69 



when they have not yet fixed themselves on the skin. I ara 

 now constantly occupied, while 1 write, in scratching my abdo- 

 men, which has no less than seven protuberances produced by 

 a quarter of an hour's visit of one of those gentlemen as much 

 as a week ago. I have sometimes found thirty or forty in my 

 shirt after a ramble in the woods, and you may judge of my 

 misery then. I could encounter scorpions with more fortitude. 

 We have, moreover, mad dogs and mokeson snakes in abund- 

 ance to make our solitary forests more agreeable and secure. 



The Molorchus which you described is probably new, and is 

 not known to me, though very likely it is closely related to M. 

 himaculatus Say, which is very common here at this season on 

 the blossom of the dogwood, along with another species which 

 is wholly black except the thorax ; that is ferruginous. Both 

 species vary so much in size (from ^ in. to -^^ in.) that I could 

 not say whether the greatest or the least was most common. 

 M. himaculatus is sometimes more than -^^ of an inch long. 

 It is strange I have not sent either to you. 



One of the sexes of the Molorchus mentioned above, with a 

 ferruginous thorax, has antennse considerably longer than the 

 body, the other has them considerably shorter. Both species 

 are also found on the blossom of the wild plum tree. 



Our " rose-buo- " is not a rose-bus;, for it is never found on 

 that flower as far as I know, whilst it is pretty common on the 

 chinquepin, and other trees, feeding on the leaves, not on the 

 blossom. I think I h-ave found it on grape vines. Its never 

 being found on the rose, which is common here, both in a wild 

 and cultivated state, is the main reason that could induce me to 

 consider it as distinct from the northern species ; but the name 

 polyphaga^ given by Melsheimer or Knoch, indicates what we 

 know, that it may feed on almost anything green. I grant with 

 you, that the aspect differs considerably, but it may arise in a 

 great measure from the difference in size, and as to the color- 

 ing, it differs very much in different specimens of our insects. 

 As usual in such cases, I have but one northern rose-bug, and 



