80 



As you study larvae, you aa^II perhaps explain to me tlie 

 strange attack of some pujnvorous insect upon a worm wln'ch is 

 now under my eye. About ten days ago, some stalks of the 

 tomato were brought to me with two larvae of a Sphinx, new 

 to me, feeding on the leaves ; one of them covered with little 

 black spots indicating the Avounds made by some Ichneumon. 

 But what I cannot comprehend is that from each spot there 

 issues a thread, from which hangs a little cocoon of beautiful 

 silk, like that of many insects of that great family ; there are 

 perhaps forty on this larva, which has ceased to eat, but 

 continues alive, though shrinking every day in a state of im- 

 mobility. The other, after feeding two or three days, died, 

 apparently owing to the cold weather which we have had. Is 

 it not possible that this larva has been attacked by two different 

 enemies of the same family ? INIy 119 (Hym.) makes little 

 yellow cocoons, which are aggregated in one bundle, but this 

 makes them white and singly, and what use there is in their 

 dangling about like bells on the back of the larva, I do not 

 know. 



I send you a rough sketch of an insect which I found in 

 March under the bark of a dead hickory, and also of a pine. 



It is tetramerous, and has no joint 

 XX /^ _^ bifid, but the first two joints of the 



^\ XX ff"^ ^ manus arc somewhat dilated. The 



V|#|^ J palpi are filiform. I'his may be the 



//fcD'-«!^ ^ • I have another insect which may 



jrifiKli^ A C ^6 the 9 ^ :iiid the antennae of Avhich 



/ ^If f ^^^ ^^^"^ • '=''°'*'°°^ Tlie insect is bright 



rufoiis, polished, with the disk of the 



Fig. 13. ' 1 ' 



thorax :uid two bands on the elytra 

 black. It is related to Lanr/uria, but, according to Latreille, 

 does not belong to that family. What do you think it is ? 



Among your Tenehrionites there are thrc>e which I do not 

 possess ; your Upis rugosus and anthracinus, and your Tenebrio 

 punctulatus. Ujns Ici'vigatuft is the one about which I inquired 



