OP THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 99 



angle, the annual growth around it will gradually approach nearer 

 to the top of the peg, which, thus getting sliorter, also has its base at 

 the juncture with the tree proportionally elevated. Now the botan- 

 ist who would have decided that such a peg could not be elevated, 

 would have been simply unscientific, and as wide of the mark as was 

 the jury in condemning botanical science. Science is the correct in- 

 terpretation of Nature's truths, and the false reading of them is spuri- 

 ous science, and should never be dignified with more than the name 

 of theory, which — excellent in its place — must not be confounded with 

 demonstrable fact. 



In the year 1871, and previously, Francis Whittaker & Sons, St. 

 Louis, of sugar-cured ham celebrity, suffered serious loss in the in- 

 jury done by this insect. Being summoned, in 1871, to visit their large 

 establishment to investigate the habits of the worm which caused 

 them so much trouble, I was soon able to propose a remedy which has 

 proved effectual and satisfactory. About the middle of May the pa- 

 rent beetle (Fig. 26, e) first makes its appearance. It is of a steel-blue 

 color, with the legs and base of antennas red-brown, and, to the naked 

 eye, it appears smooth and metallic, though, in reality, evenly punc- 

 tate and slightly pubescent, (d). It may be found about almost any 

 dead animal matter in field or wood ; but a city life seems to possess 

 decided attractions in its complex and beautifully faceted eyes. In 

 the establishment of Messrs. Whittaker tV: Sons, wherever the female 

 can find an exposed piece of ham, there she takes good care to con- 

 sign a number of her eggs. These eggs are 0.04 inch long, five times 

 as long as wide, and slightly narrower at one end than the other. In 

 a very few days there hatch from these eggs minute white larvce, 

 with brown heads, a black spot on the first and last joints, and two 

 small hooks or tubercles at the tip of the body. These grow apace, 

 burrowing in the fatty matter next the rind, and especially congre- 

 gating in the hollow of the bone at the butt end of the ham. With 

 age, this larva becomes darker, and when full-grown, (Fig. 26, a), is 

 grayish-white, with a series of brown patches superiorly. 



When about to transform, this larva gnaws its way into the more 

 fibrous parts of the meat, or into more solid substances, as wood, etc^ 

 and makes for itself a white cocoon (Fig. 26, e), of a glistening paper- 

 like substance, not spun from a spinneret as with most insects, but 

 disgorged or spit out in little globules from the mouth. Each globule 

 retains its form in drying, so that the outside of the cocoon usually 

 appears granulated, though the inside is rendered smooth by the 

 continual movements of the animal. 



The pupa (Fig. 26, />), which has two large tapering fleshy processes 

 at the tip of the body, is at first whitish, but the abdomen soon be- 



