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tigations made by competent and intelligent observers, is found to have been a mistake. The 
thripide, so far as their habits are known, are not vegetable feeders at all; but, on the con- 
trary, they feed on the eggs and larva of the wheat midges, bark-lice, leaf-gall insects, flea- 
beetles, and various other species, and are, therefore, carniverous or cannibal in their habits. 
There are, however, some of the most respectable European authorities who have gener- 
ally described the various species of thrips as injurious to vegetation, but Mr. Walsh, of 
Rock Island, Illinois, assures us that they are all entirely mistaken. The mature insect is 
very small, and the larva is still less ; and as it is in this latter state of an orange color, those 
English farmers, upon whose reports both Messrs. Kirby and Curtis seemed to rely in their 
descriptions of its habits, may easily have mistaken it for an enemy of the wheat, when, as 
Mr. Walsh positively asserts, it only visits the wheat heads to feed on the eggs and larva of 
the wheat-fly already there. If this be really so—and every closely observing wheat-grower 
may have an opportunity of testing it for himself—then our American entomologists have made 
a step in advance of those of Europe. But whether this is really so or not it has nothing to 
do in determining what a thrips really is, in contradistinction to that of another insect which 
passes by that name. European authors say that the males of these insects are apterous, and 
that only the females have wings; but as this differs widely from the usual order that obtains 
in other allied species, they are probably also mistaken in this. My object being merely, in 
this introductory part of the subject, to convey to the mind of the reader an intelligent idea 
of what a thrips is in its form, in order that it may not be confounded in name with an insect 
of a different order, form, and habits, I do not deem it necessary to make any suggestions 
in regard to a remedy for that from which fruit-growers have not, as yet, suffered any injury. 
I will just remark, in conclusion, that I have seen the common species in millions during 
harvest time, and that when they light on the exposed parts of the body they cause an 
unpleasant sensation, perhaps by their bite. 
Having said this much in reference to the true thrips, whose real character may not be 
truly known in this country, I pass on to consider the ‘* vine-leaf hoppers,” and others, 
which infest the grape leaves in various ways, and to which have been applied, mistakenly, 
the name of thrips ; a practice which only tends to involve the whole question with mystery 
and untold difficulties ; because, when inquiries are propounded to the entomologist, without 
accompanying them with specimens of the insects complained of, he is altogether in doubt 
what answer to make, in consequence of this confusion of names. The vine-leaf hoppers, or 
at least a number of them, belong to a family of small homopterous insects, called *‘tettigo- 
nians,’’ ( Tettigoniide,) and are of several genera, the most common of which is Erythro- 
neura. ‘The most common species of this genus is E. vitis, and is probably the one that 
is generally alluded to when grape-growers make their complaints about the ‘‘thrips,” in 
various parts of our country. ‘These insects, of which there are some eight or nine species, 
are all of the same shape, and pretty much all of the same size, but differing from each other 
in color and general markings ; and even the same species differs very much in its various 
stages of development; the young also differing from the adult in being without wings. 
Dividing one inch into 100 parts, these insects, when matured, will measure from 12 
to 15 of those parts, in length. Their bodies are broad in front, and taper backward 
to the end of the abdomen into a cone shape, or like a miniature Minié rifle slug. The 
head is broad, and the antennz are short and bristle-shaped. The upper wings extend 
beyond the body, and are deflexed, closing over it roof-shaped. The anterior and medial 
feet are small, but the posterior pair are long and armed with small spines along the 
outer margin of the tibia, something akin to the common grasshoppers, which gives them 
immense leaping powers ; a power which they never fail to exercise when an attempt is made 
to capture them, or when they are disturbed. The adult species, however, do not depend 
wholly upon leaping, but have also the power of an extended flight. If their interruptions 
are not of too violent a character, they will eiude their enemies by merely dodging around 
to the under side of the leaf, instead of leaping or flying. Their colors are different shades 
of yellow, green, pink, white, and brown, according to species and stages of development, 
diversified by bands and markings of various kinds. They usually attack grape leaves in 
swarms, near the endof July, and during the months of August and September; and, as 
every grape-grower well knows, they are exceedingly injurious, destroying the vitality of 
the leaves, causing them to become crisp and shrivelled, and to fall prematurely. These 
insects, however, do not gnaw holes into the grape leaves and feed upon their entire sub- 
stance, as some others do; but, on the contrary, they pierce them with their small sharp 
haustellum, or sucker, and drain them of the sap that is necessary to their health and thrift. 
The eggs are deposited on the under side of the grape leaves in the month of June, in clus- 
ters, and when the young come forth, they for a time remain in the-same place, with their 
suckers inserted in the leaf, and are actively engaged in sucking the-sap. From that period 
until the Ist of August they moult several times, and their white, cast-off skins may often be 
found in numbers upon the leaves. As they grow older they become less gregarious, and 
leap from one leaf to another with increased activity. 
It would be impossible for me, in a limited paper as this must necessarily be, to enter into 
a specific description of all the insects that in various ways attack the grape vines, and there- 
fore I can only allude to them in general terms, and even then, Iam compelled to omit 
many that may have come under the observation of grape-growers. in different lovalities, 
3 
