STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 175 



reader is referred to Dr. LeBaron's Fourth Report.* I will here add some 

 general statements which may assist somewhat in finding the names of 

 species, or determining whether they are injurious or not. 



The descriptions here given ap])ly almost exclusively to the perfect 

 insect ; but the readers of such papers as this and of our entomological 

 reports, often, when they find a larva injuring some plants, are desirous 

 of ascertaining what remedies are recommended, and take up the reports 

 to find, if possible, what it is, but are at a loss to know how and where 

 to search. As this is very often the case, I will give some general direc- 

 tions which will aid in this matter. It is impossible to do more than 

 give general directions by characters founded on the larvai alone, but as 

 a general rule, if we can trace them to the family to which they belong, 

 we can form a tolerably correct idea of their habits ; and if we can do 

 this, a little search through the descriptions of the species of the family 

 may enable us to find it if mentioned in the work we are examining. 

 For the purpose of further aiding in this search, I have added a table of 

 plants injured, naming the species herein mentioned which are known to 

 depredate upon them. 



First, then, we may take it for granted that a larva which is a grub, 

 maggot, caterpillar or slug, or that can be considered worm-like, whether 

 long or short, thick or thin, with feet or footless, with or without a true 

 head, smooth or spined, flat or round, can not belong to the Orthoptera 

 (grasshoppers, etc.) or Hemiptera (bugs), as the larvse of the species 

 belonging to these orders are like the perfect insects, except that they are 

 smaller and without wings. 



In the second place, if it is injurious to vegetation, we may exclude 

 the Neuroptera (dragon-flies, lace-winged flies etc.) This leaves but 

 four orders, still a broad field over which to search. If it has feet we may 

 exclude the Diptera (two-winged flies) ; also all the Hymenopiera (wasps, 

 bees, etc.), except the Tcnthrcdinida or saw-flies, and Uroccridce. or 

 *' horn-tails." But the reader must not infer there are no footless larvae 

 except in the Diptera, as there are many even among the Coleoptera. 

 This leaves two orders, Coleoptera (beetles), and Lepidoptera (the butter- 

 flies and moths), and the two families of Hymenoptera mentioned. If it 

 has any thick and fleshy legs on any of the segments between the first three 

 segments, which bear the true legs and the last, we may conclude it is the 

 larva of a lepidopterous species or of a saw-fly. But if it belongs to the 

 latter it will have from six to eight pairs of abdominal or prolegs, in addi- 

 tion to the true legs ; whereas the lepidopterous larvK never have more 

 than five pairs, though they often have less. Thus, step by step we may ob- 

 tain a tolerably correct idea where it belongs, and be enabled to determine 

 something in reference to its habits, and what the perfect insect will be. 



As the present paper is limited to the Coleoptera, I will give some 

 general statements in regard to the larvae of the larger groups which con- 

 tain injurious species. 



* This will be found in the eighth volume of the Reports of the Illinois State 

 Horticultural Society. — Editor. 



