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THE PPtACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ology and pathology. Perhaps the moon is really 

 made of green cheese, and all these new-fangled 

 Cheese Factories will be undersold by the Man in 

 the Moon, and driven at once out of the market. 

 Perhaps the sky will fall, and then we shall catch 

 all the quails. But to me these matters have a dif- 

 ferent appearance. I know that farmers generally 

 believe everything that they see in print. I know 

 that not one farmer out of a thousand is able to tell 

 the difference, between the loud-mouthed impudeut 

 charlatan and the quiet and unobtrusive naturalist, 

 who usually shrinks like the sensitive plant from 

 everything verging upon controvcr.sy. And there- 

 fore I have thought it desirable to speak out, bold- 

 ly, plainly and decisively, in this important matter, 

 which involves pecuniary interests to the amount 

 of hundreds of millions of dollars. Doubtless by 

 so doing I shall offend Mr. Newcomer and Mr. 

 Newcomer's friends. Doubtless I shall get but 

 small thanks, even from the more intelligent class 

 of farmers, who may be convinced by the facts and 

 arguments that I have adduced, and who may, in 

 consequence thereof, button up their breeches 

 pockets tightly, when the gentleman from Mary- 

 land solicits their patronage. No matter. I am 

 satisfied in my own mind, that one chief reason 

 why Entomology is in bad repute with the gene- 

 rality of Farmers, is that Scientific men usually 

 shrink back from the disagreeable task of exposing 

 such unmitigated humbugs as this precious Mary- 

 land scheme. And therefore, I have thought it 

 good not to mince matters, but to speak " right out 

 in meeting.'' If the paper for which I am writing, 

 or I myself as an individual, come to grief in con- 

 sequence, the more's the pity. I have an invin- 

 cible dislike for pretentiousness and charlatanism in 

 all its forms — especially when it proposes to bleed 

 the American public to the amount of 8360,000 

 for a bag of moonshine — ^and come what will of it, 

 I am determined to express my own honest unbi- 

 assed opinion on all such subjects. 



THE TEXAN CABBAGE-BUG. 



{Strachia histrionlca Ilahn.) 



This is a true Bug, belonging to the Order He- 

 teroptera and the Family SciUetlnridre, and shaped 

 much like the large stinjiing Bugs often found in 

 the Northern States on Raspberries and Blackber- 

 ries. It is very prettily colored with black and 

 yellow and is found in Texas and Louisiana. Be- 

 low we give a very graphic account of the way in 

 which it operates upon cabbages, turnips, radishes 

 and other plants belonging to the botanical family 

 Cruciferoa, from the pen of Dr. Gideon Linceeura 

 of Washington County, Texas. It appears from 

 his statement that there are two broods of them 

 every year, the first hatching out in April and the • 

 second in July, and the insect passing the winter 

 in the perfect state. We are indebted to Dr. Lin- 

 cecum fur specimens both of the winged insects 

 and of their eggs, which arrived in excellent con- 

 dition. 



The year before last, they got into my garden and ut- 

 terly destroyed my cabbage, radishes, mustard, seed tur- 

 nips, and every cruciform plant. Last year, I did not 



set any of that order of plant in my garden. But the pre- 

 sent year, thinking they had probably left the premises, 

 I planted my garden with radishes, mustard and a vari- 

 ety of cabbages. By the first of April, the mustard and 

 radishes were large enough for use, and I discovered that 

 the insect had commenced on them. I commenced pick- 

 ing them off by hand and tramping them under foot. By 

 that means I have preserved my 434 cabbages, but I have 

 visited every one of them daily now for four months, 

 finding on them from 35 to 60 full grown insects every 

 day, some coupled and some in the act of depositing their 

 eggs. Although many have been hatched in my garden 

 the present season, I have suffered none to come to ma- 

 turity, and the daily supplies of grown insects that I have 

 been blessed with, are immigrants from some other gar- 

 den. 



The perfect Insect lives through the winter and is 

 ready to deposit its eggs as early as 13th March, or 

 sooner, if he finds any cruciform plant large enough. 

 They set their eggs on end in two rows, cemented togeth- 

 er, mostly on the underside of the leaf, and genially 

 11 — 12 in number. In about six days in April — four days 

 in July — they hatch out a brood of larvse resembling the 

 perfect insect, except in having no wings, who immedi- 

 ately begin the work of destruction, by piercing and suck- 

 ing the life sap from the leaves. In twelve days they 

 have matured. They are timid, and will run off and hide 

 behind the first leaf-stem, or any part of the plant that 

 will answer the purpose. The leaf that they puncture 

 immediately wilts, like the effects of poison, and soon 

 withers. Haifa dozen grown insects will kill a cabbage 

 in a day. They continue through the summer, and suffi- 

 cient perfect insects survive the winter to ensure a full 

 crop of them for the coming season. 



This tribe of insects do not seem to be liable to the at- 

 tacks of any of the cannibal races either in the egg state 

 or at any other stage. Our birds pay no attention to them, 

 neitiier will the domestic fowls touch them. I have as 

 yet, found no way to get clear of them, but to pick them 

 off by hand. 



The Striped Bug. 



This insect is now busy puncturing the leaves of mel- 

 ons, cucumbers and several other plants and flowers. * * 

 Among flowers they are particularly fond of German As- 

 ters, and when we see their leaves rusty, we may be sure 

 that the enemy is at work. — Western Mural, July 21, 1SG6, 



Observations by B. D. W. — Two different 

 species of the same genus are apparently here con- 

 founded together. The true striped Cucumber-bug 

 Fig. 1. Fig. 2. (^Dlabrolica vittata — Fig. 2) 



has three black stripes placed 

 lengthways on its wing-cases, 

 and I have never seeu it on 

 flowers. The 12-spotted Flow- 

 er-beetle (^Diahrotlca \'2-punc- 

 tata — Fig. 1.) has four rows of black spots placed 

 lengthways on its wing-cases, each row consisting 

 of three spots, and it is very injurious to flowers 

 especially to Dahlias. It is also rather a larger and 

 broader insect, and swarms more especially in the 

 latter part of the summer, while the other is more 

 abundant in the early part of the summer. Fig. 1, 

 be it observed, is magnified fully 50 per cent in 

 length, and fig. 2 about 100 per cent. I have, 

 for many years, never failed in protecting my own 

 cucumber and melon vines from the striped Cucum- 

 ber-bug, by covering the hills with four short pieces 

 of board, nailed together in the form of a bottomless 

 box and roofed over at top with musketo-bar. As 

 to the 12-spotted Flower-beetle, I know no remedy 

 but hand-picking. 



Moral. — Flower-growers need not believe, that 

 by killing the bugs off their neighbor's cucumber 

 patch, they will save their own Asters and Dahlias. 



