52 



now we are afraid they will do too much damage, and we are at work putting Paris 

 green on the trees to see if that will kill them. * » * They are also epreadiug to 

 the willows, and also to the young Kilmarnock willows and New American. — [Thomas 

 B. Meehan, Germantown, Pa., July 6, 1887. 



Reply. — * * » The insect which you find on the leaves and shoots of your 

 Carolina poplars is the common Streaked Cottonwood Leaf-heetle {Una smpta). This 

 insect was described by Professor Riley in his Annual Report for 1884, on pages 336 to 

 340. The article was suggested by the great damage done by this insect in the newly- 

 plauted timber claims of the Northwestern Territories during the summer of 1884. 

 The question of remedies is discussed in this article also. — [July 8, 1887. 



Hibernation of Mosquitoes. 



[The following letter was the second from Mr. Wade on this subject. Ilis first letter 

 mentioned incidentally that mosquitoes wintered in large numbers in his cellar, and 

 the following is in reply to our request for specimens.] 



I tried to catch some of the mosquitoes by day-light, but they were too wide-awake; 

 so I let it go until this evening, when I tried to catch and box them alive, but it 

 seemed as though two flew out every time I put one in. I have got a few for you, 

 probably enough ; if not, I will try again. The cellar is very cold, and yet in one 

 corner is a tin furnace conductor of heat. It seems as though they avoid the warm 

 corner, as they were thickest all the time in the coldest part of the cellar. They seem 

 nearly as lively as in the summer, and I notice they are paler in color than those out- 

 side in the open air. A few weeks ago they were so thick (in this cellar, of course), 

 that my housekeeper would hold the lamp up to them, and in a very short time 

 the inside of the chimney would be a half-inch deep or more, I gave John Butter- 

 worth, an English microscopist, now travelling here, a small bottle full of them to 

 take home. To-day, though cold, I could look out of any of my windows and see 

 them flying as in summer. It is many weeks since any of us were bit. I have never 

 knowu them so bad anywhere as they were here the past summer, and yet it is high, 

 dry, rocky ground. — [Jos. M. Wade, 158 Federal street, Boston, Mass., Nov. 16, 1884. 



Reply. — I have carefully examined the mosquitoes yon sent with your favor of the 

 16th instant, and I find them in no way different from one of our common and widely, 

 distributed species which is supposed to be the Culex ciliatus of Fabricius. You are 

 no doubt aware that, so far as we know, our northern mosquitoes pass the winter 

 in the imago state and that, like most other insects, they choose places of a uniform 

 and pretty low temperature. Thus they pass the winter in a semi-torpid condition 

 ■without taking food, whereas in a warmer place they would be kept alive and 

 perish for want of nourishment. 



The fact that you found such immense numbers of mosquitoes in your cellar shows 

 that they must have been unusually numerous with you the last season, and further 

 that your cellar must have been particularly attractive to them as a suitable place 

 for hibernation. Still, upon careful inspection of the locality in question, it ought 

 not to be difficult to ascertain the reason for this remarkable gathering of mosquitoes 

 as related by you. — [November 24, 1884.] 



Leaf Hoppers and the " Die-back " of the Orange. 



On yesterday I sent you by mail a bug, like inclosed, asking that I might be 

 iufornied of its name and habits. To-day I send two more with samples of orange 

 twio's in the grove where these bugs are in considerable numbers. I cau'r, for a fact, 

 say the bugs are the cause of die-back, but certainly the presumption is great. They 

 are constantly on the trees in considerable numbers; they do not seek roots or trees 

 with scale on or any form of insect or fungus. They are on the new twigs or the 

 growth prior to the last, and, as you will observe, the damage is to those parts of the 



