68 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
Sowing salt, at the rate of six bushels to the acre, is said by Alderman 
Mechi (a good English authority) to destroy them; but several farmers 
in this country who have tried it state that the remedy i is of very little 
avail, for if sufficient salt is sown to destroy the wire-worms, vegetation 
is also injured. 
A large black cantharis or blister-fly, Hpicauta corvina, (Lec.,) is men- 
Fie. 9. tioned as injuring the potato plants between two and 
Ag Pa three hundred miles west of Kansas City. Specimens 
an pain Were sent by Rev. Cyrus Thomas from Colorado. 
A small brown beetle, Scolytus carye, (Riley,) or 
hickory bark-borer, was discovered by Mr. Riley in- 
juring hickory by boring holes in the bark. The holes 
made by the female for. her eggs slant upward, while 
“ those made by the larvee run straight to the sap-wood, 
and are as large as if made by No. "8 shot. No remedy 
is given. 
A black cureulio, with curiously sculptured thorax, 
Sphenophorus caryosus, (Oliv.,) was sent from New 
Jersey, where it is said to be very destructive to young plants of maize 
Fig. 10. in the field. It destroys them by piercing the stems, in which 
the larva lives and feeds. Dr, Walsh also speaks of a Spheno- 
phorus zee, which pierces corn in numerous places, each blade 
having six or eight holes of the size of a pin, or larger, and 
. When very numerous every stalk is killed. Another Spheno- 
phorus was sent several years ago from South Carolina under 
the local name of “ Bill-bug.” It had been very destructive to 
growing maize in the low lands of the Pedee. The plants attacked 
by this insect turn yellow, and many of them die. It therefore behooves 
our farmers to examine all unhealthy stalks of maize, and when insects 
are found to destroy them, to prevent their spreading. 
The larve of a small blackish curculio (allied to Phytobius) were found, 
Fig. U1. in June and July, in Maryland, occupying large 
brown blister-like spots on the leaves of the tulip 
fy tree. The parenchyma of the leaf being entirely 
-) eaten out, the outer cuticle containing the larvee 
wih = turns brown, and several stringy- like filaments, 
(with $9 apparently of “frass,” are scattered through the 
uy cavity. The pupeze are tormed in little balls or 
cocoons of this thread-like substance, and the per- 
y ak fect beetle appears in eight to ten days after the 
; pupa is formed. Six to ten of these insects were 
taken in each infested leaf, but whether the larve eat the parenchyma, 
or are parasitic on some other insect, has not yet been discovered. It 
is mentioned as rather singular that the larva of a cureulio should be 
found in such a situation. 
The plum-weevil, (Conotrachelus nenuphar,) (Agric. Rep. 1854, pia, 
commoniy known as the “ curculio,” was said by Dr. Walsh to be double- 
brooded, ke stating that the first brood at Rock Island, Illinois, appears 
from July 19 to August 4, and the second brood from August 23 to Sep- 
tember 28; but Mr. Riley states distinetly that it is single-brooded, and 
that it hybernates in the perfect or weevil state, and not in the larval 
or pupal, as was formerly imagined. The beetle also is more nocturnal 
than diurval in habit, and is very active at night; but during the 
daytime, especially in bright sunny weather, rests among the leaves and 
branches, or under some shelter, It was formerly stated that the female 
first bored a crescent-shaped. cut or incision with her beak, and then 
