l62 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



PHYLLOXERA-PROOF VINES. 



In a recent address before the Missis- 

 sippi Valley Grape-grower's Association, 

 Mr. Geo. Husmann, so long and .well 

 known for his efforts in behalf of this in- 

 dustry, after extolling the merits of some 

 of the newer seedlings of the Taylor, the 

 wine from which he compares with the best 

 Johannisberg and Deidesheim Riessling, 

 remarks : 



While Mr. Rommel has perhaps attained the 

 first and most marlied results with his Taylor 

 seedlings, others have experimented with them 

 also. I will mention here the Uhland of Mr. H. 

 Weizdenieizer, at Herman, which makes a wine 

 of very high character ; the Noah of Mr. Wasser- 

 zeicher, of Nauvoo, 111., which is already well 

 known among grape growers ; but especiallj' the 

 seedlings grown by Mr. Nicolas Grein, of Her- 

 man, which make a wine equal to the choicest 

 hocks, and whicn may safely be brought in com- 

 petition with the best Johannisberg and Deides- 

 heim Riessling. 



This class is also phylloxera-proof, and as all 

 of them grow very readily from cuttings, they are 

 very easily propagated, and millions of cuttings 

 have already been shipped to France, and even 

 California, of the Taylor and Elvira — the only 

 ones accessible in quantity — to serve as stocks 

 to graft their Vinifera upon, as well as to test 

 their wine-making qualities. They are all ex- 

 ceedingly hardy, withstanding the severest win- 

 ters without injury, and very little, if any, sub- 

 ject to rot. We are therefore working upon a 

 sure basis, and need not fear the reverses of the 

 past, while we can produce from them a wine 

 which can compete with the most renowned of 

 Europe. 



While, therefore, the prospects of Missouri 

 grape growers rest upon a surer basis than ever 

 before, while we think that we see our way to a 

 grand success, the prospects of France, Germany 

 — in short, all the grape-growing districts of 

 Europe — are darkening ; and even California 

 begins to feel the ravages of that insidious enemy, 

 the phylloxera. All look to us for relief, in the 

 shape of cuttings and plants of our phylloxera- 

 proof varieties. There were not cuttings enough 

 of Taylor and Elvira in the State last year to 

 meet the demand from abroad, and the sale of 

 them, of the trimmings of our vineyards, will 

 form a considerable source of revenue to our 

 vintners. 



Bug injuring Box-elders. — Last fall 

 the box-elders, young soft maples, and ash 

 trees, on the College grounds, were infested 

 by a black, red-lined plant-bug — the Lepto- 

 con's trivittatus of Say — that punctured the 

 bark of the trunk and limbs, feeding upon 

 the sap. These bugs have passed the 

 winter in sheltered situations in consider- 

 able numbers, and may prove troublesome 

 during the coming season. The young 

 bugs are most injurious, as they appear in 

 much greater numbers, but may be brushed 



from the tree with a broom and destroyed 

 upon the ground. This mode of operation 

 is rendered more successful by their habit 

 of congregating on certain parts of the 

 tree, at this age. They are then chiefly 

 red in color, acquiring the black with their 

 wings in the adult state. — Prof. E. A. 



Popenoe. 



^ — ^ 



PHILOSOPHY OP THE PUPATION OP BUTTER- 

 FLIES, AND PARTICULARLY OF THE 

 NYMPHALID^.* 



BY CHAS, V. RILE^'. 



The comparatively sudden transitions 

 from one state to another in insects have 

 always excited the keenest interest. The 

 change from larva to chrysalis in those 

 butterflies known as suspensi, and which in 

 the chrysalis state hang from the tip of 

 the body, has, perhaps, been looked upon 

 as the most wonderful. The preliminary 

 acts in the performance have been pretty 

 well observed and described by various 



[Fig. 05.] 



I 



Ideal figures of Daiiats arckippus^ illustrating the method 

 of pupation formerly accepted : rt, suspended larva; b^ form- 

 nig chrj'salis with shriveled larva skin j c, method of holding 

 skin during the last critical act (after Riley). 



authors since the days of Vallisneri, the 

 larva hanging by the anal end, turning up 

 the anterior part of the body in a more or 

 less complete curve, and the skin finally 

 splitting from the head to the front edge 

 of the metathoracic joint and being worked 

 back in a shriveled mass toward the point 

 of attachment. Now comes the critical 

 feat which has most puzzled naturalists, 

 viz., the independent attachment of the 

 chrysalis and the withdrawal from and 

 riddance of the larval skin which such at- 

 tachment implies. 



Reaumur explained it in 1734 by the 

 clutching of the larval skin between alter- 



* Read before the Am. Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, at Saratoga, August, 1879. 



