10 



THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Willie 0; Fish, Mass. — Your figure No. 1 is a geometer 

 moth, but I cnnnot nrimo it. No. 2 appoara to be Datana 

 ministra, but it is difficult to name insects with certainty 

 even fi-om the very best colored figures. No. 3 is un- 

 doubtedly Lhnacodcs scapha, the larva of which was first 

 described by Harris and the perfect insect by myself. 

 The "bunches" upon oak-twigs are a species of Lecanimn 

 (bark-louse) apparently undescribed. In the fore part of 

 the autumn you will find underneath the dry body of the 

 female, great numbers of minute eggs. The moth you 

 bred from one of these bunches was undoubtedly, as you 

 infer, an intruder. The tree-hoppers taken on potato- 

 vines, Sept. 10, are the Eniilia sinuata of Fabrieius, rath- 

 er a rare insect, though the allied EntiUa concava of Say 

 is very cominun. The former is renilily distinguished by 

 having the ridge on its back scooped out deeply in a 

 complete semicircle, instead of being only slightly scoop- 

 ed out. The snioU blood-red beetle with four steel-blue 

 spots upon the wing-cases, is Col/ops 4-maculatus (Fabr.) 

 The iMiy-birA is Hippodamia g/arialis (Fabr.) The two- 

 ■winged horse-fly is C/ttysops vitlatus (Weidem.) ; it is oft- 

 en called the "ear-fly" in the West, from its habit of at- 

 tacking the ears and head of horses. The small brown 

 beetle taken under piue-bark is the Hi/lastts pinifcx of 

 Fitch, as kindly determined for me by Dr. LeConte. 



J. H. Garmnn, Ohio, — The yellow worms over half an 

 inch long with a row of velvety black dots placed cross- 

 ways on each .joint of their bodies, are the larvae of 

 JProcris americana — an old and well-known enemy of the 

 grape-vine. You .say that you "found them August 20 on 

 the leaves of the Isabella grape-vine, which they had al- 

 most eaten up, on the underside of the leaf, their heads 

 to the edge, where they continue to eat and back out till 

 the leaf is consumed. They are often side by side and a 

 dozen to the square inch." This agrees exactly with the 

 account given of their habits by Harris. In July I re- 

 ceived from Mr. Borden, of Pennsylvania, the Inrvaof an- 

 other but smaller species of Pro«' i«, which infested his 

 grape-vines, and in the Answer to that gentleman (Pr.ic- 

 TiCAi. Ev:oMoi.ui;isT No. 11, p. Ill), 3'ou will find an ac- 

 count of the moths produced from the difl'erent larvae of 

 the genus Prm-ris. 



The elongate jumping yellow insect about i inch long 

 is the pupa of some species of the Leaf-hoppers (Tcttigo- 

 nia Family), and most probably oi Proconia undata,vf\iich 

 I know to infest the grape-vine and to deposit its eggs in 

 slits cut in the bark of the twigs. I have never known it, 

 however, to occur in such numbers as to be greatly inju- 

 rious. There are several very much smaller species of 

 Leaf-hoppers, {Etythroiieu7'avitislia.rfis,E. tricincta Fitch, 

 £. vulnerataF\\c\\,E.ziczac'W Vi\sh and E.H-notata Walsh.) 

 which often swarm on grape-vines and injure them great- 

 ly, sucking the sap from the leaves till they turn com- 

 pletily brown. Cases are even on record where they have 

 actually killed grape-vines. 



I should not recommend you to go to the expense cf 

 buying a microscope for the practical study of insects. 

 A good one costs a great deal of money, and a poor one is 

 good for nothing. You will find what the opticians call 

 "lenses" much more cheap and convenient; and what 

 are known as "Stanhope" and "Coddington" lenses mag- 

 nify enough for any practical purpose. You can procure 

 any kind of lens you wish for from Messrs. James W. 

 Queen & Co., of Philadelphia, whom I know to be reli- 

 able men. 



J. B., Iowa. — The two caterpillars you sen^are the lar- 

 vae of Datana ministra^ which seems to be increasing of 

 late yeai'S throughout the United States, so as to be get- 

 ting quite a pest. They difTer from all "measuring-worms" 

 in having their full complement of legs — sixteen— instead 

 of having only ten, and in not "looping" or "measuring" 

 as they walk along. Eespeeting this insect, see the an- 

 swer to Sam'l. S. Lacy, in No. 11 of Vol. I of the Practi- 

 cal E.vTOJioLouisT, and to T. M'Graw, in this number. 



Thos. Wiggins, Ohio. — The dark-brown cylindrical 

 thousand-l'gg.'d worm 3A inches long, is rather a l.irge 

 specimen of the lulus man/inatus of Say. It is not a true 

 insect, hut belongs to a Class called " Myriapoda," all of 

 which have a very large number of legs; whereas no true 

 insect has more than six true legs, what are known as 

 "prolegs" in the larvfe of moths, Ac, being mere fleshy 

 excrescences which disappear in the perfect insect. Your 

 species feeds on decaying wood, in which it fofms exten- 

 sive burrows, and is perfectly harmless. I 



Wm. 6. Morris, N. Y.— The midge about i inch long, 

 which you say often appears with you in such dense 

 clouds as to have been on one occasion mistaken for 

 smoke coming from a grain-stack half a mile off', is a 

 Chironomus, and I believe, the stigmatcrus ol Say. The 

 larva lives in the water and is quite harmless. In many 

 species of Chironomus the larva is very worm-like and 

 blood-colored, when it goes by the popular name of 

 "blood-worm." You say that these midges are known 

 on Long Island as "Merry-wings" and "Fuzz-bills," the 

 latter name of course applying to the beautifully feather- 

 ed antennte of the males. 



J. A. Lapbam, Wise. — The rat-ta'led o;rub with the bo- 

 dy about I inch long, and the tail as long as the body, 

 which, as you say "was found iu a trough of maple-tap," 

 is the larva of a two-winged fly belongini; to the Order 

 Diptera and the Sj/rphvs family, and probably to the ge- 

 nus Helophilus or Eristalis. There is a larva very similar 

 to yours, which is known in Europe to inhabit cessjiools, 

 and produces a large brown fly, that at first sight would 

 be readily mistaken for the drone of the common honey- 

 bee. The use of the long tail is to enable the larva to 

 breathe, while its body is under the surface of the liquid 

 which it inhabits. All these larvae crawl oui of the water 

 to assume the }>npa state. I have bred rat-tailed larvae 

 much smaller than yours to the perfect fly state; but I 

 never met with one as large as yours. Consequently I 

 cannot say what particular species it belongs to. 



Prof. W. S. Robertson, Kansas. — The elongate, pale glau- 

 cous-green CJ.ri/sotnela nearly i inch long, which you say 

 "is found ou the Imphee in very large numbers, its urual 

 home being a large thistle," is the J'hy I lohrolica hngicorn- 

 is of Say. I took three specimens of it many years ago 

 on flowers in Central Illinois. Say credits it to Arkansas. 

 Kespecting your grasshoppers, see my Article on thatsub- 

 ject in this number of the Practicai. Entomolocist. 



T. J. Fiunie, Va. — "The large worm very like a tobac- 

 co-worm" that you say is now destroying your tomato- 

 vines is the larva of Sphinx b-maculata. a mo'h which is 

 very closely allied to that of the Tobacco-worm, Sphinx 

 Carolina. Eespeeting the "jug-handled" pujia of these 

 two insects, see the answer to F. W. Noble, in No 11 of 

 the Practical Entomologist, p. IIH. The economical ma- 

 nufacture of manures is quite out of our line. 



H., 111. — What you take for a new Aphis infesting tame 

 grape-vines is precisely identical with the species 1 have 

 described as Aphis vi'lis/ Scopoli. (See Proc, rf-c, I, p. 

 299.) You say it has done much damage with you to the 

 terminal shoots of the vines. It appears to be much moro 

 common and abundant in the Border States. (See answer 

 to C. S. Jackson, Ky, Practical Entomologist, No. 10, p. 

 100.) The small moth you send is. I believe, a Crcesia, 

 but it is too^ much rubbed and mutilated to determine 

 even the genus with any degree of certainty. Several 

 species of Croesia are descrioed by Dr. Clemens, in the 

 Proceedings. 



Peter Ferris, N. Y. — I hope you will not forget next 

 year to send mv. j)lenly of apccimens of the larva that in- 

 fests your orcliards, and wliieh seems to be undescribed, 

 or at all events cannot be recognized from your descrip- 

 tion. 



. £BBATA. 



In Vol. I, No. 12. p. 118, column 2, line 37, for "single 

 mammal" read "single genus of mammals." 



Page 123, column 1, line 37, for "similar" read "singu- 

 lar." 



Page 125, column 2, line 22 from bottom, for "1860" 

 read "1840." 



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