THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



153 



\J' 



i 



and so much complaint has been made of it this 

 spring that we shall publish an account of it in 

 the next number, for the appearance of which 

 wf beg our correspondent to wait. 



[Fig. 56.] Cynipid gall on Oak Twigs. 



— /. J. U\,Xo,t/! B.iid. O/iio. 

 — The gall which you send on 

 the twigs of Qiu-rciis caslanea is 

 new to our cabinet and evi- 

 dently new to science, and if 

 we hud this to be the case 

 upon further inquiry, we will 

 briefly describe it in these col- 

 umns. It has some resemblance 

 to that of C. ijui-rcus-ptiiutata 

 Bassett, which is found on Q. 

 rubra. This last, however, is 

 a much larger, more rounded 

 and less elongate swelling, the 

 diameter being 4 or 5 times that 

 of the twig. The tlies bred 

 from these galls, so far, always 

 issue in the spring and are 

 uni-sexual, all of them being 

 females, and there is little 

 doubt from our present know- 

 ledge of dimorphism in these 

 insects, that there is a bi-sex- 

 ual form producing probably a 

 totally different gall perhaps on 

 some other part of the tree, as 

 the bud or leaf. We should be 

 very much pleased to have you 

 watch the trees from which these 

 galls were taken and send us 

 whatever gall growths may be 

 noticed thereon during spring 

 and earl)' summer, as we may 

 thus get at the real connection 

 between this and some other 

 gall. Your gall, which we illus- 

 if^ ti "^'"^ (fig- 56), is also very near 



" to C. i'-lhitata Bassett. . 



The very close resemblance of 

 many of the species producing 

 stem swellings on our oaks ren- 

 ders theirspecific determination 

 difficult, and we never shall un- 

 derstand the true specific rela- 

 tion many of the Cynipidae bear 

 to each other until they have 

 been properly studied in their dimorphic forms, 

 and this can only be done by careful breeding, 

 and this only by confining the uni-sexual flies to 

 growing twigs in fine muslin bags. We note 

 what you say about these galls always being con- 

 fined to )'oung, thrifty trees. 



White Grub Fungus. — I inclose you what I 

 suppose to be an ordinary Grub-worm with a 

 vegetable sprout growing from its head, and 

 would be pleased to have you examine it and let 

 me know what it is. 



A few days ago I had some teams plowing, 

 and my little son, following them for the purpose 

 of finding fish-bait, found and brought me two of 

 these worms with a sprout about one inch long 

 growing from each side of the head, apparently 

 from the eyes. I planted them in a pot and set 

 it in our window. When I put them in the pot 



m 



Cynii-s gall on twig 

 of Quercus castanea 

 (after Riley). 



LFig. 5T.1 



the sprouts were about the size and length of the 

 inclosed specimens, and. white in color; but on 

 examination several days after planting, 1 found 

 that they had grown to about the size of an ordin- 

 ary wheat straw, and increased considerably in 

 length, and turned from their white color to a deep 

 red, the worm remaining the same as when found. 



AH 1 have found were in one locality, on a 

 gravelly point of prairie land that was broken for 

 the first time last year. — H. S., lola, Kan. 



You will find the fungus fully treated of in 

 this number. 



Galerita janus.— //. D. M. Fair, New York, 

 j\'. K — The beetle you send belongs to the 

 Ground-beetles {Caralndic) and is known as Ga- 

 lerita janus Fabr. It is widely distributed in the 

 United States east of the Rocky Mountains, com- 

 monly occurring under 

 stones, logs, etc., in the 

 more northern States, but 

 less frequently in the 

 South. The larva (Fig. 

 57, that of an allied spe- 

 cies, G. Lfcontei Dej. from 

 Packard's Guide) is to be 

 found in the wood under 

 old leaves in somewhat 

 damp localities and is, 

 like the perfect insect, 

 nocturnal in its habits. 

 Both larva and imago are 

 frequently attracted to 

 sugared trees. About the 

 beginning of August the 

 larva retires in some old 

 rotten log to undergo its 

 transformation. The im- 

 ago hatches a fortnight 

 later and hibernates in 

 the ground to reappear 

 with thelirst warm days of 

 spring. In the Southern 

 States this insect has 

 probably two annual gen- 

 erations, as full grown 

 larv^ andpupxare found 



Galerita Larva (after 

 Packard.) 



in May. 



Not Fuller's Rose-beetle. — John Stewart, 

 Dickson City, Pa. — The beetle which you send, 

 and which you suppose may be the Rose- 

 beetle {Aramigus fulleri) has in reality no con- 

 nection with that insect. It is known to en- 

 tomologists by the name of Agonoderus comma 

 Fabr., and belongs to a family of predaceous 

 beetles. Very little is known of the habits of this 

 genus of beetles, be- 



[Fig. 58.] 



Agonoderus co.mma. 



yond the fact Ihat they 

 usually swarm on 

 warm days of spring 

 and summer. This 

 species is now re- 

 garded as identical 

 with Agonoderus dor- 

 salis Lee, and for 

 the benefit of the rest 

 of our subscribers we 

 reproduce a figure of 

 it from the ist Report 

 of the U. S. Entomo- 

 logical Commission, 

 in which it was re- 

 ported as swarming 

 in fields infested with 



