22 



emergency by accounts of any of our undescribed objects of 

 natural history, you will do them a thankful service, and they 

 will furnish engravings for such drawings as you may send. I 

 would suggest to you that among your insects are several 

 which appear to be new, such as two species of Cieindela, 

 two species of Seraptia, and one each of Thymalus and Phry- 

 ganea. Two large species of Melolonfha may possibly also be 

 new, though I think it likely that one may prove to be occi- 

 dentalis ; it certainly is not decemlineata of Say as I once 

 supposed. To this list you may probably add several more, 

 or perhaps give a paper on our spiders. 



If your avocations are such as to compel you to decline giv- 

 ing a necessary description of the above mentioned insects, I 

 would be glad to add the two Cicindelce and two Melolontkce to 

 a paper which I am now preparing. Of the Melolontkce I 

 made drawings and took full descriptions, while they were 

 lodged in my hands for examination. In making this proposi- 

 tion I am actuated by an esprit du corps, a desire to uphold an 

 institution which is in want of support. 



HENTZ TO HARRIS. 



CHAPEL HILL, N. C., Jan. 21, 1827. 



Are you acquainted with Lamia amputator? Under almost 

 every hickory tree here we find a vast number of twigs 

 about the size of the little finger, which that insect has sawed 

 from the tree, having inserted half a dozen or more of its eggs 

 under the bark. The number must be prodigious ; they injure 

 these trees very much. The insect, I am told, has been de- 

 scribed in the Linnean Transactions. 



