202 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



squash-bug and Harlequin cabbage-bug now lurk, and in which they should be 

 sought and destroyed. 



Very few 'insects of the Grasshopper family, or of the jumping Homoptera, 

 hibernate in any except the egg state, reduced as it were to their lowest denomina^ 

 tion. The tree locusts, or grasshoppers as they are properly termed, for the most 

 part provide for the continuance of their kind by burying their sacks of eggs from 

 one to three or four inches under ground. The Orchilinums and tree crickets make 

 very characteristic punctures in the stems of weeds and soft-wooded plants, in 

 which they place their eggs. Most of the katydids also conceal their eggs in the 

 bark of trees, or between the cuticles of leaves ; but the angular-winged species, 

 which is the most abundant in this State, places its large, oval, slate-colored eggs 

 over-lapping in a double row, glued to the side of a twig. These are often dis- 

 covered on the twigs of fruit-trees and shrubbery, and never fail of exciting much 

 interest and cnrlosity. The Buffalo tree-hopper makes a row of conspicuous little 

 crescent slits in the twigs of the apple tree, in each of which an egg is found. 



The new terrestrial Neuroptera, which include the lace-wing flies and ant Hone, 

 hibernate as pupae stowed away in round silken cocoons, which are so small in com- 

 parison ;to the broad-winged insects that issue from them in the spring, that it 

 seems incredible that the latter could ever have been contained within them. 

 The aquatic members of this order, such as the dragon flies, stone flies, ephemera 

 and the like, all winter as lirv^B, in the element in which they breed. 



There is a practical side to this subject, and as an economic entomologist, I am 

 constrained to point it out, although it may seem like an impoetlcal way, to put it 

 mildly, of using our knowlpdge of the mysteries of nature. Many of the insects 

 mentioned are in the highest degree destructive, and the numbers of these can, in 

 many cases, be most successfully reduced by searching for them in their winter re- 

 treats and destroying them by burning, or by the application of caustic liquids, or 

 in other wajs that seem convenient. Thus it will be seen that by burning the 

 stubbleof corn or small grains infields where chinch-bugs abound, and also care- 

 fully clearing all rubbish from the fence-corner, we destroy the progenitors of 

 legions of the pest. The eggs of tree-hoppers, bag-worms, tent caterpillars and 

 tussock moths can be far more readily found and destroyed during winter than 

 at any other season. The same is true of the cocoons of codling moth, of the egg- 

 filled scales of bark-lice, of the twisted cases of the leaf-crumpler, and dozens of 

 other species, while plowing late in autumn and early in spring will throw out 

 and kill the eggs of grasshoppers, the fragile cocoon of the canker-worm and many 

 cut-worms and saw-flies. 



From a sentimental point of view this seems in some sort a betrayal of na" 

 ture'a confidences, and very like taking an unfair advantage of defenseless creatures, 

 whose marvelous instincts are sufficient to guard them against all dangers except 

 the curiosity and ruthlessness of man. But our crops, our herds and our persons 

 must be protected against the undue multiplication of forms which, were it not for 

 the disturbing influence of human enterprise and necessity, would never appear in 

 such disproportionate and ravaging numbers. And if there is any consolation in 

 the reflection, we may rest assured that the Providence which is over all created 

 objects, extends even to the winged atoms of the insect world, and though millions 

 of individuals are destroyed, the types are not suffered to perish until they have 

 fulfilled the mission, whatever it may be, to which they were divinely appointed. 



