by the utter denudation which these insects had 
wrought. The larvae feed for nearly a month, 
and when full grown present the appearance 
of Figure 204, 6, the hair-line at the side showing 
the natural size.f They then descend from the 



•Tlie term Thrips is cnntlned to an nnonialuus group of 
insects — mostl y cannibal, l>ut exceptionally vi*>f«'t4ible-lVMHllng 
— of which irulliday nuule it Hcpunitt; Onlcr (T>y*anoj}tera) ^ 
but which ivrc to-auy incUiUitl in the Hornoftera^ or Wh<»K'- 
winjccd HujcH, by most authors, though Ihey seem to hiivc 
close afliuiliefi to the Orthvpteray and to the P/cudoneu ropier a. 

t We append a full description, drawn up from many living 
8|K>cimens : 

IIaltkja cnALYBKA, Illig —Full-grown Liro4-Tx'ngth, 
0.3r> inch, lloiwl i»oli.she«l black Body livid-brown above, 
paler l)eneath ; subcylindrical, the Joiiils bulging, especially 
at Hides, and each divided superiorly into two transverse 
folds; on each fold a row of six shiny-black elevated spots, 
the dorsal ones larger than the others, and often (eajjeci- 
ally the oosterior two) confluent, or divldrd only by a very 
narrow uorsal line; each spot giving rise to a single short 
atiff hair; ouc suoh sub^Ugmatal block spot placed in middlQ 



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vine and bury themselves a short distance in the 
earth, where, after each forming a little earthen 
cell (Fig. 204, c), they change to pupsB of a deep 
dull yellow color, and in about three weeks more 
isf^ne as beetles. These beetles leave the ground 
from the middle of June to the middle of July, 
and, so far as we are aware, do not breed again 
till the following spring — there being but one 
brood each year. They subsist on the leaves 
during the fall, but the damage they inflict is 
trifling compared to that which they cause in 
spring. 

Like all other Flea-beetles, this species has 
very stout, swollen hind thighs, which, though 
[FiR. »^] hidden in our Figure 201, d, are well 
represented in the accompanying 
cut (Fig. 205). By means of these 
T strong thighs they are enabled to 
^ I jump about very energetically, 
and are consequently very difficult 
to manage during the siftnmer 
months. In the winter time, however, they 
can be destroyed in great numbers while hid- 
den iu a torpid state in their retreats. Clean 
culture and general cleanliness in a vineyard 
will, to a great exient, prevent this insect^s in- 
crease. Dr. Hull, of Alton, Ills., tells us* that 
they were once so numerous in a small vineyard 
of his, that in the spring of l.%7 he burnt them 
out by surrounding them with fire, and letting 
the fire run through the dry grass in the vine- 
yard. " It was a rough remedy, but as his crop 
was destroyed, he let the beetles follow suit." 

The larvae can be more easily destroyed by an 
application of dry lime, used with a common 
sand-blower or bellows. This has been found 
to be more effectual than either lye or soaj)-suds, 
and is withal the safest, as lye, if used too strong, 
will injure the leaves. 

This insect, like so many others, will one year 
swarm prodigiously, and then again be scarcely 
noticed ; and such changes in its numbers de- 
pend mainly on conditions of the weather, as 
we know of no parasite which attacks it. In the 
spring of 18G8, though they were at first out in 
full force, yet after some subsecpicnt severe and 
cold weather, they had mostly disappeared. 
They are apt to be most troublesome where 
Alder abounds in the woods. 

ofjoint, and more rlonK'vtod than the rest, beinjc apparently 
cornpoaed of two conllufiit one*, iia it givt-s riw lo two hain*. 
TlirtH? vcMitral Hpoto, one anteriorly, whieh is large, trans- 
versely-elongate, central and withont hairs: and two posteri- 
orly (one «*a«h side) whieh are Hinall an<l i>iU('eroiU4. Six 
hlae.k thonu'.ic legn, and one anal orange proleg. 

/^//o— Length, 0.14 ineh Norrauirhrssoinelid form. Deep 
dnil yellow, and covered more or less above with short bhwK 
bristles arranged in a transverse row across each Joint, and 
each arising from a slight elev^ition : two stonter aual bristles 
or Uiurns. Eyes brown. Tipa of Jaws brown. 

•Proc. Alton Hort. Sac. for May, 1887^ 




THE FALL ARMY WORM. 

From many parts of Missouri and Illinois, 
complaints reach us of the ravages of the " Fall 
Army-worm." We have received specimens 
from Moniteau, Jefferson, St. Louis, Pulaski 
and Cole counties in Missouri, and accounts of 
its injuries reach us almost every day from the 
northeaslern portion of the State. What is this 
*'Fali Army- worm?" will be anxiously asked 
by the entomological reader; but we doubt 
whether there is yet any one in this wide world 
who can tell with any degree of assurance. We 
can say, that it is a cfik 

dark worm, the larva 
of some species of 
Owlet Motli, and very 
closely allied to the 
true Army-worm 
( Leucania unipuncta^ 
Ilaw.), but more tiian 
this we do not at pre- 
sent know, for the 
insect has never been 
traced through its 
transformations. In 
the fall of 1808 we 
received a few speci- 
mens from Mr. T. 11. Allen, with an account of 
their injuring newly sown wheat on oat stubble. 
On page 88 of our First Missouri Report we 
briefly described it, under the name of ^* Wheat 
(Jut-worm;" but we failed to raise the perfect 
insect, and, unless the moths issue this fall, we 
must wait till the spring of 1871 before we can 
connect this worm with its parent. In July, 
18<)8, we received from Mr. E. Daggy, of Tus- 
cola, Illinois, specimens of a worm which was 
injuring his corn, and we then replied through 
the cohinis of tiie Prairie Farmer that it was a 
new species. Subsequently Mr. Walwh also re- 
ceived specimens of the same worm, and during 
the latter part of July we both of us bred the 
moth, which proved to be a new and very vari- 
able species of Prodenia, and which we deter- 
mined to call Dagfft/i,* The Fall Ann y- worm 
agrees so well with that which Mr. Daggy sent 
us, that, in all probability, it will prove to be 
the same species; but as it is so variable, we 
can only conjecture till we succeed in obtaining 
the perfect insect. 

The popular term of " Fall Army-wonn " is 
altogether more indicative than that of ** Wheat 
Cut- worm," since the species does not confine 
its attacks to wheat, and not only very closely 



Color*— Pale yellow, flcah-color, 
roddlsh-brown and black . 



* See p. 43 of this volume. 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



32d 




hito, 
dull yellow and pink. 



resembles the Ariny-wonn in appearance, but 
has many habits in common. 

Let the two not be confounded, however. The 
true Army-worm never appears in the fall of the 
year, but always about the time when wheat is 
getting beyond <he milk state; and it generally 
disappears, in the latitude of 8t. Louis, by the 
first of June. It confines its cfirw.] 

attacks entirely to the grasses 
and cereals, whereas the 
species under consideration 
is a much more general feeder, 
devouring with equal relish 
most succulent plants, such 
as wheat, oats, corn, barley, 
grasses, purslane, turnips, 
and, as Mr. J. M. Jordan ot 
St. Louis informs us, even 
spruces. Moreover, when 
critically examined, the two 
worms show many character- 
istic differences, as will be^,^,^„_„„„ ^^^^ 
seen by comparing Figure 207, 
which represents the true Army- worm, with 
Figure 206, which represents at a the Fall Army- 
worm natural size, at b its head magnified, at c 
a magnified dorsal view of one of the joints, and 
at d a magnified side view of same.* 

With us the Fall Army-worm has done more 
injury to corn than to anything else. It not only 
greedily devours the leaves and stem, but bores 
large holes through the ears, burrowing in 
them in all directions. On late corn it is fre- 
quently found in the same ear with the Corn- 
worm, r^/*as Cotton Boll-worm {lleliothis armi- 
ffera). Indeed, it is as often confounded with 
this last insect as with the true Army-worm, 
and in reality more nearly resembles it. The 
Boll-worm is, however, rougher, generally 
paler, slriped differently (see Figs. 150 and 151 
of Vol. I), and always readily distinguished by 
having :i larger gamboge-yellow or reddish head, 
which invariably lacks the distinct white invert- 
ed Y-shaped mark, and the darker shadings of 
the head of the Fall Army- worm. The same 
remedies which we have suggested for the true 
Army-Avorm apply here, and our crowded col- 
umns forbid their repetition. 

We shall be glad to receive data from our 
Missouri correspondents relative to the amount 
of damage done by this worm in their own 
section ; or to get any other information regard- 
ing it. 

P. S. — Since the above was in type, and just 

♦Those who desire to know more of the tiiic Array- worm 
can refer to Vol . I, No. *i, or to up ai-fiO of the Second Ento- 
mologictd Report of MUsouri, where they wiU Und a Qoraplete 
aooouD( Qf it. 



as our forms are being made up, we have (Sept. 
20th) bred the parent moth of the Fall Army- 
worm ; and, as we anticipated, it proves to be 
the very same undescribed species of Prodenia 
which we bred from Mr. Daggy's worms. We 
shall describe it in our next issue under the 
more appropnate specific name of autumnalis. 



On the (iroup Eurytomides of the IlymeiiopteroiLs 
Family Chalcididae : 

WITH REMARKS ON TUB TIIKORY OP SrECIKS, AND A 

DKSC.KIPTION OF ANTK; ASTER, A NEW AND VERY 

ANOMALOUS OENU8 OF CIIAUJIDID.I^:. 

IIY nXNJ. I>. WALSH, M.A. 



[Continued from page 301.] 
[Fig. 3] 




GKNUS ISOSOMA. 

To this genus, as Umitcil above, must be referred the noto- 
rious Joint-worm Fly, which I have oleurly ascertained to 
be the veritable author of the galls upon the stems of wheat, 
barley and rye, a figure of which galls will be found above 
(Fig 3, a). From Hams and Fitch down to CJlover and 
Packard, all authors have hitherto referred this insect to (he 
genus Eurytoma, from which, however, it dilTera essentially. 
If it could with any propriety he. referreil tb that genus, we 
should then have a case of the same genus inchuUng both 
panisitic and plant-feeding species; and 1 do not believe that 
any such violation of the great law of the unity ok iiaiuts 
can be met with anywhere in nature. As long ago tis 18(P7, 1 
published in the Canada Farmer for that year (pp. 2(i7-8) a 
short article, acknowledging my eiTor(a8given to the world 
in the Prtictical Entomologist 1, pp. 10-12 and ;f7-JJ8) in disputing 
the conclusions at which Harris and Fitch had many years 
before arrived, namely, that the Joint-worm Fly is the 
real author of the Joint- worm galls. In this same article 
will also be found tlie following passage, in regard to the 
generic determination of this insect: "The Joint- worm Fly 
difl'ers generically from all the numerous species of the 
Eurytoma group, which I have asoertaineil to be parasitic on 
other insects, and cannot, I think, be referred with any 
propriety to the genus EurytomM, although it undoubtedly 
iK'longs to the Eurytoma group." Certainly, if preceding 
authors hiul referred this species to its proper genus, I should 
not have been so unwilling to believe in its being a true 
vegetable- fetnier. As soon as I became personally acquainted 
with it, the mystery was solved at once 

There is another question, relative to the scientific nomen- 
clature of this insect, which 1 have recently discussed at 
some length in the columns of the American Entomolouist, 
in an article on the Joint-worm. (Vol. I, No. 8.) Jolnt- 
wonn Flies, as it appears, have been bred Arom precisely 
aimllitf gftlls growing reopeoUvely iipon wheat, rye aud 



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barley, by Dr. Harris and Dr. Fitch. Dr. Harris was of 
opinion that they were all varieties of one and the same 
species; but Dr. Fitch, basing his opinion chiefly upon a 
slight difterencc in Ihe coloration of the legs, han made four 
different species of tliem, which he separates as follows ( N. F. 
Rep. Ill, p. 154) : 

Eursrtoma tritici. Fitch.— On wheat. Front tibiae dull, palo yellow; mid- 
dle and hind tibiiv black. 

Xurytoma seoalis. Fitch.— On rvc. Front and hind tibiae dull, pale yellow; 
middle tibiie black 

Surytoma hordoi, Ilarris.— On baricy . Front tibiic or the ■ome dnnky or 
blackish color with the middle and hind on***. 

Xurytomo flilvipes, F'itch.— On barley. Jjcm, incliidiuK all liic tibia;, 
bright tawny yellow. 

My experience run.s entirely counter to the exi.stcnce of any 
such colorational distinctions between these four HO-called 
s|)ecies. I bretl and preserved 23 f and 47 ; from Canadian 
l)arley-gall8, and I found that most of them were trifici 
Fitch, two were iecalU Fitch, a few vei*ged upon hordei 
Harris, and seven verged upon /u/m/^M Fitch; and that num- 
erous intermediate grades occurred between all these four 
forms. Therefore, I Incline to believe that Fitch's three 
so-caiied species arc — so far as the facts indicate — mere 
synonyms of hordei Harris; and that the correct name lor all 
the Joint- worm Flies that infest small gi'ain Is Isosoma hordei, 
Harris. As the reader will at once perceive, from the de- 
scriptions of the different species of Eurytoma and Decatoma 
given above, if I had regarded slight differences in the color- 
ation of the legs as of spccilic value, I should have made 
several hundred new 8|)ecie8 where I now make only about a 
dozen. 

[Fig. 4 ] 




I give herewith figures (Fig. 3 and Fig. 4) of fiosoma hordei 
ff 9 , drawn by Mr. Riley from sijecimens bred from Canadian 
barley-galls. It is not necessary to describe the sitecies, as 
this has already been done in a very ftill manner by Fitch. 
{N. Y. Rep. HI, pp. 162-3.) 

I do not deny the i)ossibility of the Joint- worms infesting 
respectively wheat, rye and barley being what I have called 
*'phytophagic species." (See Proc. Ent. Sac. Phil. Ill, pp. 
40:<-430, and V, pp. 194—216.) But, before I believe in such 
a fact, I require some satisfactory proof of it, which has 
never yet been given . If they are so, tlien the flies that have 
bred in a pa rtictdar wheat field can never infest an atljoining 
barley field, and so on. So far as the recorded facts go, they 
point directly in the opposite direction. Dr. Fitch, for ex- 
ample, allows that he himself found 3dP and several 9 , which 
he identified as being hordei^ on the growing rye of a rye field 
at the end of May and beginning of June. {N. Y. Rep. Ill, 
p. 159.) Now, if these insects did not intend to attack the 
rye, what business could they have there ? 

I am well aware that, with most entomologists, the mere 
proof of the fact that two imagos cannot be distinguished in 
the cabinet is sufficient to establish their specific identity. 
For myself, I hold very different o|)inions. I consider the 
ordinary dcterminationa of species by the mere compariaon 



of a few cabinet siK>cimens of the imago to be only provisions! 
—a kind of entomological make-shift till we can arrive at 
something more dellnite and satisfactory. To approximate 
to a correct knowledge of siieciflc limitations we must go out 
into the woods and the fields, and study insects, not only in 
the imago state but in all their states, from the egg to the 
mature form. We must attend to habits, as well as to exter- 
nal structure; for it may — and I believe does— fireciuently 
happen that, although the external structure and the colora- 
tion of two forms be absolutely undistinguishable, yet that 
tluir internal structiure may differ so widely that their habits 
may be invariably very different, and the two must conse- 
quently, if constant difference of structure makes difference 
of species, belong to two distinct siiccies. 

We have a notable example of such a contingency in two 
vernal forms of Cynipt—C. q spong\fica^ O. S., and C. q in- 
anis, O. S.— which infest distinct oaks, produce quite dis- 

[Fig. 5.1 




tinct galls, and of one of which there is an aatiunnal agamous 
dimorphous Q—C. q. ocicuZa/a— while of the other species 
(C q. inanis) I am as certain as I can be of any negative fact 
that no such dimorphous 9 exists. Yet the cabinet si>eci- 
mens of the two vernal types cannot be distinguished; and 
any closet naturalist who received a hundred of each of them 
woidd infallibly pronounce them to be all identicjil. But 
that there must exist internal structural differences l)etween 
the two, and consequently that the two are distinct sjiecies, 
is sufficiently proved by two separate facts: Ist, that the 
galls produced by the two are invariably different, whence 
it follows that the gall -generating poison, and consequently 
the internal organs that secrete that poison, must be different 
in the two; 2nd, that the system of one form gives origin to 
but a single type of Q , and the system of the other form 
generates two entirely distinct and dimorphous QQ, ftn<l 
consequently that the reprmluctivc systcuns of the two mast 
be essentially different in some part or parts of their internal 
organization . 

For the satisfaction of those who arc not acquainted with 
the galls produced by these two gall-flies, I give drawings 
ol each (Figs. 5 and 6) from the pencil of Mr . Uiley . Figure 
6 is the gall protluced by C. q. tpongifica npon Black Oak, 
and Figure 6 is that produced by C. q, inanis upon Ke<l Oak. 
Lest it should be imagined that it is the difference in the 
species of oak that causes the difference in the characters of 
each of these two galls, it is proper to refer the reader here 
to the list ihat I formerly published (Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil. 
Ur, p. 638, note)— and I could now add many more such 
cases— where the same gall-fly pnwluccs the same gall uiwn 
distinct species of oak. Moreover, Ratzeburg, as quoted by 
Osten Sackeu, asserts from personal observation, "tliat the 
European Cynips fecundatris of tlie Querctu peduncuUita pro- 
duced the same gall as it provinces npon tlie Euroi)can oak 
when it attacked some American oaks in his garden. ' ' ('^^ 
I, p. 248.) 



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As to the hy|M>theflis broached by Dr. ReiDhard,* that the 
form q. acictUata is the only true gall-making form, and that 
both q. tponfifica and q. inanU are inquilinous; that is suf- 
flciently refute<l by the negative fact that no form analagous 
to q. aciculata can be obtained, after extensive trials repeat c>d 
through several yean, I'rom the gall Q. incni*. For if in 
reality Cynlps q. inanU is a mere guest-fly in the gall Q. inanUf 
where are we to find a gall-maker distinct from that si>ecii>fl 
to produce that gall V I am quite sure that none such exists. 
On the other hand, it is absurd to supi>osc that, of two un- 
distinguishable gall-fliea, C. q. tpomg\fica and C q. tnant«, 
the flrst is a guest-fly and the second a gall-maker. 

[Fig. 6 ] 




The niternative hypothesis advanced by Reinhard as a 
solution of the mysterious anomaly of q. aciculata being the 
dimor]>h.>us v form of q. 9pon<j\fica^ namely that each of 
these two forms is a distinct gall-making species, is of very 
doubtflil validity, for the simple reason that the galls that 
produce these two forms are verj' complicated in their struc- 
ture and present a number of vei7 constant characters, and 
are, notwithstanding, undistinguishable the one from the 
other. It is very true that there are certain polythalamous 
galLs, of verj- simple structure, being in fact little else than 
a simpli' enlargement of a twig, which can scarcely be dis- 
tingulshiMl from one another, although they arc the work of 
distinct gall-makers. Indeed, polythalamous galls are very 
generally more diflicult to characterize than monothalamous 
galls, bocaiise their shape and fcize depend U|>on the number 
of gall-making larva) that they contain, which will often 
vary fn>ra two or three to two or three score . Monotlialamous 
galls, on the contrary, are as definitely limited in size and 
Bhape as aiv the great majority of the diflerent siiccics of in- 
siKJts; and moreover, as a nile, they jiresent mnch more 
numerous and more accurately distinctive characters than 
do polythalamous galls. Now, the oak-gall that we are now 
concerned with— that of Cytdps q. 8pongifica—i» a monothala- 
mous K^ll, and is ju.st as much individualized, and Just as 
easily recognized, as is an a|)ple, a peach, or a plum; and, 
moreover, the galls that pi-oducethc autumnal dimorphous 9 
form iq. acioilata) occur upon the very same tree, and in 
company with those that produce the vernal bisexual form 
(q. tpongijica cfQ). 

Dr. Keinhard, in the paper already referred to (p 7), in 
confirmation of his second hypothesis of C. q. 8pong\fica and 
C. q aciculata being each of them trne gall-makers, produc- 
ing uix)n the same plant galls that are a])])arently, but not 
really, identical, quotes the following two European cases 
of undistinguishable galls being prwUiced upon the same 
plant by distinct insects : Ist. Two exactly similar twig-galls 
on blackberry, produced respectively by Lanoptera rubi and 
DioMlrophui rubi. Now, I am lamiliar with an undescribed 
N. A. twig-gall, Rubi nodm, Walsh MS., jiroduced by an 
undescril>ed Lasioplera allied to L. solidaginis, OS., upon 
an American blackberry. This blackl)erry-gall is a simple 
enlargement of the twig, usually but not always on the part 

•.itorUfi Mntomol, X«ft«eAr, IZ , p, 9, 



adjoining a bud, and is also ]M>lythalamous ; and, as it is 
produced on the same genua of plants, on tlie same part of the 
plant, and by the very same Cecidomyidous suhgenns as the 
Cecidomyidous blackben-y-gall si>oken of by Reinhanl. it 
may reasonably be inferred that this last is of a similar 
nature. In that event, I can see nothing very astonishing in 
its being scarcely distinguishable from a similar gall made 
on the same part of the same plant by a Dia$trophus, 2nd. 
The second case quoted by Dr. Reinhard is that of two un- 
distinguishable leaf-gtUls upon Q^ercu» cerrity protluced 
respectively by Cecidomyia circinant^ (jiraud, an<l Cynips 
(neuroterui) lanuginotus^ (Jiraud. Now, I cannot help sus- 
pecting that In this latter e^ise there exists but a single species 
of gall, nuule by the gall-gnat, Cecidomyia circvnaru, and 
occiisionally tenanted by an Inquilinous gall-fiy, Neurotenu 
lanuginosus. The genus, or rather subgenus, Neuroterui ot 
Ilartig is said by Uartig himself, as quoted by 0»Uin Sacken, 
to be sometimes inquilinous;* and 1 am now acquainted with 
no less than three cases where gall-flies are inquilinous in 
galls that 1 know for certain to be made by gall-gnats . I have 
already published one such case {Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil. Ill, 
p. 54«); and I have since bre<l, on June 5tli, 4 9 Ceroptres 
from the Cecidomyidous willow-gall, S. batatas, Walsh; and 
from an undescribed twi^-gall uiwn Dogwood, produced by 
an undescribed Lasioptera allied to L. iolidaginig, O. S., but 
distinct from the species just now referred to as bred from a 
blackberry gall, I bred, June 23rd, two specimens cf Q of a 
Synergut, both genera, C«r<>p/r«« and Synergm, being Cynipi- 
dous and notoriously inquilinous in their habits. Many 
analogous cases of gall-makers and inquilines, belonging to 
wid« ly distinct families, being produced IVom one and the 
same gall have been recorded by me in my Papers on Willow- 
galls (Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil. HI, pp. .'V43-6U, and VI, 223-288). 

But all doubts as to the dimorphism of the agamous Cynips 
q. aciculata has, to my mind, been remove<l by a series of 
GX))eriment8 which I conducted , after my Pai>er on that sub- 
ject ha«l been published in the summer of 1861. {Proc. Ent. 
Soc. Phil. II, pp. 443-^00.) Of these experiments I will now 
proceed to give the full history in all its details. The reader 
can then Judge for himself how far my facts are to be de- 
pended on, and how far the inferences that I de<luco. from 
those facts are the logical results fi*om the premises . I shall 
not be surprised, however, If, in spite of all that I can say, 
my theory is received with as great incredulity as that with 
which I formerly received the important discovery of Wag- 
ner, In regard to the viviparous reproduction of llie larvie of 
a certain genus of Cecidomyida. 

On October 29th and November 6th, 1864, I colonizeil a 
number of these agamous gall-flies, that I hml bred mysc^lf 
fh)m oak-apples, upon tliree dilferent isolated black oaks, 
that I knew to have not been previou.sly infested by tliese 
galls for many years back Two of these trees were very 
large — say about 2^ feet in diameter at the butt— and I pltuu'd 
the galUflies upon one particular overhanging bough of each 
of them, and on no other part of the tree. The ihinl tree was 
small— say 1 foot in diameter at the butt— and I placetl the 
gall-flies on the trunk of this tree, at the iioint where the 
mam branches took their origin. 

On May 21, 1865, I examined all these three trees. The flrst 
large tree ha<l no galls at all on it. The second large tree 
had produced four Q. tpongifica galls, partly on the very 
bough on which I had i)la<'.ed the gall-flies in the i)receding 
autumn, and i)artly on some boughs that immediately ad- 
joined it. I estnnated that the portion of this last tree thus 
occupieil by gaUs did not form more than one-twentieth of 
the whole tree; so that, even if we su])iK>se that one or more 
wandering Cynips q, aciculata had flown on to this tree from 
the neighboring woods in tlie preceding autumn— and this 
insect, coming out as it does so late In the year, flies as re- 
luctantly and as dully as a Plant-louse— the chances are 
about 19 to I that they would not have occupied the particular 
portion of it found to bear galls in the following spring. On 



* ScQ Pne, MiU. Soe. PkU. 17, pp. (»t and 39(i. 



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the other hand, as there certainly is not more than one- 
hundredth part of the black oaks growing near Bock Island 
that produce any oak-apples at all in any particular year, the 
chances are at least 99 to 1 against any particular black oak 
there, taken indiscriminately, bearing onk-apples in any 
particular year. 0>n8equently , the compound chance of any 
particular black oak, taken at random from those growing 
near Rock Island, not only bearing them in a particular year, 
but bearing them exclusively upon a particular portion of iu* 
boughs, i)reviou8ly designated and forming only oue-twentieth 
part of the entire mass of Its boughs, is, acconling to Uie 
theory of chances, 9J00; or, in ordinary parlance, the chances 
arc 1,999 to 1 against such an improbable event happening. 
But these chances are founded on the supiMjsition of the tree 
that was experimented on having been taken at random with- 
out any selection; whereas, instead of taking it at random, 
1 exercised the greatest possible care in every instance, 1st, 
10 select a black oak that grew a long way ofl'from any other 
black oaks, and, 2nd, to select one that I was familiar with 
and had watched for years, and knew not to have borne any 
oak-apples for several years preceding. It is diflicuU, and 
in fact almost impossible, to estimate in flgures to what an 
extent these additional precautions Increasoil theod<1s speci- 
fied above; but it is cpiite clear that the Increase must have 
been very great. Taking everything into consideration, we 
may conclude, with a degree of certainty amounting to moral 
conviction, that it was not mere chance that caused the four 
oak-apples to grow upon the large black oak that I was at 
this period experimenting on, but that they were gtmerated 
by the gall-flies I had myself placed there in the preceding 
autumn . And a similar mode of reasoning will apply to the 
other experiment, the results of which will be subsequently 
given in detail. 

Some persons, perhaps, who are not familiar with the 
theory of chances, may consider such odds as those specified 
Just now to be insufilcient to produce moral conviction. Yet 
the very same men, when serving on a Jury, will feel no 
scruple at condemning a prisoner to the gallows for murder, 
although it is mathematically demonstrable that the chance 
of any supposed murderer taken at random, who is hung for 
murder, being really guilty of that murder is only about 1999 
to 1 . Scarcely a single case of murder, where the prisoner 
has been able to employ distinguished counsel, has ever been 
trletl but those counsel have enumerated to the Jury scores of 
cases that are on record, where men that ha<l been tried, 
convicted, sentenced and actually hung for murder, were 
subsequently proved to have been entirely innocent of the 
crime laid to their charge. I am satisfied, on a careful ex- 
amination of the facts, that out of the whole number of men 
actually hung for murder, somewhere about 1 in every 2000 
were innocent of the crime for which they suffered . Conse- 
quently, U|>on this supposition, the chance of any one sup- 
))osed murderer, taken indiscriminately fi-om the whole mass 
ot men actually hung for murder, being in reality guilty is 
only £2, or, in popular Umguage, the odds are only 1999 to 1 
that he is guilty. And yet men are every day hung for mur- 
der when the moral certainty of their guilt is demonstrably 
very much less than the moral certainty of the oak-apph^s 
that I was experimenting with having been produced by the 
gall-flies that I placed upon a particular bough of a particular 
oak in the preceding autumn! 

The third black oak, visited on May 21, 1865— which was 
the small one— was absolutely loaded down with galls, and I 
estimated their number at 50 or 60 at least. At this early 
periocl all these galls were still small and immature, and It 
was necessary to leave them for a week or two upon the tree 
to ripen and mature. 

On June 6th, 1865, I climbed the small gall-bearing black 
oak, and stripped it of every gall that I could see. From it 
I harvested only 18 normal tpongifica galls, exclusive of 2 or 
3 that had been destroyed by lepidoptcrous larva), and about 
40 specimens of a particular form of gall (Q. pseudotinetoHa, 
Walsh) which occora oommonly but sparingly among the 



normal Q. ipongifica galls, and also, in a slightly modified 
ty|>e, upon red oaks infested by the Q. inanis gall. For along 
series of years this Q. psettdotinctoria gall has been a great 
puzzle to me; for, whether obtained from black oak or ftom 
red oak, although I have bred from hundreds of them, and 
have kept them on hand for years, 1 hafc invariably bred 
nothing from them but graA numbers of a very large and 
very handsome Chalcit fly, belonging to the Pteromalidet witli 
concealed ovijwsitors, • which 1 have never reared fh>m any 
other gall, and a few stray specimens of such Ckalcit flies 
(Callimome and Eurytoma) as I have bred also trom the nor- 
mal Q. spongifica galls. My Oriend Baron Osten Sacken, to 
whom I had before this period communicated this peculiar 
form of gall, suggested that it was a true Q. tpongifica gall, 
modified by the action of the parasite that inhabited it; and 
the negative fact that I could never breed anything but para- 
sites ft-om it, afler exiicrimenting with hundreds of speci- 
mens m three or four different years, compels me to acquiesce 
in this most anomalous and, so far as I am aware, unprece- 
dented conclusion. The gall in question never exceeds 0.85 
inch in diameter, while the normal Q. tpongifica gall often 
attains a diameter of 1 .76 inch, and is shaped like the normal 
gall, except that it is often studded outside with sharp 
prickle-like tubercles similar to those of the exotic gaiUB- 
tinctoria gall— whence the name that I have given it. The 
central cell is round and about 0.20 inch in diameter, with an 
external crust which is only about 0.02 inch thick, instead of 
forming a dense woody mass as in the normal form. The 
external crust of the gall itself Is similar to that of the nor- 
mal gall; but, instead of its being connected with the central 
cell by homogeneous spongy matter, with a few subobsolete 
slender radiating filaments among it, as in that gall, it is 
connected with the central cell solely and exclusively by 
dense, opaque, coarse, whitish cottony fibres, radiating from 
the central cell, as in the Q. inards gall, but differing widely 
from those of that gall by being very much coarser, by being 
cottony instead of smooth, and by being placed so close to- 
gether as to occupy the whole space between the cell and the 
external crust of the gall, instead of being separated from 
each other by very wide interspaces. On my cutting into 24 
galls that remained unbred from, on this 17th day of March, 
1869, out of the above-mentioned lot of about 40 Q. pseudo- 
Hnctoria galls harvested June 5th, 1865, eight of them were 
found to contain the dead Pteromalidous imago already 
spoken of, seven what was i>robably its mature dead larva, 
one what was probably its mature dead pupa, one the pu]ial 
shell of a Q CallimoiM^ one a Eurytoma itudiota 9 , Say, and 
in six the tenant of the cell must have perished in early life, 
for in these six the central cell was empty. 

On the supposition of the ])eculiar character of the Q. 
pteudotinctoritB gall being caused by the action of the large 
Pteromalidous parasite that generally, but not always, in- 
habits it, and never inhabits the normal type of gall, it may 
be asked how it happens that this very same (I,p9eudotinctori4t 
gall sometimes produces the same S]iecie8 of green Callimome 
which is commonly bred trom the normal gall, and occasion- 
ally a Eurytoma, which is also bred occasionally from the 
normfd gall ? I can only suggest that, in these two latter 
cases, the Callimome and the Eurytoma are parasitic upon 
the large Pteromalidous parasite, and that the peculiar char- 
acter of the gall was determined in the first instance by the 
Ptcromalide. The Chalcidida are, to a mucli greater extent 
than is oommonly 8U))posed, secondary and not primary 
parasites; and in the caseot the Joint-worm Fly (Itosoma 
hordeiy Harris) we have an instance of a Biirytomidous Chal- 
cidian being preyed upon parasitically by three ottier Chal- 
cidians— one a Torymut, a genus closely allied to CaUimom^f 
and the other two belonging to the Pteromalidei with short 
ovipositors. 

From the 18 normal Q. spongifica galls, obtalne<l on June 
5th, 1865, as specified above, from the small black oak, I bred 
on June 11th, 1865, one C. q. tpongifica 9, and another 9 of 
(he same type on Jiuie litb, 1865. On catting inte the re- 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



333 



maining 16 galls, on October 15th, 1865, 1 obtained Ave living 
C. q. acictdata. Thus it results that q. aciculata generates 
sometimes q. aciculata and sometimes q. spoHffifLca. 

Lest it should be supposed that there was any reasonable 
probability or this small black oak having been attacked by 
any other gall-lly producing upon black oaks the Q. apom^ifica 
gall besides those that I pla<-,ed on it myself in the preceding 
autumn, it is proper to add here that it grew on the BlulTs, 
where black oaks are very scarce, and that I am confident 
that there is not another black oak within a quarter of a mile 
of it. -So rare, moreover, are the galls Q. tpongifica u\x)n the 
BluflTs, that in the course of six years* carefVil observation 
I have only noticed there three or four black oaks bearing 
these galls, and even then there were only ftom 3 to 6 on a 
tree; whereas on the sandy bottom land, which swarms with 
black oaks, these galls are comparatively quite common. 

if, however, we choose to believe that the very same insect 
that produces the Q. inanit gall also produces the Q. spongifica 
gall, then the above mode of reasoning will not apply with 
such force; for the Q. inanis gall, and the red oak yn which 
it grows, arc nearly as conmion on the Bluff as the Q. spong- 
ifica gjill, and the black oak on which it grows, are on the 
bottom land. Still, even upon this hypothesis, it is exceed- 
ingly improbable that Cynipt q. inanU shoiUd have attacked 
this particular small black oak in the spring of 1864 ; for, Ist, 
I know that this tree bore no oak-apples for many years pre- 
vious to 1866; 2nd, there were no red oaks growing anywhere 
within two or three hundred yards of it, the lew oaks that 
grew near it being either white oak or biu* oak, which never 
produce either the Q tpongifica or the Q. inanis gall; 3rd, I 
noticed that, in the spring of 1866, this very same small black 
oak swarmed again with the Q spongyica gall, almost as 
abundantly as in the spring of 1865. Doubtless these galls 
had been generated by gall-flies that escaped from some of 
the galls before I harvested them on June 5th, 1866, or ftom 
gieen galls that had previously fidlenoff the tree on to the 
ground, as they will very often do In very great numbers 
when there is a high wind blowing, and be carried along the 
surface of the grround for hundreds of yards by the action of 
the wind; 4th, if we assume that the two galls that produced 
C. q. spongifica June 11th and 14th, 1865, had been generated 
by C. q. inanis, and that only the five galls that producetl C. 
q. aciculata October 16th, 1865, had been generated by the C. 
q. aciculata that I placed on the small black oak in the au- 
tumn of 1864, how does it come about that the Q. spongifica 
gall is so very rare on those very Bluflb where the Q. inanis 
gall is so common ? Surely if C. q. inanis, bred from red 
oak, is capable of generating the Q spongifica gall on black 
oak, the Q. spongifica ga,U ought to be as numerous on the 
Bluflb, in proportion to the number of black oaks growing 
there, as it is on the sandy bottom land, whereas It is no such 
thing. 5th, on the hypothesis of C. q. inanis generating Q. 
spongifica galls, there again recurs the inevitable question, 
* • Wliy does C. q. inanis, if it is speciflcally identical with C. 
q. spongifica, produce swarms of an autumnal dimorphous $ 
—C. q. aciculata — on the black oak, and none at all on the 
red oakV" Or shall we take reftige in the anomalous hy- 
lM>thesis that one and the same bisexual species, variously 
known as C. <?. spongifica <f Q and C. q. inanis cf 9 , produces 
two such entirely different galls as Q. spongifica and Q. inanis 
upon black oak and red oak respectively, the same type of 
gall being always foimd upon the same species of oak ; and 
that a distinct agaraous species — C. q. aciculata $— generates 
upon the black oak, galls which are utterly undistinguishable 
from those of C. q. spongifica upon the same oak, and which 
occur uiK>n the same oak promiscuously intermixed with these 
last galls in scores of different localities, and yet t\\H this 
agamous siK'cies never under any circumstances generates 
any galls at all— whether of the Q spongifica tytnt or of the Q. 
inanis type— upon the Red Oak ? To such a supposition 1 can 
only opi>ose what, from long experience with galls of all 
kinds, I consider as an establiHhed axiom; najnely, that the 
characters of the gall depend entirely upon the insect that 
makes it, and in no wise ui>qq the plant, or the particular 



part of the plant, from which it grows. Consequently, I 
could as readily believe that a cow could produce sometimes 
a calf and sometimes a lamb, as that Cynips q. inanis could 
]>n>cluce sometimes a Q, inanis gall ui>on Red Oak) and some- 
tiiues a Q. sjwngiftca gall on Black Oak. [fit produced any 
gall at all ui>on Black Oak, instead of upon Ketl 0»k which 
is its normal habitat, it would inevitably, in my opinion, 
produce a gall having all the characters of the Q. inanis gall 
that is commonly found upon Red Oak. 

1 am well aware that much of the altovc reasoning will lack 
Its due weight with the reader, because he has not, as I have, 
watched particular trees in a grove of Black Oaks swarming 
with oak-apples for year after year, while the neighboring 
trei« bear none at all, or only a few scattering specimens, 
and because he has never seen, as I have twice seen with 
astonishment, that even a particular bough on a particular 
tree will bear numerous oak-apples for year afl:er year, while 
the rest of the tree will bear none at all . Hence I have de- 
rived a profound conviction that the gall-flies that make these 
oak-apples, although they have full-sized wings, yet scarcely 
ever use them; whereas persons who are unacquainti>d with 
these insects would naturally suppose that they fly about the 
woods as freely as a bee or a butterfly . Out of the thousands 
tluit 1 have bred in my oflice, I never knew a single individual, 
whether of the vernal or of the autumnal type, to take wing 
at all ; and only on one or two occasions, when I have been 
placing thejn upon oaks to experiment on the laws of tlieir 
reproduction, have I seen one of them take wing, and then it 
wouhl only fly a yard or two. 

On June Uth, 1865, I gathered the four galls off the large 
gall-bearing Black Oak previously referred to. From these 
I bred no q spongifica at all ; but on cutting Into them on 
October 16th, 1865, I obtained therefrom three living C q. 
aciculata. 

On October 16th, 1865, having now in my possession two 
lots of living and lively q. aciculata, one consisting of 5 9 
and the other of 3 ^ , that 1 knew to be generated by q. acicu- 
lata of the preceding season, 1 determined to see whetlier 
they would all or any of them continue to generate q» aciculata 
in the succec<ling season, or whether, as had been the case 
with two of their predecessors, they would revert one or more 
of them to q. sjtongifica. 1 therefore placed them, each lot 
by itself, on two fresh isolated black oaks, that I knew to 
have not been previously infested by these galls, for several 
years back at all events . 

On May 31st, 1866, I gathered off one of these two black 
oaks, u|)on which I had colonized the bq. acictdata in the 
preceding autumn, 5 Q. spongifica gaXls, four of them bmlly 
eaten by lepidopterous larvae, and only one in a perfect 
state. They were at this date too young and immature to 
gather with safety, but I feared to leave them longer on the 
tree on account of the caterpillars, which ^*ill very fre<iuenly 
eat away all the sponge and starve out the larva in the cen- 
tral cell . From this lot of 5 galls, generated by 5 C. q» acicu- 
lata in the preceding autumn, which 5 C. 9. aciculata had 
themselves been generated in the autumn next but one pre- 
ceding by the 8 C. q. aciculata that 1 had colonized upon 
another isolated black oak, 1 bred, on the 14th and 17th of the 
ensuing June, 2 Cynips q. spongifica . The remaining 3 
galls produced nothing. 

The other isolated Black Oak, ui)on which 1 ha<l colonized 
the 3 q. aciculata in the procetling autumn, bore 2 ^.spongifica 
galls; but they were so high up on the tree, and placed so 
near the extremity of a long slender bough, that I wiis unable 
to harvest them. 1 was the mon» unwilling to expend time, 
trouble or money on this account, as I saw that one of them 
at all events, and perhaps both, were very badly eaten by 
caterpillars. 

The general result of the above experiments, as the rea<ler 
will perceive, is that the agamous autumnal 9 fonn of this 
Cynips sooner or later reproduces the bisexual vernal form. 
1 have tried many more such experiments— some of which 
resulted sucex'ss fully, butmostof them unsuccessAilly, some- 
times from the nefarious pro|)ensity of a great variety of 



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Noctuadous and Tortricidous larraslo devour the f^'een galls, 
ami Bometimcs from the trees on which I was experimenting 
being afterwards mercilessly lopped of their main limbs, or 
cut down to the ground, by their unprincipled proprietors 

On one occasion, being desirous of attaining some practical 
proof that q. »pongifica could generate q. aciculataf as well 
as the reverse, I stnuig a chaplet of some 50 or 60 green Q. 
spongifica galls, gathered before it was quite time for C. 9. 
spongxfica to come out of them, upon a ]>articular bough of a 
large isolated black oak, known not to bear these galls. 
Luckily no minchievous person discovered this dc])08it, and 
in the course of the summer I removed it, so as to preclude 
the iK)8sibiHty of any C. q. aciculata coming out therefrom 
and generating galls u\)on this tree. The next spring I was 
delighted to see numbers of oak-a])pl«s upon the particular 
bough on which I had strung the chaplet of oak-apples, and 
upon one or two of the adjoining boughs, but none at all upon 
the rest of the tree. Unfortunately , however, the caterpillars 
destroyed most of I hem before they were fit to gather, and I 
only harveste<l 6 galls, many of them in poor order. In 4 of 
these the galUmakcr was destroyed by parasites, and the re- 
maining 2 were barren ; so that all that this exjieriment proved 
was that q. tpongifica was a gall-maker, and not, as Dr. 
Ueinhard suggests may possibly be the case, an inquiline. 

Upon another occasion, wishing to repeat the very same 
exiwriment as the last, I strung another such chaplet of green 
oak-apples upon a lan?e black oak, which I had noticed for 
years to grow in a very retired spot upon the Bluflte, with not 
another oak of the same si^ecies within a quarter of a mile of 
it, and which, as I was quite certain, had produced no Q. 
spongifica galls for many years, if it had ever produced any 
at all . Unfortunately for the interests of science, tlie Cierman 
citizens of Bock Island determined about this time to have a 
grand field-day in the woods; and as ill luck would have it, 
of all places in the world they must needs select ray quiet re- 
tired spot for their Terpsichorean exercises. The result may 
be readily guessed . Of course my chaplet of oak-apples was 
speedily discovered by some ^^ving Teuton; of course the 
conscript fathers of the assembly held a solemn council as to 
what might be the meaning of this dire and awftil prodigy; 
and of course it was unanimously voted that the "spooks** 
had placed the oak-apples there for the purpose of souring 
all the lager beer, breaking the strings of all the Hddles, and 
generally Inflicting all manner of horrible calamities upon 
the festive crowd . Therefore the wUard spell must be broken , 
and the "siiooks" must be balked in their atrocious and 
malignant purpose. I do not know how the "spooks" felt 
uiwn this occasion, but I know how 1 felt myself the next 
morning, when I visited that venerable old oak and saw the 
shattered fragments of my galls trampled into the dust be- 
neath its umbrageous boughs! 

I may say in one word— to resume the dignified dullness of 
apiu^ly scientific memoir— that, so far as my ex|»eriment8 
proved anything at all, they all proved the same thing: 
namely, that Cynips q. aciculata generally reproduces itself, 
but often reproduces Cynips q. spongifica; and consequently, 
as I originally maintaine<I, that it is a mere dimori)hous 9 
form of the latter. It may perhaps go on reproducing itself 
for 12, 20 or even 50 years; but that every q. aciculata will 
eventually, in some year or other, generate q. spongifica, I 
have no more doubt than that the sun will rise on the morn- 
ing of January 1st, A.D. 1900. 

lu the lepidopterous Psyche helix, as I have been assured by 
Dr. Ilagen, out of thcmsands of s|>ecimens bred within the 
last ten years by Prof Siebold, all Mere fcnmles; but iu iwrT 
the male was discovered to occur, though in ver>' small niun- 
l)ers, by Prof. Clauss. May it not be the case that Hartig's 
agamous Cynips, and cerUiin N A. Cynips which hitherto 
have only occurred in the female sex— for example, Cynips q. 
jtodagra, Walsh, of which I have bred in early spring about 
two thousand females without a single male among them, 
and have in vain attempted to procure a bisexual form in tlie 
preceding autumu— may, sooner or later, perhajw not till 



after the expiration of many, many years, produce a genera- 
tion of males ? In the Cynipidous genus Rhodites the miUes 
are for the most part extremely rare . In certain species of the 
Pseudonenropterous genus Psocus—P$, Mpunclatus (Europe) 
and Ps . variegatus (Europe)— *• you may,*' in the words of 
Dr. Ilagcn, " Ond thousands of females together and not a 
single male.'* {Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil. 11, p. 168.) Many 
other such cases have been recorded by entomologists, as 
regards insects belonging to many different Orders . And 
fh>m such a state of things it is but a single step to the non- 
production of males Sot one, two or more years The rarity 
of males, however excessive it may be, even if it amounted 
to but a single male to a billion of females, is merely a ques- 
tion of mode and degree. But the permanent non-existence 
of males in any species belonging to a Class which, like that 
of Insects, is almost universally bisexual, would be su<^ a 
violation of the analogies ct Nature as I am loath to believe 
in. 

To return from this long, and I fear somewhat tedious, 
digression : No man can distinguish between the imago (f q 
of Halesidota tetseUaris, Sm. &Abb., the larva of which feeds 
upon a great variety of trees, but never on the Sycamore 
(Platanus) and that of if. Harrisii, Walsh, tlte larva of which 
feeds exclusively on the Sycamore, and dies if transferred 
to trees upon which the other larva flourishes; and yet these 
two lar\'ie are invariably as different fVom each other as light 
is fVom darkness.* Many more such cases might be quoted, 
but one such is enough to prove the importance of attending 
to the larval history of insects. 

Dr. Fit<;h long ago asserted that the common imported 
Apple-tree Bark-louse {^Aspidiotus conchiformis, Gmelin) 
occurred also upon a N. A. dogwood {Comus sericea) ; and 
he sent specimens of both insects to the English entomologist, 
John Curtis, who likewise pronounced them identical . (N. K. 
Rep. I, p. 34.) I have recently been assured by Dr. Hoy, oi 
Racine, Wisconsin, that to his knowledge this same bark- 
louse has existed in the neighborhood of Racine upon the 
same species of dogwood for the last twenty years and up- 
wards, and that " there is not the least shadow of a doubt 
that the Dogwood wasaflTected by this bark-louse long before 
any white man settled in Wisconsin.** Now, it is only 
within the last few years that the imported Apple-tree Bark- 
louse has worked its way into Wisconsin from the Kast^^rn 
States: consequently, the bark-louse that inhabits the dog- 
wood ctm scarcely be capable of living upon the apple-tree, 
for if it had been so capable it would surely have attacked 
the Wisconsin apple-trees long ago; whence it follows that 
the two forms must in all probability be essentially distinct 
in their digestive organization, and consequently that they 
are distinct species. And yet, on the comparison of cabinet 
specimens of each, the apple-inhabiting form and the dog- 
wood-inhabiting form were pronounced to be the same 
identical species by no less an authority than John Curtis! 
The real truth of the matter I believe to be, that in no one 
single case can the same species, either of Bark-louse (Coc- 
cida) or of Plant-louse {Aphid<B) , exist upon two siK'cios of 
plants which, like the Apple and the Dogwood, I»elong to 
distinct botanical families; although, on the othor hand, 
many othfr families of insects are notoriously polyphagous. 
What candid entomologist, who has worked much upon 
any particular Order, will not allow that there are certain 
genera where it is oilten almost or quit« imi)ossible to dis- 
tinguish species by the mere comiwrison of cabinet S)>eci- 
nieiis of the imngo? Iamw and Osteu Saoken have said this 
of the genus Cecidomyia in Diptera; Osten Sacken of two 
other l>ii)teroiis genera, Sciara and Ceratopogon; Norton of 
the genus Nematusiu Hymenoplcra; and Dr. Ix>(^n to lately 
assured me that, although when he was a young man he 
thought himself able to discriminate, in the closet, between 
the different species of Brachinus in Coleoptera, he now con- 
sideretl it quite impracticable to do so with any degree of 
certainty. And yet who doubts the fact of the existence, lu 



* Sec my pApcn on Phytophagic Species mlresdjr ref e rred to. 



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North America, of very nuroerous distinct species of Ceci- 
domyia^ of SciarOt of Ccratopogon, of Nematuit and of 
BrachiTttu. 

Upon the same principle I strongly incline to believe that 
the 17-year form of the Periodical Cicada (C. septemdecim, 
Linn ) is a distinct species from the 13-year form (C. tre- 
decim, Uiley), although it has been impossible for me, on the 
closest examination of very numerous specimens, to detect 
any specific diOereuoe between these two forms.* It is very 
true that the 13-year form is confined to the more southerly 
regions of the United States, while the 17-year form is 
generally, but not universally, peculiar to the Northern 
States; whence it has been, with some show of plausibility, 
inferred that the 13-year form is nothing but the 17-year form 
accelerated in its metamorphosis by the influence of a hot 
southern climate. But as these two forms Interlock and 
overlap each other in various localities, and as it frequently 
happens that particidar broods of the two forms come out in 
the same year, we should certainly expect that, if the two 
forms belonged to the same si»ecies, they would ocasioually 
intercross, whence would arise an intermediate variety hav- 
ing a periodic time of 14, 15 or 16 years. As this does not 
appear to have token place, but, on the contrary, there is a 
pretty shari> dividing line between the habits of the two 
forms, without any intermediate grades of any consequence, 
I infer that the internal organization of the two forms must 
be distinct, although externally, when placed side by side, 
they are exactly alike. Otherwise, what possible reason 
could there be for one and the same species to lie under- 
ground in the larva state for nearly 17 years in one county, 
and in the next adjoining county to lie underground in the 
lar>'a state for scarcely 13 years? I prcsimie that even the 
most bigoted believer in the old theory of 8|>ecie8 would 
allow that, if it can once be proved to his satisfaction that 
two apparently Identical forms are always structurally dis- 
tinct, whether in their external or in their internal organiza- 
tion, they must necessarily be distinct species. 

On the other hand, I firmly believe that many perfectly 
distinct forms, which at one time passed current, or which 
even now pass current, as true species, arc in reality mei-e 
dimorphous forms of one and the same species. We find a 
good example ol this in the dimorphous Cyiiips, Q. aciculata^ 
O. 8., which has been already trcati>d of at great length. 
We find another good example of the same thing in Cicada 
CasHnU if 9 , Fisher, which is sufficiently distinct tVom the 
Periodical Cicada to have been classified as a distinct species, 
and yet never occurs except in the same year and in the same 
locality as this last, and what is more extraortlinary still, is 
found not only along with the 17-year form (C. septemdecim) , 
but also along with the 13-year form (C. tredecim) . Now, if 
Cas9inii were a distinct species, and not, as I believe it to be, 
a mere dimorphous form of C teptemdecim and C. tredecim^ 
the ohonoes are more than a million millitms to one against 
its always coinciding with the other two forms, not only as 
to the particular locality but as to the imrticular year of its 
appearance. 

It has been urged in opposition to the above view, by an 
entomological (i*iend of great scientific eminence, that di- 
morphous forms only api>ear In one sex. 1 bi'lieve that they 
very frequently appear in both sexes; but of course, in the 
m^ority of instances, they are then very naturally accepted 
as distinct species Suppose, for example, that there were 
such a thing as a cf as well as a 9 Papilio Glaucus^ Linn., 
who would then ever have dreamt that Qlaucua was a mere 
dimorphous <;) form of Tumut'i It was ]»reclsely the absence 
of the if form corresponding to g Olauciu, that first led 
entomologists to doubt the possibility of Glaucui being a true 
bona Jidt species; and it was upon similar grounils that Mr 
Wallace establlshetl the existence of several such <limorphou8 
and trimorphous Papilios in the Malay Archipelago. But 



* For an exeelleot staUment of the facts bearing upon this curious (luesUon. 
• see a Paper by Mr. Riley, the State Entomologist of Mbaourl, iu No. 4 ot 
the Amkxioam Emtomolooist, and a still more complete one in his First 
Annual A^rt. 



in point of fact there do really exist, and have long been 
known to exist, many dimorphous forms which are not con- 
fined to a single sex. It is only necessary to mention, as 
good Illustrations of such a state of things, the long-wlnge<l 
anil short-winged forms common to both sexes of many 
Orthopterous, Ueteropterous and llomopterous geriera, such 
as GryUotalpaf NemobiuM, Cynips (Tera*), Pezonachus, 
Choreiiu, Hydrometra^ GerrUt Velia^ ProstemmOt PyrrhocoriSt 
Pterotmetu9^ Bruchomarphc, Delphax, etc. Nor ar*- such 
phenomena peculiar to tlie Class of Insects. Mr. Wallace, 
in his admirable Paper On the Malayan Papilionida, remarks 
that he ' 'met with one case of a bird, a species of Lory (£o» 
ftucatay Blythe), clearly existing under two forms, since 
both «€are<of each were obtained from asingle flock.'* {TrariM, 
Linn. Soc. xxv, p. 10.) And the albinism and melanism 
which are so common among many mammals and birds, and 
which may be considered as modified tyi)e8 of dimon^hism, 
are well kjiewn not to be confined to either sex. 

On the whole, I think we may conclude with perfect safety, 
that the species of insects as limiterl in the books are merely 
provisional; that on the one hand many forms which are in 
reality specifically distinct are confounded together by the 
closet-naturalist, because his cabinet specimens of the 
images exhibit no distinctive characters whatever; and that 
on the other hand many forms, which arc in reality merely 
dmiorphous types of one and the same species, are pro- 
nounced by him to be distinct species. 

Of course, if we choose to assimie that no two species can 
possibly be distinct unless they arc exUrnally distinguishable 
in the imago, and that all forms that are externally distin- 
guishable in the imago are distinct species, then every tiling 
that has been said above will go for nothing, and the whole 
doctrine of dimori)hous forms, and also, I might wld, of 
secondary sexual distinctions, falls to the ground. But— 
luckily for the interests of truth— assumptions are not proofs; 
and even, if we assume that the sky is going to fall to-mor- 
row, it by no means follows that we shall then catch any 
considerable number of larks. 

[To he eoTUinued.] 
• ♦ » 

An Electrical Insect. — You are well ac- 
qaaiuted with the history aud properties of the 
Baia torpedo and Gymnotus eleciricus; hut 1 
dare aver have no idea that any insect possesses 
their extraordinary powers ; yet I can assure 
you, upon good authority, that Reduvius serra- 
tits, commonly known in the West Indies hy the 
name of the "Wheel-bug," can, like them, 
communicate an electric shock to the per.son 
whose flesh it touches. The late Major-General 
Davis, of the Royal Artillery, well known as a 
most accurate observer of Nature, aud an inde- 
fatigable collector of her treasures, as well as a 
most admirable painter of them, once informed 
me that, when abroad, having taken up this 
animal and placed it upon his hand, it gave him 
a considerable shock, as if from an electric jar, 
with its legs, which he felt as high as his shoul- 
der; and dropping tlie creature, he observed 
six marks upon his hand where the six feet 
had stood.— i'Vom Kirhy and Spencers ''Intro- 
duction,'^ 

• ^ • 

Remedy fok Onion-worm. — Two of our ex- 
changes have asked for a remedy for this pest. 
Boiling water is the thing. 



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BNTOMOIiOGICAL JOTTINGS. 

[We propoae to publiah fW>in time to tlinc, under the above heading, mch 
extract* fhtni the lettcn of our corie«|M>ndeiits aa contain entomoloftieal fltcta 
wortli.v to be rc«»rdcd, on account either of their iteientiflc or of their prmcU- 
aU iinportance. Weliope i>ur readers will contribute each their several mites 
towards the KenenU Aind ; and in case tiiey are not perfectly certain of the 
names ol the insects, the peculiantiesot which arc to be mentioned, will scud 
specimens along m order that each species may be duly idontlfled.] 

Notes from Wilkinsonville, Mass., July 
28, 1870. — Allow me to express my deep sym- 
\)athy in your efforts to diffuse valuable instruc- 
tion. I regard such publications as the Ameri- 
can Naturalist, the American Entomologist 
AND Botanist, and the like, as containing the 
trae gospel of salvation, aly soul is vexed from 
day to day because the writers of unrighteous 
fiction are so popular, while the devotees at the 
shrine of science, and the promulgators of God's 
truths, are, to such a degree, neglected — their 
writings unsought — unread. Yet not wholly 
so. I rejoice to believe that the number of stu- 
dents in the school of nature is rapidly increas- 
ing. And I devoutly pray and hope that the 
beauties and attractions of nature may be so 
unfolded and presented by such men as your- 
selves, that the youth of America may be turned 
from the unprofitable, innutritions, and demor- 
alizing food of fiction, to the bread and water 
of a true life. 

What few plum trees have survived the black- 
knot, have, for these dozen years, had their fruit 
almost entirely destmyed by the Curculio ; and 
so have the cherries ; while apples, by the same 
Turk, not by the Apple Curculio, have, from 
year to year, been greatly injured. I have 
frequently counted ten and twelve crescent cuts 
on the same apple. Though it is generally be- 
lieved that this weevil does not mature io the 
apple [it undoubtedly does, as we have abun- 
dantly proved — Ed.], it penetrates sufficiently 
to cause many to fall early, and othei-s to be- 
come iri*egular in shape, and to contain hard 
and discolored markings where the larva3 have 
penetrated. The American Tent-caterpillar 
(Cli9iocampa americarui) of spring was quite 
scarce, but the Fall Web-worm {Hypkantria 
textor) is unpreccdently numerous. They 
commenced hatching this year uncommonly 
early— in the first half of July — and from ap- 
pearances are now, 25th, nearly all out. I have 
entirely removed and exterminated them from 
an apple orchard of one hundred and fifty trees. 
The mother moth deposiU the eggs on a leaf 
near the end of a twig. As soon as they hatch 
they begin to cat and spin a web over them for 
protection. This betrays them. As soon as 
the web is seen, I sever the twig with pruning 
shears attached to a pole and having an oper- 
ating cord. Unlike the Tent-caterpillar, this 



eats only in its tent, extending it over its whole 
foi-aging ground. If the twig is severed a little 
below the web, every caterpillar falls with it. 
If the twig falls on bushes or slnmbbcry, the 
larvae, being somewhat indiscriminate feedei-s, 
may sui-vive and mature ; but falling on grass 
ground they generally perish, never, like the 
Tent-caterpillar, returning to the tree. I have 
recently found a twig oi woi*ms among some 
luxuriant Witch-grass (Triticum rc/en*), where 
the wonns seemed to survive by extendin{( 
their web over, and eating the grass. Such 
cases are extremely rare. J. B. Uabtwell. 

Salt Maicsh Caterpillar — Coidngton,Ky.^ 
July 28,70.— -I was not a little surprised last night 
to see a fine fresh $ specimen oi Spilosoina acrea 
come fluttenng into my lamp. Its popular 
name, ** Salt Marsh Caterpillar," and all that 1 
have ever seen about it, had led me to believe 
that it was peculiar to the coast region. There 
are no salt marshes or even salt springs nearer 
to this point, so far as I am aware, tlian tlie 
Kanawha salines. There is a small, faintly min- 
eral spring about four miles from horc (known 
as L<atouia Springs), and the Big Bone Springs 
are distant about twenty miles, but both are 
more strongly impregnated with other minerals 
than with salt. 

It was a perfectly fresh specimen, scarcely a 
scale ruffled, and, judging from its flight, it had 
scarcely learned to fly; and, thefore, could not 
have traveled far. It corresponds with Harrises 
figui*e and description (Inj. Ins.), and with spe- 
cimens in my collection sent mc troiii the re- 
gion of the Gulf of Mexico, except that the spots 
on the fore wings are larger, more distinct, 
and there are a few more of them, and there is 
a difference in the spots on the hind wings. 
Scarcely any two specimens are alike though, 
in this respect, I believe. 

Is it known so far inland? If so, it must feed 
on something else than the salt marsh vegeta- 
tion. Harris says that the pupa is sometimes 
carried into the interior in hay, but the impor- 
tation of salt marsh hay into this region would 
be worse Uian carrying coals to Newcastle, and 
stranger than the appearance of the insect. 

V. T. Chambers. 

[During the last half of July this moth con- 
stantly flies into the light of our ofllce, and it is 
nearly as common as its relative, the Yellow 
Bear (Spilosoma virginica), in maiy parts c»f 
the West, whore there are no signs of salt 
marshes. It feeds on the different grasses, as 
well as many herbaceous plants, and we have 
reared it on Sunflower, Convolvulus, Petunia 
and Willow.— Ed.] 



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MOtlE ABOUT THB "CoW-KILLEE" {MutiUa COO 

cined) — ClarksviUey TexaSy Aug. 25, 70. — I have 
been eudeavoring for the last two years to study 
the habits of the "Cow-killer" without arriving 
at anything definite, and have been inclined to 
consider it a friend. But lately my mind has 
undergone a change, from the following fBucU : 
A few days since, while in my apiary watching a 
hive at work, I observed a very large female 
(Cow-killer) running over a Flowering Peach 
tree that overshadowed the **gum." Finally 
she came down and entered the hive. I tilted 
the "gum" to see what she was doing, and found 
a ntmiber of bees trying to dislodge her, but to 
no purpose. Whenever she could shake them 
off sufficiently she would continue her march 
over the bottom board in search of food, picking 
up fragments of comb and young bees, and occa- 
sionally sending a bee to its final account with her 
formidable sting, and caring but little for their 
rage and fury ; encased as she is in her impene- 
trable ai*mor, she bids defiance to the puny stings 
of bees. Finally I had to come to their aid. Since 
then I have had to free several other hives fh)m 
these depredators. A. H. R. Bbyant. 

Brood IV of the Periodical Cicada— /Sia- 
vannah, Tenn., Sept. 2, 70.— The 13-year Brood 
of the Periodical Cicada mentioned in your first 
Missouri Report (your Brood IV) appeared, ac- 
cording to prediction, in northwestern Florida 
this year, extending northward over Alabama 
and a good poriion of eastern Mississippi, and 
into Tennessee as high as this point. I think I 
wrote you when they wei-e here. They were 
not in great numbers at any point. I was at 
Mobile at the time of their appearance there, and 
found them singing quite menily in the woods 
below the city. I do not know whether they 
reached Geoi'gia or not this year, nor do I know 
anything about their appearance there last year. 
By this mail I write a fh*iend in Macon with 
reference to the matter, and shall forward you his 
reply as soon as received. 

J. Parish Stelle. 

Sevemteen-year Cicada at Georgetown, 
Ohio, in IS'/i—Georgetotim O., July 2, 1870.— 
I send you herewith three Cicadas. They were 
taken from the ground a foot or more below 
the surface, in hard clay, on the 17th of June. 
I had eight, and put them in aflower pot not quite 
full of loose dirt. I did not think they would 
get out, but the same p. h. one of them was 
found on the outside, and the most of the live- 
liest ones had decamped. I put the one back 
several inches below the surface, and covered 
the pot with a tin-pan. This moruing I exam- 
ined the pot, found the three I send on the sur- 



face, two of them dead, and the third not very 
active ; it may not live till it arrives. We had 
a large supply of the fellows in 1854, and quite 
plenty of them ouce since, but I am not certain 
as to time. We have a few pretty often, but I 
am not right thoroughly posted as to the difier- 
ent broods, etc., and not having kept an accu- 
rate record of time of appearance, am in the 
dark as to where these belong. Last year many 
were dug up in this vicinity in the pupa state. 

ThOS. W. GrORDON. 

[Tbe pupaB belong in all probability to the 
17-year Brood of the Periodical Cicada, which 
we have predicted will appear in 1871 around 
the head of Lake Michigan, and for some dis- 
tance east, west, and south. (See Brood III, 
A. E., Vol. 1, p. 68=Brood V of First Missouri 
Entomological Report, p. 32). This Brood is 
not recorded as occurring in Ohio, and if it 
appears there in 1871 we shall have another link 
in the chain. We hope our correspondent will 
keep a look-out for it, and will likewise endeavor 
to trace its appearance at intervals of seventeen 
years as far back as possible— Ed.] 

Nebeaska Bee-killer — Champaign, llUnoiSf 
Aug. 6, 1870. — ^I send you an insect by mail to- 
day, in a glass bottle, that has interested me very 
much for three or four years. I am hardly able 
to decide whether it is a friend or a foe. My 
attention was firat called to it by seeing several 
around my team during summer. Supposing 
them to be a new horse-fiy, I watched to see 
one bite, but was finally rewarded by seeing it 
pounce upon a Green-head {Tabanus lineolay 
Fabr.) It settied itself on my sleeve, and soon 
had transferred the contents of Mr. Green-head's 
body inside its own, by sucking the juices out 
by means of its stout pi*obo8cis. I saw this 
operation repeated many times. The present 
summer I have seen them dozens of times, often 
five or six around my team, and have always 
noticed that in an hour or so after they appeared 
no more horse-fiies were to be found. I have 
also seen them *' sucking" housc-fiies, Lady- 
birds, Chinch-bugs, several motiis, and have 
also seen them eat each other. The one sent 
you had just captured a Honey-bee, for which 
ofiense I made a martyr of him (or her) for the 
benefit of science. H. J. Dunlap. 

[The insect is a $ Nebraska Bee-killer {Pro- 
mackus Bastardii, Loew.), an account of which 
was flret given by Dr. Fitch in his Ninth Report, 
and subsequently by ourselves in the Missouri 
Reports.— Ed.] 

Decorative Labvje — BosloUy Mass. — On page 
205 of the present volume you state that the larva 



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of your Aplodes flavilineata decorates itself in 
the same manner as Aplodes rubivora . I think you 
mnst have misconstrued my former letter ; for, to 
the best of my present recollection, the larvae of 
flavilineata which were found on Achillia milli- 
folium had no spines by means of which to deco- 
rate themselves . Last season I raised a few speci- 
mens of the Imported Currant-worm (I^ematus 
ventricosvs) y which is an entirely new insect in 
this section, so far as my knowledge goes. In 
three instances the males spun a yellow cocoon, 
while that of the females was quite dark. 

Philip 8. Spraoue. 
[We certainly must have misconstrued our 
correspondent's former letter, which referred to 
larvffi of Aplodes flavilineata, but we hope that 
Mr. S. will, by ftiture observation, endeavor to 
settle the question beyond all doubt as to whether 
or not it decorates itself. We do not believe the 
depth of color in the cocoon of Ifematus can be 
relied on as a sexual character; for, both in that 
genus and in the genus Lophyrus, we have known 
the greatest variation, both in size and depth of 
color, to take place in cocoons which subsequently 
gave out the same sex. — Ed.] 



The Rape Butterfly; our new Cabbage 
Pest. — This most destructive insect (Pieris 
rapcB, Skrank, Figs. 48, 49 and 50 of this Vol.) 
is ftiUy realizing our prophesies. It is spreading 
with wonderful rapidity towards the West and 
South. We recently found it flitting around the 
truck and fruit stands of New York, Albany, 
Troy and Philadelphia. No wonder we have 
more than our due allowance of noxious insects 
in the Mississippi Valley. They advance to- 
wards us from all parts of the country. Salt is 
the common remedy ; but Mr. Quinn, at a late 
meeting of the N. Y. Institute Farmers' Club, 
gave his experience as follows : 

'^I have tried no less than flfteen different 
powders or decoctions, and And the best result 
from the application of a mixture composed of 
twenty parts sulphate of lime, one part carbolic 
powder, and three or four parts of quicklime. 
This I sprinkle in small quantities upon the 
leaves and parts affected, making the application 
in early morning before the dew is off, or after 
a shower. Frequent repetition is sometimes 
necessary. ^ _ ^ 

Change op Address. — The entomological 
editor has removed from the country to Room 
29, Insurance Building, St. Louis, on the south- 
east comer of Fifth and Olive streets. There he 
will be found ready to give any information in 
his power, and glad at all times to see his friends. 
All letters should in future be addressed ac- 
cordingly. 



Paris Green for the Curculio. — G. M. 
Smith, of Berlin, Wis., wrote an article to the 
St. Joseph (Mich.) Horticultural Society, recom- 
mending Paris Green for the Plum Curculio. 
Even if the application of such a poisonous drag 
on large trees were practical, it would never 
succeed in killing one Curculio in a hundred. 
Paris Green kills the leaf-eating beetles by being 
taken internally with the leaves ; but the Cur- 
culio, with its pnout, prefers to gouge under the 
skin of the ftnit, and only exceptionally devours 
the leaves. Yet, notwithstanding the palpable 
absurdity of the remedy, it has very generaUy 
passed from one journal to another without 
comment. 



Entomological Collections.— We are glad 
to learn that the members of the popular and 
flourishing Horticultural Society of Alton, Ills., 
have resolved to prepare a collection of such in- 
sects as interest the farmer and fruit-grower. 
This collection is to be in the custody of the 
Chairman of the Committee on Entomology; 
and we believe that Mr. J. R. Muhleman, of 
Woodbum, a good entomologist and an excellent 
observer, now occupies that position. Let other 
societies follow the example. There is no better 
way of familiarizing the members with the dif- 
ferent injurious and beneficial insects which af- 
fect their interests. 



We thankfully acknowledge the receipt 
of several complimentary tickets to Agricultural 
Fairs, and of numerous pamphlets and Premiom 
lists, which, for lack of space, we cannot enu- 
merate. 



^rThe article on "How to Collect and Study 
Insects" arrived too late for insertion in this 
issue. 



ON OUR TABLE. 



Record op American Entomology for the 
Year 1869 — Naturalists Book Agency, Salemt 
Mass. — This little work came to us. about a 
month ago, its publication having been un- 
avoidably delayed. We are glad to see that it 
is received with favor, and that it is to be con- 
tinued. No entomologist can afford to do with- 
out it. 

The number of American entomologists whose 
articles or notes are referred to in the Record is 
fifty-two; while three hundred and thirty-five 
new species of North (and Central) American 
insects have been described in American jonr- 
nals during the year 1869. 



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339 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



MOTios — Snch of our corrMpondcnts at hare alraadjr tent, or mav here- 
after Mnd, small collcetloiM of InMcts to be named , will plcaee to inform u 
If any of the speciee sent are from other Htatee than their own. XJate of 
' I fbund in any particular locality are of eepedal interest, as throwlnir 



HfCht npon the xeof^raphical diilribuclon of species But to malte them of 
real Talue, it is requisite that we know fbr certain whether or not all the 
Insects in any particular list oome fh)m that particular locality, and If not, 
ttom what locality they do come. 

We have lately received several small collections of insects to be named, 
and have, so fkr as our tfane wonld allow, answer>-d by letter, because a long 
strins of names is dry and unlnterestinx to the general leader. It requires 
much time to conscmitloasly name the many lots of Insects that reach us, 
and hereafter we can take no notice of them, unless they are pn^>erly 
mounted on entomolofcical pins, and the locality tfirm In which they were 
Ibond. At least two niecimens of each species should be sent when Uls pos- 
^ sible to do so, and each species should be separately numbered. When there 

are bat finr, we shall answer as herttofbre in the columns of the Emto: 
OOIST, but when ther* tro many we shall answer by mall. 



bEmtomul- 




Beetles iMforktiiir in Upbeat, Oats and 'Rye; 
tlie Grain Stlvanna— Jf. ff. Boysy Cooper Bhurg, Le- 
high Co.y Pa.— The little brown elongate beetles, about 
0.09 inch long, and characterized chiefly by the last 
three joints of the antcnns being [riR. »«.] 

enlarged, and by having three prom- 
inent longitudinal carinae, or narrow 
ridges, on the thorax above, and six 
pointed teeth each side, is known as 
the Qrain Silvanus {Silvanut turin^ "^MIIM^ T 
ammtit, Linn.) We give an outline /Trm^ ^ 

of it at Fgure 208. As the &cts you 
record of its habits are interesting, 
we quote them in full. ''This insect 
is called here the ' Red Weevil.' It 
spoiled much of ray rye and wheat 
last fall, mainly by heat and moisture Coioi^Brown. 
which it caused , though it also ate out a small portion 
of the end of the grain. Having removed the rye and 
wheat, I find that this pest has gone into the oats." 
This is in all probability an imported insect; and its 
specific name w^ould indicate that it originally came 
flrom Surinam. It is a constant inhabitant of the stores 
and warehouses in Europe, and an excellent figure of 
it is found on Plate K of Curtis^s Farm Insects. The 
best way to get rid of it, where the grain cannot be 
subjected to a killing heat, is to stack the grain a year 
or two until the insects are starved out of the bams, 
just as they lay by ships in Uie grain trade, or use them 
for other freight, when they once become infested with 
this insect, or with the true Grain Weevil {Colandra 
granaria). 

Beetles in dried **£nirll«li Gurranta'^— 7. F. 
Munsouy Astoria^ lilt,— The beetles which bred so abun- 
dantly in your dried • nglish currants are the very same 
species {Silram^t aurinafnetuU) referred to above in 
answer to Mr. Boye. Nothing seems to come amiss to it. 

Tbe eanie In Floarlngr IVllls — Stephen Blcmchard, 
Oregon, i/o.— nie litth^ brown beetles that have appear- 
ed in such countlosH numbers in your flouring mills are 
the very same species as the preceding. It has been in 
the country for many years, and is frequently mistaken 
lor the** Weevil." 

Insects named— e/b«. E. Ghaee, Holyohej Matt.— 
The large l>orer found in rotten wood is the larva of the 
Broad-necked Prionus {Prionut laticolluty Fig. 109, Vol. 
II.) Your beetles are as follows, the numbers omitted 
not named, l>ecause the specimens were either too much 
damaged to determine accurately, or because they are 
new to our cabinet and probably undescribed. The 
CurculionidsB have never yet been worked up, and very 
many of them are yet unnamed. You must in future 



observe the conditions published at the head of this de- 
partment. Of those marked with a * we should like 
further specimens. No. 8, Chamifrut eerinihiay Ueitz. 
No. 4, Borot unieolor, Say. No. R, Saprinut dimidia- 
Hpennit, Lee. No. 6, Tenebrio ohteurut, Fabr. No. 7, 
BolUohiut oinctuty Grv. (Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 and 16 
all missing.) No. 18, Erot mod^ttut. Say. No. 18, 
ffeteratpit curtipety Melsh. No. 18, Sihanue, sp. ? No. 
20, CdUigrapha muUipunetatay Say. No. 21, Clytue lew- 
iogonuty* Lop. and Gory. No. 22, Zdttroderet eavdatuty 
Say. (Nob. 28, 24, 26, 27 and 28 missing.) No. 2&y ffittery 
sp. ? No. 28, ffydrophUut glabery Hbst. No. 80, Tele- 
phorut hilintatuty Say. No. 81, HaUiea puheteenty lllig. 
No. 32, Hydrophoruty sp. ? Nos. 88 and 84, Oryptoeephalut 
venuetuty Fabr. No. 35, (7. lUurahtt, Fabr. No. 86, G. 
sp. ? No. cSy G, c&ngettyt fVnhr, No. 37, GolaepityUear 
pundicoUity Say. No. 89, Diabrotiea viUata, No. 40, 
Hippodamia IS^punetata. (Nos. 41 , 42, 43 and 44 shaken 
oiftiie isinglass and mixed up.) No. 4Sy Bylohiut eon^ 
fututy Kirb. No. 49, Oymindit pilotay Say. No. 50, 
Platynut ohtoUtuty Lee. No. 51, Sittena,frorUaUty Fabr. 
No. 54, Steledota geminatay Say. No. 55, Brontet dubwty 
Fabr. No. 56, Aphodiuty sp. ? No. 58, Jfelatomateriptay 
Fabr. No. 59, OyeoeephaXa immaoulatei, Oliv. No. 60, 
Aneyloeheira NuUaUiy Lee. No. 63, ffydrophilut rndxhUy 
Lee. 

Carolina Spblnx— TFm. R, Howardy Fortythy Mb. 
—Such is the large gray moth which you sent [Sphinx 
Carolinay Linn.), and which is the parent of the com- 
mon Tobacco- worm. You should never send living 
moths loose in a box; they do not rel^h confinement, 
and generally batter themselves to pieces. 

Insects clustered on Apple trees — Robert Z. 
Hanty Oreat FdlUy N, H.—TYkQ black-and-yellow marked 
insects which you find clustered or huddled together on 
the trunks of your apple trees, some without and others 
witli wings, are the Ptocut venotut of Burmeister. They 
feed on the lichens on the bark, and are therefore 
harmless. 

Ijarw named— 7*. W. Oordon, Geargeiowny 0. — 
Your first larva is the '*Saddle-back" (Empretia ttimuleay 
see Fig. 36 of this volume). The green worm, covered 
with bunches of brush-like spines, is the larva ot Satur- 
nia lo. Both these larvae have a stinging power. The 
white cocoons on the large potato-worm are the parasitic 
MicrogcLster cocoons we have so often referred to. 

Bllte Gall on Sufrar lliaple— ^. Fumaty PanvilUj 
Ind.— The narrow yellow protuberances, in form re- 
minding one of an old-fashioned ring-purse, and aver- 
aging about 0.25 inch in length, which cover the upper 
surface of the leaves of Acer taccharinumy are galls pro- 
duced by mites (Aeari), This gall is apparently unde- 
scribed, as are some other mite-galls closely resembling 
it which occur oii Plum and Cherry. We shall provi- 
sionally call it the Maple-purse Mite-gall {Acarue acerit 
crumma). * 

Gbeese-nj and Blpw^-ffljr— ^m Pichent Station^ 
Mist,— We have our reasons for adopting the plural form 
** funguses,'* in preference to ** fungi,'' and we find 
that the custom is being adopted by some of the best 
writers in Europe. The skippers in cheese are distinct 
Irom those in bacon, tbe former being the larvae of a 
small two-winged fly of a black color {Ptophila cateij 
Linn.), and the latter the larvae of a much larger blue 
species {Musea vomitoria, Linn.) 



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340 



THE AMERICAN 



Fall Armjaironiir— A'. Eelsey, Ottawa, Fantas. — 
The worms you send, which are called the ** Army- 
worm," and which have appeared in 8uch numbers as 
to alarm the farmers In your locality, are not the true 
Army-worm, but a very closely allied species. Indeed, 
they look so much alike, that most persons, not ento- 
mologists, would confound them together. The true 
Army-worm {Leueama unipttneta) never occurs so late in 
the season, but appears in your locality in May, and is 
never seen after the end of June; it also conHnes its 
attacks to cereals, and if you have access to our Second 
Missouri Report, you will there find a ftiU account of it. 
The worm you send, on the contrary, mostly appears 
In the fall of the year, and though it is very fond of bor- 
ing into the green ears of com, yet it attacks all other 
grain, and even turnips and other garden truck. This 
worm was described in our First Report (p. 88) as the 
Wheat Cut-worm, from specimens received from Mr. 
T. R. Allen, in the fall of 1868; but when we consider 
its general habits, and the close resemblance which it 
bears to the true Army-worm, the name of "Fall Army- 
worm,*' by which it is generally known, becomes very 
appropriate. We did not succeed in breeding the worms 
two years ago, uid the natural history of this species so 
far remains a closed book, which, however, we soon 
expect to unlock. This worm is at present (Sept. 10, '70) 
doing much damage in many parts of Missouri, and the 
same remedies and preventives employed against the 
Army-worm should be used here. 

G. PaulSj Eurehiy i/b.— Your worms arc tlie same 
species referred to above. 

Slufr* 9^ Plttm trees— JTm. Frank Taylor, Canton, 
jr. r.— The slugs that have been doing so much damage 
on your plum trees are, in all probability, the common 
Cherry-slug {Selandria cerasi, Peck.), and you will find 
the proper remedies suggested on page 290 of tlie last 
number. 

I^arva of Imperial ITIotli ; Tboae Swallow- 
tail— ^«o. M, Dodge, Ohio, lUs.— The large worm you 
describe, and which you found feeding on maple, is 
tlie larva of the Imperial Moth {Dryoeampa imperialii, 
Drury). The immense black and yellow swaUow-tail 
butterfly is PapUio Thoas, Linn. 

I^arye Aallns Fly— Z. O, Safer, Fliedbeth, Ind,— 
The two large Two-winged flies are c? $ of the Verte- 
brate Asilus {Asilus f>eH€bratw, Say), which, however, 
belongs to the more modern genus Fromachus. These 
flies are cannibals, and quite ravenous, two allied species 
(Promachus Bastardii, Loew., and A$tlu8 MUsouriensis , 
Riley) being great bee-killers, and consequently to be 
dreaded by every apiarian. The large pill-like galls 
which you find on the ground below white oak trees 
are apparently undescribed. We shall inform you ftir- 
thcr as soon as we breed the fly. 

mole Cricket— r. K, Deyo, Mahmda, 7M«.— The in- 
sect you send is the common northern Mole-cricket 
( Gryilotalpa horealU, Burm.) It is fossorial in its habits, 
living in underground galleries and feeding on the roots 
of plants. 

Tbe Imperial Drjoeampa — A9amtt<?Z WiUard, 
Spritigfield, 7M«.— Tlie large yellow and blood-brown 
moth is (^ Dryocampa Imperials, Drury. 

G, W, Copley Alton, JlU^—The large wortn found on 
a gate-post is the larva of the above. 

Hoir-caterplllar of tbe Vine— J*. V. Noyes, Anna, 

//*.— This is your insect. (See pp. 22-4 of this vol.) 




A rare capture in niittoie^JSr. S. BonteU, Etmw 
ton, iK#.— The large sulphur or citron-yellow butterfly, 
with a large quadrate orange patch near the middle of 
the front wings, and with the posterior part of tbe hind 
wings also more or less orange, is Callydrias phUea, 
Linn., the largest species of the genus * Its habitat is 
usually given as Brazil, St. Domingo and Cuba, and the 
fact of your capturing it in northern Illinois is interest- 
ing, and its occurrence there very exceptional. Indeed, 
we do not think the species was ever taken in IUIdoIs 
before. We have here another instance of that curious 
law which we have on several occasions referred to, 
namely, that many insects which on the Atlantic sea- 
board only occur in southerly latitudes, are often found 
in quite a high latitude in the valley of the Mississippi. 
We have now in our cabinet a 8X)ecimen of that lai^ 
and magnificent moth, Thyionia Zenohia, Cram., which 
was last year taken by Prof. D. S. Sheldon, at Griswold 
College, Davenport, Iowa, though we know of no 
hitherto recorded instance of its occurrence anywhere 
near so far north. 

Haff-motb Ibarra—/). M. ffwUer, Jitadtfille, Pa, 
—Your curious worm (Fig. 209) found on a young apple 
[Mr. aw.] tree, and which we herewith 

illustrate, is the larva of the 
Hag-moth {Limoieodee* pi^icwm, 
Sm. and Abb.) which was re- 
ferred to on pa^ 26 of this vol- 
ume. When this worm is 
handled the long fleshy append- 
ages not unfrequently become 
detached, and when spinning 
Color- Browa. ^p it always detaches them of its 

own accord, and manages to fasten them to the outside of 
its round cocoon. The moth is of a dusky brown color, 
the ftt)nt wings variegated with light yellowish-brown. 
G, Pauls, Eureka, J/o.— You will recognize your worm 
in the above figure. 

Insects named— i/r«. £. U. B., Bar MiUs, Me,— 
The black, yellow and orange larvaB on Parsnip are those 
of the Asterias Swallow-tail {PapUio aeterias), quite 
common, and repeatedly referred to in our answers. 
The pretty yellow and rose-colored moth is the Flowery 
Primrose Moth {Alaria florida, Ouen.) Its larva feeds 
on the diflferent species of Evening Frimvow^ {(Enothera), 
and the moth itself may often be captured early in the 
morning in the calyxes of the flowers. 

Some Friends and Foes— Z>r. C, W. SpaMing, 
Hose HUl, Jf(?.— The banded bug found on rose bushes 
is the Many-banded Bobber {Harpactor einctue, Fig. 44 
of Vol. I). The large ladybird is the 15-Spotted Mysia 
{Aiysialb-punotata); and the sUll larger black Ground- 
beetle, with coppery spots on the wing-covers, is the 
Fiery Ground-beeetle {Caloeoma calidum, Fabr., Fig. 46 
of Vol. I.) All these three are thorough cannibals, and 
beneficial. The two large long-homed beetles, bred 
from grape roots, are both males of the Tile-homed Pri- 
onus {Priontis imhricomie). 

Tike Royal Horned Caterpillar— />r. J. T. 
ffod^en, St, Louie, i/o.— Your immense larva on Per- 
simmon is the above-named insect. It formed the sul)- 
ject of the plate to our first volume. 

Dried np— JT. P.— The larva in the rose-bud had 
become too dry to recognize. 

•Thli inMct Mongi to th« gcnui FAoMronof Qroto a BoWiwod. 



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^41 



GaterplUara iiamed~/>r. E. H» King, W4H L&miy, 
Iowa,— I . The green, black and yellow worms feeding 
on celery are the larvae of the common Anterias Swallow- 
tail {Papilio asieriasy Cram.) The forked process, or 
osmaterium, is simply a scent-organ, and has no sting- 
ing or otherwise li^urious power. The smaller blacker 
worms are the young larvae of the same species. This 
insect feeds on all sorts of plants of the Parsley Family 
(Umhdli/ercB). 2. The black and yellow worms, with 
reddish warts on the back, and covered with stiff yellow 
and brown hairs, are a very common species of cater- 
pillar, the larva of a speckled gray moth {Aeronycta oh- 
< CF1«. 810. ] 




Oolor»— (a) BUck, ydlow and reddiah; (b) pale yeUow or brown { (c) Kray. 

linata, Gueu.) which may be known in popular language 
as the Smeared Dagger, the moths belonging to this 
genus being very generally called Daggers in England, 
on account of a dagger-like mark which is common to 
most of them near the anal angle of the ft-ont wings. 
This insect is a very general feeder, occuiTing on a great 
variety of herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees, and it 
often proves injurious to Apple and Willow. We pre- 
sent herewith (Fig. 210) figures of the larva (a), the 
cocoon (6), and the moth (c). 

Insect* named— Z. P. Kraft, Belleville, lUs.-^Hq. 
1, CallimorpAa vettalit. Pack, {imdouhtedly *=/ulv(coUis) . 
Mo. 2, Aeronycta populi, Riley. No. 8, tSesia difinis, 
Boisd. No. 4, Aeronycta p»i, Linn. No. 5, Aeronycta 
Americana, Uarr. No. 6, Orapta progne, Cram. No. 7, 
Catoeala innuhene,Quen, No. 8, Ilomoptera lunata, Drury. 
No. 9, Galopteryx tnaculata ? No. 12, Ptrithemis domitia. 
No. 14, Diplaa rubieundula, Hay^^assimulata, Uhler. No. 
15, Libellula luctuoea, Burm. No. 16, Agrion apicalie (^, 
Say. 

Tbe Botanical Department— T'Aof. W, Duffy, 
J^ereon, Texas, — The botanical department, as wc have 
before stated, is under entire cliarge of the botanical 
editor. We have nothing to do with it, and are not re- 
sponsible for anything that appears in it. On the ques- 
tion of the Origin of Species, we have for many years 
admired Darwin *s development hypothesis, and the 
longer we live the firmer we believe in it. 

Colorado Potato Beetle — C. G, Collins, Chicago, 
Ills, — Your beetle is no more nor less than this dreaded 
insect. 

I>r, S, Bblman, Springfield, ifo.— The "grubs >* you 
send arQ Its liur?«s. 



Tlie Abbot Spbinx; Parasites on Ite Ijarva— 

7%08, W, Gordon, M.D., ^ior^#«<Hwi, t>.— The caterpillar 
sent is the larva of the Abbot Sphinx, a pretty choco- 
late-brown hawk meth, having a yellow patch on each 
hind wing, and which w(; recently illustrated. These 
and other larvie of tlie Sphinx tribe are frequently at- 
tacked by a very small four-winged fly belonging to the 
genus Mierogaster, in the Ortler Bymenoptera. The fly 
does not eat the flesh of the caterpillar, but punctures 
its skin, and inserts in its body minute eggs at various 
points; these eggs hatch therein, disclosing small white 
grubs or maggots, which subsist on the fat and flesh 
of the (ftiterpillar until tlie latter is tiiW grown. The 
parasites then make their exit through the skin and 
spin their cocoons, loosely attaching them to the sur- 
face of the caterpillar, which generally dies fh)m ex- 
haustion soon after, while the parasites themselves pass 
through their transformations in a few days and become 
four-winged flics like their parent. 

Crane«fflles~Roae-bnir«— Ante— Z>r. J, W, PoUs, 
Elizabeth, Ind, — The long-legged insect sent, is an unde- 
termined species of Crane-fly {.Tipula), They fieed in 
the larva state on the roots of grass and other plants. 
No. 2 is, as you suggest, the common Rose-chafer (JVa- 
crodactylus subspinosus) , which is almost omnivorous, 
very few plants being unpalatable to its taste. All male 
and female ants when flrst developed from the pupa 
have wings, the barren ones or workers never. The 
males and females after pairing, which they effect on 
the wing, drop to the earth and cast off their wings. 
The males soon die, and the females retire to their 
chambers to lay eggs; but neither ever again acquire 
wings. The females are tlie largest; the workers, or 
nursc-ants, generally next in size, and both kinds may, 
of course, be found in the same nest. 

Not a Gall but a Waap Nemt—A'ate Parsons.— -The 
round cell which you found at the root of a nasturtium 
is not a gall, but the mud cell of the Fraternal Potter 
Wasp {Eumenss fratema, Say) which we illustrated at 
Figure 110 of the first volume. 

Gabbairc Worme— ^. ff, Foster, Babylon, N, T.— 
The green cabbage worms which are causing such de- 
struction to the cabbages in your part of the country, 
are the lar>'a3 of tbe imported Rape Butterfly {Pieris 
rapes), which we have several times referred to. Salt is 
found more eftectual than either tobacco^ cresylic acid 
soap, or guano. 

Tbe Unicorn Vrov^inent— Emma Payne, Racine, 
Ww.— The reddish-brown worm, with the second and 
third joints green, and a prominent horn just behind 
them, which worm you found on a rose bush, is the 
Unicom Prominent {Nciodonta unicornis, Sm. & Abb .) 
The moth has the front wings light brown, variegated 
with greenish*white and dark brown : the hind wings 
in the (} are whitish with a dusky spot on the inner 
hind angle, while in the $ they are dusky. The worm 
feeds on a variety of trees and shrubs, and though when 
perched on the edge of a dark green oak leaf there seems 
little resemblance between the animal and its food, yet 
we quote your interesting remarks about its mimicry : 

** I think this worm fUmishes a wonderful Instance of 
mimicry of the vegetable by the animal organism. The 
green segments just back of the head resemble a small 
portion of the green leaf, and the other parts admirably 
counterfeit the brown-and-russet tints of the dead leaf, 
while the form of the animal in its various postures aids 
the deception by its resemblance to a leaf partly alive and 
partly dead| the ^eeu mostly eatea and the brown torn«'^ 



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342 



THE AHERIGAN 



Db. GEORGE VA8EY, Editob, Biohview, IUb. 

MARITIMS PLANTS OF THE GREAT LAKES AND 
THE INTERIOR. 

The occarrence on the shores of the Great 
Lakes and in the interior of the Continent of 
a considerable number of plants which are 
usually confined to the vicinity of the sea-shore, 
has given rise to some speculation as to the 
cause of the phenomenon. The plants of this 
character are not confined to any particular 
family, although the Grasses and Sedges are 
probably most frequently represented. On the 
beach ii^ the vicinity of Chicago the Sand-roed 
(Calamagrostts arenarid) sends its long fibrous 
matted roots deeply into the sand, binding to- 
gether the shifting soil, giving stability and 
permanence to the lacustnne boundaries. The 
Bur-grass (Cenchms tribuloides) presents here 
and there prickly clumps which are the horror 
of bare-footed juveniles ; and the Baltic Kush 
(Juncus Balticus) by means of its creeping 
tangled rhizomas, striking root at every joint, 
is an efficient co-worker with the Sand-reed in 
giving firmness to the sandy shore. 

This work is also performed by various spe- 
cies of CyperuSy ScirptiSy and Carex, which, 
however are more extended and cosmopolitan 
in their range. In the low ground back from 
the lake the Squirrel-tail grass, (Hordeum 
jubatum) waves in graceful billows before the 
breeze. The Arrow-grass (Triglockin Mariti- 
mum) is common in the wet marshes near the 
lake ; and in pools connected with the lake are 
many Pondweeds, among them a species (Poto- 
mageton pectinatus)^ which also abounds in 
similar situations along the seacoast. 

The sea-side Spurge {Euphorbia polygoni- 
folia) luxuriates in the clean, loose sand of the 
ridges near the lake shore. 

Atriplex hastata a plant of the pig-weed 
family (Chenopodiacece) common on the sea- 
shore has also recently been found in the vici- 
nity of the lake. Another remarkable plant of 
this family (Corispermum hyssopifolium) is an 
immigrant to the lake borders from the far 
Northwest, and has followed the line of the 
lakes down as far as Buffalo on Lake Erie. 

There are perhaps no Composites in the neigh- 
borhood of the Great Lakes which are at all 
peculiar to the seashore. The Artemesia oa%t- 
data which occurs on the New England coast 
appears also on the lake ahore» but is not con* 
fliMd to tt» being lound also &r in thd interior* 



The Prickly pear, (Opuntia vulgaris) once 
very abundant in sandy fields north of Chicago 
still occurs in limited quantities, and when iu 
bloom presents a very showy appearance from 
the large yellow flowers with which the prickly 
masses are covei-ed. 

The Beach pea {Laihyrus maritimus) also 
makes its appearance on the shores of the Great 
lakes, seemingly quite as much at home as in 
the vicinity of palt wat^r. 

Of Cruciferous plants from the seashore we 
have the Sea-Rocket, (Cabile Americana) grow- 
ing in the pnre sand '^ almost to the water's 
edge." 

The sea-side Crowfoot (Banunculus cymbala- 
ria)y (the subject of an article in a previous num- 
ber), is abundant in the neighborhood of Chi- 
cago, and in the vicinity of the Salina (N.Y.) 
salt-springs, but not elsewhere East until we 
reach the Atlantic coast. 

The attention of our. Chicago botanists has 
been directed to this subject, and some theorieB 
have been advanced as to the origin or intro- 
duction of the^e peculiar plants. 

In a paper read before the Chicago Botanical 
Society, by Mr. H. A. Warne, after a review of 
most of the plants which we have mentioned 
he proceeds to say : 

'^ It is an interesting question why it is these 
maratime plants are found so far inland, and yet 
confined to the borders of the great fresh water 
lakes. How came they here? Have they by 
some means been brought from the Eastern 
coast and become accustomed to new conditions 
of life, passing through a process of weaning 
from a saline soil and atmosphere? Or have 
these species, wherever found, no special relish 
for maritime conditions of life, including the 
presence of salt? Two of the plants enumera- 
ted, it appears from Gray's Manual, are also 
found inland around the salt springs at Salina, 
N. fY., thus seeming to be naturally attached to 
a saline region. It is, therefore, the more re- 
markable to find them here by the side of fresh 
water, and restricted to the region of the Great 
Lakes. 

The other species mentioned are all true 
maratime plants, but do not so plainly indicate 
the relish for salt. Yet stilt the question re- 
turns, how shall we explain the presence of 
these seaside plants here? How shall we solve 
this relation of the Great Lakes to the sea? 
The problem may seem utterly insoluble; but 
if we accept the tlieories of those distinguished 
natui*alists, who pronounce each vegetable or- 
ganism the lineal descendant of the plants of 
the past, even to the remotest epochs of geolo- 
gical history, however changed they may be 
from original types, and a<mpted to modified 
conditions of life, we may readily find a solu- 
tion of their presence here, in the existence of 
a vast ocean, of which the chain of Great Lakes 
are but the pools remaining after a redistribu- 
tion of the waters, freshened, it may be, by 



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means not beyond the limits of scientific expla- 
nation. Granted this, and we see in these 
strangely placed plants the lineal descendants 
of maritime races, inhabiting the coast of a sea 
once stretching from the lakes to the Atlantic, 
and adapted, by degrees, to the conditions of a 
life beside fresh waters. 

An intei*esting natural feature supporting our 
hypothesis of an extensive ocean, embracing 
the Great Lake», is found near the city, in the 
terrace elevated some twenty-five feet above 
the present level of Lake Michigan, and extend- 
ing, I am told, for many miles, forming, evi- 
dently, the ancient lake boundary. This is pe- 
culiarly apparent in the neighborhood of Calu- 
met lake, which, without doubt, once formed 
part of Lake Michigan. The terrace here is 
about a mile distant from Calumet lake, and 
standing upon it and looking down upon the 
flat lands below, as the eye follows the curve of 
the hi^h land, the basin-like form strikes the 
eye with conviction, and one in«»tinctively grasps 
the conclusion that here, in the remote past, 
was the shore of Lake Michigan, which, in its 
retrogression, left this noble terrace and Calu- 
met lake as mementoes of the day of its wider 
sweep and oceanic proportions. 

Viewing this terrace botanically also, we find 
new confirmation of our theory. One is struck 
immediately by its older aspect compared with 
the low grounds between it and the lake. 
While these have the marked indications of 
comparative newness and of submersion beneath 
the waters, the terrace lands, in soil and vege- 
table growth, suggest the idea of immemorial 
highlands ; and a close examination of the plants 
supports the first impression. The change in 
the fiora of the neighborhood, within the space 
of a few rods, as one walks up the terrace irom 
the low grounds to the wood lands above, is 
actually startling. Beside the noble tree p^rowth 
we find a mulutude of plants suggesting the 
Eastern States. Comptonia asplenifolia^ the 
blue-berry, the ferns Osmunda regalis And Clay- 
tonia, Honstonia purpurea, the orchids, ffabe- 
naria tridentata and lacera, with that curious 
plant, rai*e anywhere except the sea coast, Xyris 
flexuosa, and everywhere one treads on the soft 
mosses of £astem woods." 

Let us i*epeat these inquiries : Are these 
plants the remains of an ancient maratime vege- 
tation? or have they been brought here by the 
general agencies of plant distribution, and 
found conditions of soil, humidity of atmos- 
phere (modified by the existing large bodies of 
water), etc., favorable for their growth, the 
presence of salt water not being one of those 
conditions? 

Let us add another: May (hose species be of 
a cosmopolitan character spreading over vast 
areas, and accommodating themselves to a great 
variety of circumstances? 

In determining these questions it is necessary 
to take a somewhat enlarged view of the geo- 
graphical range of the species which have been 
referred to, and of such others as may throw 
light ou ibe subject. 



Thus, the Baltic Rush iJwncus BaUicus) fol- 
lows the course of the Lakes from the St. Law- 
rence to Chicago, reappears on the Western 
rivers, extends into the Rocky Mountains, and 
thence to the Pacific coast from California to 
Alaska. 

The Arrow-grass {Triglochin maritimum) 
has quite as extended a range, occurring in the 
prairie marshes or bogs, reappearing in the 
Hocky Mountains on muddy banks of the Grand 
and Green rivers, and again on the Pacific. 

Almost the same may be said of the Squirrel 
tail grass (Hordeumjubatum), although its se- 
lection of soil is different. 

The seaside Crowfoot {Ranunculus cymbala- 
rius) appears again on the sandy borders of the 
Platle in Colorado, and also on the west side of 
the Mountains. Artemeaia caudata and Atri- 
plex hastata may be named in the same con- 
nection. 

We have not observed Rumex maritimus in 
the immediate vicinity of the Great Lakes, but 
it is found on marshy prairies thirty or forty 
miles back from the Lake, also in Missouri, and 
again on the borders of ponds and rivers west 
of the Rocky mountains. The Willow dock 
(Rumex salicifolius) of the coast of Massachu- 
setts and Maine, also grows on western river 
banks, as at Omaha, and west of the mountains 
in Middle Park, and again on the Pacific. One 
of the peculiar plants of the lake-border which 
we have mentioned (Corispermum hysaopifo- 
Hum) does not occur on the Atlantic, but is 
found on our North-western coast in Alaska, 
and on sandy river banks in the interior basins. 

Indeed, on the Great Plains, and in the basins 
wests of the mountains, there are still other 
plants which are usually regarded as maritime, 
for instance, Glaux marilima, Chenopodina 
mariiimay and Sesuvium PorttUacastrum; also 
the grasses Brizopyrum spicatum, and Tricus- 
pis purpurea. 

It would seem that with respect to all the 
plants we have had under consideration, the 
presence or vicinity of salt water is not a neces- 
sity ; but for some the moist sandy soil, and for 
others, also the modifying influence of large 
bodies of water, are the conditions suitable for 
their propagation. 

Probably there are some terrestrial plants to 
which salt is an essential element, and which 
cannot be made to flourish except in the neigh- 
borhood of that element. Such plants as the 
Sea Kale (Salsola kali), the Seaside Plantain 
(Plantago maritima), Marsh Rosemary (8tatiee 
limonium)f the Sea-lungwort {Mertensia mari- 
iima)^ the Samphire {SalioomAd)^ and othera 



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of similar habit, Iiave not been found except in 
the immediate vicinity of salt water. 

"We are, however, fully disposed to admit that 
there is much plausibility in the supposition 
that these peculiar lake shore plants are vestiges 
of tha vegetation which once flourished upon 
the borders of the great inland seas which at a 
comparatively recent time spread over the inte- 
terior of this continent. 

We do not consider the question settled, bu^ 
pi-esent these researches as a contribution toward 
a more comprehensive view of the question. 



OUR NATIVE oaks-No. 4. 



(Fig. 211.) 




Black Oak ((^uerctu eoecinea, yariety Mnc/oHa.) 

There is greater conftision as to the common 
names of different species of Oaks than with 
respect to any other trees. Thus some half- 
dozen trees are variously known as Black Oak, 
Red Oak, Pin Oak, &c. This confusiop arises 
fh)m the close resemblance of several species to 
each other, the large variation as to foim and 
size of leaves and acorns in the same species, to 
the tendency to hybridize among several species, 
and to the want of close and discriminating 
observation. 

The various forms to be met with every day 
are frequently very puzzling, even to botanists. 
We shall in this article attempt to describe and 
Illustrate one of the commonest and most vari- 



able of our American oaks. The extreme forms 
of this oak have been classified by botanists as 
two distinct species, viz: Quercus tinctorial 
Bartram, and Quercus coccinea, Wang.; bat 
the best botanical authorities now unite these 
as varieties of one species. Indeed, so numeroas 
are the variations presented in this species, both 
in leaf and fruit, that we might with as much 
propriety establish half a dozen species as two. 
From a gi*eat number of specimens we have 
selected a few of the more prominent to give 
their characters. 

IFlR. 212.1 




Black Oak (Q^ercut coceinea, var. mUgarU.) 

A general description of the species may be 
stated as follows: Leaves oval or oblong, or 
sometimes, on young thrifty shoots, obovate in 
outline, with about three divergent, slightly or 
deeply cut, lobes, the lobes also sparingly and 
sharply toothed; downy when young, and in some 
varieties the under surface continuing downy 
when old, upper surface glossy, the finer lobed 
ones with long petioles or stems, thick and firm 
when mature ; acorns roundish or ovate, ( to } 
inch long, cup obconic and deep, or shallow and 
nearly saucer-shaped. A good sized tree, 60 or 60 
feet high, the bark smooth and mottled on yonog 
trees, rough and blackish ou old trunks; the 



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inner bark of an orange color, and valuable in 
tanning and dyeing. The wood is extensively 
employed for timber and fuel, but is inferior to 
the White Oak. 

Querctis coccinea, variety vulgaris (Fig. 212) 
is probably the commonest form of the species, 
especially in the Western States. The leaves 
are cut more than half-way to the midrib, 
bright green and shining both sides, and with 
long Blender petioles. The fruit is somewhat 
larger than in the preceding, but in the fignre 
is represented rather disproportionately large. 

[Pig. 213.] 




Black Oak (Qwerctw coocinea, var. mierocarpa.) 

This is a very common form, especially in 
Northern Illinois. The leaves are unusually 
large and finely lobed, the acoras small and 
pointed, and the cup very shallow. 

Quercus coccinea, var. tinctoria (Fig. 211). 
This is the form which has usually been called 
Qtiercua tinctoria^ Bart, The figure is from a 



Pennsylvania specimen, and is reduced in size 
about one half. The leaves are less deeply lobed 
than any of the others, with shorter petioles, 
and generally with some rusty down along the 
veins on the under side. The acorns are about 
half an inch long. This variety is not, accord- 
ing to our obsei*vation, common in the Western 
States. 

The other principal forms we have not space 
to illustrate ; they are — 

4th. The variety depressa, with leaves like 
those of the variety microcarpay but with much 
larger and shorter acorns, the scales of the cup 
loose at the border. It approaches Quercus 
palustris, DuRoi. 

5th. Variety coronaia, with obconic cup, the 
border forming a crown of loose scales. 

6th. yarietyin^erm6(2ia, intermediate between 
the varieties depressa and mierocarpa. 



NOTES ON PLANTS COLLECTED NEAR CHICAGO. 

BY H. A. WARNS, CHICAOO, I^LS. , 

II. 

The summer months afford a rich hai-vest of 
intei*esting species to the collector in Northern 
Illinois ; for the region near the south shore of 
Lake Michigan seems to combine, in a remark- 
able degree, the distinctive plants of the prairie 
with many that appear to belong more properly 
to the States further north and east. 

As the season progresses beyond the chances 
of frost, the richer-hued plants hasten into bloom 
in troops, until June and July are gay with 
flowers. Conspicuous among these is the bril- 
liant Scarlet Painted Cup, which Bryant has 
celebrated in exquisite verse, and a bright yellow 
variety of the same species (Caslelleia coccinea). 

Space will allow me to give only a partial list 
of our summer plants. The Perennial Lupin 
(Lupinus perennis) finds a favorite habitat here, 
and sometimes makes the space of an acre beau- 
tiftil with its sky-blue flowers. The Grolden 
Alkanet (Lithospermum canescens) delights in 
the same locality, and a little later the showier 
Idthospermums come into bloom, both L, hirtum 
and L, longi/lorum, but the latter not common. 
The Primrose family is represented by the Shoot- 
ing Star (Dodecatheon Meadia), Its pretty 
pink-purple flowers, with coquettislily reflexed 
petals, are quite unique in aspect, and suggest 
the favorite Cydamen of the gi'eenhouses. It 
varies to pure white. 

An old Swedish botanist who had visited 
Chicago, and was taken to one of our best wild 
garden spots in June, exhibited all the enthusi- 
asm of a child at the pleasant sight, and could 



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scarcely leave a lupin nnplucked. Later in the 
season this locality is bright with the flame- 
colored cups of the beantiftd Orange-red Ldly 
(Lilium Pkiladelphicum)y worthy of place in 
any garden. 

The genus Banunclus is weU represented here 
by seven species, the white Water Crowfoot (B, 
aquatiliSyYAT. trichophyUus) y R, ab^rtivtts, the 
the small-flowered species, the Hooked Crowfoot 
(JR. recurvatus), the Yellow Water Crowfoot 
(B. mtUtiflduM) a lover of the water and the most 
interesting species, the Early Crowfoot (B,fa$ci- 
ciUaris) , the Creeping Crowfoot {B. repens) , and 
lastly the delicate Sea-side Crowfoot (B. cyniba- 
laria), a curious little thing, with small flowers 
and fleshy, roundish heart-shaped leaves, sending 
out long rooty runners. 

Our handsome Columbine (Aquilegia Cana- 
densis) is not rare here. The Pitcher Plant 
{Saracenia purpurea), one of the most remark- 
able of our native plants, used to be in several 
localities, as difi'erent herbariums attest, but no 
one has of late been able to flnd a specimen. 

A species of Cactus (Opuntia Baffinesquii [?] ) 
grows quite abundantly on the sandy ridges 
north of the city along the lake shore, and makes 
quite a display with its large yellow chalices. It 
is a noli-me-iangere sort of thing, however, and 
resents handling. In company with it I flnd the 
peculiar thistle of the Great Lakes (Cirsium 
Pitcheri), with cream-colored flowers, blooming 
half a month earlier than its congeners. It has 
an ashen, wooUy aspect, and is of low growth. 

Bhus toxicodendron, the Poison Sumach, is 
abuhdant in a dwarf form, and is almost as much 
dreaded by some of our botanists as a venomous 
reptile might be. A touch, or even slight ex- 
posure to its subtle exhalations, it would seem 
have been enough to conflne certain of my 
acquaintances to their rooms for a fortnight. 
Celastrus scandens, the Climbing Bittersweet, or 
Wax-work, is also common along the lake shore. 
It is insigniflcant in flower, but very showy when 
its orange and scarlet Aruit opens in autumn. 
The Hop Tree (Ptelea trifoliata), a tall shrub, 
seems to thrive in almost pure sand with the 
foregoing plants. Its bitter, winged fruit is 
sometimes used as hops, it is said. 

In moister places, in the same district, I flnd 
the Evening Primroses, the weedy (Enathera 
biennis and its handsome relation, (Enothera 
fnUicosa, known as Sun Drops ; with two of the 
Saxifrage &mily, both quaipt plants— JETeucAera 
hispida and Saxifraga Pennsylvanica. Along 
the ditches is the Mermaid Weed (Proserpinaca 
paluitris), quite commonly associated with two 
of the False Loosestrifes {Ludwigia polyoarpa 



and L. paltutris), homely plants that somehow 
attract the attention of the botanist as much as 
more showy things. Triglochin marUimum, the 
Arrow Grass, is also abundant and curious, in 
company with the Water Plantain (AUsma planr 
tago). Ealm's St. John's Wort {Hypericum 
KalnUanum) abounds inmiediately in the vicinity 
of the lake, its large yellow flowers, in the groat> 
est provision, gleam like gold. Why has it not 
found its place in the garden ? 

I flnd three of our native roses here— .Bom 
lucida, Bosa blanda, and the Swamp Rose (Bosa 
Carolina), sometimes exceedingly handsome. 
Two species of Spiraea are found, both pretty— 
S. salicifolia, the common Meadow Sweet, and 
the Nine Bark (Spircea opal\foUa), a tall shrab 
white with blossoms. In the same locality with 
the latter, north of the city, two species of Vibur- 
num are abundant — V. lentago, the Sheep Berry, 
handsome both in flower and leaf, and the Cran- 
berry Tree ( Vtbumum opvlus) . The Snowball 
of the gardens, so &miliar to all, is a cultivated 
form of this plant. By some the original is pre- 
ferred for ornament, and with considerable rear 
son, as its broad cymes are handsome, and the 
bright red fruit abundant. It is a poor substitote 
for the Cranberry, in flavor as well as on account 
of its large flat stone. Two other interesting 
plants of the Honeysuckle ftimily were found in 
company with the Viburnums, t. e., Lonicera 
parviflora and Dierviila trijida, the latter some- 
times cultivated, though scarcely showy enough 
for ornament. The Horse Gentian (Triosteum 
perfoliatum), an oddity of the same family, is 
found later; with the common Elder (Sambucus 
Canadensis), 

The Water Lily family is represented by the 
Yellow Spatter-dock {Nuphar advena), and 
NymphcRa tuberosa, I f the Sweet-scented Water 
Lily {Nymphosa odorata) is found here it is not 
common. One specimen only was referred to 
that species, mainly because of its delightftil 
fragi*ance, rather than from any marked differ- 
ence from its scentless neighbors. 

The noble Yellow Ndumbo, or Water Chinque- 
pin, is found at Calumet Lake, about fourteen 
miles from Chicago, but an excursion made ex- 
pressly to collect it resulted in the fluding of itfl 
remarkably large leaves only, the flowers being 
missing. In the southern part of the State it ifl 
no rarity. 

Among the water plants of interest, also, I 
must include the beautiful Buck-Bean {Meny- 
anthes trifoliata), Pontederia cordata, the Vio- 
let-flowered Pickerel Weed, and the Water Shield 
(Brasenia peUata) . This last named plant, the 
Manual of Gray tells aS| is of singularly widfi 



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tiistributioii, being also a native of Puget's Sounds 
Japan, Australia and Eastern India. 

Fetalottemon candidus and P. violaceus, dis- 
tinctive prairie plants, and called Prairie Clover, 
are both common here. Among a nomber of 
leguminous plants I may also enumerate Astm- 
gcUus Canadensis, a vigorous, tall plant with 
cream-colored flowers, the Ground Nut {Apios 
tuberosa) a handsome vine of strong growth, 
with violet^ecented flowers of chocolate color, 
Lathyrus paliutris and L. mariiimtiSj the Beach 
Pea, as much at home here as on the sea shore, 
associated also with Phaseolus diversctfolius here 
as along the Atlantic — ^both confined to the im- 
mediate neighborhood of the Lake, and delight- 
ing in pure sand. The so-called Lead Plant 
{Amorpha canescens), named from a miner's 
whim, is partial to the sandy Lake region also. 
Its violet flowers are quite singular, consisting 
of one single petal wrapped about the stamens, 
and quite often puzzle the young botanist, who 
sees little of the pea family in the aspect of such 
a flower, the standard being only left, the other 
petals absent. But quite as much of a pons 
asinamm to the youthful plant-analyzer is the 
Rattlesnake Master {Eryngium yuccctfoUum), 
quite common here, which few would take at 
sight to be related to the members of the Parsley 
and Carrot family. 

Peculiar to the Lake shore, also, and almost 
within reach of the spray, is the Sea Rocket {Ca- 
Idle Americana) y with flowers and pods much 
like those of its cousin the Radish, but otherwise 
of very diflerent aspect. It is generally found 
with Euphorbia polygonifolia, a distinctive 
plant of the Great Lakes, and Corispei^mum 
hyssopifoUum, a plant adventive from the North- 
west, but thoroughly established here. Its 
general appearance somewhat suggests Salsola 
of the Atlantic coast. Potentiila anserinay the 
Silver Weed, also claims its place along the 
Lake shore with these last named plants, though 
higher up on the beach, where it throws out long 
runners, bright with golden flowers and silver- 
lined leaves. Its taller relative, Potentiila f rati- 
cosay grows with it in places, a plant worthy of 
cultivation for its beauty. Potentiila palustris, 
the Marsh Five-flnger, is found in wet places 
here and there also. 

A list of the shore plants is very incomplete 
without a brief mention of the more striking 
grasses that attract the eye : these are Calama- 
grostis arenaria, the Sea-sand Reed, C. longi- 
folia. Sorghum nutans, Sperobolus heterolepis, 
Stipa spartea, the Porcupine Grass, Andropogon 
fwroatim and A. scoparius, Elymus Canadensis, 
<<Wild Rye," Spartina cynosuroideSi Fresh 



Water Cord Grass, and JBbrdeum jubatum, the 
Squirrel-tail Grass, sometimes cultivated for 
ornament elsewhere. 

An hour's ride in the cai*s takes us into the 
county of Lake, in our neighboring State of Indi- 
ana. Here the aspect of the flora seems entirely 
changed. Coming to Pine Station, only twenty 
miles distant from Chicago, we find ourselves in 
the midst of evergreen woods, with scarcely a 
deciduous tree to be seen. Here were the White 
Pine (Pinus strobus), and Pinus Banksiana, the 
Gray Scrub Pine, with the common Juniper 
{Juniperus communis ysx. alpinus), frosty with 
the white bloom of its abundant fruit. The 
herbaceous plants associated with this evergreen 
growth are in strong contrast with the prairie 
vegetation immediately about Chicago. 

The narrowness of tills belt of pine woods is 
singular. Passing on to the shore of Lake Michi- 
gan we find the evergreens disappearing, while 
the oaks and poplars reappear. Soon only an 
occasional pine tree can be seen, until at Miller's 
Station, nine miles further at the Lake shore, I 
do not remember to have seen an evergreen. 
But the herbaceous flora here strongly suggests 
Michigan and the Eastern States. We flnd the 
Huckleberry in profusion, and in wet places the 
large Cranberry ( Vaecinum macrooarpon) ; my 
list includes also tbe Dwarf Sumach (Bhus co- 
pallina), the Black Alder (Ilex verticilla), the 
Sour Gum Tree (Nyssa multiflora), the Leather- 
leaf (Ca«8anc{ra calyculata), the pleasant flavored 
Wintcrgreen {OauUheria procumbens), Pyrola 
rotundifolia and Pyrola secunda. Two species 
of the interesting Sun Dew family — Drosera ro- 
tundifolia and longifolia — abounded, Mdam- 
pyrum Americanum, oddly termed Cow Wheat, 
and the Sassafras tree. The delicate little blue 
Houstonia cerulea filled the spaces among the 
grass, with occasional plants of our yellow 
flowering flax, Linum Virginianum, In the 
wet grounds we found Utricularia comvia 
and Utriadaria vulgaris, the horned and the 
greater Biadder-wort. Pogonia ophioglossoides 
in profuse numbers scented the air with its rich 
fragrance, vieing with its beautiful but scentless 
relative Calopogon pulcheUa, of which I never 
met equally flne specimens; the flower-stalks 
were exceedingly vigorous, with ten or twelve 
blossoms on some, the whole plant exceeding 18 
inches in height. One specimen of Liparis 
LoesellU was found. A fortnight later the hand- 
some Orchid, Habenaria ciliaris, with bright 
orange flowers, was abundant. Talinum tereH- 
foliwm was also met with, and, at a locality not 
far distant, H%kdsonia tomentosa and Campanula 
roiwfkdtfoHa var. lin\foUa. The beaadfal Moo- 



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casin Flower, Cypripedium spectabiley should 



have been mentioned also. 



/ 



But space must forbid farther enumeration, 
though the list of interesting plants might be 
much extended. As the autumn comes on, too, 
the Composite plants come out in full force here, 
including many species of Helianthus, Atter and 
Golden Rod (Solidago), while the rich blue of 
the Fringed Gentian (Oentiana crinitd), and 
the curious closed Gentian (Gentiana Andrewni) 
is a sight never to be forgotten, such a perfection 
of color as can only be rivalled by the intense 
crimson of our Cardinal Flower (Lobelia car- 
dinalis), found here along the small river Des 
Plaines. 



MORPHOLOGY OP LEMNA. 

BT HENBY OILLMAN. 

Some interesting remarks appeared lately in 
the Quarterly Journal of Science on the "Hiber- 
nation of Duckweed" {Lemna), Allusion is 
made to a series of observations on this point 
made by M. Van Hoven, and recorded in the 
"Bulletin de la Soci6ti6 Roy ale de Botanique de 
Belgique ;" but which I have not seen. As about 
two years ago 1 made some observations on this 
subject, my experience may be worth noting in 
this connection. It has not been given publicity, 
though not long afterwards I communicated the 
facts, in part, to a correspondent who has de- 
voted much time to the study of the American 
LemnacecB. It may here be stated that our 
species of Lemna appear to be identical with 
those of Belgium. 

In the summer of 1868 1 placed in my aquarium 
a quantity of the plants of Lemna p^lyrrhiza, L., 
partly with the hope of detecting them blossom. 
They grew and multiplied till the early winter, 
when the fW>nds gradually decayed and disap- 
peared. Towards spring 1 noticed at the bottom 
of the aquarium, adhering to the mud and stones, 
a number of minute, gem-like bodies, smaller 
than the head of the smallest pin, and of an in- 
tense green. These increased in size, and at 
length assumed somewhat of the appearance of 
the frond of a small Lemna, finally rising to the 
surface of the water, where they continued to 
grow. In the course of a few weeks a large 
number of these Lemna could be seen in my 
aquarium, they having increased by proliferous 
growth. At this time they presented so closely 
the characteristics of L. Torreyi, Austin, as to 
deceive me quite into thinking them that species ; 
the thin obovate-oblong fronds were of a pale 
green, but glossy, and barely one-nerved, the 
root being single. But in the course of several 



days another change took place. The fronds 
became broader and rounder, lost their glossi- 
ness, and put on a dull but darker green above, 
having a faint pink flush beneath. At length, 
after a further interval, the fronds becoming 
thick and palmately ^^q to seven-nerved, and 
changed to a purplish -crimson beneath, the 
roots being several in a cluster, proclaimed nn- 
mistakably that the plant was L. polyrrhiza, L., 
and nothing else. 

From the foregoing I am convinced that much 
of the Lemna which is taken for L, Torreyiy 
Austin, and L, perpusiUa, Torr., and, perhaps, 
L, minor y L., is no other than L. polyrrhiza^ L., 
in some of its earlier stages. And here arises 
the question: Is it a more highly developed 
plant (species) than those others? Oris it de- 
graded from the condition of L. Torreyi f I 
would add that it is somewhat remarkable that 
this ^\9dii (L.polyrrhiza), though so common 
in our pools, ponds and rivers, has never been 
found in blossom in this country. 

According to M. Van Hoven, as given in the 
Journal, the three species, L. trisulca, minor 
and arrhiza, preserve their leaves through the 
winter, remaining on the surface, while only the 
L. polyrrhiza and gihha produce leaves of a dif- 
ferent form in winter. He also states that 
"their roots are exceedingly minute, and at 
first hidden within the leaf." 

Some weeks ago, when at Eaton Rapids, Mich., 
a place lately become celebrated through the 
discovery of those remarkable magnetic mineral 
springs, I found (June?, 1870) theX. minor, L., 
in blossom — thousands of them in flower. As 
it is a species which is rarely seen in bloom, the 
information may be interesting to your readers. 

Late last autumn (1869) a friend, a well-known 
botanist fix)m the East, found in the Detroit 
river a single specimen in flower of the L, tri- 
sulca, L. It was a gusty day, and as he searched 
in his pocket for a piece of paper in which to 
secure it, the wind suddenly blew it away, so 
that he could not recover it. But he is too ac- 
curate an obsei-ver for us to imagine that he was 
mistaken as to its bearing flowers. It is, also, 
rarely found fertile. 

Though the Lemna generally floats free, its 
roots suspended in the water, and drifted about 
by every stray breeze or current in the stream 
or pond, yet I find, where the water is shallow 
enough, it sends its roots into the soft mad at 
the bottom, thus becoming a fixture. 

I find the Wolffia Columbiana, Karaten, grow- 
ing with L, minor, L., in abundance in ^^ 
neighborhood of Detroit; but have not collected 
it in flower. 



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p. S.— August 29, 1870.— I have to-day found, 
at Sandwich, Ontario, on the Detroit river, the 
Wolffia Columbiana, Kars., in fUll flower. 1 
inclose specimens, but hardly hope they will 
arrive in perfection. The surface of the pool 
where I found them, and where I have watched 
them for moi*e than a year, is covered with the 
little plants for more than three-quarters of an 
inch thick. H. G. 

[For the benefit of some who may ^be unac- 
qnainlcd with the plants mentioned in the com- 
munication of Mr. Gillman, we may state that 
the species of Lcmna are extremely minute 
plants growing on the surface of ponds and still 
waters, and sometimes called Duckweed. They 
vary in size from one-twelfth to one-quarter of 
an inch, consisting of a simple leaf-like body 
with slender roots emitted from the under sur- 
face. They rarely produce flowers in this 
country, the usual mode of reproduction being 
by the development of small, bulb-like bodies 
from the edge of the leaves ; these bulbs sink to 
the bottom of the water in the fall, and rise to 
the surface for development in the spring. The 
flowers, when they do appear, are pi-oduced from 
a slit or opening in the edge of the leaf; they 
are reduced to the simplest slate, one or two 
producing a single stamen, and one or two a 
single pistil. 

The Wolffia is a plant of similar nature, of 
microscopic size and simpler structure, each 
plant producing a single flower of stamen and 
pistil, formed by a small oup-like depression in 
the body of the leaf or plant. — Ed.] 



VEGETABLE CELLS. 

BY DB. FELIX 8GHAAN, CHICACK). 

PART III. — Continued from page 25G.) 
[Fig. 214.1 




Oxalate of Lime ia Cactus. 

3. Crystals. In the vegetable cells we often 
find crystals of oxalate of lime; they crystalize 
in form of quadratic octahedrons. It is seldom 
we And this octahedron well developed; you 
see a large heap of plates agglomerated irregu- 



larly one to the other. In Cactus you find them 
in every slice. Geranium presents also a large 
amount of cells containing, crystals. (See Fig. 
137.) 

Schleiden says that oxalate of lime crystals 
can take also the form of needles. I had/some 
doubt whether all needle-shaped crystals wci*e 
oxalate of lime, and, on inquiring, I went to 
the following statements. The crystals of oxa- 
late of lime in the Cactus, I treated with nitric 
acid. It was not dissolved entirely, but cor- 
roded only on the edges. I added a drop of 
ammonia, and I saw that the crystal disap- 
peared rapidly, leaving several gas bubbles. 

I made a precipitate of oxalate of lime by 
double decomposition, by pouring into a solu- 
tion of nitrate of lime, a solution of oxalate of 
potash, and carefully washing the pi'ecipitate, 
selected on a filtering paper: trying on this 
oxalate of lime the reactives above mentioned, 
I found them verified. So it may be stated that 
these crystals are oxalate of lime. Some needle- 
shaped crystals I submitted to a careful study 
with the following result: I took for object the 
rasping of the root of Sarsaparilla (Smilax Sar- 
sapaiilla). By the addition of a drop of water 
we find in the middle of a ring of starch glo- 
bules a fascicle of needle crystals, and near by 
you find other needles whose points are broken 
and scattered in the vicinity. (Fig. 216, a). 

[Fig. 215.] 




In a longitudinal slice of the same root, you 
may remark between the poi*ous cells and the 
starch cells a long line of these needle-shaped 
crystals, whose points all look in one direction 
and follow one another like a procession of ants 
going to the hillock. (Fig. 216,6). At first I 
thought — there we have cells with crystals like 
the Cactus and Geranium cells, and I suspected 
some porous cells to be the home of these crys- 
tals. £rror I I analyzed the rasping of the root 



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wiihoiU water; I could not find any needles or 
a trace of a crystal. In the heap of starch I 
remarked a transparent rippled object which I 
thought was the source of the crystals. I then 
poured a drop of water between the object 
glasses, but the same object was not changed ; 
in moving the object I found near by the well 
constituted needles, where there was nothing 
of that kind belore. 

I repeated several limes the same experiment, 
and saw finally the needles take their origin of 
the surrounding shapeless matter in a twinkling. 
What are they composed of? Oxalate of lime? 
This latter salt is obtained by nitric acid, but 
the needles I saw appear more numerous by 
the addition of nitiic acid. Ammonia dissolved 
them. I took these needles for salaeparine. 
This base is not soluble in water, and crystalizes 
in needle-form. So when you force water be- 
tween the glass plates where salseparine is con- 
tained, this base is precipitated in the form of 
needle crystals, following the law of chemistry 
that every body contained in excess in a men- 
strum is precipitated in the form of crystals or 
of amorphous granules. 

In the incrustations of the liber cells of Cin- 
chona (Fig. 216) we encounter also salts, but 
these are in an amorphous state. Without doubt 
quinine is to be found there. By the addition 
of a drop of sulphuric acid the quinine combines 
with it and forms sulphate of quinine, which 
being less soluble in water precipitates in very 
fine needles. At the same time we see that 
between the layers at the inside of the cellulose 
membrane (Fig. 216) there appears a series of 

[Fig. 216. J 




holes which grow larger and more numerous, 
leaving, of the entire cell and its layer, only a 
mere shadow. 

4. Chlorophyl grains are little roundish bodies 
of a greenish color. They are disseminated in 
most fresh vegetable cells, and abound particu- 
larly in those which are nearer the outer sur- 
face of the plant. By oxydation the green color 
turns yellow and red. The chlorophyl is the 
matter which gives to foliage its beautiful hues : 



in spring, green in all its variations ; in the foil, 
yellow, and all transition stages to scarlet. 

5. Granular substances are found in many 
cells. Sometimes these granules are composed 
of starchy matters, as detected by their coloring 
blue with iodine: at other times it is very difil- 
cult to study their composition. I remarked in 
some cases an active movement of these gran- 
ules, by their changing their places in respect 
to one another and to larger bodies in the inte- 
rior of the cells. 

6. Gases. Under the covering plate in our 
microscopical researches gases present them- 
selves, all alike, as bubbles of sharp contour. 
Chemistry only can tell us what gas is the gen- 
erator of the bubble in question. In the plants, 
as it is known, we meet with carbonic acid, 
oxygen, and atmospheric air. 

For a carbonic acid bubble, we have a test in 
a solution of chloro-barium (Ba. CI.) in which 
carbonic acid makes a precipitate of carbonate 
of barium, which has the form of flue granules. 
Oxygen, we know, is the gas '* par excellence " 
which is present in vegetable tissues. 

In dry vegetables I found gas ; in living plants 
I did not detect any free gas-bubbles. It is 
probable that tbe oxygen and carbonic acid, the 
two grand factors in the life of the plants, are 
merely in solution in the sap, like the carbonic 
acid in the blood of the lung blood-vessels, and 
not in the form of free gas. 

7. The last and most important part of the 
cell contents is tbe nucleus or cytoblast, 

Schleiden says: 'Mn all tender hairs, almost 
in every growing portion of cellular tissue in 
the entire leaves of mosses, especially in Sphag- 
num^ we find in every cell, fastened to the inner 
wall, a small, mostly plano-convex or lenticular, 
sharply defined body, strikingly different from 
all other contents of the cell. This is the c}fto- 
blast:' 

When perfectly formed it is a flat lenticular, 
sharply defined, pale yellow body, in which it 
is easy to distinguish one or two, seldom three, 
sharply defined, and evidently hollow, corpus- 
cles, which are called " nucleoli," 

I was not able to discover the cytoblast in 
leaves of a moss {Hypnum molluscum). 1 ob- 
served at one end a sharper yellowish hue, 
which in the first moment I took for a cytoblast, 
but an ampler enlargement showed that it was 
only the interference of the light in the rounded 
corner of the cell. In another moss (Sphag- 
num flmhriatum) it is otherwise. The cells of 
the top, which are evidently of more recent 
building, are without any trace of a cytoblast, 
whereas in those of ancient date nearer the root. 



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we distinguish in many cells a yellowish-green 
globule, which Schleiden took, evidently, for a 
cytoblast. 

[Fig. 217] 




In the hair of the Geranium stem (Fig. 161), 
in many pith cells of the same (Fig. 217), and 
of Cactus, the cytoblast was very manifest. 

I must state that I was unable to discover a 
cytoblast in all cells which contained salt in 
form of crystal, or in that of layers, fibres, or 
pores, in the cells of ancient date, as the starch 
cells of the roots which I considered in this paper. 

The Jungtis offers a good material for study- 
ing the cytoblast. In fungus-ceUs we find one 
or more cytoblasts, and we can easily observe 
their dividing into two, four, etc. 

I did not observe a cytoblast attached to the 
wall of the primitive utricle and forming an 
integral part of it, as related by Schleiden. 

We have now passed in review successively 
all parts of the vegetable cell. I never found, 
and perhaps there does not exist, a cell which 
contains all the substances mentioned at once. 



Vegetation seems to extend much farther 
toward the north, than toward the south pole ; 
thus in Lapland, the Fir-tree extends to 70 deg. ; 
the White-birch to 70 deg. 40 min., and the 
Dwarf-birch 71 deg. ; whereas, in the same de- 
grees of south latitute vegetation is almost 
wholly wanting. Even in Deception Island, 
62 deg. 60 min. south latitude, only Lichens are 
met with, and no longer any species of grass ; 
and in Cockburn's Island, lat. 64 deg. 12 min., 
only Lichens and a few mosses are to be found. 
On the contrary, in the Arctic zone, ten species 
of fioweriufi^ plants were found on Walden 
Island, 80i deg. north latitude. 

'* Nature seems to have accumolated all the 
beauties of form in the stately Palm, whose 
smooth and slender stems rise to a height of 
from 60 to 75 feet, projecting like a colonnade 
above the dense mass of the surrounding foli- 
age. The leaves of some species incline verti- 
cally upwards to a height of 16 to 17 feet, and 
are curled at the extremities in a kind of feathery 
tuft. The flower-buds burst forth, in all Palms, 
from the stem immediately beneath the leaves." 



WILD RICE, or INDUN RICE. 

iZieania tiquaiieay L.) 

The muddy borders of lakes and slow streams 
in the Northwestern States produce a species of 
wild Rice {Zizania aquatica), nearly related to 
the cultivated grain. It is especially abundant 
in the small lakes which abound in Minnesota, 
and is there a means of subsistence for the In- 
dians. It grows usually four to six feet high, 
sometimes, however, reaching the height of eight 
or ten feet. The grain is produced fh)m pistil- 
late flowers on the upper branches of the flower- 
ing stalk, the lower branches bearing only the 
staminate flowers. The grain is smaller than 
that of the cultivated rice, but is said to be sweet 
and well-flavored, but acquires a scorched taste 
from the manner of removing the husks. 

We find in the Tmith^s Companion an article 
by Helen 0. Weeks, which gives an extremely 
interesting account of the manner of collecting 
and preparing the grain for food by the Indians 
of Minnesota. We give below the principal por- 
tion of the article referred to : 

" Some months later, in early September, we 
left Red Lake, and journeyed bv canoe from that 
point to Leech Lake, a hundi*ea miles and more, 
below. The route lies through a chain of small 
lakes, connected bv streams, sometimes large 
and sometimes small, but quite as often separated 
by belts of land call^ * portages.' 

''At times a field of wild Rice may be found 
in some shallow s]^t near the middle of the 
lakes, but oftener it grows nearer the shore, 
sometimes manjr acres together, the long, slender 
stalks, with their i-eddish-brown heads of grain 
rising high above one's head, as the canoe sweeps 
through them. 

'' The wives of our Indian boatmen set out at 
the same time as ourselves for a rice-field in 
Midge's Lake, and as they row more swiftly 
than the men, we found them there at work, 
when we started the next morning, after our first 
night's camping out on its shores. 

" Curious to see the whole operation we waited 
here an hour or two. In the bottom of the mid- 
dle of the canoe was laid the blanket ; and as the 
canoe was paddled slowly through the field by 
one woman, the other, kneeling and holding two 
sticks, shaped like small padmes. bent over the 
heads of nee with one, while with the other she 
biiished out the ripe grains, which fell into tJie 
blanket. As it grmlually fills, the women 
paddle to some point on the shore, where a fire 
IS lighted, and the great copper kettle, bought at 
British forts in Hudson's Bay territory, and only 
owned by the most well-tondo amon^^ them, is 
swung over it to heat. Into this, when almost 
red-hot, the rice is poured, and constantly stirred 
with a small padale till the husks are scorched 
ofi*, and the grain thoroughlv parched. It is fk-om 
this process that the scorched taste comes, for 
freea from the husk in the same way as the 
Southern rice, it would be quite as sweet. Once 
roasted, it is put up in bags woven from rushes, 
and holding generally about half a bushel." 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



NOTES FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 

Ken tacky €offee Tree.— The tree mentioned in 
the June number of the American Entomologist 
AND Botanist as growing near Cardiff, Onondago Co., 
N. Y., is Oymnoeladut Canadensis y or the Kentucky 
Coffee Tree, a very rare tree in this State. Gov. Dewitt 
Clinton must have been mistaken if he supposed the 
trees in question were a species of Zanthoxylwrn, 

Whitk Fruited Fragaria.— We have a Fragwria 
growing here that resembles F. vesca in every respect 
except the color of the fruit, which is always white. In 
Skaneateles, in this State, there are literally millions of 
these plants growing in the fields, always with white 
fhiit, and showing no signs of varying into the proper 
form of Fragaria vesca. Is this white-fhiited lorm com- 
mon in other localities? If it shoiUd be found to retain 
its white fruit in all places would this constitute it a 
new species ? Sam'l N. Cowlbs. 

Skankatelks, N. Y., Aug., 1870. 

[The mere character of color is not sufficient to estab- 
lish a specific distinction. We would be glad to have 
information firom other correspondents as to the fre- 
quency of this variety of Strawberry.— Ed.] 

Botanical Notes from Soattaern Illlitola, No. 

8«— Since writing my last I have observed, about the 
bluffs in Union county, Lsspedeza repms and Galactea 
mollis^ both occurring abundantly . In the lower grounds 
along streams, the first herbaceous plant in bloom'is the 
little Erigenia hulbosa^ the harbinger of spring, which 
often pushes up its cluster ot tiny blossoms while its 
leaves are yet unfolded, and sometimes before they are 
even above the ground. ItB early appearance is the 
more striking, since it belongs to an order whose other 
representatives bloom in nddsummer. 

Upon the faces of southward-sloping hills, I have seen 
masses of Phlox bifida in bloom as early as the 2&th of 
March. Later eovies the Synandra grandijlora, the 
largest and most beautlAil of our labiate flowers, grow- 
ing In profusion along the Drury and its tributaries. 
Stagnant pools are oOen filled with Ranunculus oUongi- 
foliusf while in low grounds everywhere occur Ddphin-' 
ium tricome and TVillium erectumy var. dUmm. The 
Delphinium is always deep purple with us, and the 
Trillium white throughout. Scattered through damp 
woods, and growing in masses at the bases of bluffs, I 
find Pogonia pendula^ curious, like all the fantastic 
Orchis family to which it belongs, and interesting also 
for its rarity elsewhere. Most of these plants, with many 
others interesting and beautlAil, may be found in the 
Stone-Fort Valley, a narrow creek bottom bordered by 
perpendicular walls of rock, near Makanda, in Jackson 
county. Opposite an ancient fortification, from which 
the valley takes its name— a relic of the early French or 
Spanish voyageurs— is the only spot where the Saxifraga 
mentioned in your August number has yet been seen. 
The scarred and buttressed bluft's of this valley are rich 
in mosses and ferns, lichens and liverworts. 

In swampy ground is sometimes seen Paneratium rota- 
ium, almost worthy to contest the palm for beauty and 
fragrance with the peeHess White Water-lily. It does 
not bloom here until July or August. It famishes an 
illustration of the ingenious care which Nature some- 
times takes to secure the direct fertilization of the ovule, 
a process which, in 'other cases, she is equally careful 
to leave to the chance assistance of Insects, or the fickle 



winds. The thickened points of the three outer divi- 
sions of t^e calyx are curiously notched, so as to hold 
the tips of. the sepals together until the anthers have dis- 
charged their pollen and the impregnation of the ovule 
is made certain; and then the flower opens, usually with 
a sudden spring. A very common plant in low grounds 
is Desmodium pauc^/hrum, remarkable as being peihape 
the only member of the sub-order Papilionaoes whose 
petals are entirely distinct. 

In thickets I find Sioyos angulatus, and in the drier 
woods Coreopsis aurieulata, ArehangeUca hirtuta, Fedia 
radiaiay Oynthia Firginica, Corallorhita odoniorkiza (rare), 
and Lithospermum UUifolium, the latter widely scattered 
through the forests of Jackson county. SoNniUa angu' 
laris often appears here with pure white flowers. 

Among the common roadside plants are ffdiopkytum 
Indieum and Eupatortum serotinum. At the base ot blulb 
api>6ar8 Polymnia Canadensis; and in rich and shaded 
soil PhacsUa bipinnatijida, bearing round racemes of 
light-blue flowers, but coarse in foliage and offensively 
rank in smell. Very common, not in swamps, but by 
banks of streams and in low open grounds everywhere, 
is Ludwigia aUemffolia, 

The flora of the Mississippi bottoms is not so varied 
and peculiar as that of the higher lands. Almost the 
only unusual plants which I have observed there are 
Myriophyllum KeUrophyUum and HotUmia it^fiaiay occur- 
ring in stagnant ponds. Jussicsa repent oeeanBomeifhMi 
rarely here, but is very common further south. 

The tortuous and shallow lakes, lying usually near the 
eastern boundary of the bottoms, are filled with the 
ordinary vegetation of quiet waters. I have seen acres 
of their expanse gorgeous with the purple and green-and- 
gold of the Pickerel- weed, and some are filled with the 
stately and beautiful Mlwiibium Ivieum, the under sur- 
faces of whose broad peltate leaves, when swept by the 
wind, flash in the sun like silver. More commonly, 
however, they are simply bordered with the Arrow 
Arum, and the yellow and white Pond-lilies; while the 
dark-brown surface ot the open spaces wiH be starred 
with the golden blossoms of the larger UMcularia. On 
the bordersof Grassy Lake I found Anemone Pennsjflfamea 
and Smilax tamnoides^ and upon the summitP of some 
Indian burial mounds on Running Lake, the only speci- 
mens of Gleditschia monosperma I have seen in the county. 

I will add to the above list a few I observed in Frank- 
lin county, as PolygaZa NuUaUii and P. ambiguoy both 
very common; Myriopkyllum scabratum in swamps, and 
in thickets upon the hills Phaseolus pauciflonuy Staehyt 
palustrisy varieties aspera and glabra; Ascl^ias J^nf^' 
ascens; CrotoneapUatumhy TOikA%\dG»\ Smdlaxpssttdochm^ 
and a Herpestrisy not rotundifoUa, 8. A. FOBBBB. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

Plants to ftWLia^fi— Daniel WiUer, Denver, Colorado,— 
I inclose the flower, seed-pod and a branch of a very 
beautiful and singular plant which grows most luxuri- 
antly on our driest and most sandy plains. I would 
like much to know its name. Its root is perennial, I 
think, and runs down to a great depth. 1 have seen 
bunches of it from one root 8 feet across and 8 feet high. 

Ans. The Specimen sent was Jpomea UptophyUdi ^"^ 
what might be called the Western Morning-glory. I' 
occurs frequently en the **Great Plains," and when in 
flower presents a beautiful appearance. 



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VOL. 2. 



ST. LOUIS, MO., DECEMBER, 1870. 



NO. 12. 



CHABLBS Y. BILBT, Bditob, 
Boom SQ^ bmnnoe BaOdinc, 81. Looii, Kb. 

THE IEAB*S INTERMISSION. 

We have been highly pleased at the numerous 
gratnlatory letters which have come to hand 
since our last number was sent out. General 
regret is expressed, and some few of our sub- 
scribers express the fear that the publication of 
our journal will never be i-ecommenced. Indeed, 
some of our contemporaries have even announced 
that the '^Ahebican Entomologist and Botan- 
ist has been discontinued." Now we mast here 
reiterate that which we have already announced. 
Our journal is not discontinued, but simply sus- 
pended for one year, in accordance with the 
desires of both publishers and editors. Like 
those insects which, after an active larval period, 
go through a pupal stage during wluch the life 
functions are in great part suspended, and which 
yet afterwards burst forth in all their glory and 
perfection ; so we intend that our journal, after 
its temporary suspension, shall in due time ap- 
pear, before those who signify their desire to 
receive it, in a more attractive and perfect form. 

It is because of this our firm intention that we 
desire all those who contemplate taking Volume 
III to send in their names (not the money) at 
once to the publishers. The greater the list the 
more we shall feel encouraged to go on, and 
every present subscriber who desires the success 
of our enterprise should endeavor to send in at 
least one more name with his or her own. 

In taking temporary leave of our readers we 
cannot forbear to express our sincere thanks to 
those editors who have so favorably noticed this 
paper, and to the many fiiends who, by their 
contributions and aid in other ways, have laid 
us under lasting obligations. 



Bound Volumes. — The publishers will ftimish 
this volume complete and nicely bound for $2.50 
per copy. Only about 20 copies of Vol. I remain, 
which will be disposed of at (he san^e price* 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE-YINE.— No. 13. 

The Grape-leaf Gall-lonse, 
{PhyUcwra vOifoUa, Fitch.) 

[Fig. MS.] 




Color— Green. 

Here we have an insect, the life-history of 
which is as interesting to the entomologist as its 
devastations are alarming to the grape-grower. 
We have given it considerable attention the past 
summer, and though it is a difficult task to pre- 
sent definite and satisfactory information from 
among the multitude of facts we have obtained, 
yet we shall endeavor to lay before our readers 
a comprehensive acQOunt of this little louse, so 
far as our present knowledge of it will permit. 
In doing so we are made painf\illy awai'e that 
there is much room left for ftirther observations, 
and he who will patiently and persistently devote 
his time for a few years to its study, and will 
with candor and accuracy give to the wond the 
results, will doubtless be rewarded by new and 
important discoveries, and will render valuable 
service to the cause of science and of economic 
entomology. 

The first reference to this insect was briefly 
made by Dr. Fitch, of New York, in the year 
1856,* and he subsequently described it in a very 
insufficient manner, under the name of Pemphi- 

•N. T. Bep. I, p.158. 



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gu8 vitifoHcB'j* bnt though the specific name 
must be retained, the insect was wrongly re- 
ferred to the genus PemphiguSy as we shall pres- 
ently see. Ten years afterwards this louse was 
again refeiTed to by ourselves in the Prairie 
Farmer for August 8, 1866, and during the fall 
of the same year articles were written upon it 
by Dr. Shimer^f and by our late associate, Mr. 
WalBh^ — the former claiming that it was a true 
Plant-louse {Aphis family), and the latter that it 
was a Bark-louse {Coccus family). In this Dr. 
Shimer was evidently right, and Mr. Walsh 
wrong. In January, 1867, Dr. Shimer proposed 
for this insect a new family (Dactylosphje- 
KiDJE§), which, in our opinion, cannot stand. 

But not to weary the general reader with 
purely scientific questions, we shall presently 
give, in a short appendix, the reasons for our 
opinion on this point, together with some other 
details for the benefit of those moi'e immediately 
interested. 

This louse was subsequently treated of by Mr. 
Walsh in his report as Acting State Entomolo- 
gist of Illinois (pp. 21-24), where he still felt in- 
clined to place it with the Bark-lice, though we 
have good reason to believe that he afterwards 
changed his mind. During all this time a 
serious disease of the roots of the Grape-vine 
began to attract attention in the south of 
France, and it finally caused such alarm that the 
Minister of Agriculture and Commerce in France 
offered a prize of 20,000 firancs for the discovery 
of an efficacious and practical remedy. 

A special commission was also appointed to 
dmw up a progranune of conditions, examine 
memoirs submitted to it, settle the experiments 
to be made, collect evidence from local commis- 
sions, and, if they saw reason for so doing, to 
award the prize offered by government. The 
commission consisted of M. l>umas, M. Milne 
Edwards and M. Duchartre, of the Paris Acad- 
emy of Sciences ; M, Gervais, M. Planchon, M. 
Henri Mares and M. Louis Vialla, of Montpel- 
lier; the Comte de Vergue, of Gironde; M. 
Bedel, of Vaucluse, and three members of the 
Ministry of Agriculture. 

The disease is known as pourridie, or rotting. 
It is in the form of little cankerous spots, which 
cut off the supply of nourishment and cause the 
roots to rot, and these spots were ascertained 
by MM. Planchon and Lichtenstein, of Montpel- 
lier, to be caused by a louse (PhyUoxera vasta- 
triXy Planchon), which bears a close resem- 

•Rep. 8, §117. 

t Prairie Farmer, Nov. 8 and Dec. 8, 1866. 
tPract. Ent., Vol. I, p. Ill; Vol. U, p. 19} andProc. Bnt. 
Soc., PhU., VI, pp. 285-4, notes. 
§ Proo. Aoad. Nat. Soi. , FbU., Jan., 1807. 



blance to our gall insect. This is not all, for a 
leaf-gall absolutely identical with ours also oc- 
curs there, and the identity of the gall-inhabiting 
with the root-inhabiting insect was demon- 
strated by "J. O. W." in the Gardener's Chroni- 
c7e, of England, for January 30, 1869, and M. J. 
Lichtenstein even contended that their European 
species was identical with ours, and imported 
from this country, in which opinion he was sup- 
ported by A. Combe-Dalmas.* 

Of course the^e views expressed in Europe 
gave increased interest to our own gall-louse, 
and we determined to make every effort to de- 
cide the question of identity, together with some 
other questions which presented themselves. To 
this end we opened correspondence with M. V. 
Signoret and M. J. Litchtenstein, who were 
making experiments in France while we were 
doing the same here. But the blighting effects 
of the war have not only entailed untold misery 
and woe to millions in France, but have either 
paralyzed or effectually balked scientific investi- 
gation within her borders, so that at last ac- 
counts M. Liichtenstein was in Spain, and M. 
Signoret shut up in Paris. We were, however, 
fortunate enough to receive from the latter gen- 
tleman, a few days previous to the investment of 
Paris, a letter stating that upon examination of 
specimens of our gall-lice, which we had ex- 
pressed to him, he was convinced of their ident- 
ity with tho, European species. This was indeed 
satisfactory, and, coupled with the facts that we 
have discovered that our gall insect likewise 
attacks the roots of our vines in precisely the 
same manner as does the European species, and 
that the winged specimens found in this country 
by Dr. Shimer agree in having the character- 
istic dusky band around the middle of the 
thorax described in the winged female of Eu- 
rope, it leaves no doubt in our mind that the 
insects of the two continents are really identical. 

As already stated the war put a stop to inves- 
tigations in France, and we do not know that 
any effectual remedy was discovered, or that the 
premium was disposed of. Carbolic acid, and 
two other substances, namely, sulphuret of lime 
dissolved in water, and an empyreumatical oil, 
known among veterinary surgeons by the name 
of " oil of cade," dissolved in water, were found 
to be the best specifics ; but neither of them have 
been tried on a sufficiently extensive scale, and 
we have little fkith in any medicinal remedy. 

The two parties who have written most upon 
the disease, namely, M. Signoret and M. Lich- 
tenstein, took entirely opposite grounds as to its 
cause. The former claimed that it had a botan- 

•JntedoiogieAgrieole, 1809, p. 180. 



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ical rather than an entomological cause, that it 
was principaUy due to drouth, bad culture and 
poor soil, and that the Phylloxera was therefore 
incidental; and acting upon this view, suggested 
that water, with manure and good cultivation, 
would do away with it; while the latter main- 
tained that the Phylloxera was the sole cause of 
the trouble. There are, doubtless, certain condi- 
tions of soil which will prove fiavorable to the 
increase of the louse, and it may also be influ- 
enced by the seasons and by good or poor culti- 
vation; but that this insect should be found only 
on such roots as are already diseased is highly 
improbable, and there can be no reasonable 
doubt that M. Lichtenstein is right in attrib- 
uting the disease directly to the Phylloxera, 
The appearance of mites is the almost inevita- 
ble consequence of diseased and rotting vegeta- 
tion, but Plant-lice cannot live on such vegeta- 
tion, and invariably leave it as soon as they have 
by their punctures redaced the healthy tissues 
to such a state. Moreover, the history of our 
own louse, which we shall now proceed to give, 
corroborates M. Lichtenstein's views. 

In Missouri this insect has proved very injuri- 
ous to the Clinton vine for several years past — at 
least as far back as 1864— and Mr. Greo. Hus- 
mann informed us that last year it actuaUy de- 
foliated three-fourths of an acre of Clintons and 
Taylors on bottom land at Bluffton, though it 
did not appear to do much injury on the hills. 
The past season it has been very bad ai*ound 
Kirkwood, where we had an excellent opportu- 
nity to carry on our observations. 

In this latitude the first galls are noticed by 
about the middle of May, and by the middle of 
June they begin to be quite common. It occurs 
most abundantly on the Clinton and Taylor, but 
we have found it on the wild Frost Grape ( F. 
cordifolia) , and such other cultivated varieties of 
it as Golden Clinton and Huntington ; also on the 
Delaware, and early in the year we even found 
a few large galls on the Concord. According to 
Dr. Morse it also occurs on the lona, which is a 
variety of the Northern Fox Grape ( F. labrus- 
cd). The galls vary somewhat In appeai'ance, 
according to the vine upon which they occur, 
those we have noticed on the wild Frost Grape 
being more hirsute than those on the cultivated 
Clinton, and these again rougher than on the 
Taylor. 

The few individuals which start the race 
early in the year station themselves upon 
the upper side of the leaves, and by constant 
suction and irritation soon cause the leaf to 
swell irregularly on the opposite side, while 
the upper .part ^of the leaf gradually becomes 



ftizzy and closes, so that the louse at last sinks 
from view, and is snugly settled in her gall. 
Here she commences depositing, her bulk in- 
creasing during pregnancy. Eventually she 
grows to be very plump and swollen, acquires a 
deep yellow or orange tint, and crowds the space 
within the gall with her email yellow eggs, num- 
bering from fifty to four or five hundred, accord- 
ing to the size of the gall. The young lice are pale 
yellow, and appear as at Figure 219, d, e. As 
soon as they are hatched they escape from the gall 
through the orifice on the upper surface of the 
leaf, which was never entirely closed ; and, taking 
up their abode on the young and tender leaves, in 
their turn form galls. The mother louse, after 
completing her deposit, dies, and the gall which 
she occupied dries up. There are several genera- 
tions during the year, and this process goes on 
as long as the vines put forth fresh leaves. As 
the^alls multiply and the growth of the vine 
becomes less vigorous, the young lice sometimes 
so completely cover the upper surfkce of the 
newly expanded leaves as not to leave room for 
them all to form galls. In this event the leaf 
soon perishes, and the lice perish with it. When 
two or more lice are stationed closely together 
they often form but one gall, which accounts for 
the presence of the several females that are some- 
times observed in a single gall. Those leaves 
which have been badly attacked turn brown or 
black, and sooner or later fall to the ground, so 
that the vine may become entirely denuded. By 
August the insects generally become so pro- 
digiously multiplied that they often settle on 
the tendrils, leaf stalks, and tender branches, 
where they form excrescences and gall-like 
growths, difiering only ftom those on the leaves 
in such manner as one would naturally expect 
from the difierence in the plant tissues. By this 
time the many natural enemies of the lice begin 
to play sad havoc with them; and after the vine 
has finished its growth the young lice, finding 
no more succulent and suitable leaves, begin to 
wander and to seek the roots, so that by the end 
of September the galls are deserted, and those 
few remaining on the vines generally become 
mildev^, and finally turn brown and dry up. 
Upon the roots the lice attach themselves singly, 
or in little groups, and cause by their punctures 
little swellings and knots, which eventually be- 
come rotten. Where vines have been badly 
afiected with the gall it is difficult to find a per- 
fectly healthy, fibrous root. Strange enough, 
these lice not only change their residence as win- 
ter approaches, from the leaf above ground to 
the root below ground, just like the Moor, who, 
having passed the summer on his roof, gets into 



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his house in the winter; but, Proteus-like, they 
change their appearance in shedding their skins, 
and at the present time (Nov. 6th) have ail be- 
come tubercled, as represented at Figure 219, g. 

No doubt the insect passes the winter on the 
roots in this tubercled state, but whether in the 
spring these tubercled individuals produce 
winged males and females, which rise in the air, 
pair, and by depositing eggs give birth to the 
apterous females which found the gall-producing 
colonies, or whether, as spring opens, they lay 
eggs on the roots, and the young hatching fh>m 
these eggs crawl up 'on to the leaves and found 
those gall-producing colonies, are questions yet 
to be settled in the life-history of our Grape leaf- 
louse. The foimer hypothesis is, however, by 
far the most probable, for analogy would lead 
us to infer that winged males and females must 
be developed at some time during its annual 
course, and winged males are so rare in the galls 
that we have never been able to find them, 
though we have opened thousands upon thou- 
sands of the galls during the sunmier and flEill 
months. Dr. Shimer, indeed, is the only fortu- 
nate individual who has found the winged in- 
sect in the galls, and, as he himself tells us, he 
only succeeded in finding four specimens in the 
fall of the year, after cutting open ten thousand 
galls ; and he has really given us no proof that 
his winged specimens were reaUy males, and not 
females. Let us hope, however, that by point- 
ing out the gaps in the biological history of this 
insect, attention will be drawn to them, so that 
they may be the more readily filled. 

These discoveries lead us to some most impor- 
tant practical considerations. It now becomes 
evident that this insect can be transported fh)m 
one place to another on the roots, either upon 
transplanted vines or in earth containing fibrous 
roots. Doubtless it was by some such mode as 
this that the insect was introduced into France 
from this country. It may be in this manner like- 
wise that it has in part spread from one portion 
of our country to another, though as it is found 
indigenously on the wild Frost Grape, the 
greater probabilities are that it exists wherever 
this wild grape is found, and has gradually 
spread from it on to the cultivated varieties. 
These probabilities are strengthened by the fact 
that new grape wood is always rooted in the 
spring, when the lice, according to our views, 
are leaving the roots. But the important fact 
remains, that the insect winters on the roots, and 
that to exterminate it from a vineyard we have 
but to root up and destroy, late in the fall, such 
vines as were affected witii the galls. From the 
poor success that has attended the experiments 



made abroad to destroy the Hce on the roots, and 
from the fact that it is so difficult to reach them, 
we have little hope that any other remedy will 
be found than f^t of extermination by the 
means indicated, or by plucking and destroying 
the gall-infested leaves as flEhst as they appear in 
the spring. 

Another very important practical lesson may 
be derived from the facts we have mentioned, 
namely, that no variety of the Frost Grape ( F. 
cordifoUa) should be cultivated and encouraged 
where those of the Fox Grape ( V. labrusca) or 
of the Sununer Grape ( F. CBgtivalis) are known 
to be as good. Some of our best grape-growers, 
especially in the Mississippi Valley, already dis- 
card the Clinton and its nearest relatives as 
worthless, and, considering its liability to this 
disease, we heartily commend their conduct. 

There is some difference of opinion among 
botanists and experienced grape-gi'owera as to 
the number of indigenous species of the grape- 
vine, and as to the true character of some of the 
cultivated varieties, ^ome botanists are inclined 
to the opinion that we have but two, or even but 
one, species; and certain it is that the fertile 
character of the hybrids would lead to such an 
opinion; but it is more generally accepted that 
we have four distinct species ( F. labrusca, cesti- 
valiny cardifolia and mUpina) and this view is 
held by most western men.* 

As already stated, our Grape leaf-louse is now 
principally confined to varieties of the Frost 
Gmpe;! but as it has been found in limited 
numbers on lona and Concord, which are con- 
sidered as varieties of the Northern Fox, and on 
the Delaware, which is considered either as a 
Summer Grape or as a hybrid between the Sum- 
mer and the Northern Fox, we fear it may yet 
spread and become injurious to these species. 
Moreover, now that we know that our insect is 
identical with that of Europe, there is also great 
danger that it will attack all hybrids with the 
European Viniferay some of which, as the 
** Goethe," now promise well. Thus the reasons 
for discarding the Clinton and other Frost grapes 
become multiplied, for their cultivation may en- 
danger the whole grape-growing interest of the 
country. On entomological grounds, we say 
emphatically to western men, do not plant any 
more Clintons, and get rid of those you now 
have as quickly as possible. 



• See Husmann. Grapes and Wine: FUffg, Hearth and 
Home, Sept 3, 1870: Spauldlng, Lecture deliyered at the 
UUnoiB State Fair, 1870. 

t Though Gray considers the Clinton a variety of the JEliti- 
valit, it 18 more generally considered as belonging t» CordU 
foHa, which its great liability to the gaUf-louse would 
Indicate. 



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We had intended to say something about the 
several insect enemies of this lonse^ but the illus- 
trations could not be prepared in time, and our 
space will not permit. 

[Fig. 310.] 




Colore— All yellowish, except /, which is green. 
Figure 218, at the head of this article, repre- 
sents a leaf covered with galls. Figure 219 — (a) 
represents the winged female; (6) her foot or 
tarsus — after Signoret; (c) an enlarged ^gg^ 
{d) the newly hatched gall-inhabiting type, ven- 
tral view ; (e) same, dorsal view ; (/) a section 
of a gall ; {g) the tubercled root^inhablting form ; 
(A) the mother gall-louse at the heighth of her 
fertility, ventral view ; (t) same, dorsal view — 
all from natui*e; (J ^.^^ ^) differently veined 
wings of the Oak Phylloxera of Europe. All 
these figures are greatly enlarged, and the natural 
size is approximately shown by haii^lines. 

APPENDIX. 

It will be remembered that in what was said about 
this insect on page 248 of our first volume we criticised 
the founding of the Family Daotylosphmrida by Dr. 
Shimer. In an essay read before the Illinois State 
Horticultural Society at Ottawa last winter, Dr. Shimer 
took exception to our remarks, and called upon us to 
give a reason for the faith that is in us. Not consider- 
ing a horticultural meeting the proper place to enter 



into the discussion of purely entomological questions, 
we declined to waste the precious time of the members, 
but intimated that we should be glad to answer the 
Doctor whenever a fiivorable occasion presented. The 
opporianity did not offer till now, as the Transactions 
of the Society, containing the essay in question, have 
but recently been published, but as we ourselves wrote 
the strictures, we wUl briefly give our reasons for so 
doing. In order to lay the question clearly before 
those interested, it will be necessary to quote that por- 
tion of our former article which so exerdsed fiiend 
Shimer. It runs as follows : 

The louse which forms the gall was first described as 
Pemphigus wUfolia by Df . Fitch, of ^ew York, though 
it does not belong to that genus. Dr. Shimer, of Mt. 
Carroll, made some interesting observations- on the 
habits of this insect, and made it the type of a new 
fiunily {DadylonhcBrida) and of a new eeuus {Dactylos- 
phasra). The distinguishing features of this supposed 
family are certain appendages attached to the legs 
which Dr. Shimer calls digthdi, though the characters 
of the wings point unmistakably to the genus Phylloxera 
of the true riant-lice. We shall not now dincuss the 
validity or propriety of this new family, as we intend to 
give a more complete account of this louse in our future 
articles on Grape insects ; but we will say here that Dr. 
Shimer Is unfortunate in grinding out new genera and 
new families, for he has proposed a new family and 
ffenus {Lepidotaphee) for the common Apple-tree Bark- 
louse {Aepidiotus) [liytilaspis] conchiformie, Gmel.) 
based upon simlhu* appendages, which he found on its 
legs ; whereas, if he had been better po.sted be would 
have known tnat these appendages are characteristic of 
almost all Bark-lice. 

And here is Dr . Shimer's appeal : 

Here they would like to make the public believe that 
these appendages, digUuUj are the characters out of 
which 1 nave proposed two families in Eniomology ; 
whereas, the leading character upon which 1 propose 
my family Dctctyloephaerida, is two claws on a one- 
jointed tarsus, and the leading characters in Lepidosar 
phidm are a tarsus without a claw, and a scale-mabing^ 
not a scale-like insect. The digituli n-om their globe- 
ended extremities I consider of some iniportaiK-e, but 
by no means of primarv weight in the tirst named 
family, and in the second family I give them no more 
than secondary importance. What reasons the junior 
editor, for he alone now becomes responsible, can 
assign for so gross misrepresentation I am not uole to 
anticipate. Ue cert • inly, however, will be able to give 
some reason for the faitn within nim. * * * 
I have not the slightest personal feeling in the matter, 
and I hope that my much respected friend, Mr. KIley, 
State Entomologist of Missouri, will be free to derend 
the position he has thus taken against me. 

Now, we believe Dr. Shimer is sincere in stating that 
he has no personal feeling in the matter, else we should 
not even notice his request. We hope, tlierefore, that 
he will believe us when we state that in the few words 
we are about to pen we ai*e governed by no personal 
considerations whatever, but by a love of truth for 
truth's sake. As Dr. bhimer becomes more familiar 
(and we hope he w\\\ so become) with the minute and 
interesting insects to which he has more espeeially 
turned his attention, he will no doubt regret that he 
ever proposed those two families without longer pon- 
dering and considering. 

Regarding the Bark -louse, we will dismiss the subject 
in a few words, as it is foreign to the topic under con- 
sideration. Dr. Shimer, it is true, deserves severe 
handling for the cool and skeptical manner in which he 
refers to the work of all preceding entomologists, and 
the laughable way in which he arrogates to himself 
the power of correct observation;* but at present we 



* Trans. Am. Bnt. Soo. I, pp. 871-2. 



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will limply accede to his request, as foDows : 

We confess that in stating that Dr. Shimer had based 
his new fkniily, Lrpidosaphida, upon the occurrence 
otdigtkdiy we should liave qualified our language by in- 
serting <' partly " before <' upon,' ' since the characters 
as given by liim are, <« Four digituU Urtmnatsd hyfml- 
villi or aroUaf and no elww, and th4fmnaU living hensaih a 
9oals or $heUMh€ hdbttation of ker own eomtrueiinff.^^* 
But we insist that the proposition of a fkmily on such 
grounds was not only unfortunate, but unwarranted, 
for the following reasons : First, tiie so-called digituU 
are not eyen of generic, much less of fiunily value, as 
they are really nothing but modified hairs, and occur in 
a more or less perfect form & all young Coceida and 
Aphida which we liave examined, and are acknowl- 
edged by the best authorities to be conunon to both 
these fiunilies. Secondly, the insect in question really 
has a more or less perfect claw, as we have abundantly 
demonstrated the present year. Thirdly, the assump- 
tion! that the scale in all Coccida should be part and 
parcel of the insect itself, is a purely gratuitous one, 
since there are many other species which live separate 
from their scales, and since the genus Atpidiohu was 
especially erected by Bouch^ for those species which 
thus live tmdir and separate from them. Consequently 
there remains not a single character mentioned by our 
author but what is well known to belong to the Cocci- 
DiB, and there is not even the slightest excuse imagin- 
able for separating it from Costa* s genus Diatpit, to 
which it is now correctly referred by Signoret^^ur 
highest authority on this family. 

Now let us return to our Grape-leaf louse. We have 
no trouble in proving by f>r. Shimer 's own words that 
we were perfectly justified in saying that the " digiiuli " 
were the ^ * dUtingwithing features" of his supposed 
family Daetylo$ph<Brid<B, The very meaning of the word 
(globe-fingered) given to the fiunily indicates such to 
have been the case, and he himself expressly says : 
t** The wing neuration of Daetylotphasra is synonymous 
with that of PhyUooesra ; it is, therefore, upon the other 
characters that I found this genus." Now what are 
the other characters ? Turning to the family charac- 
ters given, we find : " Wings four, carried flat on the 
back in repose. Antennie few -jointed. Tarsi com- 
posed of one joint terminated by two daws, and ftom 
two to six digUuU, Honey tubes none; otherwise re- 
sembling Aphida,^*l The only other character given 
which is not Aphidian is the one-jointed tarsus, which, 
as we shall presently show, cannot, strictly speaking, 
be considered a character of our Gall-louse, and which, 
even if it were, would scarcely warrant the making of a 
new fiunily. Every other character, including the 
** digUuU^* is conunon to dozens of plant-lice, and the 
neuration of the insect's wing| places it beyond any 

•Trans. Am. Ent, Soo. I, p. 372. 

flbid, p. 871. 

X CharacterM for a mppoted new family, p. 6, note; from 
the Proo. Acad. Nat. sSfTphil., Jan. I9ffi. ^ ' ' 

§Ibid, p.l. 

BThe neuration of the wing differs ulightly ftom the typical 
Uuropean PttyUoxera querent '\n the two discoidal veins of 
the front wing aniting in a fork instead of being perfectly 
separated. On this account Mr. Walsh protwsed for oar in- 
sect, and for certain other species found in hickory galls, 
wnich have the same neuration, the generic name otXerO" 
pkjfUa. But it seems to us that the polymorphism of Aphi- 
DA has not yet been sulliciently investigated to allow of 
making even different species, much less different genera, 
apon a forked or nnforked nervore, for there is frequently 



doubt in the genus PftyRoiMra, which has long been 
ready to receive it, and wliich, with the genera VaeunA 
and Chermse, form the sixth Tribe, ChermeekuB, of Ihe 
Aphididje, according to Passerini's latest revision of 
this family. 

We can commend the eareftilness with which Dr. 
Shimer made the interesting observations which he hss 
given us on this insect, but no man should undertake 
to found new &milies without first informing himself 
more thoroughly of wliat has already been done by 
others. 

It was by no very easy means that we arrived at the 
condnsion that our Gall-louse is identical with the 
European spedes, but now that the fkct seems snifi- 
ciently proved, Planchon's spedfio name wutatrixyfiH 
have to give way to Fitch's vUifoUce^^ or at the most 
be retained as a variety. 

At first there seemed to be many reasons for consid- 
ering the two insects distinct. First, the European 
root-louse was exceedingly destructive, and their gaO- 
louse of only exceptional occurrence ; while our gaU- 
louse was very common and destructive, and no root- 
lice were knovm to exist here at all. Secondly, the in- 
sect found in the galls was smooth, while that on the 
roots was distinctly ornamented vdth piliferous taber- 
cles, and the two were sufficiently unlike to cause H. 
Lichtenstein, who believed in their identity, to propose 
the term gall-inhabiting (galUeoU) for the one race, and 
root-inhabiting {radieieoU) for the other. Thirdly, onr 
insect was described as having a one-jointed tarsos, 
whereas M. Signoret described and figured the tarsus of 
the winged root-inhabiting form as two-jointed . Fourth- 
ly, there seemed to be a diflference even in the form of 
our gall-inhabiting louse and theirs, as ours appeared 
much more obese and globular than theirs, as repre- 
sented in their figures. All these apparent differences 
were rather calculated to give rise to doubts as to the 
identity of the two insects; but by carefUl observation 
and persistency we have been enabled to dispel themaO. 

First, we might naturally expect—and those who be- 
lieve in the Darwinian hypothesis certainly would— 
that, presuming our insect to have been imported into 
Europe, it would undergo some modification in its 
habits, not only because of change of climate, but be- 
cause of its having to live on another species of the 
Grape-vine— all the European species belonging to VUit 
vintfera. Hence its normal habit there, of feeding on 



of neuration: there being red specimens with uoforkea 
nerves (Fig al9. i) , and yellow specimens with forked nwvea 
(Fig. 819, {). We liave in our possession the very drawing 
made by Mr. Oesson fh>m Dr. Shimer's specimen of vi<t- 
folia, which Mr. Walsh refers to in his Report, and whicii 
led Mr. W. erroneously to place our louse with the (}oocicis. 
The drawing is rough, evidently imperfect, and well calco- 
lated to mislead, for the discoidal nerve of the finont wing 
is represented more as a fold, the forks are omitted, sad jme 
costa of hind wing is represented perfectly straight. The 
drawing is also accompanied by Mr. Cresson's statement 
that he could not give any decided opinion as to the nenis* 
tion, as the wings on the specimen were not spread out. 

•M. J. Lichtenstein has objected to Fitch's speoiflcnsine 
"vitifolia** on the score of its being ungramniAtica],Ma 
has substituted the term **vUi9-fom^ in his published re- 
ports. We cannot see any reason for being so ultra nice in mis 
matter. Irregularities in entomological nomenclature seon 
to be allowable, or at least are verj nrequently and purposely 
perpetrated for the sake of euphony. ** whatever is, a 
right," is as true in language as it is in religion, and if we 
alter vitifolUt we must alter a thousand other entomolc^os' 
names that are not, strictly speaking, grammatically oor- 
reot. 



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the roots, may have been gradually acquired. We be- 
lieve a parallel case presents itself in our Apple Boot- 
louse {Erioioma pyriy Fitch) and the Woolly Aphis, or 
so-called "American Blight" (Eriosoma lamgeray 
Hausm). It is conceded on almost all sides* that the 
last insect was imported into Europe fh>m this country, 
and there is now every reason to believe that the two 
insects are indentical, or that at ftirthest they can only 
be considered as varieties of one species. Tet while in 
this country our root-louse is very injurious in the 
West, and only exceptionally found on the limbs 
above ground (though more often so found in the 
Eastern States); all authors that we are acquainted 
with have spoken of it as occurring solely on the limbs 
in Europe; though M. Lichtenstein informs us that he 
has found it on the roots there also, and that in those 
cases it caused just such swellings of the roots as our 
root-louse does hero. We know in St. Louis of an old 
apple-tree, standing in a yard where the ground is 
trodden hard, the limbs of which have been for the past 
three years more or less affected with this insect, though 
none can be found on the roots. But where the ground 
is more porous, and not so closely pressed to the roots, 
it seldom occurs on the branches, but often on the roots, 
even in the immediate neighborhood. Upon the closest 
examination we cannot find the slightest diflference be- 
tween the root and branch-inhabiting lice, and no doubt 
their habitat is governed somewhat by the character of 
the soil, though in this country their normal habit is to 
attack the roots, and to appear above ground only occ»- 
sionally in the fall. 

Secondly, we have proved, by transferring on to 
roots the young grape-lice hatched irom galls, and by 
successfully feeding them on those roots, that our 
smooth gall-inhabiting type gives birth to the tubercled 
root-inliabiting type; and we have discovered that our 
gall insects take to the roots in the fall , on which they 
cause the same cankerous spots and swellings as does 
the t€t9t<Unx of Europe, and on which they evidently 
hibernate Just as xxutoMx is known to do. 

Thirdly, although in the gall-inhabiting type, in both 
countries, the tarsus seems to be one-jointed, yet in 
the root inhabiting type it is really two-jointed; for 
though the basal joint is small, and not visible fVom 
above, it is plainly visible ftom the side or fh)m below 
(See Fig. 219, h). We have here what certain speculative 
entomologists would consider an excellent illustration 
of the inferiority of Coccidae compared with the Aphi- 
dae, namely, a true Aphidian, exhibiting in its larval 
and agamic stage the one-jointed tarsus of a Coccid, and 
only showing the two-jointed tarsus of its family in the 
more perfected tubercled form, and in the winged state. 
And this Coccld-affinity in the less perfect gall-producing 
state is sometimes carried still farther, as we have often 
been unable to discern but a single claw to the tarsi of 
some of the young gall-inhabiting individuals. 

Fourthly, the fact that M. Signoret, who alone has 
compared actual specimens fh>m both countries, de- 
cides them to be identical, would sufficiently indicate 
that the difference noticeable in the form depends on 
the observer, and on the stage of growth at which ob- 
servations are made. 

It was the one-jointed tarsus in the gali insect which 
no doubt in part led Dr. Shimer to propose a new 

*|[. Eodes-Deslongohamps and M. Blot are the only 
authors, according to Amyot and Serville, who believe it is 
Indigenoos to Europe. 



flmiily for it, and it was this character— coupled with 
the fiftcts that it is oviparous, that it does not secrete 
any sugary or fiocculent substance (as do most gall-in- 
habiUng Plant-lice), and that the young forsake the gall 
and scatter over the leaves as soon as hatched— which 
led Mr. Walsh to consider it as an anomalous and aber- 
rant Coccid. The genus PkyUoxrra seems also, accord- 
ing to Westwood, to have been doubtingly introduced 
into this fSunily by Curtis in his Guide. We have al- 
ready shown that, in the root-inhabiting form, the two 
joints of the tarsus are plainly to be seen; and Dr. 
Shimer himself admits* that, in the winged insect which 
he found in gaUs, he noticed a constriction on the under 
side of the tarsus, though he is unwilling to allow that 
it was a joint, because there was no motion. But even 
if the 2-jointed character of the more perfect louse were 
not demonstrated, all the other characters are so un- 
mistakably Aphidian that there is, we think , no war- 
rant in making a new family. In such degraded insects, 
where the antennal joints are so variable, we might 
naturally expect to find variation in the joints of the 
legs. The more familiar we become with the biological 
secrets of l^ature, the more do we find, not only species 
but genera, and even families, approaching each other 
through modifications found in individuals; and these 
aberrant gaU-lice only help to give us a better idea of 
the dose connection between theCocciD^ and APHiDiB. 
Our PhfUoosera brings the two families dose together, 
by its afiinities on the one side with Chermes of Linnasus, 
which, though looked upon as a Cocdd by Ratzeburg, 
is generally considered an Aphidian, and on the other 
with the Cocddan genus Daetylopiut which contains 
Linnieus's Coccus adonidum. The oviparous nature of 
these gall-lice will also have less significance when we 
reflect that there is a sort of gradation in this process, 
and that many Plant-lioe which are considered vivi- 
parous or ovoviparous do in reality bring forth their 
young enveloped in a more or less distinct egg-like fibn 
or covering, fh>m which they have to free themselves 
by a process analogous to that of hatching. This has 
not only been observed by Curtis, in the case of an 
Aphis found on the tumip,t but by Dr. Wm. Manlius 
Smith, of Manlius, K. Y.,| in the case of P«mphigu8\ 
and we have, the present year, assured ourselves of the 
accuracy of Dr. Manlius's observation as to Pemphigus^ 
and witnessed the same thing in Eriosama, namely in 
E, p^ri, Fitch. In this last case the newly deposited 
louse [or egg] remains motionless for a considerable 
time; and the covering, after the young louse has ex- 
tricated itself fh)m it, may be as distinctly seen attached 
to the end of its body as the covering or egg-shell of our 
Qrape gall-louse, and was figured by Fitch, who mis- 
took it for the cotton-like matter, which, however, is 
not secreted till the louse fastens itself and begins to 
grow . § Moreover those Aphidians which are viviparous 
through the spring and summer months, generally lay 
eggs in the fall ; and though agamous and viviparous 
multiplication can be prolonged by submitting the lice 
to a continued artifically warm temperature, there is 
doubtless a limit to this prolongation; and it may be 
laid down as a rule that, with most Aphidians, the (j^ 
element and the production of eggs are, at some time or 
other, indispensable to the continuance of the species. 

*Characten afa Suppaed New Family, p. 8. 

IFarm Insecis, p. 66. 
Aactore Walsh, P. S. S. P. YI, p. 28S, note. 
N. T. Eep. I, p. ». 



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THE CHALCIDEOUS PARASITE OP THE APPLE-TREE 
BARE-LOUSE. 

{Chalcis [Aphdinut] mfiUaspidUf n. sp.*) 

BT DR. WIC. LX BARON, GXNXVA., ILLS. 

[Fig. 220.] 




Color— Yellow, (a) Fly; (6) antennsB; (c) larva. 

It is the general opinion of nurserymen and 
orcliardists that the Oyster-shell Bark-louse of 
the apple tree has, for a number of years past, 
been gradually disappearing, so that it no longer 
occupies the rank which it has heretofore so pre- 
eminently held, of a first-class noxious insect. 

The causes which have been insti-umental in 
bringing about this result, and which are still 
operating to its completion, are matters of much 
interest. The agencies to which it has been 
usually attributed are the four following: In- 
sectivorous birds ; pi*edaceous insects, especially 
the Coccinellae, or Lady-bugs, and their larvse ; 
the larvae of the parasitic Chalcis-flies ; and the 
Mites or Acari. 

It has been generally supposed that the smaller 
insectivorous birds, such as the wrens and 
warblers, devour many of the eggs of the Bark- 
louse ; but these eggs are so minute, and so com- 



*Thl8 insect belongs to the genus Aphelinui of Dalman, 
and comes into Mr. Walker's fourth section, which contains 
the similar European species, Aphelintujlawu. The follow- 
ing description gives the principal characters, both generic 
and specific. 

GxKRRic DBSCRipnoM .— Q Head a little wider than thorax ; 
anteniue 6-Jolnted, first Joint elongate, the other five forming 
a fusiform club of which the first and fourth joints are equal, 
second and third very short, fifth longest; mandibles three- 
toothed; palpi very short; eyes hirsute; three ocelli. Pro- 
thorax somewhat rounded anteriorly , not strongly quadrate. 
Abdomen sessile; ovipositor originating firom the middle of 
the venter, Iving in a groove, its point extending a very 
little beyond the tip of toe abdomen; from each side of the 
penulthuate segment projects a fine hair, which ftircates near 
Its origin and extends but little beyond the tip, forming a 
minute peculiar appendage the office of which it is difficult 
to conjecture. Surface of the wings beset with bristly points 
and fringed around the greater part of their margin, the 
fringe or cilia on the hina wings very long; sub-costal vein 
consolidated with the costa. except its basal third, and ex- 
tending half the length of tne wing, and then defiected so as 
to form a very short stigmatic branch or stump . Legs simple, 
all the tibi» spurred at their extremities, spurs on middle 
legs longest, spurs on anterior tibia a little incurved; tarsi 
five- jointed. 

Spxcific DvscBimoif — Aphelinnt mytUaipidUt n. sp. 
—Length one twenty-fifth of an inch, some individoals (if 
the same species) do not exceed one thirtieth. Pale lemon 
vellow; mandibles reddish-brown; ocelli coral red; oviposi- 
tor reddish; a vacancy in the punctuation of the anterior 
wmgs, forming a narrow space or pathway across the basal 
half, extending inwards obliquely backwards fh)m the stig- 
ma; cilia on the posterior margin of the bindings longer 
than half the width of the wing, in the smaller individuals 
the fringe on both wings is proportionally longer, that on 
the hind wings being fiaiy as long as the width of the wing. 
These may possibly be a distinct species. 



pletely concealed under the bark-like scales, ibat 
even the sharp eyes of a bird could scarcely de- 
tect them, unless it were endowed with a special 
instinct for the purpose, and I know of no record 
of any actual observations which confirm this 
supposition. I am therefore inclined to the 
opinion that birds have done littie or nothing in 
the way of exterminating the Bark-louse. 

The CoccineUae devour a very small proportion 
of these insects, whilst they are in their incipi- 
ent and active state; but this lasts only three or 
four days, and therefore but very few of them 
can be thus destroyed. These predaceous insects, 
and especially their Iarva3,al80 destroy a few of 
the Bark-lice, in their subsequent stages, by 
gnawing ragged holes through the scales, and 
thus getting access to the insect beneath. Mr. 
Walsh conjectured that these rough holes were 
made by Acari, but I have repeatedly seen the 
larva of the Two-spotted Coccinella in the act of 
gnawing just such holes in the scales of the Bark- 
louse of the pine tree, and devouring its contents, 
and it is therefore probable that they are the 
authors of the similar holes on the apple tree. 
But the small number of scales eaten into shows 
that but few bark-lice are destroyed in this way. 

The destructive work of the Acari is supposed 
to be indicated by the brownish, discolored rem- 
nants of the eggs from which the contents seem 
to have been extracted, easily distinguished firom 
the pure white shells firom which the insects have 
been hatched. Both Mr. Walsh and Dr. Shimer, 
who were the first to notice these mites, attribute 
much efficacy to their depredations, but that they 
are the sole authors of this work is rendered 
somewhat doubtAil by the fact, that in some lo- 
calities, at least, where the scales containing 
these discolored eggs are not uncommon, the 
Acari are comparatively rare. Of eighty-one 
scales just examined (Sept. 26), containing these 
shriveled and discolored eggs, in only four were 
Acari seen. It is possible, however, that they 
may have left them after having extracted their 
contents. 

But, besides the ragged holes above mentioned 
as the work of the Coccinellas, a much lat-ger num- 
ber of scales are found through which has been 
bored perfectiy smooth and round, or slightly 
oval, holes, which we know from analogy must 
have given exit to some parasitic fiy. These 
holes have been particularly mentioned by seve- 
ral of our entomological writers, and must have 
been seen by all who have made a special study 
of the Apple-tree Bark-louse. 

So long ago as the year 1855, Dr. Fitch in his 
first report upon the noxious insects of New York, 
gave a history of this Bark-louse, so fkr as it waa 



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361 



then known, and mentions the frequent occur- 
rence of these round holes in the scales at that 
time. He also discovered under some of the 
scales a little oval, footless maggot, which he 
conjectured might be the larva of some Hymen- 
opterous parasite, which, in its exit, made the 
holes in question. 

In 1867, Mr. Walsh, in his history of the Bark- 
louse, in his first annual report upon the noxious 
insects of Illinois, refers to Dr. Fitch's statement, 
and adds that he had often noticed the round 
holes in the scales, which he also attributes to 
the exit of a parasitic insect belonging to the 
Chalcis or Proctotrupes family. But he says he 
had never met with the larva described by Dr. 
Fitch. 

In the course of a series of observations upon 
the Apple-tree Bark-louse, during the past sea- 
son it has been my good fortune to trace the 
history of this interesting little insect, which, if 
it has ever been seen before, has not been identi- 
fied, and whose very existence has been only a 
matter of inference from the visible marks of its 
beneficent operations. 

In the early part of the season, whilst examin- 
ing the lice upon an apple tree, I noticed two or 
three little yellow Chalcides running along the 
infested twigs, which I conjectured might be the 
parasites of the Bark-louse, but had no proof 
that this was the case. But about the first of 
August, upon raising one of the scales, I hap- 
pened to uncover one of these insects in the last 
stage of its transformation. Its wings were not 
yet unfolded, but it ran so rapidly that I had 
some difficulty in keeping it within the field of 
the lens. As soon as it paused long enough to 
be examined, it was easily recognized as a Chalcis 
by its general aspect, and especially by the pe- 
culiar vibratile motion of its short geniculate 
antennas. 

Having once become familiar with its appear- 
ance, I have had no difficulty in capturing, in 
the latter part of August and September, all the 
specimens I desired on the infested trees. I have 
repeatedly watched the female Chalcis in the act 
of inserting her ovipositor through the scale of 
the Bark-louse, for the purpose of depositing her 
egg in the cell beneath. She always places her- 
self transversely with respect to the scale. Some- 
times she mounts upon it, and then her tiny body 
is seen to be considerably less in length than the 
width of the scale. Usually she backs up upon 
it only so far as to bring the tip of her abdomen 
about opposite the middle of the scale. Then 
bringing her ovipositor down perpendicular to 
her body, she forces it through the scale by a 
series of boring or short plunging motions. 



Having accomplished this she remains stationary 
for many minutes, whilst by some invisible in- 
testine motion the egg is carried down the 
ovipositor and deposited beneath the scales. So 
absorbed is she in this delicate operation, upon 
the successful accomplishment of which not only 
her own hopes, but those of the horticulturist, so 
largely depend, that nothing can deter her from 
it. In one instance, having drawn down a 
branch of an apple tree, I discovered a Chalcis 
in the act of depositing. Whilst holding the 
branch in one hand, and viewing the insect 
through a lens held in the other, the branch 
slipped through my fingers and flew back with 
violence to its place. Drawing it down again, 
the twig I had hold of broke, and it flew back a 
second time. I supposed that that obsei^vation 
had, of course, been brought to an abrupt ter- 
mination. But, upon drawing down tlie limb 
the third time, there stood my little Chalcis as 
inmiovable as a statue at her post. She may be 
touched with the finger whilst thus engaged, or 
even crushed, as I have often inadvertently done 
in my attempts to capture her, but nothing short 
of this actual violence can move her from her 
position. With such wonderful perseverance 
and devotion do these living atoms of creation 
perform their allotted part in the complicated 
economy of nature. 

The egg thus deposited hatches into the little 
footless larva previously mentioned. This larva 
is so admirably described by Dr. Fitch, in a 
single sentence, that I can not do better than 
copy his description : "Under these scales I have 
repeatedly met with a small maggot, three-hun- 
dredths of an inch long, or frequently much 
smaller, of a broad oval form, rounded at one 
end and tapering to an acute point at the other, 
soft, of a honey-yellow color, slightly translucent 
and shining, with an opaque brownish cloud in 
the middle, produced by alimentary matter in 
the viscera, and divided into segments by faintly 
impressed transverse lines." (See Fig. 220, c.) 

The only motion of which this small grub is 
capable is a slight extension and contraction of 
its body, particularly at the two extremities, by 
which its form is correspondingly modified. 

There is usually but one larva under each 
scale, and I have never seen more than two. In 
the earlier part of the season it is seen adhering 
to the body of the Bark-louse, but later it is found 
in the midst of the eggs or their remains. 

Whether there is more than one brood of this 
parasitic fiy in a year, I have not yet been able 
to determine. At the time I am now writing — 
the last of September— we find numerous in- 
stances of the round holes, which must have 



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given exit to an early brood of flies, and we also 
find under many scales larvffi most of which are 
nearly or quite folly grown, which must have 
proceeded from eggs laid by the early brood. 
Now, whether these larvae will complete their 
transfoimations before winter sets in, and lay 
their eggs for the spiing brood, or whether they 
will remain in the larva or pupa state through 
the winter, and come out in the winged form in 
the spring, are points which I have not yet set- 
tled, but which can be determined in the course 
of the next two months. 

The Chalcis fly itself is a beautiful object under 
the microscope. Its length is a little less than 
half a line, or about one-twenty-fiflh of an inch, 
though I have captured a few specimens consid- 
erably smaller, being but little mote than one- 
third of a line. I at first supposed that these 
smaller individuals were males, but all the speci- 
mens that I have examined have proved to be 
females. Their color is a uniform pale lemon 
yellow. The only variation from this color is in 
the minute mandibles, which are reddish brown. 
There are three coral red occelli on the summit 
of the head, and the ovipositor, which lies in a 
groove on the underside of the abdomen, exhib- 
its a slight reddish tint. The wings are thickly 
beset, over nearly their whole surface, with 
bristly points, and their margin is ornamented 
with a long fringe. 

But a better idea of the appearance of this 
little insect will be obtained from the magnified 
figures which accompany this article than from 
any verbal description. (Fig. 220, a.) 

What proportion of the destruction of the 
Bark-louse is due to each of the agencies above 
enumerated could only be determined by an 
extensive series of observations. It would pro- 
bably be found to vary considerably in difierent 
sections of the country, and perhaps also at dif- 
ferent periods. In my own locality, actual 
observation shows that, at the present time, the 
larvsB of the Chalcis are destroying more than 
twice as many Bark-lice as all other agencies 
together. As an illustration of this I have, 
whilst writing this page, taken four twigs in- 
fested with this year's lice, from four difierent 
apple-trees in two gardens remote from each 
other, and carefully examined the scales upon 
them, with the following result: 

Whole number of scales 330 

Bound holes made by the Chalcis fly 116 

LarvsB of Chalcis, under the scales 95 

Ragged holes made by Coccinells 7 

Shrunken and discolored eggs 81 

Acari found under the scales 4 

Scales containing eggs not damaged 27 

If we take this observation as a test, it appears 

that less than one-twelfth of the scales contain 



sound eggs for next year's crop, and eveli these 
have two fall and three spring months to pass 
through before the time of hatching. It also 
appears, as stated above, that more than twice 
as many lice are destroyed by the Chalcis (put- 
ting, of course, the second and third of the above 
items together) than by all other causes com- 
bined. The discolored eggs may have been 
destroyed by Acari. 

If anything like this degree of fatality attends 
this insect in other parts of the country, it is 
evident that the career of the notorious Apple- 
tree Bark-louse is rapidly approaching its ter- 
mination. Already the smoother bark, the 
greener foliage, and the fairer fruit, proclaim 
to the orchardist that this deadly insect is loos- 
ening its hold upon the apple tree; and many, 
no doubt, have prided themselves upon the 
successful application of some infallible wash, 
or patent nostrum ; but underneath all this 
goodly show, busily intent upon the accom- 
plishment of her own curious economy, and 
heedless of the momentous results she is efiecting 
in human interests, works unseen onr infinitesi- 
mal friend, the Apple-tree Bark-louse parasite 
{Ckalcis \ApheUnus\ mytilaspidU), 

Geneva, Ills., Oct Ist, 1870. 

Note. — ^By observations, made as late as the 
first week in November, the Q4>inion is confirmed 
that the Chalcis of the Bark-louse has two broods 
in a year. By the middle oi September we find 
many of this year's scales pierced with the round 
holes through which the first brood of Chaicides 
has escaped ; and late in the fall we find, under 
about an equal number of scales, the fully-grown 
larvas of the second brood, sometimes with the 
eggs of the Bark-louse upon which they have 
subsisted all consumed, and sometimes with a 
few remaining ; and in this state they undoubt- 
edly pass the winter. This second brood must 
appear in the winged form early enough next 
summer to deposit the eggs from which the first 
brood of next year will proceed. 

I will take this opportunity to add that, since 
writing the above article, I have examined a 
large number of Bark-louse scales, collected from 
difierent localities in Kane and DuPago conn- 
ties, with the following result: 

Whole number of scales examined 824 

Number destroyed by Chaicides &33 

Destroyed bv Acari and unknown causes. .. 234 
Scales containing more or less eggs 57 

From which it appears that more than twice as 

many Bark-lice have been destroyed by Chaicides 

than by all other causes combined, and that only 

about one scale in fifteen contains any eggs from 

which to perpetuate the breed of Bark-lice for 

another year. 



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THE FALL ARMY- WORM. 
PtodmUa auktmndlttf n. Bp. 



[Fig. til.] 




Oolors— (a) Honse-miT, brown, ftilrons and white; (6) dark 
grayish-brown; (e) more ftilToas. 

We herewith present flgares of the moth of 
the Fall Army- worm, of which worm we gave 
a brief accoant in the last n amber, and which 
has attracted such general attention this fall in 
many parts of Kansas, Illinois and Missonri. 
We have already shown how easily this worm 
may be distingnished from the true Army-worm, 
to which it bears a slight resemblance ; and, by 
comparing the above Figure 221, a, with that of 
the true Army-worm moth (Fig. 223) the two 
insects will be found to differ still more widely 
in the perfect state. 

Our Fall Army- worm moth is a most variable 
one — so variable, indeed, that at least three 
species might easily be fabricated by any species- 
grinder who happened to capture at large the 
three most distinct varieties, without knowing 
anything of their transformations. We have 
bred 31 specimens, all from larvsB found on corn, 
and have others which were captured at large, 
and though half a dozen sufficiently distinct 
varieties might easily be picked out from among 
them, and though scarcely any two are precisely 
alike, yet they may all be divided into three 
distinct sets or varieties. The first of these, 
which is the more common, is represented at 
Figure 221, a, the second at b, and the third at 
c. For those who are more curious in such 
matters we append, at the end of this article, a 
more elaborate description of this new moth. 
Not only do we find this great variation in this 
particular species, but all the species of the 
genus to which it belongs are variable; and 
Guen^ has truly remarked that they resemble 
each other so closely, and their modifications are 
so complicated, that it is next to impossible to 
properly separate them. We have in this coun- 
try a very common moth {lyodenia commelinoB, 
Abb.) which may be popularly called the Spider- 




Golora— (a) Tfnons-brcwii, veWetgr-black and 
Tdlow } (h and e) xraj, deep brown, white and 
ftalvona. 



wort Owlet moth, some of the varieties of which 
approach so nearly to some of the more strongly 
marked varieties of our Fall Army-worm moth 
that it is necessary to show the very great dif- 
ference which really exists between them, in 
order that the cultivator may not be unneces- 
sarily alarmed when he observes the former, by 
confounding it with the latter, and erroneously 
inferring that he will be oven'un with Fall 
Army-worms when there is no real danger. The 
[Fig. 222.] Spiderwort Owl- 

et moth, which 
we herewith il- 
lustrate (Fig.222) 
is a handsomer 
and more dis- 
tinctly marked 
species, the front 
wings inclining 
more to vinous- 
gray, or purplish- 
gray, and the or- 
dinary lines being 
more clearly de- 
fined by very 
deep brown, than 
in the Fall Army-worm moth. But, however 
much these characters may vary — and they are 
quite variable — there are yet two others which 
will be readily noticed upon comparing the 
figures of the two species, and by which the 
Spiderwort moth may always be distinguished 
from its close ally, namely, by the tip of the 
wing being more prolonged and acuminate, 
and by the three-forked nerve in the middle of 
the wing being much moi*e conspicuous. Its 
larva never congregates in multitudes as does 
the Fall Army-worm, and differs so materially 
from that worm, and is withal so characteris- 
tically marked, that it may be recognized at once 
by our illustration (Fig.222,a). Contrary to what 
its name would indicate it is a very general 
feeder, as we have found it on all sorts of succu- 
lent plants, both wild and cultivated. This 
insect is more or less numerous every year, but 
has never been known to multiply so prodigi- 
ously as the Fall Array-worm, which we have 
under consideration. 

Now that we have sufficiently dwelt on the 
characteristics of the Fall Army-worm to euftble 
any one to distinguish ft, even from its nearest 
relative, let us consider for a moment what can 
be done to prevent its great injuries to grains 
and to vegetables. We have proved that there 
are at least two, and probably as many as three 
or even four, broods during the course of the 
year; for those worms which appeared in such 



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mnltitades in Aagast and the forepart of Sep- 
tember, in due time prodaced moths, and these 
gave birth to a new generation of worms, which 
began to make their presence manifest towards 
the end of October. And it will be remembered 
that, as stated in our last number, we bred the 
moth as early as July, in 1868, from worms re- 
ceived from Mr. Daggy. In this prolificacy our 
insect differs remarkably from the true Army- 
worm, as well as from most of its close allies, 
which generally produce but one, and seldom 
more than two, broods each year. 

[FUc. 223.1 




Colors— Light-red, diurk-brown, while and dusky. 



The moths were so numerous during the latter 
part of September and the forepart of October, 
that we not only found them common at Deca- 
tur, Vandalia and other parts of Central Illinois, 
and wherever we traveled in Missouri, but we 
captured a goodly number in the very heart of 
the city of St. Louis, and even caught some 
while riding by rail. 

The eggs are deposited in small clusters, often 
in two or three layers one above the other, and 
the whole cluster is covered sparsely with the 
yellowish hairs from the $ abdomen. Each egg 
is nearly spherical, of a pale fulvous color, and 
differs only from that of the Unarmed Rustic 
(Agrotis inermis) , which we illustrated on page 
188 of our first volume, in being less compressed 
and less distinctly ribbed. The clusters were 
found abundantly, not only on the underaide of 
peach and apple leaves, which the worms readily 
devour, but on the leaves of such trees as syca- 
more, which, so far as we at present know, they 
do not feed upon. Under these last circum- 
stances the young worms, upon hatching, would 
soon descend the tree to feed upon the more 
succulent herbage below ; and the more we learn 
of the habits of our different Owlet moths, the 
more we become convinced that the long-accept- 
ed theory of their eggs being deposited on the 
ground is a false one, and that most of our cut- 
worms, though fat, lazy and groveling in the 
ground when we find them, have been bom in 
more elevated and exalted positions. 

In the fall of 1868 this worm proved very de- 
structive to the newly sown wheat in many 
parts of Franklin and St. Louis counties. Mo., 



and seemed to be confined to such wheat as was 
sown on oats stubble. We then accounted for 
this singular state of things by supposing that 
the scattering oats which were left after harvest 
had sprouted before the wheat, and had thus 
attracted the parent moths ;* and, acting upon 
this supposition, we suggested that the attacks 
of the worm might effectually be prevented by 
ploughing the land early and keeping the ground 
clear of all vegetation until the wheat was planted. 
This inference proves to be well warranted by 
the facts; and in future, when the Fall Army- 
wopn is heard of during the months of August 
or September, as it was the present year, it will 
be wise for those who live in the immediate 
neighborhood, either to sow no fall grain at all, 
or to endeavor, in doing so, to carry out the 
above suggestions. The last brood of worms, 
which at this writing (Nov. 7th) are not yet 
quite fUll grown, must evidently pass the winter 
in the ground, either in the larva or the pupa 
state. In either case a great many of tliem would 
be killed by late fall plowing, which should be 
used, when practicable, as a remedial measure 
in fields where this insect has been numerous. 
When the worms are overrunning a field of fall 
grain, most of them could be destroyed by means 
of a heavy roller, without injury to the grain. 

The question has been repeatedly asked : " Will 
this worm be as numerous next year as it has 
been tliis ; or will it go on increasing in geometri- 
cal ratio, and be still more numerous?" Now, 
although we greatly dislike to weaken the confi- 
dence that some people seem to place in the 
oracular power of entomologists to peer into the 
future, yet we must meekly confess our inability 
to give any definite answer to such questions. 

Byron has truly said tliat, "the best of Prophets 
of the future is the Past;" and we may reason- 
ably draw the inference that this worm will not 
be so abundant next year, because in the past 
it has only occasionally been so troublesome, 
and never to our knowledge during two con- 
secutive years. And we can with tolerable as- 
surance say that it will not increase in geometrical 
ratio, because it was extensively preyed ui)ou 
this fall by a Tachina pai*asite, and because such 
continued increase of one species is inconsistent 
with the harmony we find everywhere in Nature. 
But we cannot venture beyond the inference, as 
the happenings of the future are not for mortals 
to know. Some persons may also be curious to 
learn why this worm increases so much more in 
late sunmier and fall than in spring, since there 
are so many broods during the year ; or why it 



•Missouri Ent. Bep. I, p. 88. 



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365 



is only noticed in certain years? Such questions, 
likewise, can receive no definite answer, 

' 'Till old experience do attain 
To something like prophetio strain . ' ' 

For though, to meet the first, we may assume 
that the winter decimates their numhers, or that 
the spring weather is not favorable to their in- 
crease ; and to meet the last we may conjure up 
a hundred reasons — ^yet assuming is not knowing, 
and we must content ourselves with the facts as 
they occur. 

In conclusion, it will affoixi a grain of comfort 
to those who have had wheat fields cleaned off 
by this worm, to know that their wheat is not 
necessarily ruined ; for, as we personally ascer- 
tained, wheat that had been thus cut off in the 
fall of 1868 made a good stand the following 
spring; and in one instance, where part of afield 
had been invaded and the rest left untouched, it 
really appeared that the part which had been 
eaten off yielded the heaviest. Mr. Huron Burt, 
of Callaway county, Mo., also informs us that 
this insect always leaves blue-grass untouched. 

Prodenla aiiiaiiinalis,n. sp — Imago (Fig. 221, a, b and c). 
Front uHngs narrow with tlie apex usually well rounded, and 
with the middle of the hind margin sometimes, but not often, 
extending bevond apex : general color mouse-grav variegated 
with smoky-brown, fulvous and pearly or bluish- white, 
apical patch, bluish- white and never extending beyond nerve 
5: the subterminal line— which is pale and bends like a bow. 
approaching nearest the terminal line between nerves 3 ana 
4--geDerally blends with this patch so as to appear to start 
from its lower edge, but is sometimes well separated from it 
so as to be traced fhrther towards apex : dark space preceding 
subterminal line, confined between nerves 8 and 6, blending 
gradually with the rest of the wing, and barely showing two 
darker saf^ittate spots: transverse anterior and transverse 
posterior either subobsolete or tolerably well defined, each by 
a geminate dark line: basal area divided longitudinally by 
an irregular dark line, the wing below it quite light-colored: 
orbicular spot large and elongated, a little lighter than sur- 
rounding surfiice, and well defined by a fhlvous annulation, 
the pale ol)lique shade which ffenenUly encloses it in this 
genus confined to a fhlvous shaoe above, and either a more 
distinct ftilvous line behind or none at all: renlform spot 
generally dark, but sometimes lighter than space preceding; 
not well defined, the small pale spot at top being generally 
distinct, and cither partaking of the same form, or resem- 
bling the small letter e [left wing] ; the lower edge occupied 
by a distinct white dash, which nowever never extends be- 
yond it and but seldom shows any tendency to fhrcate with 
the nerves: four tolerably distinct equidistant pale costal 
spots from reniform spot to apical patch: terminal line pale, 
even, parallel with posterior margin: terminal space dark, 
except near apex and anal angle, divided into subquadrate 
spots by the pale nerves : fVing^ either broad or narrow, of 
same color as wing, with a narrow darker inner line, re- 
lieved by two very fine paler ones which are barely distin- 
guishable: under surface smoky, but paler interiorly and 
terminally, and fhlvous along costa; the whole with a 
nacreous lustre and more or less irrorate with brown, and 
often With a flesh-colored tint near apex; ft*inges dark. 
Hind tpinqs white with a faint f\ilvous tint; semitransparent 
and slightly iridescent, with extremities ot nerves and bor- 
ders, especially above, brown; Aringes dusky, especially at 
apex, and with a paler inner line; under surtaoe similar. 
Thorax, abdomen and legs of same general color as front 
wiufi[s, being paler below; the longer lateral and anal ab- 
dominal hairs more AUvous. Sexes with difliculty distin- 
guished, the size and shape of the abdomen not even being a 
safe criterion. Maximum expanse 1.40; minimum expanse 
1.05 inches. Described fi^om 18 specimens, bred Sept. 20th— 
Oct. 10th, f^om corn-fed larvae 

Varibty Fdlvosa (Fig. 221, b) .—Front toingt greatly suf- 
fhsed with fhlvous, especially in the lower median space, 
which rften inclines to ochraccous; apical space more or less 
defined; oblique median band distinct to median nerve, and 
orbicular spot with an ochre-colored centre. Described ft*om 
5 specimens, bred Sept. 25th— Oct. 3rd, firom com- fed larvse. 

VARI.ETY Obscura (Fig. 221 , c).-'Front wings of a much more 
uniform and darker color, either oprayish-brown with a slight 
vinous tint, or deep smoky brown inclining to black, or a deep 
warm brown with but little gray; apical space either entirely 



obsolete or but very famtly indicated; oblinue ftilvous band 
across upper middle of wing also obsolete; the ordinary lines 
either entirely obsolete [one specimen onlyl or distinctly 
marked; the ordinary spots sometimes obsolete, but more 
generally indicated by fhlvous lines. Described from 8 
specimens, bred Sept. 21st— Oct. 2nd, ftx>m com.fed larva). 

Larva.— Ground color very variable, generally dark and 
pitchy-black when young, but varying after the last moult 
from pale brown to pale dirty green, with more or less pink 
or yellow admixed—all the markings produced by fine, more 
or less intense, brown, crimson and yellow mottfings. Dor- 
sum brownish with a narrow line down the middle, rendered 
conspicuous by a darker shade each side of it. A dark, sub- 
dorsal band H *& wide as each Joint is long; darkest at its 
upper ed^ , where it is bordered and distinctly separated ftx>m 
dorsum by a yellow line which, except on Joint 11 where it 
deflects a little upwards, is quite straight; paler in the mid- 
dle of each Joint. A ptde. either buff or flesh-colored, sub- 
stigmatal band, borderea above and below by a narrow, 
yellow and wavy line Venter pale. Head pale vello wish- 
brown, with sometimes a tinge of green or pinx; the tri- 
angular piece vellowlsh, the Y-mark distinct and white, the 
cheeks with four more or less distinct lateral brown lines 
and with dark brown mottlings and nettings, which become 
confluent and form a dark curved mark at the submargin 
behind the prongs and each side of the stem of the Y. Stig- 
mata large, brown, with a pale annulation, and Just within 
the lower edge of the dark subdorsal band. Legs either light or 
dark. Cervical shield darker than body, with the narrow 
dorsal and subdorsal lines extending conspicuously through 
it: anal plate also dark, narrow and margined by the pale 
subdorsfkl lines— both plates fUmishing stilT hairs, out with- 
out tubercles. Piliferous tubercles on joints 2 and 3, arranged 
in a transverse row, and quite large, especially on joint 2; 
on Joints 4—10 inclusive the superior eight are arranged as 
follows : 4 in a trapezoid in dorsal space, the posterior two as 
far again troia each other as the anterior two, and two near 
stigmata, one above and one behind: on joint 11 the dorsal 4 
are in a square, and on Joint 12 in a trapezoid, with the pos- 
terior ana not the anterior ones near^t Together: the thoracic 
joints have each a large subveutral tubercle just above the 
legs. Length 1.10—1.50 inch. Described from numerous 
specimens. 

Pupa.— Formed in ground, without cocoon; of normal 
form, bright mahogany-brown, and with a distinct forked 
point at extremity. 



THE SO-CALLED WEB-WORM OP YOUNG TROUT. 

So much has already beeu written about the 
Simulium by those who are much better versed 
in the science of Entomology than I am, that I 
feel like treading on sanctified ground in under- 
taking to write concerning it. But as I was 
successful in rearing the perfect insect of the 
paiUcular species that makes Spring Creek its 
home, and has lately caused such a commotion 
among the followers of the " gentle art, " I will 
endeavor to give my observations and experi- 
ence in as few words as possible. 

They made their first appearance in the perfect 
state about the first of April. At that time I 
had two larvae. One of them perished in a few 
hours after leaving the water. The other spun 
what might be called a fine delicate "web," 
closely welding it to the glass at every poin^. 
This structure was irregular in outline, but if a 
circle were inscribed in it, the radius of the 
circle would correspond to the length of the 
grub. 

By pouring some fresh water into the dish, 
the larva was displaced. It' could not regain 
its former position, nor did it make another 
endeavor to spin; but died in a day or two. 
During the months of April and May, while 
'Basrching for other aquatic larvse, I occasionally 



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foand a few sickly attenaated looking ones 
adhering to stones in the bottom of the creek. 
Aboat the first of Jane I fonnd immense nnm- 
bers, both of larvae and pnpad, attached to water 
plants that were three or foar inches below the 
surface of the water. 

I also found them on different, occasions in 
vast quantities in several similar situations. A 
great many were displaced by a heavy rain 
storm, and carried on by the current of the 
stream, until they found a resting place on 
sunken boards and stones. The natural position 
of the larvas in the stream is a few inches below 
the surface of thOgWater and in the current of 
the stream. Here the '< wonderfUl instinct" of 
the parent is exemplified; for if these larvae 
were near the bank, or where the temperature 
of the stream varies, they would immediately 
perish. Befoi*e they were disturbed they were 
all attached to decaying vegetation, principally 
water-cress. Some were on forest leaves of last 
year's growth that had become entangled among 
the water-cress. These leaves were of a brown 
color, and^'the larvad on them were the same 
color, while those on the leaves and stalks of the 
water-cress were a murky green. But when 
found on stones or kept in a glass dish of clear 
water for a time they are almost transparent. 
The markings of black on the segments being 
well defined. On account of the difference in 
color I inferred that they derived their nourish- 
ment from the vegetation,Jand^ while it was in a 
state of decomposition. 

When frightened^they drop into the water, 
suspended to the substance to which they had 
been attached by means of a fine delicate thread, 
in a similar manner to^mauy^land larvae. They 
can ascend this thread, but it is veiy easily 
broken by the action of the water and washed 
away. 

The pupaB,^as well^as larvae, perish in water 
of a temperature warmer .than ^that of the 
stream. From this, we may infer, that this 
particular species will^only be found at spring- 
heads where the water remains of an even 
temperature. 

I was enabled to obtain the perfect insect by 
keeping pupae in ajcovcred box in the current of 
the stream. A day or two previous to emerging 
ftom the water, the pupa loosens jtself from the 
case or '^ pouch " by a gentle wriggling motion 
from side to side.'* When it.becomes free it rises 
to the surface, of the water,';and.the fiy gradu- 
ally draws itself out of a slit the^entire length 
of the pupa. j^^The legs are.the Jast to appear. 
The fly rests on the surface of the water until 
its wings expand and dry. This process usually 



takes a minute of time — sometimes more or 
less. They leave the water just before sunset, 
and will then be found flying among low herb- 
age near the bank of the stream. In creeping 
over my hands they caused a disagreeable tick- 
ling sensation, apparently deriving their nour- 
ishment in the same manner as the common 
House-fly. 

There were a few larvae marked with red on 
the segments instead of the usual black. The 
same red showed on the wings of the pupa and 
in circular bands on the body and legs of the 
imago. The larva spins, what has thus fur been 
called the ** web ;" in the center of this it then, 
by working with its head bent backward over 
its body, finishes the pouch. The feathery orna- 
ments on the head of the larvae seem to change 
during the transformation into the filaments of 
the pupae; the puparium being formed at the 
same time by the contraction of the larva skin. 

There have been a succession of broods this 
summer. During the warm season, a period of 
two months elapsed between the egg and per- 
fect forms. They were a week or ten days as 
eggs, four weeks as larvae, and about three 
weeks as pupae. These flies were much smaller 
than those that appeared late in the season and 
early in the spring, although there was appar- 
ently no difference in the size of the larvae and 
pupae. At the present time, (Oct. 18th) there 
are large quantities of minute larvae on the 
leaves of the water-cress. 

How or in what manner this larvae has come 
to be designated as a '^ web worm^^^ is more 
than I can determine, as it spins no web either 
for its own protection or for the destruction of 
any living thing. There is only the single fili^ 
meut that suspends it in the water when dis- 
turbed, and the moorings of the pupa pouch. 
These are all it ever spins. The only way it can 
interfere with young trout is by supplying them 
with a large amount of very palatable food. 
. The following is quoted from Wilkef^ Spirit 
of the Times f (June 18) where this larvae is 
called a submarine spider, and by a great natu- 
ralist: 

" The ponds are owned by Mr. Myron Pardee, 
a very wealthy gentleman of Oswego, who 
propagates trout for hiS amusement and scien- 
tific purposes, he being a great naturalist. We 
are informed that it is to Mr. Pardee that Seth 
Green is indebted for the discovery of the sub- 
marine spider and its web, so fatal to young 
trout." 

Sara J. McBrede. 

MCMFORD, N, Y., Oct. 19th, 1870. 

[We really hope that those who have the op- 
portunity will sift this matter to the bottom, and 



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367 



ascertain whether or not this SimvZium is in- 
jarious in the larva state, by killing the yoang 
trout, or beneficial, by ftirnishing said trout with 
desirable food. The settlement of the question 
must deeply interest fish-growers, and the New 
York fish commissioners should by all means 
cause the proper investigations to be made. It 
is conceded that the larva can spin a web at any 
time of its life, and we confess that Mr. Green's 
conclusions seem quite plausible. Yet our fair 
correspondent is of a different opinion, believing 
the whole thing to be a ''fish story;" and we 
may add here that Mr. Fred. Mather, of Honeoye 
Falls, N. Y., is of her opinion, for he wrole to 
us last July — " I do not believe they [the worms] 
ever killed a dozen young trout since the Crea- 
tion." According to our promise we subjoin a 
description of the species. 

SiMCLiuM risciciDiuM, D. SD. — Q Head velyetv black; 
eyes brownish: antennae with Joints 1,2, 3 and 11 sabequal in 
lenflTth^ each ox the otbeni half as lonflr, 1 and 2 rufous, 3—11 
inclusive, black and gradually diminishing in ttiickness to the 



last, which is Aisiformj palpi longer than antennae, black 
Thoraa velvety black with faint ftuvous pubescence above . 
halteres opaque and white Abdomen 9-Jointed, Joints sub- 



Ingi 
;han 
vous pubescence above; 

^^ >en 9-Jointed, Joints sub- 

e(iual in length, exceut the last two which are smaller and 
smaller: dorsally velvety black, laterallv and ventrally, 
especially towaras base and at incisures, inclining more or 
less to rufous. Lea9 with the ttoni trochanters white, or 
Ailvous, and the middle and hind ones more di-sky : the coxae 
all either rufous or ftilvous: the femora all dark, though 
sometimes [^2 specimens] the base is paler; front tibiae with 
the upper three-fourths white, the rest black; middle tibiae 
with the ufiper two-thiixls white, the rest black : hind tibise 
with about the upper one-half white, the rest black; ft'ont 
tarsi black ; middle and hind tarsi with the upper half of first 
Joint white, or rufous, the rest black. Winat sub-hyaline 
with the veins fuliginous. Length of body [alcoholic speci- 
mens], 0.14—0.17 inch. 

Described from six specimens bred by Sara 
J. McBride from the larva illustrated at Figure 
143. When fresh the lighter parts of the abdo- 
men are often blood-red or dull-red. We have 
but small means of ascertaining whether this 
species is really described, or wherein it differs 
from our other described species. It differs 
notably from 8. reptans, Linn., and from S, 
venvMum^ Say. 8, calceatuniy Harris, is appa- 
rently a catalogue name, and cannot be identi- 
fied, except by comparison with the type, which 
may not now exist. Of 8, decorum, Walk., 8. 
invenustum. Walk., and 8. vittatuniy Zett., we 
have no descriptions at hand. Our specimens, 
which seem to be all $ , are some of them in 
alcohol and some in glycerine. Those from the 
alcohol, upon drying, appear more grayish than 
those from glycerine, and no doubt the velvety 
appearance would give way to a brighter and 
more metallic lustre in the living and well ma- 
tured specimens. But the coloration of the legs 
will at once distinguish the species. — 'Ed.'] 



Napoleon, at the summit of his prosperity, 
never inflicted more damage on a nation than 
the liliputian insect army annually inflicts on the 
United States. 



On the Group finrytomides of the Hymenopterons 
Family Chalcididffi: 

WITH BBMARK8 ON THB THBORY OF 8PBCIX8, AND A 

DESCRIPTION OF ANTIOASTKR, A NRW AND VERY 

▲NOMAIiOUa aXNUS OF OBALCIDIDiB. 



DT BBMJ. n. WAL8B, M.A. 

[Concluded.} 
SUBFAMILY PTEROMAUDES, Westw. 

Gbnits Semiotellus, Westw.— The species now to be 
described Is parasitic upon Isototna kordei (the Joint- worm 
Fly), Harris, and is congeneric with the celebrated parasite 
of the Hessian Fly (Cecidomyia dettructor. Say), which was 
specifically named dettruetor by Say in the year 1821 . To 
iUostrate the general oncertaln>y and obscurity as to the 
correct classification of the Ckalcit files, it may be stated 
here that Say originally referred this species to the g^cnos 
Ceraphron, which does not even belong to the ChalcU fomily, 
but to the closely allied Proctotrypet family. Westwood, 
writing in 1840 and Judging from Say's figures and descrip- 
tions alone, declared that it must be ' 'evidently one of the 
Eulophidei,*' the 6ih Buhtamily of ChalcididtB (Jntrod U, p. 
160) ; though, according to Curtis, he subsequently changed 
his opinion, and thought that ' 4t might possibly be a Ptero- 
maluti* a genus belonging to the Srd subfomily of Chalcidida 
(Curtis's Farm IntecU, p. 280). Dr. Harris, In 1841, being 
led into this error by a letter of Herrich's, dated Jan. 24, 
1840 (see Harris CorretporuUnee, p. 195), referred It to the 
genus Eurytomaf which belongs to the 2nd subfiunily of 
Ckalcidida; and for a long time the insect was currently 
known by Dr. Fitch and others as Eurytoma dtstruetor^ Say. 
At length in 1862 Dr. Harris, perceiving that the Insect dif- 
fered altogether from true Eurytomay referred it doubtingly 
to RhaphiteluSf a genus of the Srd subfiunily of Chalcidida. 
In my £ssay on IlHnoit Imectt, published in 1864, in the 
Tram. III. Si. Agr. Society (IV, p. 870), not having then seen 
the second edition of Harris's book on It\juriou$ Ineectt, in 
which Harris's last generic determination was announced, 
as his first determination had been announced in the first 
edition of the same work, which I had long previously seen, 
I doubtingly referred this and two closely allied species to 
Olyphif a genus belonging to precisely the same sub-group 
of the Srd subfamily of Chaicidida as Rhaphitelue. Finally, 
Dr. Fitch, writing in the same year, 1881, as myself, trans- 
ferred this unfortunate wanderer to a genvm^Semiotelliu— 
belonging to a dilferent but allied sub-group of the same Srd 
subfomily of Chalcidida . Thus we see that one and the same 
insect has at different times, and by dUferent authors, been 
classified in two different tamiheB^Proctotrypida and Chal- 
cidida^BXkd in no less than three different subfamilies of the 
latter family, namely the 2nd, Srd and 5th, and in as many 
as five different genera included in those three subfiunilies, 
namely Eurytoma^ Pteromalus, Olyphe, Rhaphitelue and 
Semiotellue. 

For reasons given at the commencement of this paper, I 
do not feel disposed to dispute here the correctness of the 
generic nomenclature adopted by Dr. Fitch. I am satisfied, 
at all events, that I was wrong myself in referring the Hes- 
sian Fly parasite and its allies to Glyphs. Ab facts are always 
of fiur more scientific importance than phrases, I subjoin here 
the leading generic characters by which the genus— whatever 
name we may choose hereafter to give to it— may be distin- 
guished. 

Qbnus Semiotellus ? West., Fitch. (Fig. 7).— Body short 
and stout. Head transverse, and much wider than the thorax. 
Antenna <f Q O-Jointed (Sc.-|-7-Kl.), with the club acute at 
tip, much compressed and almost setiform, especially cf, 
when vit-wed in one direction; antenns (f filiform, the club 
as long as the two preceding Joints put together, and in no 
point of view wider than they are; antennte Q gradually 
thickened fh>m the base nearly to the tip of the flagellum. 



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the club nol qaite as long as the two preceding Joints put to- 
gether, and when vleweti in one direction ntuch wider than 
they are. Thorax as in Figure 8 O. Collar verv short, trans- 
verse; parapsldal grooves obsolete behind. Abdomen when 
viewed ttom above, cf oval or sometimes almost obovate, 9 
ovate; when viewed in profile, cf elongate-oval or almost 
linear, 9 triangular with the apex of the triangle downwards. 

[Fig. 7.] 




Semioirllus chalcidephagns. n. bp. $ (Fig. 7, a) — ^Blue- 
black or dai k indig:o-blue . Head iinely and confluently punc- 
tureil and scarcely polished. Antenuie pale rufous, darker 
towards the base, the flagellum not pubescent, and the fla. 
gellar Joints indistinctly separated. TAo roar sculptured as 
the head. Abdomen almost sessile, depressed, flattened 
above, rounded below, polished, with a few short whitish 
hairs towards the tip; color less blue than the head and thor- 
ax, and with coppery reflections especially below. Lege 
black, with the tibia) and tarsi, except the tips of the latter, 
pale rufous, the tibiffi occasionally being basally clouded 
with black on the outside. Winge hyaline; fh>nt wing with 
a dark smoky cloud extending backwards irom the subcostal 
vein, from where that vein first touches the costa to the tip 
of the ramus or branch, but not quite attaining the hind edge 
of the wing; veins brown, much paler towards the base of 
the wing. Length, ( 0.09—0.11 iuch. 

The <f (Fig. 7, 6) differs as follows from the Q : 1st, the 
antennas are longer, with the flagellar Joints pubescent and 
distinctly separated. Joints 1 and 2 rufous, 8—9 dark brown; 
2nd, the abdomen is subpetiolate, narrower, its tip acute, 
and with the penis often protruded, the coppery tinge stronger 
than In 9 ; 8rd, the front wing has no dark smoky cloud. 
Length , d" . i»^f. 10 inch . 

Described Irom 16 (f 15 $ ; namely, 17 d* bred from last 
year's barley galls June 11th— 22nd, 1 <f sent to me by Mr. 
Pettit from Grimsby, C. W. , 14 $ bred from last year's bar- 
ley galls June 14th— 28th, and 1 Q cut out Sept. 10th from 
barley galls of the same year's growth. 

In but very few other insects, as in this species, does one 
sex have a distinct dark cloud on the wing and the other sex 
none at all. But in a European May -fly, Polamanthut mar- 
ffituUiUf Zetterst., as I was informed long ago by Dr. Hag en, 
the (f has a dark patch on the front wing and the female has 
perfectly hyaline wings. In Myoditet Waishiif Lee— a beetle 
described from specimens fUrnlshed by myself— the converse 
rule holds good, for here the cf has perfectly hyaline wings 
and the 9 has a large dark patch on her wings, as in the 
Chaicidian now treated of. 

Larva of the above.— Length 0.13 inch, from 4^ to 5 times 
as long as wide, the body a little tapered towards the anus. 
Color a pale glaucous green, the head of a somewhat ilarker 
shade, as also Joints S— 10 of the body . Jaws dark-colored, 
transversely arran^d in repose, by which last character 
this larva may be distinguished at once from the Joint- worm 
UDon which it preys, for the latter always has its Jaws direct- 
eu backwards in repose at an angle of about 45" with the axis 
of its body, instead of being directed sideways at an angle 
of 90"^ with the axis of its body It differs also from the Joint- 
worm in the less reliable character of being greenish-white, 
instead of bright yellow. 

Two distinct species of Chalcit flies were found by Harris 
and Fitch to be parasitic in Joint- worm wheat-galls received 
frt)m Virginia, and very belefly described by these authors: 
1st, a Torymui, Q with an ovipositor nearly as long as her 
body, and 2nd, a PteronuUut (Harris' JnJ. /n«., pp. 556-7). 
This last differs from my Species in having the antennae black 
with the scape bright copper-color, in the femora being pale 
yellow, and in the tiblas being blackish, besides other less 
obvious distinctions. 



8UBFAMILT ENCYBTTOES, Westw. 

AjmaABTXR, new genus —The new genns to which the fol- 
lowing new species belongs is one of the most aoomaloiis 
known to science . Many other genera are more or less con- 
tractile, e, g., Agathidium, ClsmbuM, Leiode* and Spharo- 
morphu9 in Coleoptera, and the genera Eurytoma and Deca- 
t&fna and the different genera of Chry$ididit, in Hymenopters. 
But all these, when they roU ap in a more or leas complete 
ball to protect themselTeB finom their foes, roll ap downwards 
with a convex back, whereas AntigoMter roUs up opwards 
with a convex belly and stemnm. In the only group of bi- 
sects known to me that approximate to Antigaeter in this 
peculiarity— Sfs^AyltalAs in Coleoptera— the aans is curved 
up over their backs to adjust their wings under their very 
short elytra, and never, so ikr as I hare been able to see, fiur 
protection against their enemies by the assumption of a con- 
tractile attitude. It is very tnie that certain species of theie 
beetles, when approached in a threatening manner, oure 
the anus over their backs ; but ttiis appears to me to be simply 
analagous to a similar proceeding on the part of UbeJUtUdttf 
which when roughly handled generally carve the anus under 
the thorax, after the fluhion followed by the (f UbtlhUida 
in copulation. In both these cases an attitude which \s nor- 
mally and habitually employed for entirely different porposea, 
Is abnormally and occasionally adopted by way of a threat. 

AiTTiQASTSR, u. geu.- $ (Fig. 9) Body capable of rollmg up 
the contrary way to a ChryHt, Anteniue as in Figure 9, <(, 10- 
jointed (Sc.-l-8+Cl.), springing from near the lower internal 
comer of the eye, each antenna about twice as distant from 
the other one at its origin as it is from the eye; basal part of 
the scape much curved inwards; the flagellum gradually 
clavate firom base to near the tip. No antennal groove. 
Prothorax but slightly attached to the thorax, very \Mge, 
distinct, and prolonged upwards in a lateral more or leas 
acute and curved hook, the tip of which Is directed forwarda. 
Mesothoracic scutum (Fig. 8, il, 6) forming along with Ote 
hind angle of the praescutum (a) a square excavation adapted 
to receive the head in repose; scutum and pnescutum closely 
united together, but connected only by loose membrane 
laterally with the pleura and behind with the scutellum (c) 
and postscutellum (d) , so as to be capable of being elevated 
behind . The scutellum and postscutellum similarly capable 
of being elevated in front, in which case the mesonotom, 
when viewed in proflle, lies in an angle of 80<»: this istlie 
position of repose. The same parts, when depressed fbr 
flight or walking, and viewed in proflle, lie in a gentle cnr?e 
forming a circular arc of only 30<», Instead of an acute angle. 
CoUare very short, and only visible when the mcsonotal snb- 
segments are depressed, its hind edge uniting with the tri- 
angular prsescutum in a quadrant, the convexity of which is 
towards the head. Abdomen clavate, its upper surface flat 
or a little excavated, its lower surface rounded. Tarsi all 
5-Jointed, with the basal Joint the longest. Front femora 
and tibiffi robust. Middle legs with their coxae springing 
firom the extreme hind end of the mesostemum, the two coxa 
close together, the femur much depressed and with its inner 
edges perfectly straight, so that the two femora unite in as 
close and smooth a Joint as do the elytra of most beetles, thus 
forming a broad plate to protect the lower surface of the ab- 
domen in repose; tibial spur very long; first tarsal Joint 
widely compressed and finely dentate below, and tarsal Jointa 
2—5 unusually robust. Hind legs with their coxae springing 
fW)m the tip of the metathorax, but wide apart so as to admit 
the middle legs to pass between them in repose. When all 
the four hind coxae are uirected backwards, the tip of the 
middle coxae reaches as far as the middle of the hind ooxaJ. 
Front wings with the subcostal vein uniting with the cost* 
about half way to the tip of the wing; ramus or stigmal 
branch springing from the costa at an angle of 46*, straight, 
clavate, and fhlly one-sixth as long as the extreme breadth 
of the wing. Subcostal vein in the hind wiag somewhat in- 
distinct. The (f is unknown. 

In the only other Eneyrtidet In my ooUection, namely 1 



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■peoiefl belonging to a genus allied to Cerepterocerru, and 2 
species belonging to a genus allied to CoccopKagut, the col- 
lare, though short and transverse, is distinctly visible from 
above, and the sutures between the mesothoracio pnescutum 
and scutum, commonly known as the parapsidal grooves, are 






entirely obliterated, as is partially the case in SemioMltu 
(Fig. 8, C), Figure 8, A, shows the mesonotal subs^gments 
of Antigoiter, as seen fW>m above when depressed fbr flight or 
walking. Figure 8, B, shows the corresponding parts in the 
mesonotum of EuTytoma, Deeatonut and Uoiomaf and Figure 
8, C, those in SemioteUut. In all the three flgures the coUare 
(when visible) and the metathorax are shaded to distinguish 
them ft-om the mesonotum; and in the mesonotum of all of 
them the pnescutum is lettered a, the scutum &, the scutellum 
«, and the postscotellum tf ; the coUare (when visible) being 
lettered s. 

[Fig. 9 ] 




Antlgaster mirabills. u. sp.— 9 (Fig 9, a back view, 6 
curling up, c nearly curled up— both in profile) Head sub- 
opaque, finely and closely punctate; brilliant grefni^h-cop- 
pery with purple reflections. Month, including the clypeus, 
black. Antennae with the joints rather indistinct; the scape 
half as long as the other Jomts put together, Joints 2 — 10 pro- 
portioned as 3, 9, 4, 6, 6, 4, 4, 4, 9; the scape rufous, the 
other Joints brown-black, those of the flaffbllum opaque. 
Prothorax rufous Thorax above and on the iileura finely and 
shallowly rugoso-punctate and subpoiishcd; the mesothor- 
acio pnescutum (Fig. 8, i4, ff) subopaque. equilaterally tri- 
angular, finely and closely punctate and of a more or less 
brilliant greenish coppery -color; the other thoracic piects. 
black with blue and green reflections, except that the vleura 
is, sometimes, rufo-piceons on its dink. The sternum is 
polished, devoid of sculpture, and black with metallic green 
reflections. Membranous parts t>efore and on each side of 
the scutel rufous. A bright bine plate In the form of a rect- 
angular triangle on each side of the metathorax, the rectangle 
outwards and forwards. Abdomen black, subpolished, glab- 
rous except a few short hairs towards its tip ; oasally slender 
and regularly widening, with its sides straight two-thirds of 
the way to the tip, thence regiilsrlv curved to the tip, which 
f 'rms an obtuse angle Joint 1 Ailly ^ as long as the rest put 
together, and yellowish semi-transparent white, except its 
basal i, and except thst the base of Joint 2 shows bluck through 
the transuarent overlap of the terminal edge of Joint 1. Sheaths 
of ovipositor white . Leg$ rufous : hind coxie dusky ,esi)ecially 
above; the four hind femora and tibiso a little clouded exter- 
nally with dusky, and the last tarsal Joint in all 6 legs dusky. 
Front Wing$ dUBKj Bhading into hyaline on their terminal 1-6: 
their basal i and a broad transverse widely Interrupted band 
j^ Uttle beyond the middle, bot^ of thenn vJbiitish subhyaline; 



veins and stigmatic branch brown. Hind Wing* hyaline; 
veins pale brown . Length Q . 13—0. 14 inch . 

Described ft*om 3 9 taken upon herbage near Rock Island, 
Ills. , in August and September; 2 Q with the thoracic parts 
elevated and the body more or less rolled up, the other $ 
with the thoracic parts depressed and the body extended; (f 
unknown. Nothing but the almost exact correspondence of 
all the complicated colorational and structural peculiarities, 
found in this insect, would ever induce any entomologist, 
onacquainted with this most remarkable genus, to believe 
that these three specimens are all identically the same. 

Rock Island, Ills. , March 22, 1800. 



(Fig. 10.) 




[To make this paper as complete as possible, we subjoin a 
few remarks on the natural history of Antigoiter mirahilit and 
a description of the (f. In doing so we cannot repress a sigh 
of regret that so cruel a fieitality should have prevented the 
master hand which penned the Paper fh)m properly com- 
pleting it. 

During the month of April, 1860, we bred 9 Q 6 d* of this 
parasite ft-om one batch of eggs of Phylloptera obUmgifoUa, 
DeGeer, found near St. Louis; and 3 9 ^^^ another batch 
received flrom Louisiana, Mo.— thus indicating that it is by 
no means of uncommon occurrence in these eggs. Ai Ifr. 
Walsh's three 9 Q were all captured during August and 
September, we must Infer that this parasite is eiUier double- 
brooded, or that it (the Q at least) survives during the sum- 
mer months f^om April to September. The last hypothesis 
is doubtless the correct one, for if it is double-brooded it 
must breed in some other kind of eggs than those of P. o5- 
longifoliOf which are not deposited in the latitude of St LouiB 
till the first of September, and which hatch during the fore 
part of April. 

The larva of this little anomaly we have never seen, but the 
pupa (Fig. 10, b) is characteristically flattened and straight- 
ened so as the better to adapt it to its compressed domicile. 
The fly, after it is ftill fledged and well dried, gnaws an ir- 
regular but usually round hole near one end of the egg, 
through which to escape to the light of day; the eggs which 
have been parasitized thus presenting the appearance of 
Figure 10, a. 

The sexes diffier remarkably, and had we not bred both 
sexes from the same batch of eggs we should scarcely have 
believed them to be at all allied. The (f (Pig. 10, c) will be 
best described by comparison with the g . As will be seen 
by glancing at the flgures of the two sexes, he approaches 
much more nearly than she does to the normal Chalcididous 
form. We believe it is a very general law in Chaleididaf 
that where the Q Ls greenish the d* is always of a more bril- 
liant and decided green, and our d* Antigaster forms no ex- 
ception, being of a much brighter metallic green than the 9 • 
We never saw him roll up backwards as does the Q , and, 
firom his form, do not believe that he has this peculiar power. 
He certainly has not that remarkable and unprecedented 
power, which she possesses, of setting up or depressing at 
: will the mesonotal subsegments; and he difliers in other re- 
spects as follows : 

Antlgaster mlrabllU, (f.— Color brilliant metallic-green 
, with faint blue and purple reflections. Head very bright 



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green, finely and closely pnnotate; eyes pale with a dusky 
patch In fh>nt, smaller and Airther^apart than in Q ; eylets 
purplish : antenna) black and opaque throughout, oTlindrical, 
of a more uniform thickness and proportionally rather longer 
than in 9 , reaching, if turned back, to the base of abdomen, 
whereas those of B scarcely reach so far; 10-Jointed, the 
Joints proportioned as 8 (scape), 1, 8, 2, 2, MO, 1-10, MO, 
J-10, 8 (oluD) . Collare very shoit. Thorax aboTe very finely 
punctate and subp^lished, and either bright metallic-grreen 
or coppery-green with fitint purple refiectlons. the meta- 
thorax more bluish and more highly polished than the rest; 
built on a different plan trom that of Q : lacking the very prom- 
inent and characteristic prothorax, the pnsscutal triangular 
piece, and the square excavation, whicn occur in that sex, 
and more nearly resembling Eurytonut, Dtcatoma. etc (Fig. 
8, £). in the divisions of the roesonotom. Abdomen dark 
metallic blue throughout, glabrous, smaller and more uni- 
form in diameter than in Q, the Joints distinguished with 
difliculty but apparently proportioned as in p . Leg* with 
the femora all dusky with a faint bluish reflection ; trochan- 
ters rufous; oox» steel-blue: fh)nt and middle tibiae white; 
hind tibiw dusky: tarsi all white, with occasionally a speci- 
men) the terminal Joint dusky, the middle pair lacking in a 
great measure the peculiar enlargement of basal Joint. Wing* 
more rounded than in q, perfectly hyaline, the stigmatto 
branch but fkintly disoemable. Length 0.09-0.10. 
Described from 8 dried specimens. ~-£o.] 



A NEW ROTE-BEETLE : PARASITIC ON THE CAB- 
BA6E MAGGOT. 

In my communication which appeared in your 
last number (page 302), on the Parasitic Rove- 
beetle, I am made to say what I did not intend. 
In the second column, line 33 from top, it should 
read ^^and one pupa," instead of **in one pupa ;'' 
for each puparium contained only a single para- 
site. To make the subject still clearer, I wiU 
re-state. I took from the earth in my garden, 
around the root of a dead cabbage plant, twenty- 
six pupae of the Cabbage^Maggot (-4. bramccei), 
from which I bred two imagos ; also six parasites 
which came out of the pupa-cases by gnawing a 
rough hole through the side near the extremity, 
after which I took from the remaining pupa cases 
three imagos, and one pupa of the Rove-beetle. 
My surprise was so great upon discovering the 
six Rove-beetles where I expected two-winged 
flies, that I carefrdly examined with the micro- 
scope the remaining pupa-cases, as also those 
fr^m which the flies came, but could discover no 
break or orifice by which the Rove-beetles could 
have entered. It was after this examination that 
I opened the balance with the above-stated re- 
sults ; thus proving, so far as I can judge, that 
the fly larva was entered before its skin had 
hardened into the pnparcase. I add the follow- 
ing description, much against my inclination, for 
I do not believe in publishing single descriptions 
unconnected with some special paper upon the 
subject; and I only do so in this instance to 
more ftiUy assist in the great work of Practical 
Entomology. I am indebted to Dr. Horn for the 
determination of the genus, and of the fact of its 
being unnamed. 

Aleechora aBthom7i»,n. sp.— Length, 0.15 inch. Black, 
shining, covered with short decombent siUcy hairs, coarsely 
ponctiu^ all over; the head and thorax less densely oovered 
with hairs and punctures. Tarsi and more or less of the 
tibia light brown; head heavily and sparsely panctared, lesa 



BO in front: antenme with the first four Joints glabrous, the 
renudnder densely covered with a fine ash-gray pubescenoe, 
the fourth Joint small, the terminal ones graduaily enlarging 
and forming an elongate club, the last Joint of which is twice 
as long as the preceding; palpi flve-Jointed, the last very 
small, resembling the same in the genus BembitUumi thorax 
nearlv round, broadest behind, oase and sides nroadly 
rounded and with a fine margin only seen with a powerful 
magnifier, punctured like the head and with two longitudinal 
confluent lines of punctures leaving a smooth narrow dorsal 
space; elytra wholly black, more evenly and densely punc- 
tured, more hairy; body above more sparsely punctured, 
six segments depressed, gradually lengthening to the anal 
one, which is short and narrow without the raised lateral 
maivin: beneath punctured and hairv as above. In one ex- 
ample the head and thorax have a fklnt coppery lustre . Six 
specimens examined. 

Philip S. Spbague. 

Boston, MAsa., Sept. 7, 1870. 



ENTOMOIiOGICAL JOTTINGS. 

"Corn Kernels in Cocoons of Cecropia 
Moth "— G^cnem, iK., Nov. 4, 1870— This is the 
heading of an article by our State Entomologist, 
on page 177 of the Entomologist and Botanist, 
in which he mentions the fact (stated page 100) 
of a kernel of com being found in the cocoon of 
of a Cecropia Moth. During the fall of 1869 1 
found five cocoons of the Cecropia Moth, all of 
which contained kernels of com or of wheat, 
and in a sixth, found near the woods, was a 
small acoru. 

Yesterday, while at work, I saw a flock of 
Chicadees {Parua atricapiUus, Linn.), one of 
which I noticed had something in his mouth, 
which upon closer inspection proved to be a 
kernel of sweet com. He was on a small apple 
tree when I first saw him, apparently trying to 
find some storehouse for his food, but failing to 
do so, fiew on to the common board fence which 
enclosed the place, and running along till he 
found a board that was split, carefhlly deposited 
the corn in the crack of the board. Now, I be- 
lieve that the Chickadee uses the cocoon of the 
Cecropia Moth as a storehouse, as well as the 
Blue Jay, if indeed he is not the sole proprietor. 

D. F. O. 

Colorado Potato Beetle around Spbino- 
jnxLD— Springfield, Mo., October 4, 1870.— 
Some weeks since I sent you the Colorado Po- 
tato Bug in its larva state. We now find the 
perfect beetle. Have only seen a few dozens in 
ally and they are not found elsewhere than 
where first discovered on my grounds, though 
we have searched the vicinity. These few we 
treat as spies or precursors of an army, which 
we fear will be upon us in force next year. I 
am sure that I am correct in calling it the Colo- 
rado Potato Beetle. Since your visit last sum- 
mer I have given more attention to bugs, and 
insects generally, and find a very great number 
of the injurious class, and I am very glad to see 
more than usual of the Cut-worm Ldon, Soldi 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



371 



Bag, Camel Cricket, &o. My conclusion is, 
that if attacked next year by an army of those 
terrible bngs we shall be at least able to show 
fight; and we hope to receive " tactics," " rega- 
lations," '' general orders," &c,, from the Bug 
Madter General. D« 8. Holmak. 

LuMiNons (?) JjRAr'noTFKR— Lancaster, Fa. f 
Oct. 10, 1870.— The article on page 886, in refer- 
ence to *^ an electrical insect," reminds me of 
another flEtct. I have often noticed apparent 
electric sparks emitted from the end of the 
abdomen of a common species of Tettigonia, 
found on rose bushes and other vegetation in 
gardens — ^perhaps T. obliqua. Whatever the 
species may be, or whether this characteristic is 
common to more than one species, at all events 
I have often noticed it on dark, cloudy days, or 
while the insect was overshadowed by an over- 
hanging leaf. These flashes or scintillations 
occurred about every Ave seconds, and con- 
tinned at those intervals for half an hour, or, 
indeed, until the insect was disturbed. I have 
never noticed them early in the season, but 
towards the end of September and beginning of 
October, when the insects were less active than 
during warm weather. On bringing a magni- 
fier down upon the insect, I found the tiny 
fiash to proceed fh>m an almost transparent 
member, which the insect quickly protruded 
from the caudal segment, and as quickly with- 
di*ew. This may be a common observation, but 
I have never noticed any allusion to it in any of 
my books on entomology. As I supposed this 
effect depended entirely upon the volition of the 
insect, I never attempted to capture one and 
place it on my hand to see whether it was ac- 
companied by a corresponding shock. The 
flash was quite as large and brilliant in propor^ 
tion to the size of the insect, as that of PAo^tnuf, 
but not so yellow and not so prolonged, but 
quick and bluish, like an electric spark. 

8. 8. Bathvom. 

[The specimen inclosed by our correspondent 
is Diedrocephala coccinea, Forst.,=;D. irvittata, 
Say, a very pretty green, yellow and crimson 
species, which is quite common on the Grape- 
vine. No account of any such property in this 
species has ever, to our knowledge, been pub- 
lished; and as the species is so common, we 
greatly incline to believe the light was seen by 
Mr. Bathvon rather from a flash of the imagina- 
tion than from a flash firom the leaf-hopper. We 
have observed hundreds of these insects, and 
though they can hop around to the opposite 
side of any object, almost as quick as a flash, we 
have never seen the flrst sign of any luminosity 



about them. Upon corresponding on the sub- 
ject with Mr. P. B. Uhler, of Baltimore, Md., 
who gives particular attention to the Homop- 
tera, we And that he is as incredulous as our- 
selves about this luminosity. We make these 
remarks in all seriousness, and hope that they 
wilUhave the effect to elicit the experience of 
others.— Ed.] 4 

Thb Ysbbeka Bud-Moth (Penthina IkiUerea, 
Biley) m the Wi^T—Eirkwood, Mo., Nov. 9.— 
While gathering seeds from our Anthirrhinnms, 
a few weeks since, I noticed that a number of 
the capsules of one particularly choice variety 
seemed to be infested by some insect, and I pro- 
ceeded to search out the depredator, when a 
little mass of excrement indicated its place ot 
ingress and egress. As I was picking away 
very carefully, suddenly a little shining, black 
head was thrust through the opening, as if to 
inquire what was making such a disturbance 
about its dwelling place, and presently the en- 
tire larva made its appearance, giving me a 
good opportunity to observe it without the dan- 
ger of injuring it there would have been in dis- 
secting the seed vessel. Upon comparing its 
appearance and habits with the figures and de- 
scription on pages 204-^5 of the American En- 
tomologist AND Botanist I more than sus- 
pected it was your P. FuUerea. A few days 
after I discovered it this larva changed to pupa. 
The cocoon was very slight, and could not be 
said to enclose the elongate, brown chrysalis, 
which protruded firom the opening in the side 
of the capsule. The Moth issued in the course 
of two or three weeks, and proved to be, as I 
had anticipated, Fenthina FuUerea. These 
larvffi seem to be very irregular in their devel- 
opment in regard to time, some being at this 
date (November 9th) not yet an eighth of an 
inch in length, while others are ftiU grown. 
When bred in a jar they frequently change 
frt>m one capsule to another that is fresher; and 
they have the peculiarity of coming to the out- 
side whenever they are disturbed, instead of 
shrinking further into the recesses of their habi- 
tation, as we should naturally expect them to 
do. This insect is very pretty and interesting, 
but with the fate of Mr. Fuller's Tigridias and 
Mrs. Treat's Verbenas in my mind, I cannot say 
that I am very glad to note its appearance in 
our Western flower gardens. 

Mabt E. Mubtfbldt. 

The Antiopa Butterflt— OAto, lUs. — On 
page 258 of '^Packard's Guide to the Study of Ixt- 
sects," the chrysalis of this butterfly is described 
as "dark brown, with large tawny spots around 



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THE AMERICAN 



the tubercles on the back." This sammer I bred 
two specimens of Fl Antiopa from the larva, 
and in each case the chrysalis was of a delicate 
gray color with fine dark markings, the tubercles 
tipped with black. Is there a difference between 
Easteim and Western species ? G. M. Dodge. 
M [No; your description is correct, and Dr. 
Packard's was perhaps taken from a preserved 
specimen, though this chrysalis varies according 
to its age. — Ed.] 

Periodical .Cicadas in Geokgia — Lafayette^ 
Oa,, Sept, 26, 1870. — According to your predic- 
tion Cicadas appeared in this (the northwest) 
part of the State in great numbers last year 
(1869), and a few of the same variety appeared 
again this summer. They were here before, I 
think, in 1866. I have been informed that they 
appear during different years in the northeast- 
ern part of the State. A. R. McCutchen. 

Periodical Cicada not in Kreutz-Creek 
YAhLEY—Lancaster, Pa., Oct. 10, 1870.— I have 
made frequent inquiry in reference to the ap- 
pearance of the Cicada in the " Kreutz-Creek " 
Valley the present season, but have not yet 
elicited an affirmative reply. The information 
which I gave you on this subject was on the 
authority of Mr. Joseph Windolph, an intelli- 
gent nurseryman from Marietta, in this county, 
who was in the habit of canvassing that part of 
York county in taking orders for and delivering 
nursery stock. It so happened that he did not 
operate in that district the present season. 
Whilst on a visit to Mr. W. in 1868, he informed 
me that he had been in the valley aforenamed, 
and that whilst there were Cicadas in abundance 
on the north side of the hills which form the 
northeastern border of York county, there were 
none on the south side, nor in the valley of 
Kreutz-Creek, and that the people residing 
there told him they would not appear in that 
locality until 1870. That is all I know about it. 
I made no personal observation on the subject. 
I had intended to visit the locality at the proper 
season, but I was too busily engaged. 

[From the above information, and from Dr. 
Morris's letter, published on page 304, it be- 
comes obvious that this Brood II of the Periodi- 
cal Cicada (Brood III of our Missouri Report) 
is invalid. We created this Brood on the evi- 
dence of Mr. Rathvon, and in our Report we 
stated, on Dr. Smith's authority, that it might 
possibly appear in Jo. Daviess county. His., and 
in Vinton county, Ohio. We have long since 
suspected that the specimens which are said by 
Dr. Smith to have appeared in these two coun- 
ties in 1853 were but precursors of the well 
established 17-year Brood, which is to appear 



next year (1871) in Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and 
Wisconsin ; and as this Brood is also to appear in 
the " Peqiiea Valley," in Lancaster county, Pa., 
we must conclude that those observed in 1853 in 
the " Kreutz-Creek Valley " were likewise pre- 
cursors of the same. Thus from year to year we 
are enabled to correct and revise the chronologi- 
cal history of this curious insect ; and it is rather 
gratifying to know that of the twenty-two 
broods which we have predicted, this is the 
only one which has so far proved invalid ; three 
of them (viz., our Broods 1, 2 and 4) having 
been duly confirmed. Next year a 17-year 
brood is to appear in the States already indi- 
cated above, and a 13-year brood in the extreme 
southwestern comer of Mississippi and in the 
adjoining part of Louisana. We shall be pleased 
to hear from our correspondents when the time 
arrives.— Ed.] 

Remarkable Tenacity of Life in aBotter- 
FLY— -^^ Louis, Mo., November 17, 1870.— On 
October 22d I caught some specimens of that 
rare butterfly, Paphia glyceriuniy Doubleday, 
which I found flying in great numbers around 
willows on low ground. They hibernate, as 
you have suggested, in the perfect state, and 
seem to be endowed with a truly wonderftd 
tenacity of life. One of the five (f specimens 
captured was still alive to-day, although twice 
drenched with chloroform, and pinned to a dry- 
ing board. Otto Lugger. 



During the Suspension. — We shall not re- 
main entirely silent during the suspension of 
this journal. Dr. Vasey, we believe, will con- 
duct a botanical department in the Journal of 
Agriculture, published at St. Louis by R. P. 
Studley & Co. ; while we shall also occasionally 
be heard of through the columns of the same 
paper, and through Moore^ b BuralNew Yorker, 
published in New York. 

Galls. — We have been paying especial atten- 
tion the past year or two to our N. A. galls and 
their architects, and have received some most 
interesting ones from different subscribers. Will 
our readers bear in mind that specimens of galls, 
with mention of the tree upon which they occur, 
and other facts noticed, will always bo grate- 
fully acknowledged. 

Matter Crowded Out. — Though the index 
is printed on extra sheets we have been obliged 
to omit sundry articles from this number for 
want of space. Our acknowledgments of books 
and papers received, have been jostled out with 
the rest, and this will form our apology for 
seeming neglect. 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



373 



Hybrid between a Grape-vine and a Hick- 
ory I — Our friend Thomas Meehan, of the Oar- 
dener's Monthly y has kindly sent us specimens 
of the Grape-vine Apple-gall ( Vitis pomumj W. 
& R.), which was pronounced by the Newark, 
N. J., Courier to be produced by hybridization 
between a grape-vine and a hickory over wliich 
it grows. If the editor of the Courier will turu 
to page 106 of our first volume, he will find (hat 
his hybrid is in reality a gall caused by a gall- 
gnat ; and that it was the poison injected by tiie 
little mother-fly, and not the pollen from the 
Hickory catkin, which produced the wonder. 

Death of Noted Entomologists. — The year 
1870 has witnessed the death of several noted 
entomologists. Among them we may mention, 
with deep regret, the names of Julius Lederer, of 
Vienna, one of the most energetic Lepidoptcro- 
logists, who passed away on the 30th of April; 
and of Jean Theodore Lacordaire, who was con- 
ceded to be the best Coleopterist of his day, and 
whose death at Liege, France, on the 18th of July, 
is still mourned by the entomological world. 

Osage Orange for the Mulbeuky Silk- 
worm. — Our remarks on this subject, on page 
293, have had the desired eflect of tringing out 
the author's name. During the Fair week at St. 
Louis we had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Town- 
end Glover, the entomologist to the Department 
of Agi-iculture, who showed us a letter from Mr. 
Samuel Cornaby, of Spanish Fork City, Utah 
county, Utah, reiterating the statement of his 
successes, and giving a more detailed account of 
his jBxperience. This letter will be found iu the 
Monthly Department Report for October. The 
scientific world will now place onfidence in 
these interesting and important facts, whereas, 
as formerly presented, they lacked significance. 
We cannot be too circumspect in dealing with 
expenences and facts, and there is yet room for 
improvement in this regard in the Monthly Re- 
ports of the Department, as witness the records 
of damage done by THE Potato Bug, pp. 310-1, 
where the injuries of several distinct insects are 
all mixed up together under one common head. 
The difference in our own success and that of 
Mr. Cornaby in feeding Osage orange to the 
Mulberiy Silkworm is owing, doubtless, to the 
greater dryness of the atmosphere of Utah com- 
pared with that of the Mississippi Valley. 

Grape Insect. — Among the articles wo in- 
tended to publish this month was one on the true 
Grape Borer (^geria poHstiformis, Harris), 
which, by an oversight, was omitted in our 
account of the Lepidopterous insects injurious 
to the Vine. 



ANSWERS TO COERESPONDBNTS. 

Insects Named — Mrs, M. Ghappellsmithf I^ew Ear- 
mony, Jnd,—{i.) The little orange parasites on grass- 
hoppers were, judging Irom your description, six- 
legged mites, belonging to I^atreUle's genus Astomay 
and for which Mr. Walsh proposed the specilic name of 
locustarum. Similar mites attack the common House- 
fly and other insects, but very little attention has been 
given to these minute creatures by scientific men. (2.) 
The dusky brown, short, robust cricket, which gnaws 
apples, pears, quinces and peaches, is the Striped- _ 
cricket {N&mobius tfUaius, Harr); and this species con- 
sequently has these habits in common with the Jumping 
Tree-cricket {.OroeJiarit saltat&r, Uhler), which you sent 
on a previous occasion. (3.) The larva, of which we re- 
ceived but the dry skin, was some species of cut- worm, 
but of course unrecognizable. (4.) The smooth black 
beetle is Borinus IcBvis, Oliv. 

Motli of Saddle-Back— r. (7. Sill, Yellow Springs, 
Ohio.—Xou will find a fah- figure of the parent of this 
worm at Plate 1, Figure 7 of Harris's Correspondence. It 
is there called Limacodes ephippiatus, which is a syno- 
nym for the more appropriate name of £mpietia stimu- 
Ua, Clem. 

liOcust Borer— IFm. R. Howard, Forsyth, Mo,-- T tie 
black and yellow-banded, long-horn beetle, which you 
found (Sept. 23) depositing its soft, elongate white eggs 
in the crevices of the bark of a Black Locust tree. Is the 
beetle of the common Locust Borer {Arhopalus roUnia, 
Foster). It is the lar\a hatching from these eggs which Is 
80 destructive to the tree. The very bmall brown fly which 
you noticed lollowing the motions of the beetle was 
perhaps an eg^ parasite; but we cannot tell without 
seeing specimens. 

Tlie Nortliern I^adjr Bird; Its Liarre- (7Aa«. 
E, BiUings, Philadelphia, Pa.— The yellow larvae, which 
are characterized by rows of branching thorn-like yel- 
low spines, tipped with black, and which you found 
feeding on the leaves of the common yellow gourd, are 
the young of the Northern Lady-bird {Epilachna borealis, 
Thunberg), the only vegetable -feeder among all the 
North American Lady -birds {Cocdnella family), though 
there are several European species that have a similar 
vegetarian habit. This insect has such a predilection 
for vines of the gourd family, and is often so iiyurious 
to squashes, that Dr. Fitch called it the Squash Cocd- 
nella. 

Not EflTffSy but Parasitic Cocoons—^. Couch, 
Fairhtry, //^— The worm you send is the Hog Caterpil- 
lar of the vine, and the white oval objects attached to 
its skin are parasitic Microgaster coaoons. Consequently 
both your friends are wrong, the one in persisting that 
they are eggs, the other in stating that they are lice. 
The former mistake is excusable , as they might readily 
be mistaken for eggs ; but they bear no resemblance to 
lice, which are active creatures with limbs. 

Bo Gapes Occur In Plyeons! — W. G, Barton, 
Salem, Mass,— We have never heard of a case of Gapes 
in pigeons, and Dr. Paaren, of Chicago, informs us 
that his pathological literature from almost all parts of 
Europe does not mention pigeons among the birds 
affected with this parasite. Roup, however, is very 
conunon and fatal with them, especially in the fall of 
the year. 



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TMe Cabbage nnfllm^Choi. JT. J^#4y, Jmttf 
Iotoa,~-The small green wormB which have been work- 
ing most cruelly on your cabbages are, as you rightly 
conjecture, the larvie of the small moths which you 
send in company with them. It is the same insect 
{PUtUUa crueiferaruim) spoken of in answer to Wm. B. 
Howard in this number. 

GliTABtle Rlilnoceros JH^mtlm^Subsorib^ry Jrf- 
ferion OUy, J/o.— The large beetle which you send, and 

[Fig. 224.1 




Ciolors— Glaacoii8-gT«en, with brown spots, 
of which we herewith present a portrait (Fig. 224), is 
a cJ* of the Gigantic Rhinoceros Beetle {Dynasiss tiifus, 
Linn). It occurs quite commonly in your part of the 
coimtry, but is very rare in the more northern States, 
being in reality a southern insect. It breeds in the 
old stumps of several trees, and Say relates an in- 
stance of its occurring in considerable numbers in and 
about the cavity of a cherry tree which had been blown 
down by the wind in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. 
The colors of this beetle are very variable, as is also 
the shape of the spots upon the wing-covers. The horn 
also frequently occurs undivided instead of being bifid 
at the tip. The $ has a perfectly smooth thorax, and 
only a very small rounded tubercle on the head. We 
have a ^ specimen in our cabinet which is of a uni- 
form deep chestnut brown, and immaculate. 

Bee-bread DeTonredbjrHForma—Z. C, Francis, 
Springfidd, HI. — ^The small moths which you send, and 
which in the larva state infest your old hives, living on 
the bee-bread and detritus, but never attacking the 
wax, as does the tnie Bee-moth ( GaUerea cenana, Fabr.), 
are a species which was called by Dr. Fitch the Indian 
Ileal Moth {Tinta [BpAsHia] §e<B), He so named it be- 
cause it is lond of feeding upon stale Indian meal, it 
has been bred from the dried roots of Dandelion, and as 
you find it in your bee-hi?es, nothing would seem to 
come amiss to it. 

Rape Butterfly— «/a«on F. Cowden, Amethury, Mats. 
— Yes, the worms which have done such great damage 
to your cabbages are the larvas of the above-named im- 
ported in8eol« 



Grape-leaf Gall^J?; 0. BsardsUif PamstpOU, 
Ohio,— The galls on the underside of your grape-leaves 
are the Clinton Grape-leaf gall, treated of in another 
part of this number. 

Bean TTeeTll— Fmry Zleinhdut, Nym, Pa.— The 
weevils Infesting the beans from Porter Township, 
Pike county, in your State, but which are not found in 
your vicinity, are the native Bean-weevU {Bruchu$ oUo- 
Uhit, Say), which we have on several occasions referred 
to. 

Oabbair« Inaecte— Tf^. B. Bowardy Fortyth, Mo,— 
Tour cabbage Insects came safely to hand. They are 
as follows : No. 1, Plutdla eruciftrammy Zeller, a cosmo- 
politan little cabbage pest, which has been unusually 
destructive in Missouri the present year. This same 
insect has long been well known in Europe under the 
name of Ctroitoma xylotUUa, and was named PluUUa 
UmbipmntiUa in this country by the late Dr. Clemens, so 
it has synonyms enough. No. 4, as you suppose, are 
pups of Phuia hrastiea, Riley. No. 8, Strachia kiHri- 
onioay or the Harlequin Cabbage-bug (Fig. 56 of this 
volume) . This is the first we have heard of its appear- 
ance in our State. No. 5— in tin box— is the chrysalis 
of the Troilus Swallow-tail {PapUis TMlut). 

Two-Striped Wallclnflr Stick.— (7. B, Bdwardi, 
Bowling Orem, ^.— Your insects are ^ and $ of the 
above species (Spsetrum hMttatum, Say). Never hesitate 
to send an insect for fear it is common. If it has attracted 
your attention from any beneficial or iiijurious quality, 
or from any peculiarity whatever, we shall always be 
glad to get it. 

liaAAer Spider— Z#t?» G, Saffsr, Indianapolis, Ind,— 
Your spider is Fpsira riparia, Hentz, commonly known 
in this vicinity by the above popular name, on account 
of the curious zig-zag ladder-like silken trellis which it 
spins down the middle of its conmion web. 

SaiTiurlnf fer HetMs; Preserrliif liarvas— ^. 
£, BotOwsUr-The sugaring and sweetening process for 
catching moths is about as old as the science of Ento- 
mology itself. PapiUo thoas occurs in Illinois. We 
have had best success in preserving larvsB with a mix- 
ture made as follows : Diluted carbolic add (1 part acid 
to 60 of water), 5 parts ; alcohol, 4 parts ; glycerine, 1 
part. The glycerine should be dissolved in the add 
before the alcohol is applied. It is difficult to prevent 
the crystals of carbolic add from deliquesdng and be- 
coming discolored, and it is very essential to have a 
good article. We have so far found Calvert's Number 
2, made in Manchester, England, the least subject to dis- 
color. We kill our larvsB by a few moment's immer- 
sion in hot water. It is well to transfer the specimens, 
after they have remained in the above mixture a few 
weeks, to another which has a greater proportion of 
alcohol; for, after all, nothing has yet been found equal 
to alcohol for general purposes of preservation, and the 
other preparations are used principally to prevent too 
much shriveling and contraction in the specimens. 

N. A. I^epldeptera UFanted— Ct&a#. G. Botheram, 
WAsdaU, ISMigh strstty BamstapUy Bnglamd.— The two 
persons who would be most likely to Aimish you with 
eggs and pups of our N. A. Lepidoptera, are W. Y. 
Andrews, Boom 17, No. 187 Broadway, N. Y., and W. 
W. Butterfield, Indianapolis, Ind. We invite such of 
our subscribers who wish to exchange to correspond 
witiiMr.Websdale. 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



376 



Db. GEO. YASET, Editob, Nomial, IUb. 

OUR NATIVE OAK&-N0. 5. 

We propose in this number to give a short 
account of the Red, Spanish, and Pin Oaks, and 
then a synoptical table of all the Oaks east of 
the Rocky Mountains. 

[Fig. 826.1 




Bed Oak iq^ercu» rubra, L.) 

The Red Oak (Qttercus rubra, L.) is also 
quite as commonly called Black Oak, which 
shows the importance of designating such species 
by their proper botanical names. It is a larger 
tree than any of the others usually called Red 
or Black Oak, and is in its habitat rather more 
attached to the vicinity of streams. Very large 
trees of this kind may often be found in bottom 
lands, haying a trunk three feet or more in di- 



ameter, and without branches to the height of 
twenty or thirty feet. The bark on the large 
trees is thicker and more deeply checked than 
on most of the other species. It is sometimes 
difficult to distinguish this from the variety 
tinctoria of Qitercus coccinea, unless the eye 
has been trained to close observation of their 
characteristics. The leaves of QuercuM rubra 
are usually larger, with about four lobes on each 
side ; the lobes are also more uniform, and point 
forward more strongly toward the apex of the 
leaf. The acorns are much larger than in any 
of the varieties of Quercus coccinea (seldom less 
than one inch long), and are quite constant in 
size and shape. The cup is always shallow, and 
about as wide as the acorn is long. A variety, 
runcinatay found near St. Louis, has a narrower 
leaf, with more numerous and shorter lobes. 



(Fig. 226 ) 




Spanish Oak {q^ercu» falcata, Michx.) 

This is a tree of large size, confined in its range 
mostly to the Southern States, occurring, how- 
ever, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, 
Southern Illinois, Missouri, and probably in all 
the States South. The leaves are usually long- 
stalked, large, and of peculiar shape, being 



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rounded at the base and sending out on each side 
one or two long, narrow and somewhat hooked, 
or sickle-shaped, lobes ; the apex, or point, being 
also sometimes much prolonged, narrow, and 
somewhat toothed ; the under surface is covered 
with a rusty colored down. The acorn is small 
(rather less than half an inch), roundish, and in 
a shallow cup. The leaves of this species pre- 
sent considerable diversity of size and shape, 
probably in some cases as the result of hybridiza- 
tion. The bark is said to be excellent for tan- 
ning. A variety, triloba^ found in New Jersey 
and elsewhere, is probably a hybrid between 
this species and Qv^rcua nigray L. 

[Fig. 227.] 




Pin Oak (QverctM paltutritf DuBol.) 

The Pin Oak has a wide geographical range, 
but is abundant only in certain localities. It is 
found in low and swampy grounds, and in 
general appearance much resembles the Scarlet 
Oak {Quercus coccinea), and perhaps may yet 
have to be considered a variety of that polymor- 
phous species. The leaves are deeply divided, 
with about three spreading lobes, the spaces 



between being broad and rounded toward the 
midrib. The acorns are small and roundish, 
about half an inch long, the cup very shallow 
and as broad as the length of the acorn. It is 
given by Dr. Cooper as extending from Massa- 
chusetts to the mountains of Georgia, and from 
Missouri to Texas. The name Pin Oak is said 
by some to come from the occurrence of numer- 
ous pins, or small dead branches, which often 
beset the lower part of the trunk. 

In the following synoptical table it may be 
noticed that we have used some common names 
differently from those applied in the descriptions; 
thus we have taken the terms Black and Red 
Oaks to indicate sections rather than particular 
species. 

The Quercui coccinea var. vulgaris (Fig. 212, 
p. 344) is what we take to be Quercua coccinea 
of the table. We believe the table will be found 
correct, and admitting as many species as the 
most judicious botanists are willing to concede. 
The reader will bear in mind that the synonyms 
are inclosed within parentheses. 



Synoptical Table of the Oaks 

EAST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, WITH THE PRIN- 
CIPAL SYNONYMS AND VARIETIES. 

SECTION I.— Annual Fruited. 
•White Oaks — Leaves lobed, deciduous. 

1. Bur Oak, Qum-cut nUcrocarpa^ Michx. 

Var. ohmrformisj Gr., {O, oUvaefarmit, Mlchx.) 

2. Southern Overcup, Quereus lyratay Walt. 

3. Post Oak, Quercut obtustloha, Michx., {Q, stsUata, 

Wang.) 
Var. parvifolia, Chap., (var. Flondana, Shut.) 

4. White Oak, Quercus atba,h. [South. 

•• Chestnut Oaks— Leaves with blunt teeth. 

5. Swamp White Oak, Qu^cus hicolor, WUld., (Q. 

Frinu9, var. discolor, Biichx.) 
6 Chestnut Oak, Quereus Prinus, L. 

Var. monUcola, Michx., {Q, montana, WUld.; 
Var. Michauxti, Chap., {Q, MichauxU, Nutt) 

[South. 

7. Yellow Chestnut Oak, Quercus CaHanta, Muhl., 

{Q. Prinus, var. acumiruUa, Michx. J 

8. Chinquapin Oak, Quarcut prinoides, Willd., {Q, 

Prinus, var. ekincapin, Michx.) 

*** Live Oaks— Leaves evergreen. 
9 Live Oak, Quercus wrens, Ait., (^. sempervirens, 
Catesby.) 
Var. maritima. Chap. South. 

Var. derUata, Chap. South. 

SECTION II.— Biennial Fruited. 

* Willow Oaks— Leaves generally entire, thick and 
pertiistent, and some besoming evei^reen far south. 

10. Upland Willow Oak, Quercus einerea, Michx., {Q. 
humilis, Walt.) 

Var. pumita, Michx., (Q. pumila, Walt., Q. 
ssricea, Willd.) 
11 Willow Oak, Quercus Phellos, L. 

Var. lauri/olia. Chap. South. 

Var. arcnaria, Chap. South. 

Var. heterophylla, {Q, heterophylla, Michx.) 
12. Laurel Oak, Qusrcus imbricaria, Michx. 

Var. Lsana, {Quercus Leana^ Nutt.) 



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377 



♦♦Black Oaks — ^Leaves thick, widest at the top, 
slightly lobed. 

13. Water Oak, Quercus aguaiieafC&teshy, {Q.uli^noaay 

Wang.) 
Var. hyhrUay Chap. South. 

14. Black Jack. Quercus nigra, h,, (Q. ferru^nea,'ilichx. 

Var. trtdentata, {Qy triderUata, Eng.) 

15. Bhick Scrub Oak, Quercus ilicifolia, Wg., (^. Ban- 

isteri, Michx.) 

♦♦♦ Red Oaks— Leaves mostly with deep spreading 
lobes, deciduous. 

16. Spanish Oak, Quereus faleata, Michx., {Q. dongata, 

Willd.) 
Var. triloba, ( Quereus trffoha, Mlchx.) 
Var. quinqueloha, ( Q. quinqueloba, Eng.) 

17. Georgia Oak, Quereus Georgiana. Curtis.) South. 

18. Scarlet Oak, Quereus coccinea, Wang. 

Black Oak, var. Unctoria, Gr., ( Q, tinctorla, Bart.) 
Var. amhigua, Gr., {Q, amhigua and horealisy 

Michx.) 
Var. microcarpa, Ent. and Bot. 
Var. depressa, " " 

19. Red Oak, Quereus rubra, L. 

20. Pin Oak, Quereus palustris, DuRoU 

21. Catesby's Oak, Quereus Caiesbei, Michx. South. 



SOME INTERESTING PLANTS OP WESTERN MIS- 
SOURI. 

BT O. C. BROADHSAD, PLBA6ANT HILL, MO. 

There are many plants growing in the border 
counties of western Missonri, which range south 
and west, but are not found eastward. In the fol- 
lowing notes I propose to call attention to some 
interesting plants of this region, particularly of 
Cass and adjoining counties. 

On a rocky limestone slope, in the southern part 
of Jackson county, it was my pleasure three years 
ago to find a single plant of Anemone CaroHni- 
ana — only one, but it seemed very pretty in its 
loneliness. On these rocky glades the Peuci- 
danum, with its pretty and fragrant leaves, the 
Prairie Dandelion {Troximoncitspidatum), two 
species of Vetch or Astralagus, and a very pale 
Larkspur (Delphinium) are often abundant. In 
richer soil we find Corydalis aurea. A beauti- 
ful and showy plant, generally growing on 
limestone slopes is the Oenothei'a speciosa^ 
waving its large, white flowers gracefully with 
the breeze. It is common in the western bor- 
der counties of Missouii, ranging southwest- 
wardly into Kansas, but not found eastwardly. 
The Talinum teretifoUumy a succulent leaved 
plant, with a modest, sweet looking piuk-pui*ple 
flower, is rarely found on rocky glades in Cass 
county. I have also found it in lion. Cole and 
Newton counties, always occupying elevated, 
bold, rocky points. 

On our creeks may be found Thalictrum Cor- 
nutiy Isopyrum bitematum, the beautiful scar- 
let Lobelia, and the blue Lobelia syphilitica, 
the modest Collinsia vemay with its blue and 
white petals, the Mertensia Virginicaj some 
times called Blue-bell, the American Bellflower 



{Campanula Americanm), and Dipteracanthus 
gtrepens, with its pretty, pale, purple flower. 

In early summer the prairies are adorned 
with Fetalostemon violaceum and P. candidumy 
with Dddecathion Meadia, Amorpha frtUicosa 
and canescensy Ceanothm Americanus and C, 
ovalis. Later they are rich in a profusion of 
flowers, including Echinacea purpurea, LiatriSy 
two species, several species of Aster and 8oli- 
dagoy Folygala incarnatay and the Gentiana 
puberula, lingering the very last flower of the 
season, of a deep, rich, purplish blue. 

The LeguminoscB is well represented, and 
offers to us such plants as Desmanthus brachy- 
lobus and Schriankia uncinatay or Sensitive- 
brier. On limestone slopes is sparingly found 
that curious leaved plant, Mentzdia obligosper- 
may covered over, leaf, stalk and calyx, with 
minute barbed hairs, presenting under the 
microscope the appearance of a foi-est of fir 
trees with pendent limbs. 

Among Endogenous plants we have two 
species of Ladies Slipper (Cypripedium) y the 
Wild Hyacinth, (Scilla Fraseri) the White 
Do^ftooth Violet {Erythronium albidum)y the 
Tradescantia Virginicay T. pilosay and others 
more common. 

Besides those enumerated I will only mention 
Sedum pulcbellum, Boltonia latisquama, a 
very tall, large flowered Helianthus [probably 
H. Maximilian— Ed.] , two species of Wild Sage, 
Salvia azurea and S. trichostemoideSy and Am- 
phiachyris dracunculoidsy a showy, yellow flow- 
ered plant, resembling a Solidago, and some 
times called Tumble-weed on account of the 
dead bushy plants bein^ blown about by the 

autumnal winds. 

•■♦ • 

The arborescent grasses constitute one of the 
most beautiful adornments of tropical vegetation. 
These grasses belong chiefly to the Bambusa 
(Bamboo; and other related genera. In India 
the seeds of the Bamboo are mixed with honey 
and eaten like rice. In South America an ar- 
borescent grass, the gigantic Ouaduay attains a 
height of from 60 to 60 feet. Another species, a 
powerful climbing grass, twines round the trunks 
of large trees, reaching to their tops. A species 
of Cane {Arundinaria) grows in large tufts, 
reaching a height of 30 to 40 feet, of which the 
first joint rises without a knot to a height of 16 
feet before it begins to bear leaves. These joints 
being hollow, are used as blowing tubes by the 
Indians, for the discharge of their arrows. Even 
in the Southern United States (he stalks of Arun- 
dinaria furnish fishing-rods of the best descrip- 
tion. 



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THE GERABDIAS. 

W. W. BAILXT, JPBOYIDKNOX, B. X. 
[Fig. 228.] 




(a) Flowering branch of Gerardia pedicvlaria; {b) flowering 
braneli of QerardiapwpurM. 

The g^enus Cferardia ftimishes some of the 
most cbai-ming wild flowers of the late sammer 
or early autumn in New England. It is to be re- 
gretted that these lovely plants cannot be culti- 
yated, bat I believe that owing to their being 
root parasites all efforts to domesticate them 
have hitherto failed. I do not know how care- 
fully or persistently the attempt has been made, 
but as the plants seem hardy in their native loca- 
tions it is possible that by study of their habits, 
and by the removal of much surrounding earth 
so as to transplant the nourishing stems at the 
same time with the Chrardiasy success might 
yet attend the gardener. Still this experiment 
must have been tried, or Dr. Gray would not 
pronounce them " uncultivable." 

This showy genus is a member of the order 
ScrophtUariacecB. In my rambles about Provi- 
dence I have secured five species. Of these O. 
flava blooms earliest, and may be found in open 
woods. It has large, yellow, handsome flowers, 
in their appearance suggesting the fox-glove. 
The interior of the tube, as well as the anthers 
and filaments, is woolly. The leaves are large 
and entire, or, according to Gray's Manual, 
'^ the lowei usually sinuate toothed or pinnati- 
fid " The G» qv^rdfoUa I have not found so 
frequently. It is known by its oak-shaped 
leaves, and in general appearance closely re- 



sembles the preceding. The G. pediciUaria is 
(Fig. 22d,a) exceedingly common with us. IThave 
often found it over three feet high. It is much 
branched, the flowers of a delicate textare, yel- 
low, and very fragrant. They are much fre- 
quented by humble and other bees and insects. 
The corolla is covered both outside and in with 
minute glandular hairs, slightly viscid to the 
touch, and the interior of what may be called 
the lower lip is marked by two parallel rows of 
reddish dots. The leaves, and even the lobes of 
the calyx, are beautifully serrate. All these 
yellow flowered species are difficult to preserve 
neatly. Despite all my care I have never been 
able to prevent their blackening in the press. 
If any one has been more successful in preserv- 
ing their color, I should be glad to learn the 
process. 

The two purple varieties are much more deli- 
cate in appearance than either of the preceding, 
and bloom simultaneously. They are the species 
purpurea (Fig. 228, h) and tenuifolia. They are 
both common here — ^the purpurea along the 
road sides and in swampy grounds, which are, 
however, at this time dry; the tenuifolia in 
dry woods. Both of them are much branched. 
The first has quite short peduncles, and rather 
larger flowers than the tenuifoliay whose pedun- 
cles are long and thread-like. My illustrations 
represent merely the extreme end of the flower- 
ing branches of G, pedicularia and purpurea. 
I have not on hand at present any specimens of 
the other species I have mentioned from which 
to make drawings. I hope, however, that the 
sketches I have presented, and these few words, 
may call attention next year to a beautiful 
genus, flnely represented at the West. 



DISTRIBUTION OF IMMIGRANT PLANTS. 

BT DK. FRKD. BEKNDSL, PJBORIA, TLL. 

The distribution of immigrant plants, and the 
year of the first appearance of such, should be 
carefully noted for each locality by the botanists 
of the West. Such records would be of great 
benefit to the study of botanical geography and 
the history of plants. 

Here follows the statistics of vegetable immi- 
gration in the vicinity of Peoria, 111. 

1. Immigrant plants common and entirely 
naturalized since an unknown period : 

Sisymbrium officinale, Sinapis nigra. Cap- 
sella bursorpastoris, Hypericum perforatum, 
Portulaca oleracea, Malva rotundifolia, 8ida 
spinosa, Abutilon AvicenncR, Trifolium pror 
tense, Xanthium strumarium, Maruta cottda, 



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Zappa major, Plantago major, Verbascum 
thapsus, MarrvMum vulgare Solanum nigrum^ 
Chenopodium album, hyhridum, urbicum, boU 
rys and ambrosioides, Amarantu9 hybridus and 
4Mu8, Polygonum persicaria and convolvulus, 
Humex crispus. Cannabis sativa, Alopeeurus 
pratensis, Fhleum pratense, Agrostis alba, Poa 
compressa, JSragrostis poceoides, yar. megas- 
tacky a SLndpilosa, Bromus secaHntts, Panicum 
sanguinale, Setaria glauca. 

2. Immigrant plants found eighteen years 
ago in single specimens, now in great abundance : 

Sonchus asper, Linaria vulgaris, Leonurus 
cardiaca, Echinospermum Lappvla, Cynoglos- 
sum offlcinale, Bumex acetoseUa. 

3. Plants immigrated since an unknown 
X)eriody and found in limited numbers or single 
localities : 

Trifolium pratense, Dactylis glomerata, Pan- 
icum glabrum, Veronica arvensis, Bumex pb- 
tusifolius. 

4. Immigrant plants not known here eighteen 
years, and now represented in limited numbers 
and single localities : 

Verbc^cum Blaltaria, Vaccaria vulgaris, Gle- 
choma Jiederacea, 

6. Adventitious plants not yet truly natural- 
ized: 

(a.) In waste places: Camelina sativa, 8ar 
ponaria officinalis, Malva sylvestris, Hibiscus 
trionum, Mdrtynia proboscidea, Nepeta cata- 
ria, Mcandra physaloides. 

(Jb.) Mostly escaped from cultiyation, or pur- 
posely introduced: Argemone Mexicana, Nas- 
turtium armoracia, Melilotv^ alba, Bosa ruM- 
ginosa, Pastinaca sativa, Anethum graveolens, 
Inula Selenium, Ilelianthus annuus, Tanace- 
tum vulgare, Centaurea cyanus, Mentha viridis, 
Saturefa kortensis, Ipomea purpurea. Polygo- 
num orientale, Fagopyrum esculentum. Aspara- 
gus officinalis, Phalaris Canariensis, Setaria 
Italica. 

6. Plants found eighteen years ago« and not 
seen since : 

Baphanus raphanistrum, Leucanthemum vul- 
gare. The latter would certainly have spread 
if not incorporated in my herbarium. 

7. Ck)mmon plants, the inti*oduction of which 
is doubtftd or contested. 

Polygonum hydropiper, Poa pratensis, Pan- 
icum crus-galli. Datura Stramoniun var, Ta- 
tula. 



In Europe various species of Heaths cover 
large tracts of country ; many of them are of rare 
beauty. But in Africa the most varied assort- 
ment of Heaths of the genus Urica are found. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 

BT I. M. HAIJE, M. D. OmOAGO, ILLS. 

While on an excursion, during the last week 
of August, to the western shore of Lake Michi- 
gan, or that portion of it which extends between 
Green Bay and the Lake, I met with some tBLctB 
worthy of notice, relative to the condition of 
certain plants in that locality. 

The 45th degree of latitude crosses the penin- 
sula nearly at its middle. From Manitowoc to 
Death's Door, a distance of nearly a hundred 
miles, the shore is very interesting to the botan- 
ist. Nearly the whole distance, high bluffs 
bound the lake, while here and there a river 
quietly flows in, having on each side a lower 
level. At the mouth of Wolf river, I observed 
a peculiarity similar to that mentioned by Mc- 
Gregor, in '*Rob Roy on the Jordan." This 
canoe-traveler, in his voyage on the Jordan, ob- 
served that a bank or bar of sand or gravel had 
formed nearly across its mouth, where it empties 
into the Sea of Galilee. In the early days of 
Chicago, the river had just such a bar across its 
mouth, and found an outlet into the lake at an 
extreme comer. But in the case of Wolf river, 
the bar extends completely across its mouth, and 
the water of the river has to filter through it 
into the lake ; and admirably is this effected, for 
while above the bar the river is almost black 
with the refiise of tanneries, mills, etc., below 
the bar, not more than ten or fifteen feet, the 
water is clear and pure. 

The forests here are composed of Hemlock, 
Pine, Cedar, Maple, and the more common trees. 
Here, for the first time, I observed the beautiful 
Mountain Ash (Pyrus Americana) growing 
wild on the lake shore. The terminal branches 
have a bark nearly as scarlet as the berries, and 
the tree grows over twenty feet in height. One 
old tree, leaning over the bluff, has seen many 
storms, for its trunk, four inches in diameter, 
was rough and hoary with mosses and lichens. 

All along the shore up to Wolf river I had 
observed the bright red berries of the Dwarf 
Cornel (Cornus Canadensis), but here along the 
shore of the river I found great quantities of it 
in bloom. The usual flowering season of this 
plant is May and Jaue. I did not observe any 
berries on the plants at this place. Here, too, 
in abundance, was tne wild Strawberry (Fra- 
garia Virginiana) In fhll bloom! But the 
people said it had fruited in July. 

There are some climatic peculiarities of this 
locality. Although only thirty miles west of 
the city of Green Bay, navigation opens here 
three or four weeks earlier than at the latter 



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place, and the ice does not block up the harbor 
for several weeks after boats cease to ran to 
Green Bay city. Do the before named plants 
have a double season of flowenng in this locality ? 
The varied hues of the foliage of trees, especi- 
ally the smaller species of Maples, was very 
beautiful, clearly showing that the change in 
the color of the leaf is due to an actual ripening, 
and not to the action of frost. 



RUE -LEAVED SPLEEN WORT. 
{Afplenium ruta-myrarta, L.) 

BY J. WILLIAMSON, LOCISVILLB KY . 




Bne- Leaved Spleen wort {Aiplenium ruta-muraria^ L.)« 

This fern is a spleenwort, belonging to the 
genus Asplenium of the great group of Polypo- 
daceus Ferns. This group is distinguished from 
the other two groups, Osmundacece and Ophio- 
glossacece, by having their spore cases girt with 
an elastic ring. 

The word Aaplenium was applied by old au- 
thors to those kinds of ferns that were supposed 
to possess some vii*tues in curing diseases of 
the spleen. Modern authors classify tlie Spleen- 
worts and all other Ferns on a more definite 



•Explanation op thb Figure —a, Plant, natural size; 
b. back of the frond. Bhowlne the tori or fruit doU; c, upuer 
aide of the fronds; d, youn^f fronds growing from the tufted 
rootstock showing their circinate Ternatiou; «, old flrondfi 
broken off. 



principle, that is, the arrangement of the firoit, 
or soriy and the form of the indusium, or fruit- 
cover. 

Asplenium ruta muraria is a small evergreen 
fern two to four inches long ; root tufted, fibrous; 
stalk smooth, with one groove on the upper side, 
slightly round on the back; fronds bi-piiinate 
below, simply pinnate above ; pinnules rhombic- 
wedge-shaped, toothed at the apex, sometimes 
deeply cut, without a mid-rib, the veins rising 
irregularly from the base of the pinnule towards 
each serrature ; involucre or indusium elongate, 
opening inwardly, with a sinuated margin, espe- 
cially so when burst ; whole plant smooth and 
having a glaucous-green color. 

I found this fern and the delicate Rock-brake 
{PeUea gracilis) growing on the same rock, in 
a very exposed situation. Their tufted roots 
were embedded in the crevices of the rocks, so 
that it was with some difficulty that good speci- 
mens could be obtained; but by breaking the 
rock and using a little patience the difficulty 
was overcome. On visiting the same district 
on the 4th of July, I found some beautifbl spe- 
cimens growing in a sheltered situation ; their 
roots were embedded in the moss which grew 
upon the rocks. Some of the fronds measured 
ftilly five inches in length. 
In England and Scotland this fern is named 
cng. S30.] *h® Rue-leaved Spleen- 

wort, or Wall-rue Fern. 
It is what is termed a 
mural species, from \u 
general habitat, grow- 
ing usually on old walls. 
^ J^SSP^W If It is found very fre- 

quently on old castles, 
old towers, and old 
^SoJiSg'SffhSSilln'iiffSS bridges. Lime appears 
■**«^- to be one of its chief 

elements of nourishment, at least it is always 
found in a limestone region. I have seen an old 
Roman bridge in Scotland almost covered with it. 
Two other peculiar situations in Scotland in- 
terested me very much : one was on the top of 
an old round tower, about eighty feet high ; the 
other in a well about four feet from the sor- 
face. There were only a few plants growing 
in each place, and no others within a radius of 
fifteen miles. It is strange that the spores would 
have settled in two situations so extremely dif- 
ferent. The specimens growing in the well were 
large, soft, and delicate; those on the tower 
small and crisp. 

The specimen in my herbarium is three and 
a half inches long, and something similar to the 
above illustration^ with this exception, the pin- 




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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



381 



nules are not so much cut off. It is from the 
west coast of Scotland. I found it growing with 
Asplenium marinum and A. adiantum nigrum^ 
on exposed rocks that were washed by the waves 
of the Atlantic. 

From the above description it would be diffi- 
cult to de^e the exact habitat or range of this 
rare little fern. 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN AliPINE REGION. 

IIT O. O. PASBT, WASHINQTON, D. C. 

{SeUcUd.) 

The wooded belt of coniferous trees that, with 
Irregular local interruptions, clothes the Rocky 
Mountain slopes, commences by a somewhat scat- 
tering growth near their base, at an average eleva- 
tion of six thousand feet above the sea. This belt 
acquires its densest growth, and exhibits the great- 
est number of distinct species, between seven 
thousand and nine thousand feet elevation, and 
terminates by an abrupt well-marked line at an 
average height of eleven thousand three hundred 
feet. 

These plainly recognized features are readily ex- 
plained by reference to the corresponding climatic 
conditions here exhibited. Thus the growth is most 
dense and varied where the exposures present a 
suitable condensing surface, and where there is 
the greatest and most regular amount of aqueous 
precipitation, caused by a mingling of the cool 
descending currents of air from the higher elevations 
meeting the warm ascending currents charged with 
moisture from the heated plains below; at this 
irregular point of junction, summer rains and dews 
are frequent, and the conditions for arborescent 
growth are most favorable. At still higher eleva- 
tions the actual limit of tree growth is determined 
by conditions of temperature, which satisfactorily 
explain the peculiar features of vegetation here met 
with. 

Most noticeable of these is the singular abrupt- 
ness by which this limit of upright tree growth is 
here marked. You are struggling through a tangled 
maze of fallen timber and dense underbrush, over- 
shadowed by tall trees with spreading roots bedded 
in a saturated "pongy soil, when suddenly, without 
any sensible dwarfing of intermediate forms, you 
come upon open spaces, where stunted trees, fan- 
tastically gnarled and twisted, with depressed flat- 
tened summits, offer little obstruction to the open 
view above. Through these obstructions, stepping 
on the very tops of matted trees, which a few rods 
below rear their pointed sph^ to a height of chirty 
to forty feet, you come upon the bare alpine slopes, 
which continue with variously interrupted rocky 
exposures to the dividing ridge two thousand to 
twenty-five hundred feet higher. 

In the absence of any continuous meteorological 
observations at or above the timber line, the most 



satisfactory explanation of the peculiar features 
here presented is this: The so-called timber line 
marks the extreme point oi minimum winter tempe- 
rature, below which no exposed phenogamous vege- 
tation can exist. All that survives above this point 
does so by submitting to a winter burial of snow, 
beneath which protecting cover it is enabled to 
maintain its torpid existence. The early autumnal 
fall of snow commences in the latter part of Septem- 
ber, and receives constant additions through the 
fall and winter months, during which it retains its 
light feathery texture, and is not sensibly wased 
by melting till the clear lengthening days of early 
summer dissolve them rapidly, giving origin to the 
dashing streams that pour down the upper valleys. 

It is the pressure of this accumulating weight of 
snow that gives the fantastic shape to the tree vege- 
tation, that struggles for existence above the well 
marked timber line, and we can readily note in- 
stances, here and there, where from some peculiar 
condition of wind, or a limited amount of winter 
snow in particular seasons, points and patches of 
dwarfed tree growth being left unprotected, have 
heen blasted and destroyed. Otherwise we can 
observe still more frequently where ambitious up- 
per branches projecting into the sunlight of this 
Arctic winter, have been nipped and killed. In 
these unmistakable signs of the struggle for vegeta- 
ble existence are also exhibited some of the most 
peculiar and-marked features of the Alpine scenery. 
This dwarfed tree growth, persisting above the 
timber line, is as we might naturally suppose con- 
fined to sheltered valleys, or on the lea-side of ab- 
rupt rocks, where the drifted snow lies heaviest. 
The point of greatest snow accumulation is mainly 
determined by the shelter afforded along the upper 
line of the timber growth, at which locations the 
snow drifting from the bare spaces above is lodged, 
hence early in the thawing season these locations 
offer the principal obstructions to travel, presenting 
treacherous fields of snow, often overarching rush- 
ing torrents; here also the vegetation is longest de- 
layed, and is comparatively meagre. It is on the 
more open exposures above that the alpine fiora 
offers its greatest variety and most attractive fea- 
tures, and through a brief flowering period, ex- 
tending from June to September, presents a succes- 
sion of forms and colors, attractive to the eye of a 
naturalist, and such as is nowhere else so compre- 
hensively exhibited. As these alpine plants owe 
their existence to the protection afforded by winter 
snow, they naturally include a number of species 
that also flourish at lower elevations.. Thus in the 
accompanying list of alpine plants, out of one hun- 
dred and forty-two species, I note fifty-six as ex- 
clusively confined to the alpine exposures. The 
usual characters of alpine plants here, as elsewhere 
exhibited, consist in a dwarfed habit of growth, 
late period of flowering and early seeding, the 
fonns being almost exclusively perennial. 

Of Phenogamous plants persisting to the highest 



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elevationg, reaohinf^ to fourteen thousand feet and 
upwards, we may enumerate the following: Thlcupi 
cochlearifirmey Clayionia megarrhiaa^ Trifolium nan^ 
Mm, Oxyir^pis aretiea, Saxifraga terpyUifoUa, An^ 
droBoce chama^oime^ Chionophila Jameniy Eriirich- 
ium areiioideSy PoUmonium confirtum^ OerUiana 
Jrigida, Salix reticulata^ Lloydia Merotina, Luzula 
spicatay Carex ineuroa^ Poa arctiea. 

Of the thirty-four natural orders represented in 
the alpine flora, thirty-one belong to Phmogamoua 
plants, the remidning three include the higher 
orders of Oryptogama^ of the latter. Ferns are repre- 
sented by a single species, not exclusively alpine 
{Oryptogramme acroattchoidet^ B. Br.) Mosses are 
more numerously represented, but are still com- 
paratively rare, while Lichens are most abundant 
and afford the greatest number of species. 

Of the Phenogamous orders twenty-seven belong 
to Dicotyledons, four to Monocotyledons, Of these 
the natural order, ChmpoaUcsj comprises the largest 
number oi species, viz.: twenty-four included in 
thirteen genera; Ranunculaceoa has five genera 
seven species; Oruci feres, five genera, six species; 
CaryophyllacetB, five genera, six species; Legumi- 
nosecBy two genera, four species; Rosaeecs, four 
genera, five species; Saxifragacecs, two genera, nine 
species; Primulacece, two genera, four species; 
Scrofulariacea, six genera, ten spedes; Qentianor 
eeof, two genera, six species; Salicacecs, one genus 
four species; Coniferecs, three genera, 4ye species; 
Juncacece, two genera, seven species; Oyperacecs, one 
genus, four species; Qraminecs, five genera, nine 
species. Of large families entirely unrepresented 
we may note Solanaceos, Labiatecs, 

The superficial extent ot these bare alpine expo- 
sures can only be approximately estimated in the 
absence of any exact topographical measurements. 
Taking the main mountain mass extending through 
Colorado Territory, or between 37«>, and 41o, north 
latitude, including the high effects and detached 
peaks, rising above eleven thousand feet, it would 
be safe to allow an average width of five miles, for 
the entire distance, in a straight line, representing 
in round numbers an area of from twelve hundred 
to fifteen hundred square miles. Throughout this 
extent there is great uniformity in the vegetation 
presented, though agreeably varied by the different 
exposures or conditions of soil and moisture. 
Wherever the peculiar texture of the underlying 
rock has favored disintegration, and the accumula- 
tion of soil, a rich alpine sward is presented, made 
up of densely matted grasses, carices, and plants 
adapted to pasturage. Here the mountain sheep 
the elk, and the Rocky Mountain goat, graze during 
the summer months, and the mountain ptermigan 
and dusky grouse feed and rear their young. When 
once made accessible it will, no doubt, afford a 
favorite resort for summer pasturage, and may 
eventually yield choice dairy products equaling 
those of the Swiss Alps, or produce delicate fibrous 
tissues, rivaling those of the looms of Cashmere. 



As a sanitary retreat during the summer montlu 
it is unexcelled in the purity and^^coolness of itA 
atmosphere, the clearness of its flowing streasas, 
and its picturesque extended views. There are no 
elevated points that cannot be safely ascended, and 
dangers ftom snow avalanches, or land slips, are so 
rare as not to be taken into consideration. Of the 
high culminating points met with in the district 
under review, including Long's peak on the north, 
and the Sierra Blanca on the south, there is a re- 
markable uniformity in the average elevation; all 
as far as accurately measured rising above fourteen 
thousand feet. Qray's peak in the dividing ridge, 
which is now a point of common summer resort, so 
tar carries the palm in an elevation of fourteen 
thousand two hundred and fifty-one feet. Its asso- 
ciate peak (which it is most earnestly hoped may 
bear the appropriate name first proposed, of Tor- 
rey's peak, in commemoration of the early botanical 
labors of our veteran American botanist) is thought 
to be somewhat higher, an interesting point wMch 
will no doubt be determined by Professor Whitney 
in his present summer's exploration of that region. 



Plants of the Cactus family are principally 
confined to the Western continent, and although 
most abundant in tropical regions, some fbrms 
extend far into the temperate zone, and some 
species even have an alpine character. Back, in 
his northern expedition, saw with astonish- 
ment the banks of the Rainy Lake, in latitude 
48° 40', entirely covered with the prickly pear 
(OpufUia vtUgaris). Humboldt found on the 
Andes several species of Cactus on elevated 
plains fi-om 9,000 to upwards of 10,600 feet 
above the level of the sea. Some have even 
been gathered at an elevation of 13,600 feet. 
In size and height the different kinds present re- 
markable contrast. In Mexico and Arizona 
many kinds assume an arborescent form. Other 
kinds have a globular form, some with a diame- 
ter of three feet, and attaining a weight of 2,000 
pounds, while a Cactus in South America is so 
small and so loosely rooted in the sand that it 
gets between the toes of dogs. 

Palms are the loftiest and most stately of all 
vegetable forms. To these, above all other 
trees, the prize of beauty has always been 
awarded by every nation. Marked with rings, 
and not unfrequently armed with thorns, the 
tall and slender shaft of this graceful tree rears 
on high its crown of shining, fan-like, or pin- 
nated leaves, which are often curled like those 
of some grasses. Smooth stems of the Palm 
sometimes rise to a height of one hundred and 
ninety feet. It diminishes in size and beauty as 
it recedes from the equatorial toward the tem, 
perate zones. 



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Vitality op Seeds. — ^There is much mystery 
about this subject. We recently read in a New 
York paper that on the clay from a deep well, 
plants of Sinaspis arvensis, the "Yellow Char- 
lock," grew, the seeds of which "must have 
been there for ages." As this is not an Ameri- 
can plant, but one which has followed the foot- 
steps of the white man, of course there must be 
an error here. We have no doubt it is so with 
all tbe cases of so-called vitality, not even the 
supposed well attested oages of forests of trees 
gro^wing up after a fiin in the West, different 
from that which gmw before, firom seed which 
had been for years in the ground. 

Farmers say that when they plow up old sod 
which has been that way for many years, and 
note the rag weed and white clover which 
springs up, that these seeds are natural to the 
soil, or have been there for a long time; but 
Hiere is no doubt but that this is wrong. The 
most carefhl analysis of these soils fails to de- 
tect their presence, which it would certainly do 
if they were there. Though surely there is not 
near the vitality in seeds accorded to them, 
there is really much more than is generally sup- 
posed. It is rather how they are Kept than any 
peculiar limit to their age which determines 
their goodness. We know the time when we 
supposed it necessary to keep Magnolia seeds 
moist ft'ora the time the^r were gathered till 
they were sown in the spring. Once we found 
a package which had been thrust under a rafter 
in a tool shed in the spring, which grew as well 
as anv. More recently Mrs. Col. Wilder found 
apackage of Magnolia soulanyeana seed in Mr. 
Wilder's wardrobe, which had been there be- 
tween two and three years, and which on sow- 
ing produced a plant from every seed. Yet the 
belief is next to universal that Magnolia seed is 
one of the most transitory in its hold on vitality 
that we have. 

These facts show us that we really know little 
about these matters yet; and they should stimu- 
late practical men to careful experiment as to 
what are really the laws which govern the pre- 
servation and germination of seeds. — Gardener's 
Monthly. 



Study op Natural History. — "For many 
years it has been one of my constant regrets that 

I no schoolmaster of mine had a knowledge of 
natural history, so far at least as to have taught 
me the grasses that grow by the wayside, and 
the little winged and wingless neighbors that 
are continually meeting me with a salutation 

I which I cannot answer, as things are. Why 
did'nt somebody teach me the constellations 
too, and make me at home in the starry heavens 
which are always overhead, and which 1 don't 
half know to this day ? I love to prophesy that 
there will come a time when, not m Edinburgh 
only, but in all Scottish and European towns 
and villages, the schoolmaster will be strictly re- 
quired to possess these two capabilities (neither 
(:rreek nor Latin more strict), and that no in- 
genious little denizen of this universe be thence- 
forward debarred from his right of liberty in 
those two departments, and doomed to look on 
them as if across grated fences all his life I" — 
Oarlyley in Edinburgh Courant. 



NOTES FROM GORR£SPOyD£NTS. 

We have a communication from Prof. G. H. 
French, relative to some interesting plants of 
Southern Illinois, observed during a vacation 
trip. Our space peimits us to present only some 
of the more prominent statements: 

About two and a half miles from Makanda is a 
ledge of rocks known as Giant City, consisting of 
numerous large blocks of sandstone— a wild and 
romantic place. Here I found some interesting 
ferns, among which were beautiful specimens of 
the Walking Fern {Campioaorua rhizophyllw) Woodr- 
aia obhuia^ Oystopteria fragilia^ Aaplenium trichomanea 
and Aipidium aeroatiehoidea. 

Besides ferns, I found here a rare Heuehera^ the 
same as described in number 10, p. 310. It grows 
from the sides of the cliflEs, and rarely on the ground 
at the base of the cliffs. The whole plant is viscid- 
pubescent, the scape a foot to eighteen inches high, 
the i>anicle about six inches long, and three to four 
inches wide. 

A ledge of rocks about four miles northwest of 
Makanda has the local designation of Fern -rocks. 
Among the most interesting things here was the 
Aaplenium pinnaiifidum. It grows in considerable 
abundance here, though I found it in no other place. 
This delicate fern Lb an interesting plant, both on 
account of its rarity and its manner of growth. It 
grows from crevices in the sides of the diff, in the 
driest places, seeming to avoid moisture. The roots 
penetrate the narrow crevices, so that it is difScult 
to dislodge them with a knife. There is an inclina- 
tion, I see, among botanists to class this plant with 
the Walking Fern, and I should say with much 
propriety. Although I did not find it rooting at 
the end of the frond, I doubt not it would if it could 
find place to root. 

Growing from a moist moss-covered rock near 
by I found a bunch of the deUcate Aaplenium Felia>- 
foeminay its large though delicate fronds contrasting 
strangely with some small specimens of Aaplenium 
ebeneum growing at no great distance. But among 
the most beautiful is the 3J aiden-hair fern (Adiantum 
pedaium)j that grows all through the woods in this 
vicinity Other ferns gi owing common here were 
the two Poly pods (Polypodium vulgare and P. hexa^ 
yonopierum), the common Brake {Pteria aquilina) , 
the sensitive fern {Onoelea aenaiHlia)^ Aapidium mar- 
yinale and A, acroaiiehoidea, 

I found at the base of the ledges a peculiar Dode- 
catheon. The leaves are orbicular, crenate-dentate, 
or sometimes entire, of a pale green color and thin, 
obtuse at the base and not tapering to the petiole. 
Scape from six to twelve inches high, and from one 
to ten flowered. The flowers were all gone, but the 
capsules were not more than half as large as those 
of Dodeeatheon mecuiia. It grows in tbe sand made 
ftt>m the disintegraled rocks of the clif&« It Is at 



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ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



least a marked variety of D. meadia, if not a new 
species. 

Various species of Desynodium grow here In the 
woods and fields, several of which are worthy of 
notice. In one place I found a specimen of Des- 
modium nudiflorum having two scapes, one naked 
the other hearing ahout midway a tuft of leaflets. 
The shape of the leaflets and other characters were 
decidedly D, nudiflorum. 

Near Gohden I found a specimen of Desmodium 
pauciflorum with the scape coming out at the base 
of the plant, as in D. nudiflorum^ but having a tuft of 
leaflets at about the middle. In this plant the shape 
of the leaves was that of D. pauciflorum, 1 also found 
several specimens that seem to combine the habits 
of D. pauciflorum and D. acuminatum. They were 
not more than ten or twelve inches high, and about 
midway had a node of leaves ft*om which rose a 
short scape, or flower-stalk, bearing a few flowers 
of the color and size of those of Z). pauciflorum. The 
leaves were very much pointed, like those of D. 
acuminatum. Do these peculiarities show a hybrid- 
ization in these species, or are they variable forms 
of one species ? 

Prof. E, J. Hill, of Kankakee, lU., comroimi- 
cates notes and specimens of a few interesting 
plants, from which we give the following ex- 
tracts: 

I iDclose a specimen ofJuncus Greenii. In some speci- 
mens the iuvolucral leaf is 6 inches long. The pods are 
longer than the sepals, and blunt. It has one or two 
involute thread-form leaves at the base. The cymes are 
large, making a heavy head; and the plant stands up 
rigidly, growing from 18 inches to 23^ feet high. Its 
locality is the prairie north of the Kankakee river, and 
it was quite abundant. Tliere was considerable sand 
in the soil. I find in the same soil SeUria triglom^atay 
Michx., and a Finihruiylis which I take to be /*. gpadicea, 
Vahl. 

I mentioned to you Rhynchospora cymosa, Nutt. After 
a thorough reexamination, I can make nothing else of 
my specimens. The leaves are linear, flat and keeled . 
The culm is leaiy, triangular, smooth, 10 to 20 inches 
high, with terminal and axillary cymes. I found it in 
the sandy barrens west of here, growing In the edge of 
sloughs. The Ftmbristylis grew in the same locality. 

I spoke to you of a tall ffemicarpha tubsquarrosa. By 
actual measurement I find the tallest 8J inches high. 
It was probably due to the fact that they grew in the 
shade, in the midst of a dense growth of Eragrostis rep- 
tans y and various taller weeds, on a low inundated 
island of the river; the richness of the soil and the 
struggle for sunlight stretched them out. 

I inclose a specimen of Conobea muUifidaj Beuth., 
about which there seems to be some discrepancies of 
description. Dr. Gray says: "Upper lip of the corolla 
3-lobed, the lower 3-parted. Stjie 2-U)bed at the apex, 
the lobes wedge-form. Leaves opposite. Flowers small, 
solitary, on axillary 2-bractleted peduncles." 

It is described by Michaux (Flor. Bor. Am.) as Cap- 
rwria muUifida, He says: "Corolla campanulate, 5- 



parted, acute. Capsule 2-valved, 2-celled, many-«eedc 
Leaves temately verticillate, many-parted; pedio 
solitary." 

Sprengel (Syst. Veg.), under Capraria, describee tJ 
capsule as 2-celled, valves 2-cleft Under Eerpestris \ 
says: "Capsule 2-celled, 2-valved, valves 2-parted. 
The last is the case with this plant, the valves beii 
finally 2-parted. Sprengel characterizes Conobea thu 
"Calyx tubulous, JMlentate, 3 bracts at the base; co 
olla 2-lipped, upper lip emai^nate, lower lip 3-lobe( 
capsule 4-valved, etc." 

By stretching a point the 2-lipped corolla can be m^ 
out, and the final result with the capsule is the 4 valve 
But I find neither 8 bracts nor 2 (Oray), nor opposil 
leaves alone, but mainly verticillate, and the style moi 
like that of Berpmtrts, 

The result I find to be a good specific distinction i 
Michaux's Flora, but a mingling of the elements of thre 
genera in my books, viz : Conobea, Eerpestris and Ca^ 
raria (as to the corolla). 

We have examined the specimen sent by Mr 
Ilill, and also others fh>m Southern Illinois, and 
find his remarks as to the characters fally soe- 
tained. In the dried specimens we have not 
been able to make out the stractore of tlie co^ 
rolla. 

Cliarles H. Peck, of Albany, N. Y., writes ae 
follows concerning the wliite fruited form ol 
Strawberry noticed in our last issue : 

Fragaria wfca, with white fruit, grows in RenselUti 
county, in this State. A gentleman of my acquaintance 
transplanted some plants to his garden, placing both 
red and white fruiting varieties in the same bed. Tbej 
have exhibited no apparent tendency to mix, or fom 
intermediate varieties; but under cultivation they pre- 
sent a peculiar appearance. The flowering stem be 
comes dichotomously branched above, the brancba 
growing quite long, and the primary ones being sub 
tended by a well developed leaf. The fruit is produced 
throughout the season, so that these plants become 
* * Everbearing Strawberry." 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

Plants to If ante. — Miss Mary E, Murtfddty A'trl- 
wood, Mo. — No. 1 is Astragalus Mexicanus; No. 2, Coney- 
sis aristosa; No. 4, Commelyna Virginiea; No. 5, Lespsdns, 
fdolacea; No. 6, Hypericum Drummondii; No. 7, A8iif\ 
Nova Anglids; No. 8, Poa eompressa; No. 9, Paniam 
dichotommnn; No. 10, MoUugo vsriiciUata; No. 11, A'a-Uria 
cristata; No. 12, Tricuspis purpurea; No. 14, Eleocharul 
tsnuis; No. 16, Pycnantkemum linifoltum; No. 16, Acalf-^ 
pha Virginiea; No. 17, Aster miser; No. 18, Aster tsnvi-l 
folius; No. 19, Cephalanthus oeeidentalis ; No. 20, MnU\ 
gedium acuminatum; No. 21, Lactttoa Canadensis. 

H. h. Mapes, Kalamatoo, Mich.—^o. 1 is the Climl)- 
ing Bittersweet {Celastrus scandens, L.); No. 2, Gin^eDd 
{AraUa quinquefolia, L.); No. 3, PerUhorum sedoides, L.: 
No. 4, Hypericum corymbosum, Muhl.; No. 5, Willow 
Herb {Epilobium angusti folium, L.); No. 6, Aiierl 
dumosus, L. 



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