THE 



0la0t.^i 



A MONTHLY BULLETIN, 



Published by the Entomological Society of Philadelphia, for the dissemination of valuable 

 knowledge among Agriculturists and Horticulturists. 



Vol. I. 



MAY 28, 1866. 



No. 8. 



%h practical (Bntamotogifji 



ilSif Publisheil at the Hall of the Society, No. 518 South 

 Tliirtcenik Street, where all (except Western) communi- 

 cations should be addressed. 



^®*Te]ims — 50 cents a year, in advance. 

 ^®" All subscriptions must date from the commence- 

 ment of the volume. 



jZSS^Our Western Correspondents will please send their 

 communications direct to Benj. D. Walsh, M. A., Associate 

 Editor, Rock Island, Illinois. 



E. T. CRESSON, "l Publication Committee 



AUG. R. GROTE, \ and 



J. W. McAllister, J Editors. 



BENJ. D. WALSH, Rock Island, Illinois, 



Associate Editor. 



PHILADELPHIA, MAY 28, 1866. 



B^'We have been repeatedly urged by numer- 

 ous subscribers to give a series of lessons on Ento- 

 mology, for the instruction and accommodation of 

 those who have not the means and opportunity of 

 procuring the necessary works on the subject. By 

 special request, Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., of Maine — 

 a thorough student of Entomology — has kindly un- 

 dertaken the task, and gives his first lesson in this 

 number, illustrated with two outline drawings, 

 which will assist the reader in the study of this 

 beautiful and fascinating science. The phraseology 

 of the articles will doubtless appear too scientific for 

 most of our readers, but it sliould be remembered 

 that there is no art, profession or trade, which can 

 be taught or learned without the use of technical 

 words or phrases belonging to each, and which, to 

 the inexperienced and untaught, are as unintelli- 

 gible as the terms of science. 



It is hoped that these le.s.sons will receive the 

 careful attention they most certainly deserve, and 

 when the series is finished, the reader will, no doubt 

 have an elaborate insight into the principles of 

 entomological science. 



The advantages of studying Entomology. 



Kijllar, speaking on the advantages of studying 

 Entomology to the Agriculturist and Forester, and 

 on the method of doing so, says in the introduction 

 to his excellent Treatise: — 



The intimate connection in which insects stand 

 to man, to domestic animals, and to the difierent 

 kinds of vegetable productions, makes them well 

 worthy the consideration of every one, and particu- 

 larly of the agriculturist and the forester. Although 

 insects are small and inconsiderable, the exceed- 

 ingly great number of species, and the still greater 

 number .of individuals in many of them, fully com- 

 pensate for their want of corporeal magnitude. The 

 amount of the species of plants, and all the clas.sea 

 of other animals taken together, cannot (according 

 to the latest estimates) equal in amount the species 

 of insects, as we reckon about 30 J, 000 species. If 

 we consider the lecundity of many kinds of insects, 

 which sometimes produce an ofl'spring of several 

 hundreds, or even thousands, (the females of the 

 termites, or white ant, producing an offspring of 

 40,000,) and also that some kinds produce several 

 generations in one year, it appears evident that the 

 number of insects can hardly be estimated. As a 

 proof of this, which perhaps to many may appear 

 too bold an assertion, we need only to mention the 

 enormous swarms of locusts [grasshoppers], which 

 are sometimes so numerous, and in such masses, 

 that they darken the sun, and when they alight, 

 they frequently cover several square miles of land; 

 also the Rhuijlo cohimhascheiisis Fabr., a minute 

 dipterous insect, but a fearful plague in many parts 

 of the bannat of Temeswar [in Southern Hun- 

 gary, Europe], and which, when congregated in the 

 air, resemble dark clouds, although each individual 

 is not more than two lines [one-sixth of an inch] 

 long. Who could even reckon the myriads of gnats 

 or midges, which in many years, like pillars of smoke, 

 ascend in the air? Or who could succeed in ascer- 

 taining the number of inhabitants in an ant-hill ? 

 All these myriads derive their nourishment either 

 from plants or animals, in their living state, or from 

 their remains when dead; and there are even some 



