THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



29 



a distinct ovipositor or egg-laying instrument, and 

 names and describes it as a male,(!!) although no 

 other author has yet succeeded in discovering the 

 male of this particular species. Thirdly, after cor- 

 rectly naming the common Chinch-bug on page 

 619 as Micropiis leuc.opterus, he gravely informs us 

 on page 621, that it belongs to the genus Rhypar- 

 ochromus, which it most certainly does not. At any 

 rate it ought not, for the sake of consistency, to be- 

 long to two very distinct genera in three consecutive 

 pages. Lastly — and this is the only original mat- 

 ter of any value in the whole chapter of 45 pages 

 — on pages 636 and 637 he figures and describes 

 some remarkable eggs found attached to an ear of 

 wheat, in which eggs he discovered, as he says, the 

 body of a parasitic Fly, and what he supposed to 

 be the antennte of a Wheat^midge ; whence he ar- 

 rives at the astounding conclusion, that the egg had 

 contained " the larva of a Wheat-midtce, partially 

 ti-ansformcd into a parasitic Fly." !! Whereas the 

 very figure of the antenna which he himself gives, 

 is as different from that of a Wheat-midge as a 

 cow's horn is from a buck's horn, and is manifest- 

 ly the true antenna of his parasitic fly ; and Dr. 

 Fitch subsequently proved that the eggs them.selves 

 had nothing whatever to do with the Wheat-midge, 

 but were those of a common Cannibal Bug — NabU 

 fcra — which preys upon Grain Plant-lice and doubt- 

 less on other insects also, and the eggs of which, 

 as with so many other in.sects, arc infested by a 

 Parasitic Fly.* (iV. Y. Rep. Ill, pp. 78, 112.) 



But for the fact that this book about the Wheat- 

 plant has had a very extensive circulation among 

 Western Farmers, and has been commonly given 

 as a prize at State Fairs by various State Agricul- 

 tural Societies in the West, thereby to a certain ex- 

 tent endorsing it as scientifically and practically reli- 

 able; and but for the further fact that many young 

 entomologists have, to my personal knowledge, been 

 greatly puzzled and bewildered by its absurd mis- 

 statements, and that every plain farmer must, of 

 course, be ten times worse puzzled, by having nn 

 less than forty-two Europeaji insects palmed off 

 upon him, as natives of the United States, by this 

 most mendacious work, I should not have thought 

 it deserving of any notice in the Practical En- 

 tomologist. As it is, I expect that I have ex- 

 pended more time in refuting the book, than Mr. 

 Klippart expended in compiling it. But the scis- 

 sors can always boat the pen ; and any child can 

 utter more falsehoods in five minutes than a grown 

 man can disprove in a whole day. 



I am well aware that what I have said above will 

 not be personally agreeable to Mr. Klippart and to 

 Mr. Klippart's friends. But I long ago declared 

 open war against all scientific charlatanism, and 

 with me it is now "War to the knife and the knife 

 to the hilt." It is about time that men, who know 

 nothing whatever themselves about Entomology, 

 should quit teaching Entomology to the million. 



* The accuracy of the author of the "Wheat Phint" 

 may be judged of from the fact, that the liighly-magni ■ 

 tied tarsus of this Parasitic Fly is figured by iiim as scven- 

 jointed; although no known insect has more than Jive 

 joints to its "tarsus" or foot. (Page 636, fig. 8.) 



Something more I had to say of this sorry 

 pretender to entomological knowledge ; but let him 

 go. I have already pilloried him on a bad emi- 

 nence, from which he will not easily slink down 

 again into his merited obscurity. So may it ever 

 be with those, who defile the holy shrine of Science 

 by oiFering impure gifts upon her alt.irs! B. D. W. 



Trimble's Insect Enemies of J'ruit and Fruit-trees. 



(aVcw Voi-k, 1865. — One i/un quarto, pp. \3'J.) 



The author of this work, is Flntomologist of the 

 State Agricultural Society of New Jersey. The 

 work itself treats exclusively of the two worst ene- 

 mies of the Fruit-grower — the Cureulio ( Cmiotra- 

 chelits nr.iniphar), a Native American insect, and 

 the Apple-worm 3Ioth or Codling Moth ( Cnrpocap- 

 sa piomonetki), an imported insect. But, if encour- 

 aged as it ought to be, it is intended to be follow- 

 ed in succeeding volumes by similar treatises on 

 other insects that infest Fruit and Fruit-trees. 



With singular modesty Dr. Trimble speaks of 

 himself as follows, (p. 88 :) 



I am not an entomologist and never expect to be. If I 

 knew all about the insects, I would be willing to accept 

 the title. The fact is, I do not believe I know all about 

 any one insect. 



There is not an entomologist living, but, if he 

 were honest, would make the .same avowal. What lit- 

 tle anyone man knows in Entomology, or in any oth- 

 er department of Natural History, is but a drop in 

 the bucket when compared with the vast illimitable 

 unknown; and even the best of u.s — in the words 

 of Sir Isaac Newton — are but as boys picking up a 

 few shells on the shore of the great Ocean of 

 Truth. But if Dr. Trimble is not a profesised En- 

 tomologist in the ordinary sense of the term — i. e. 

 a man who can give the scientific names of thou- 

 sands of different insects, and troubles himself but 

 little about their preparatory states, their mode of 

 life, thpir food, their migrations, their loves and 

 wars and sports, their habitations, and so forth — 

 he is what practical fruit-growers will, I am sure, 

 consider as sometiiing far more valuable. For he 

 has devoted himself, heart and soul, for a long se- 

 ries of years, to studying the Natural History of 

 the particular Insects which he has chosen for his 

 subject, and the best and most efficient and most 

 practical means of counterworking them. 



Dr. Johnson used alwajs to maintain, that the 

 real Discoverer of a new Fact was, not the man 

 that first hit upon it, but he who, having hit upon 

 it, proclaimed it so long and so loudly to the world 

 as to compel the world to listen to him. There is 

 nothing absolutely original iu Dr. Trimble's modes 

 of fighting the Cureulio and the Apple-worm, but, 

 upon Dr. Johnson's principles, ho is certainly fen- 

 titled to the merit of having discovered these par- 

 ticular modes. For he not only shows at great 

 length, by a long series of experimenis, that these 

 modes are practically reliable and infallible, but he 

 exposes by incontrovertible facts the utter absurdi- 

 ty of a great number of qu ick nistiums, which 

 have been recommended for the same purpose. 



For full and complete details on tliis subject, 

 every extensive Fruit-grower is earnestly advised 



