[57] Report of the State Entomologist. 153 



when the period for the deposit of their eggs shall arrive, may be in 

 such an enfeebled condition from want of a proper supply of food or 

 other causes, that the eggs deposited by them will lack the vitality 

 necessary to their safe hibernation, or may be eaten by the predaceous 

 insects or mites that often prey upon them; or the young larvoe, 

 while still tender and delicate in the spring, may be largely destroyed 

 by unusual frosts or severe rains. 



In what has been above written, the insects have been called grahs- 

 hopjjers, in accordance with a popular usage, which it would be futile 

 to attempt to change. Strictly speaking, they are not grasshoppers, 

 but true locusts, and it would be well if we would earnestly endeavor 

 to correct in ourselves and in our children the misnomer which has 

 obtained such general currency. It need not make confusion with 

 the seventeen-year locust, for that has no valid claim to the name of 

 locust, but is a " cicada." 



This species is the Acridium feniur-ruhrum of Dr. Harris, Dr. Fitch, 

 and other early writers. Later, it was known as Caloptenus ferrnir- 

 rubrum. In 1873, Dr. Stal, in consideration of structural differences, 

 separated this species and its allied forms from Caloptenus of Serville, 

 under the name of Melanoplus. This has been accepted by Mr. Scudder 

 (see his " Remarks on Caloptenus and Melanoplus, with a notice of 

 the Species found in New England," in his Entomological Notes, vi, 

 contained in Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., xix, 1878, pp. 40-45), and has 

 also been followed in recent publications of Professors Rile}', 

 Comstock, Fernald, and others. 



Some Apple-tree Insects. 



I am an amateur fruit-grower and trying to learn all that I can 

 about the insects which injure apple trees. Inclosed you will find 

 two specimens of larvfe found under the bark of my apple trees. The 

 bark is loose and dead in strips from one to six mches wide and from 

 six inches to two or three feet high, on the trunks of the trees. At 

 first glance one might think it to be sun-scald, but these places are 

 sometimes found where the sun does not shine, and it seems to me 

 that an insect eats the alburnum, or the inner bark. The larva No. 1, 

 inclosed, I find in large quantities on the trees, under this dead bark. 

 None are larger than this, but many are smaller; some just hatched. 

 The smaller ones are of a darker color than this, and slimy like a 

 snail without a shell. What I think are the eggs, are like very small 

 drops of dew piled up in a jelly-like mass. I wish all the information 

 about them that you think may be of use to me. If they have not 

 injured the trees, can you tell me what has injured them, and how 

 they should be treated? The orchard has been set about twenty 

 years. 



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