•28 



THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



moth. (The above are all found on both sides 

 the Atlantic. The remaining three are exclusively 

 coufiiied to America.) 10th. Gli/phe [^CKvaphron'] 

 <>cxfntcfor, One of the parasites of the Hessian Fly. 

 llth. Mi'cropus h'ltcoptcrus, the Chinch-bug. 12th. 

 Gorfi/na zrx, the Spiudle-worm of Indian corn. 



The real truth of the matter is, that Mr. Klip- 

 part wrote this long chapter of his upon the N. A. 

 Insects of the Wheat-plant, not with his pen, but 

 with his scissors. Jumping erroneously to the con- 

 clusion, that, whatever insects infested small grain 

 in Europe, must necessarily also infest it in this 

 country, he took several European treatises upon 

 Noxious Insects, written by Curtis and others, clip- 

 ped out a piece here and a piece there and another 

 piece in a third place, and pasted the hodge-podge 

 into a blank-book, which he is facetiously pleased 

 to print as his own original work, for the edification 

 of the farmers of the United States, with scarcely a 

 word of acknowledgement to the distinguished au- 

 thors whom he has thus plundered. But he has 

 not even the merit of being an adept in his own 

 miserable trade of scientific piracy. His materials 

 are put together in so bungling a way, that the clo- 

 ven-foot sticks out everywhere. For instance, in 

 America by the word "corn" we always understand 

 Indian corn or 5Iaize; and wheat, rye, barley and 

 oats are called " small grain " or simply "grain." 

 In England these last are always called "corn," 

 maize being scarcely grown there at all, except as 

 a curiosity. Now, in no less than four distinct 

 passages, (pp. 595, 598, 599 and OIG,) Mr. Kiippart, 

 clipping with his scissoi-s from European writers, 

 forgot to change their European phrase "corn'' in- 

 to our American phrase " grain," and speaks of 

 wheat, barley and oats as "corn"!! Again, al- 

 though there are no birds iu the United States 

 popularly known as "lapwings," this great Ohio 

 naturalist, copying from Authors writing in Eng- 

 land, where such birds are very common, makes 

 "lapwings'' eat wire-worms in this country twice 

 over, namely, on pages 599 and 630 ! ! Thirdly, 

 speaking of a strictly European Beetle (Aiu'sopfia 

 horlico/a), which he says is "very abundant in this 

 country," (!!) he asserts that "it often covers the 

 White-thorn hedges." Novf "white-thorn hedges" 

 are the commonest of all live fences in England, 

 where the original author of the above remark re- 

 sided; but there are probably not fifty such hedges 

 in the whole United States, where the Great Ohio 

 (Jlipper himself resides. Finally, instead of adopt- 

 ing some kind of system or classification in his 

 compilations, as every author with any real claims 

 td scientific distinction would be sure to do, items 

 on one and the same subject are scattered about 

 everywhere at haphazard, in this precious chap- 

 ter; just as a newspaper editor, when he is hur- 

 ried for time, clips items with his scissors from 

 a hundred different exchanges, and slaps them 

 into his paper anyhow and everyhow, higgledy-pig- 

 gledy; nit or miss. For example, we find no less 

 than eight different species of Click-beetles, (E/a- 

 trr family) — all of them, by the way, exclusively 

 Ei<ropean species— named, described, and some of 



them figured as North American species.* Four of 

 the eight are treated of on pages 59 J and 598, three 

 on pages 596 and 597, and the remaining one on 

 page 022, the intervening pages being occupied 

 with disquisitions on all kinds of other insects. As 

 if this was not already sufficiently distressing, we 

 find 17 lines of Mr. Klippart's clippings, on thesub- 

 jcctof Click-beetlesand their larvrethe Wire-worms, 

 interpolated without rhyme or reason on pages 598 

 — 9, between his description of a Saw-fly ( C'pphus 

 p.(/!/?)iae».s), which infests wheat in Europe exclusive- 

 ly, and his speculations on the Wheat-midge, which 

 has really been imported among us from Europe. So 

 far, what we get upon this subject is simply stolen 

 from European authors and marred in the stealing. 

 But we have not yet done with the Click-beetles. 

 On page 629, or seven pages later in the chapter, 

 we are favored with two more figures of Click-bee- 

 tles, which, however, Mr. Kiippart cautiously ab- 

 stains from naming, seeing that they are his own 

 discovery in Ohio and not filched from his Europe- 

 an friends. Let any good Entomologist look at 

 these two figures, and he will say at once that they 

 not only belong to two distinct species, but probably 

 to two distinct genera. And yet, in the face of the 

 notorious general rule that in this Family of Click- 

 beetles the males and females are externally un- 

 distinguishable, this great Western Savant bold- 

 ly pronounces that these two very distinct beetles 

 are the sexes of one and the same species ! ! Again, 

 the European Ichneumon-fly, Pachymcrus calcitra- 

 for (misspelt twice over Fachi/Tnesus calistrator !') 

 is treated of, both on page 598 and page 624. The 

 imported Cadelle, Tnigoxita ninuritanica, both on 

 page 019 and page 628. The European parasitic fly, 

 Pructulrvpes viator, both on page 624 and page 

 631. The European parasitic fly, Pteromalus mi- 

 rajis, both on page 618 and page 625. And, to 

 crown the whole, not only is the European Ichneu- 

 mon-fly, Apiiuliiis avenx, treated of both on page 

 595 and page 6o6, but the wood-cut representing 

 it is repeated in both places ! ! If this is not mean 

 business meanly done, I do not know what is. If 

 a man must plagiarize, let him do it with some ar- 

 tistic skill. It degrades the miserable dignity of 

 thiofdom,to steal in this clumsy, awkward, unpro- 

 fessional manner. 



If any man requires further proof that Mr. Kiip- 

 part knows no more of entomology, than a newly- 

 born baby does of the multiplication table, I will 

 give one or two more instances of his scientific pro- 

 ficiency, and then retire from this disagreeable 

 subject. On page 596 he speaks of the Plant-louse 

 of the hop, {Aphis hinnuH,) as the Hop-hectle {! !), 

 although he has his own figure staring him in the 

 face to show that it is a true Plant-louse. Again, 

 on page 595 he figures a female Grain Plant-louse, 

 {Ap/ris avciix,') which his own figure represents with 



* Aijrypnxts murinu.1, Agrioia linmfus, Affriofea obscurus, 

 Agrioics aputnlor, Atkoua hngironis, Athous rnficaiidis, Ath. 

 nigrr, oncl Etafer {lepidotut) lioloncriceiin. The ouly two 

 species of till- Elater family, that are known to occur on 

 bolh sides of the Atlantic, so far as I am aware, arc i'7nVcr 

 j?ii/i-mi(.s' ami Conym'u'te coiiy/"r»«, which, aeeuriling to L - 

 Oonte, are found both in Europe and Buaaian America. 



