THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



<!• „ f..„m Phrvsalises which in Uie ordinary course 



xi,v\'l3dt^vfcS.^dtoh^^^^^^^ 



]ll life to be sometitaes a fractional quantity. 



pv,, TT Peck N Y.— The caterpillars sent are the lar 



to Thos. Mc^raw, v> 1 ' ^ ^ j^ tia about 1-5 inch 



-/o!-BL^h^;^e:e^=rb:rJt?r^r\tt^c^^^^^ 



family, whicli are all leaf-eaters, and many of them in- 

 iiirious to cultivated plants. j -u^ 



•■since the above was in type, I have been favored by 

 Dr LeConte, to whom I forwarded a specimen of your Ckry 

 7n™^;,, with the following clear, brief, and very valuable 

 rvToSilof the group to Ihich it belongs. As I supposed 

 /our'species is fetermined to be undescribed, and must 

 now be known as P. varipes LeConte :— . 



°V Elytral vitta united with the yellow margin both 



at base a^d tip, crossing obliquely from the humerus to 



the space between the 2ud and 3rd stria;. , , , u„ 



1. Bodv robust, blue-black and yellow above, Wack be 



neath Thorax nearly twice as wide as long. Lengta 



18-22 inch Prasocuris obliquata n. sp., LeConte. 



2 Body more elongate, greenish-black and yellow 

 aboVrbe^neTth black Thorax a little wider than long. 

 Length -Il-.IS inch....P™»cu™ ^ar^pes n. sp., LeConte. 

 Var! a. Tibiae pale, tarsi ferruginous, femora black. 

 Var j3 Tibiffl, tarsi and femora black. 

 B Elytral vittffl not united at the base with the mar- 

 gin; straight and parallel, occupying the space between 



''3 'SoV/ver^'^elougtte, thorax not wider than its length. 



LenX:20-l4 \^ch... Prasocuris pUUandrh Eur. & N. A. 



Var a Feet varied with testaceous. „ , , , ■ 



Var.' p. Feet black. Sdodts viitata Ohv. Selodes tri- 



vittata? Say." 



E E Sheldon, Mich.-The "flying-bug" about i inch 



lon^, that you ^end, and that you suppose may possibly 



be the Hessian Fly, is a harmless dung-fecdiug beetle 



belon'in. tothe genus Aphodms, which includes a very 



laree number of species, some of them very closely allied 



to each oThen I cannot determine the specTes with cer- 



UinTy as your specimens reached me all b^ken to p.e^-., 



and Dressed as flat as a pancake; but I believe " 's ^p- 



LcLr/c^a; (Say.) Yin should ^ave enclosed them 



either in a quill or in some small paste-board box with 



cotton-wool or some such matter. The Hessian Fly is as 



unlike this "flying-bug" as it is possible to conceive, be- 



"ng shaped almost like a common Musketo. only much 



smaller 



nailer. 



Henry B. Howarth, Wisc.-What you take for the eggs 

 ofTome' nsect, found on the ground and also on unbound 

 oats are not eggs, but the white silken cocoons of a small 

 itnmLr. fly,^probably belonging to the genus M^crogas- 

 ier, though the genus Pezomachus, a k.ndof /cAne«mon fly 

 that has no wings at all, nor even any rudiments of 

 wings also mlicef just such cocoons. All the Ichneumon 

 fli^s^are parasitic insects, chiefly preying upon diff-erent 

 kinds of caterpillars, and should be carelully encouraged 

 in their good work. See the answer to M. S. Hill, in the 

 Practical Entomologist, Vol. I, No. 6, p. 46. 



Thos Meehan, Penna.— The bark-louse (cocc«.s) found 

 on red oak reached me in very bad order, owing to bad pack- 

 intr I am acquainted with a very similar species, iound 

 on" white oak. On the general history of Bark-lice see 

 the answer to L. E. Harmon, in No. 10 of the Practical 

 Entomologist, p. UlO. The brown specimen over i incn 

 long, is the pupa-shell of some two-winged fly belonging 

 to the ,Sy™/m.5 family. I have bred a species of Xi/lota 

 from somewhat similar pups found under loose bark, and 

 have often noticed specimens like yours attached to the 

 twigs of dilTerent trees, especially birches. 



W H S., Blooraington, Ill.-In the second batch of the 



. .e V sIm ar to yours on a Clinton vine badly mfested 

 by the m /oL ga^U ; so that I begin to doubt now wheth 

 er both galls may not be produced by the same insect. 

 To determine the point with certainty, it would be neces- 

 sary to breed the winged insect from each. 



I find these same m-<-/oa-«; galls pretty abundant on alarge 

 fruit-bearing Delaware grape-vine in the garden of Geo 

 Sxter Esq! of Rock Islind, 111 inois-which vine, by the 

 w y isnoW'haded by anything. It i^.noto be found 

 nfter a careful examination, on any of the cultivated va- 

 HeUesof the wild Northern Fox-grape (V.Us /«ft™^^°). 

 such as Isa Delia, Catawba, Concord, <tc., even when they 

 trow fntei waning among Clintons infested by this gaU. 

 IZ or t™ in^deed, where Clinton and Catawba vines 

 grew promiscuously intermixed, and the Clinton was 

 fwaTmin.r with these galls, I have found a few imperfect- 

 ly devehfped galls on Catawba leaves, but they were of 

 ^ I„all «i7p and widely open above, and seemed to be 

 SX iv aUem^lsoYth^e insect to establish a gal 

 ^ere Hence, as thl fully developed gall seems to occur 

 SonthewndF^ost^grape(>^^^^^^^^^^^ 



TsrS':TCt c^ulSd v^a-rFet; of the Frost Grape, 

 I should infer that the Delaware is so .likewise At pre- 

 ent all that is known about this last is, that it origina- 

 ted in New Jersey, whence it was removed to Delaware 

 Ohio and finally disseminated over the whole Union. The 

 Germans however, claim that the Delaware is identical 

 wHh an exotic grape-known as "Traminer" in Germany. 

 Sut it s a very general, though not a universa rule, that 

 But It 13 a jery g • j° gg^t ig confined to one par- 



Sula?spcefoYirgen;jlofplLts inhabited by the ge- 

 nus of insects to which it belongs including,. of course 

 all the varieties, whether cultivated or otherwise, of that 

 par icular species; and I donotknow of a single instance 

 wCre an exotic species of plant has been attacked by a 

 NaHve American gall-maker. For example, there are 

 Uventy-fiv" or thirty diflerent kinds of American galls 

 iTovvL on difi-erent American Willows : yet I cannot find 

 Tv galls at all on the exotic White Willow, even where 

 ft grow stde by side with gall-bearing American Wil- 

 ois You remark that you know of "two acres of Clin- 

 ton erapes, near Bloomington, planted 6 by 4 feet a,part, 

 thVare^ about ruined by this vMfolice gall.'' Perhaps, 

 he efore,asthe Clinton is otherwise very objectionable 

 on accouit of its ripening so unevenly, it would be best 

 to give up growing it. 



Thos M Harvey, Penna— The robust grass-green 



ThTirblcL They feed not only on grape-vme, where 

 their oacks y diflTerent fruit-trees, the rose, In- 



you found "\^?^'^"'°°tv of other plants. The prickles 



remarkable fimily of moths, the larva, of which have no 

 iSk^ffn^^^o-^Sw-^adt^ 



iitr:S^^^^-t?E::f«t:^^: 



of New yX in Vol. I of the Practical Entomologist, p. 



T -R -pnis N J.— Sis years ago there was a larva an- 

 swerfng tolerably well t'o the description of yonrs, that 

 :rost'entirely /uined the corn_crop in Kan as y b - 



^--T--,iU\^nofhrlt^m''ruL^olst}icrh:s 

 reTame ^;bits%ut\as never hitherto appeared in such 



