BENEFICIAL INSECTS. 



It is not often that there will be much to say in this Department, 

 as most of the beneficial insects are treated of in connection with the 

 injurious species upon which they prey. But the folio wing little 

 fellow is so important to the grape-grower that it should be recognized 

 b} r ever} 7 vineyardist in the State, and cherished as the very apple of 

 his eye : 



THE GLASSY-WINGED SOLDIER-BUG- Campyloneura vitri- 



pennis, Say. 



A NEW FRIEND TO THE GRAPE-GROWER. 



This is the bug ; and a pretty little thing it is too 1 Take a good 

 look at the figure and remember that the hair-line at 

 the side represents the natural size. 



There are perhaps no insects more dreaded by the 

 grape-grower than the different species of leaf-hoppers 

 which sap up the substance of the leaves of the Vine; 

 but as they will be treated of, in all probability, in my 

 next Report, we will pass them over for the present. 

 No parasitic or cannibal insect has ever been known 

 to prey upon these leaf-hoppers before, but last September, while in 

 the vineyard of Dr. C. W. Spaulding, at Rose Hill, on the Pacific rail- 

 road, I discovered that this Glassy winged Soldier-bug was preying 

 upon them. The leaves were actually covered on the underside with 

 the dead carcasses of the leaf-hoppers, which, in their death-struggle, 

 had firmly attached themselves, and hung thickly, with wings ex- 

 tended and body sucked dry— dead proof of the surprising thorough- 

 ness with which their mortal foe had done its work of slaughter. On 

 a single leaf not so large as a man's hand a half hundred of these 

 skeleton leaf-hoppers could be counted, and though this number was 

 above the average, there were few leaves that did not show quite a 

 number. To use Dr. Spaulding's language, lt the sight was enough to 



