lvii 
As an example of the importance Entomology may assume in 
anew and partially cultivated country, I may call your attention 
to a Report on the Noxious and Beneficial Insects of the State 
of Missouri, made to the Missouri Board of Agriculture by the 
State Entomologist, Mr. Charles V. Riley, a gentleman of English 
birth and education, who, you will recollect, attended one of our 
meetings during the past year. In this Report, containing the 
matter of a fair-sized volume, we have popular and lively, yet 
accurate descriptions of a large number of noxious insects, with 
full accounts of their transformations ‘and general economy, and of 
the various methods of guarding against their ravages. The 
vine in America seems especially liable to attack, the ravages of 
an Aphis, three Coleoptera and seven Lepidoptera being here 
described, while this is only a third of the series of articles (not yet 
concluded) on insects injurious to the vine. This superabundance 
of enemies is due, no doubt, to the fact that numerous species of 
grape, and of several allied genera of plants, are indigenous to the 
United States, and there are thus a host of insects ready 
to seize upon the more luxuriant and juicy cultivated vines. In 
the latter part of the Report, under the heading ‘Innoxious 
Insects,’ we have a most excellent account of two common 
American butterflies, the Danais Archippus, Fabr., and the 
Limenitis disippus, Godt., in which the subject of mimicry, as 
illustrated by these two species, is very clearly treated. Mr. 
Riley’s own experiments on the Archippus butterfly adds some- 
thing to our knowledge of this interesting subject. He found 
that neither turkeys, chickens, toads, nor snakes, would touch the 
brilliantly-coloured larva, and he observed that these larvee have 
a pungent and nauseous odour, especially perceptible when a few 
are confined in a box. In the imago state the odour is even 
stronger. The larva is not wholly free from enemies, for though 
hymenopterous parasites have never been observed to attack it 
yet it is often killed by the dipterous Tachina. The caterpillar 
of the Limenitis, on the other hand, is attacked by, at least, three 
parasites, two hymenopterous and one dipterous. Other facts of 
importance are, that the larve of the Limenitis disippus are 
protected by their colours, closely resembling the various willow- 
leaves on which they feed, while the pup resemble birds’ dung, 
more especially for the first few hours after their transformation ; 
and that Mr. Otto Lugger, a gentleman employed on the U.S. Lake 
E 
