THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



A ITEW BOOK Oir IITJT7BI0nS INSECTS. 



A Treatise on the Insect Enemies or Fruit and Frdit 



Trees, with numerous Illustrations drawn from Nature, 



by Hochstein, under the immediate supervision of the 



Author. By Isaac P. Trimble, M. D.— The Ccrcclio 



AND Apple Moth. New York: W. Wood & Co. 1865. 



We have much pleasure in noticing a work which 



both faithfully and satisfactorily illustrates a topic 



full of interest to the Agriculturist. The subject 



of the depredations of the so-called " Curculio," 



( Conolrachelus nenuphar,) is treated by Dr. Trimble 



at considerable length, and with a lucidity and 



breadth of view which is much to be commended, 



while the Doctor's style of composition relieves, by 



its fanciful abruptness, the tedium which the reader 



is but too apt to feel on the perusal of a work of 



this description. 



Faithfully trying the foolish recipes and nos- 

 trums, ever too readily offered by ignorance and 

 vanity, the Doctor has found these wanting in effi- 

 cacy against the insect enemies of our fruit, and 

 from personal experience, offers good advice and 

 recommends a natural and simple treatment to fruit- 

 growers, such as will, we have every reason to be- 

 lieve, be followed, on being persisted in, by suc- 

 cessful results, while the common sense of the Agri- 

 culturist will receive no offence from the means 

 proposed to relieve his difficulties. 



The illustrations, which are apt and pertinent, 

 are the work of Mr. A. Hochstein, an artist whose 

 faithful delineation of Entomological subjects, is 

 well known to us, and has received our justly 

 merited approval. In the present instance, Mr. 

 Hochstein has treated the figures of insects with 

 both delicacy and a considerable degree of scientific 

 accuracy. 



OOKRESPONDENOE. 



A friend from Maine writes : I think your pro- 

 posed Bulletin will be the means of gathering and 

 preserving much of importance and interest con- 

 nected with the subject of Practical Entomology 

 that would otherwise be lost, and which, if more 

 widely known and distributed, as it could be through 

 such a medium, would be productive of much good 

 to the community. Notwithstanding the many 

 that are engaged in the study of insects to a greater 

 or less extent, and the much that has been written 

 upon the subject, it is lamentable to see how wide 

 spread is the ignorance in regard to it, even among 

 those whose interest it is to possess a knowledge 

 of insects and whose labors are affected by their 



operations. This is the case with us, and I pre- 

 sume we are no exception to the general rule. 

 Take one example : The apple tree in Maine is 

 badly affected by two insects — the "borer" (jSo- 

 per da Candida Fah.^bwittata Say), and the "tent 

 caterpillar," ( CUsiocampa americana). Now, not- 

 with.standing the prevalence of these insects to so 

 great an extent that every farmer's boy is ac- 

 quainted with them in their larval state, I am jus- 

 tified in stating that there is hardly one farmer or 

 fruit grower in twenty who is acquainted with them 

 in their different states, or who would recognize 

 them in their perfect state. This' should not be. 

 These parties must be aroused to their interests. 

 They can never overcome an enemy of whom they 

 know little or nothing. Much has been done in 

 the past few years towards this end by the workers 

 in the cause, but much remains to be performed, 

 and therefore I accept your proposition as one of 

 the means to produce the desired result. G. e. b. 



Cincinnati, Ohio, October 7, 1865. — Please 

 find enclosed a coccus found upon a branch of Sugar 

 Maple in the Fair grounds at Fort Wayne, Ind., 

 last week, when in company with Thomas Meehan 

 of your city. The tree appeared perfectly healthy, 

 and the insects were confined to one branch so far 

 as we could observe it. [This " coccus" is a species 

 of Lecanimn, belonging to the suborder Homop- 

 tera, and is probably undescribed. The scales are 

 relics of dead I'emales, covering and protecting 

 their eggs and young. Mr. Meehan has also sent 

 us specimens of this insect, which he collected 

 probably from the same tree. — Eds.] 



Clisiocampa amcricana has become quite rare 

 on my place; it does consume ^eac/i leaves. See 

 Fitch to the contrary. 



Datana ministra is increasing terribly notwith- 

 standing the annual destruction of millions in my 

 young orchards. It appears sparingly ^arly in 

 July, and then abundantly a month later ; their 

 growth is rapid in early crop, and slower after- 

 wards. Thinking they are of two generations, I 

 am very watchful in July, but still they have in- 

 creased alarmingly. Is not the Datana found so 

 abundantly on the Walnut, Hickory and Oak, in 

 some regions, a different species ? [Probably D. 

 contracta. Walker (vide Groto and Robinson's Pa- 

 per in Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil, iv, p. 499). Send us 

 specimensj — Eds.] 



Clostera inclusa has almost disappeared in this 

 neighborhood, though formerly abundant. I found 

 the eggs of a parasite on it, at another locality, 



