REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 65 
REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND CURATOR 
OF THE MUSEUM. 
Siz: During the past year an unusually large number of letters has 
been received from persons in all parts of the United States, desiring 
information on the natural history and habits of certain insects which 
have lately been found to injure various crops; desiring at the same 
time to know what remedies have been recommended to effect their 
destruction, or at least to diminish the losses caused by their ravages. 
Many new tacts have been discovered within the last twelve months, by 
State and private entomologists, concerning the food and habits of cer- 
tain insects which have hitherto been unknown. Many have been found 
to injure cultivated plants and trees, which formerly were thought to 
confine themselves merely to wild vegetation and weeds. 
To give publicity to these facts it will be necessary to quote extensively 
from Mr. Riley, of the American Entomologist and Botanist, (a valuable 
journal, which, unfortunately, has been suspended for one year,) Dr. Fitch, 
Dr. Walsh, and other standard practical entomologists, whose works the 
greater number of our readers may never chance to see. I shall also 
give extracts from correspondence of the Department, from my own pri- 
vate note-book, and the results of experiments made in the Department. 
To give some idea of the ravages committed by insects, Hon. Horace 
Greeley recently stated that if he were to estimate the average loss per 
annum of the farmers of the country from insects at $100,000,000, he 
would doubtless be far below the mark. 
I will first take up the order of Coleoptera or beetles. 
Tetracha, (Megacephala,) Virginica, (Hope,) a large tiger-beetle, is men- 
tioned here, as it is said to destroy the Fic. 1. 
larva of the Colorado potato-bug, Dory- ¥ 
phora 10-lineata. The larva of the tiger- 
beetle is predaceous, and feeds upon in- _=% 
sects, worms, &c. The specimen figured 7” 
excavated in the earth a round hole, about “ 
the diameter of a common lead-pencil, JA 
from three to five inches in depth. This 77” 
almost perpendicular retreat was dug in 
the month of June, the larva changing 
into the pupa and perfect insect in the + 
course of a few weeks. Great numbers c 
of larve were taken by the common method of inserting a stalk of 
grass into the hole, leaving the top sticking out. The underground 
larva, endeavoring to eject the intruding stalk, seizes it with its 
powerful jaws, and, pushing it upward, causes the top of the grass to 
shake. When this takes place, if the stalk is immediately jerked out, 
the larva will be brought with it, still holding on to the stem with its 
jaws. <A larva that was kept alive to observe -its habits, was 
placed in a common flower-pot partially filled with earth, moderately 
consolidated by pressure; a hole was then made in it with a lead-pen- 
cil, and the larva placed tail first in the hole, when it immediately worked 
itself down out of sight. The next day it fed voraciously on earth-worms 
and insects, as if nothing had happened. A curious babit was observed, 
that when the earth in which the larva was kept was watered, it invaria- 
bly brought large pellets of mud in its jaws to the top of its burrow, and, 
eommencing to build at the sides, in a very short time effectually closed 
the opening with a somewhat arched roof, so that its retreat could not 
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