368 



of the twigs, as soou as injured in the spring, w^eu oue may be able t,o 

 detect the insect. It appears to us that the Ancocerus coffew, would 

 not be likely, in the larvte state, to injure living healthy twigs in the 

 manner described. The insect, however, may probably be found under 

 the bark of diseased trees, and there is no doubt whatever that, in the 

 larvce state, it attacks partially rotten and shriveled fruit, as proved by 

 the "worm-caten appearance of the specimens sent. 



Worms m Peach-Trees.— A correspondent of the Department,* 

 when examining his peach-trees for the peacli-tree borer, discovered a 

 great quantity of small whitish worms, about the 0.40 of an inch in 

 length, and of a very slender form, swarming in the exuded gum, saw- 

 dust, and feces with winch the mouth of burrows made by the peacli- 

 ])0fer {^geria exitiosa) were filled. These small worms ho considered 

 the young larva) of the borer, and sent them to the Department for 

 examination ; they were carefully placed in a bottle and fed until thej" 

 chatiged into naked pupoi on the surface of the earth, or a little below 

 it ; and in about eight or ten days after the pupce were fully developed, 

 the perfect insects made their appearance in the form of minute two- 

 winged dark-colored flies, which were at once recognized as the Myce- 

 Yi„ X4, tohia {Mi/cetophila) persiccc. Sev- 



eral of this genus feed upon 

 fungi, and one species, very simi- 

 lar, is mentioned by Dr. Packard 

 as living in the putrescent sap 

 under the bark of elm trees. Our 

 correspondents, however, have 

 no occasion to apprehend any 

 injury from this insect, as it only appears to feed upon the exuded gum, 

 &c., and has nothing to do with the larvce of the peach tree borers, 

 which, even when very young, can be readily distinguished by their 

 heads, their more robust forms, and by their six small feet on the first 

 three segments of the body — while the larvoe of the Mycetohia is long 

 and snake-like in form, and has no feet whatever, and is perfectly 

 innocuous to the peach-tree. 



Note to Correspondents. — Owing to the very imperfect descrip- 

 tions given by some of our correspondents of the insects sent to this 

 Department for examination and identification, it is hoped that hereafter 

 they will either describe them more fully, or, what is much better, 

 send specimens of the insects themselves by mail, so that the entomol- 

 ogist may ])e able to identify them. Boft-bodied larvfe may be sent alive 

 in small thi or wooden boxes with some of the plants they feed upon 

 inclosed, or if dead they may be placed in vials of weak alcohol. All 

 beetles, plant-bugs, and hard-bodied insecta may also be placed in alco- 

 hol, though the bottle must be protected from breakage, if sent through 

 the mail.' ButteiHies, moths, &c., may be killed by a slight pinch on 

 the thorax, and may then be sent folded in envelope comers or triangu- 

 lar slips of pa]:>er. Where there are a number of these papers they may 

 be conveniently packed in tin or small wooden boxes. All packages 

 should be addressed to the Commissioner of Agriculture, and will then 

 come free by mail if not over two pounds in weight. 



It is also hoped that our correspondents will particularlj- mention 

 what remedies are used in their neighborhood, and with what success, 

 in destroying our most common noxious insects, such as the wheat-fly, 

 Hessian-ily, chinch-bug, avmy-worm, (Colorado potato-beetle, &c. It 

 would also be well for southein planters to make a specialty of report- 



