THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



21 



first." Tou further remark that "this insect does more 

 injury to you than all other insects combined," and that 

 "in 1865 it injured your apples to the extent of one-half 

 their value, though it is not the only one that preys on 

 them, but that it has not been so bad in 1866." 



From your description this larva is evidently not the 

 common "apple-worm," the larva of the Codling Moth 

 (Carpocapsa pomonella) ; for that larva is much stouter 

 and has got distinct legs. I suppose it is the larva 

 of a dipterous insect, or two-winged fly, previously 

 unknown to entomologists, which, as I am told, has been 

 discovered by Dr. Trimble to infest the apple in the way 

 that you describe; and which occurs also in the apples 

 of Mr. Isaac Hicks, of Long Island, New York, as I am 

 informed bv that gentleman. I have not yet seen Dr. 

 Trimble's book on Insects Injurious to Fruit-trees, and 

 do not know whether this Fly is there named and de- 

 scribed, or whether any remedies are there pointed out 

 to lessen its depredations. Of course, not knowing the 

 insect myself, I can tell you nothing about it of my own 

 knowledge; but from your description of the larva, I 

 should judge it to belong to the Order Diptera and the 

 great Muxca family, and to be allied to the genus Oriahs. 

 I should be obliged by a few dozen specimens, packed, if 

 possible, in a small tin box along with a little of their 

 natural food. The tighter the box, the better. 



Practical Pomologist, Pen na.— Question 1st. "In case 

 fires were lighted in the orchard in April or May, or 

 torches were burned over tubs of water in the evening, 

 what moths or iusects would be likely to be destroyed?" 

 Ansxcer. There are not many insects that appear so early 

 as April. In May, or later in the year, the particular spe- 

 cies would vary according to the month and the locality'. 

 I cannot say what particular species would occur in 

 Pennsylvania. On moonlight nights, and in a less de- 

 gree on bright clear nights, but very few insects indeed 

 would be attracted to the light. On dark cloudy nights, 

 and especially if there is a small drizzle of warm rain or 

 an immediate prospect of rain, with warm and what is 

 popularly called "muggy" weather, there would be a 

 great number attracted, and many would perish in the 

 flames. The kinds that would be attracted and many 

 of them destroyed would be ; 1st the multitudinous spe- 

 cies of moths, big and little, which are all of them injuri- 

 ous in the larva state, except a few which feed on noxi- 

 ous weeds, such as Acromjcla oblineata, which usually 

 feeds in large numbers upon smartweed, though I have 

 bred a single specimen to the moth state which was 

 found feeding on willow. 2nd. Boring-beetles, most of 

 which come out in June and July. 3rd. Shad-flies (Per/a 

 family) and Caddis-flies (Phryganea family), the larva; of 

 which breed in water and are harmless. 4th. Gnats and 

 midges, (Nemocerous Diptera), none of which are canni- 

 bals or parasites and some of which are injurious. 5th. 

 Small leaf-hoppers, (re«;^onia family), belonging to the 

 Order Homoptera, which Order alone is entirely compos- 

 ed of plant-feeding insects, many of them very injurious. 

 6th. Plale-horn beetles (Scaraboeun family), none of 

 which prey upon insects, and many of which, as the 

 May-bug and the Rose-bug, are highly injurious. 7th. 

 Ground-beetles (Carabus family), almost all of which are 

 cannibals, and so far as they prey upon noxious insects, 

 highly beneficial. Harpalua pensylvanicus and Agoiwde- 

 rus pallipes— two very common and abundant species be- 

 longing to this family— are particularly fond of flying 

 into the fire in the night time. Question 2nd. "Would 

 the proportion destroyed, of insects injurious to fruit- 

 trees, be larger than that of friendly or beneficial in- 

 serfts?" Annwer. It would decidedly— probably in the 

 proportion of 100 to 1. There are but very few parasitic 

 insects indeed, that ever fly by night, so far as my obser- 

 vation extends. Blister-beetles also, which are all of 

 them injurious, fly in the day time. 



Jas. H. Parsons, N. Y.— The black worms about IJ inch 



long, with four yellow stripes and the head andlegs brick- 

 red, which you found eating holes in Cabbage and Ruta 

 Baga leaves, are the larvie of Mamestra picta, (Harris). 

 It has been called the "Zebra caterpillar" on account of 

 the zebra-like fine cross-bars connecting the two lateral 

 yellow stripes. You will find an excellent figure of it in 

 Harris's Injurious Insects, p. 451. It ordinarily goes un- 

 der ground in October, and appears as a light-brown moth 

 in the following June. You observe that it stood a frost 

 in September hard enough to freeze potatoes in the hill. 



the thermometer being at 1S°— 20°, without any apparent 

 injury. There are many other insects that will do this. 

 The pupa of the great Cecropia moth hangs on the tree* 

 all winter, enclosed in its pod-like cocoon of brown silk, 

 and yet scarcely ever fails to change into the mature 

 moth the following summer. 



I do not clearly understand whether the "green-worms" 

 you speak of as having infested your currant bushes for 

 three years, were the larvse of the Imported Sawfly (which 

 is green with many black dots), or those of the Native 

 Sawfly (which is entirely green). Please let me know, 

 as it is important to ascertain the geographical distribu- 

 tion of these two insects. (See the Answer to Isaac Hicks 

 in this number of the P. E.) Your cabbage larvae arrived 

 in excellent order, thanks to the tight little tin box in 

 which you packed them ; and I was glad to get them, as 

 they do not occur in this neighborhood. The House- 

 cricket you speak of as abundant in New York when you 

 were a boy, round the large old-fashioned fire-places, 

 must, from your description, have been the genuine 

 American House-cricket, hitherto not found to the north 

 of Maryland and Southern Illinois. 



J. Pettit, C. W. — The Agrilus is A. plumbeus Lee. The 

 Chrysomelian is Cerotoma caminea Fabr., very common in 

 the States. Of the beetles found in funguses, the brown 

 one 2-10th8 inch long, with four yellow spots on the wing- 

 cases, is Eustrophus bifasciatus Say, not very common; 

 the one i inch long, with black head, red thorax and 

 dark blue wing-cases, is Teiratoma truncorum Lee, new 

 to my collection, and quoted by LeConte as occurring in 

 Canada as well as in the States ; and the minute one with 

 a pair of horns on the thorax of the male is a Ceracis, and 

 difl'ers from a species found abundantly in Illinois chief- 

 ly in the horns of the male being much slenderer. Dr. 

 LeConte, in his recent Catalogue of N. A. Coleoptera, ob- 

 serves that Cis thoracicornis (Ziegler) belongs to the genus 

 Ennearthron, but that the description does not enable it 

 to bo identified. He remarks further, that he has not 

 studied critically the species of this family, and that his 

 list is simply a compilation. He has not.named my Ce- 

 racis and probably would not name yours. 



The pretty little moth bred from golden-rod galls is 

 probably Euryptychia saligneana (Clemens), respecting 

 which see the Practical Entomologist I, No 3, p. 11 and 

 note; the round golden-rod galls are probably, as you 

 suppose, those of Trypeta solidaginia Fitch, and are quite 

 common in Illinois. 



The bugs which you found under the bark of an old log 

 are undoubtedly, as you suppose, the true Chinch-bug of 

 the States, (Micropus [lygceus] leticopterus Say). But they 

 differ remarkably from our specimens by the wings being 

 only half as long as the abdomen, instead of fully as long. 

 All the eleven specimens that you send are precisely 

 alike in this respect, and they are all perfect insects and 

 not pupse. Hence I infer that your short-winged form is 

 a geographical variety of ours. Many cases have been 

 noted by Westwood, where difi'erent species of insects, 

 and especially of bugs, in one and the same locali- 

 ty and year, sometimes occur with quite short wings, 

 sometimes with quite long ones, without any interme- 

 diate gradations between the two forms; and I have 

 noted more than a dozen such cases in this country. 

 The occurrence of the Chinch Bug in Canada is a new 

 fact, and economically a very interesting and important 

 one. As the insect, however, is more peculiarly a south- 

 ern species, I do not apprehend that it is likely ever to 

 swarm with you, as it often does in the West; and at all 

 events, having such short wings, it will not be able in 

 Canada to fly in swarms from one locality to another, as 

 our little pest occasionally does. 



J. B. Ellis, N. J.— The ear of corn with the worm in it> 

 which had burrowed under the husk among the kernels, 

 destroying a great many of them, has reached me; but 

 the worm itself was killed by the pressure of Uncle Sam's 

 mail-matter, though not materially injured as a speci- 

 men. You would have done better to enclose it in a 

 small tight tin box, with a few grains of corn by way of 

 provision on the road, as I suggested before. (Pbactical 



E.NTOMOLOGlST II, p. 9.) 



So far as I can tell, without breeding the moth from it, 

 it seems to be the same insect that almost entirely ruin- 

 ed the corn crop in Kansas in 1860; and of which very 

 fair figures in all its states will be found in the Prairie 

 Farmer of Jan. 31, 1861. The earlier specimens are said 



