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are sent almost daily to tliis office by the farmers, from the various States of the 

 Union, for examination and de:>cription, and as several of the letters accompa- 

 nying these insects contain sound practical information as to the best methods 

 already practiced by the writers for their extermination or for preventing or 

 lessening the destruction of their crops caused by their ravages, it may be well 

 to mike known to the public, through the pages of this monthly report, the re- 

 . suits of such experiments as have already been made, and to suggest others 

 which may perhaps aid the agricidturist in diminishing the number of the insect 

 foes which are at present destroying his crops, trees, fruits, and vegetables. As 

 it is not to be expected that every firmer should be an entomologist and know 

 the scientific name for every difterent part of an insect, it miy be necessary, in 

 the first place, to give a brief description of what an insect is, and to explain 

 the various transformations it has to undergo before attaining the winged or per- 

 fect state. Moreover, as these papers are intended for tlie practical farmers 

 alone, who have had neither time nor opportunity to study Latin and Greek deri- 

 vations, and not for the scientific naturalist, the use of scientific terms, which 

 would only confuse, will be carefully avoided as much as possible, excepting, 

 of course, the names of the insects themselves, many of which have no English 

 name whatever, or, if they have, are known by different local names in almost 

 every State in which they may be found. For example, take the grain weevil: 

 in some States it is understood to sigaify the wheat midge — i two-winged fly 

 infesting the heads of growing grain ; it is also sometimes applied to the small 

 moth or miller which is found in grain when stored, whilst in oth?r pi ices it 

 means the small blackish brown h.ird-wing cased beetle so comsnon in grain that 

 has been kept some time in sacks ur bins — the last-named insect being the only 

 true weevil; whereas the scientific name, although very ditficult to be learned at 

 first, is the same throughout the whole civilized world. Besides this, the same 

 remedies could not be used with any success, for the reason th it all these three 

 insects belong to different orders, have different habits, and only two of them 

 are found in the same situations. Tlie word insect is derived from two Latin 

 words, signifying " cut into," as all insects are divided into several segments or 

 rings, and their bodies are separated or cut into three distinct parts, namely : 

 the first part, or head, which is furnished with eye^^, a mouth consisting of either 

 jaws for biting, or a proboscis for suL-king or piercing, and two articulated or 

 jointed horns called autennaj ; the second part, or middle portion of the body, is 

 commonly known by the name of " thorax," and bears six legs and generally 

 either one or two pairs of wuigs ; thii third part, or hinder portion of the body, is 

 called the abdomen. True insects n.'ver have mn'e than six legs, and undergo 

 three transfunnations after leaving the egg. The first stage is when the insect 

 appears in the grub, caterpillar, or miggot state; it then feeds voraciously upon 

 vegetcible and animal substances, and the outer skin is shed several times before 

 attaining its full size. This first stage of insect life we shall, for the sake of 

 brevity, call larva, as this term, signifymg a mask, can be used indiscriminately 

 for either the grub, caterpillar, or maggot. The second stage is when the larva 

 sheds its skin the last time and assumes the pupa or chrysalis state, when it re- 

 mains for a longer or shorter period of time inactive, almtxst motionless, and does 

 not take any food whatsoever ; this is the case with beetles, bees, butterflies, and 

 flies. This state we shall call papa. Fin dly, the pupa skin is burst op.m by the 

 insect within, and the perfect winged butterfly or beetle mikes its appearance 

 to pair and deposit eggs for another generation. This is the last stage of an 

 insect's lite, as after laying the eggs it becomes enfeebled, and dies. 



Grasshoppers, plant-bugs, and dragon flies, or mosquito hawks, although they 

 also underg ) these three transformations or changes, are active and feel in all 

 the stages of their existence as larva, pupa, and imago or perfect insect. The 

 life of a common grasshopper may serve as our example. An old female having 

 deposited her egg in the earth, where it is hatched by the heat of the sun, the 

 young when just emerged from the egg presents much the same appearance as 



