34 



THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



rious physiological questions. The experience of many 

 years, coulirmed by the observations of the best Europe- 

 an entomologists, has satisfied me that in the genus Vespa 

 the males make their appearance only towards the au- 

 tumn, say the last of August and early in September. In 

 the allied genus Polistes, of which we have two species in 

 North Illinois and a great many in South Illinois, and 

 which makes a nest composed of a mass of hexagonal 

 cells like the Hornet, but does not cover these cells over 

 with a large paper envelop, I have often observed that 

 the females pass the winter under the loose bark of stand- 

 ing trees, generally such as are dead. 



M. C. D., N. Y. — The whitish worm about an inch long, 

 found in flour, is probably the larva of the Meal-svorm 

 Beetle (Tcncbrio molitor), a species which was imported 

 long ago from Europe, and which commonly infests all 

 kinds of bread-stufts, bran, &c. There is also a Native 

 American species {TVneicio obsmirus), which peculiarly 

 infests flour, but is not near so common or so abundant or 

 so destructive as the other. Both of them, in the perfect 

 Btate, are oblong-oval black beetles, about } inch long, the 

 former a little polished, the latter of a very dead opaque 

 black without the slightest gloss. There is no way to keep 

 them out of flour, but to make the vessel or bin contain- 

 ing it perfectly beetle-tight; and if it is already full of 

 their eggs and young larvfe, to destroy those eggs and 

 young larvffl either by hot water or by fumigation with 

 sulphur. The evil may be palliated by cleansing the bin 

 thoroughly before filling it a second time, and keeping 

 the lid always tightly closed. 



There are a good many beetles which "bore holes about 

 the size of pins in timber under the floors of buildings." 

 Most of them belong to the Ayiobium family, and the lar- 

 vae of some of them make a ticking noise as they bore, 

 commonly known as the "death-watch." A century and 

 a half ago. Dean Swift ridiculed this superstition about a 

 worm being possessed of prophetic powers by the well- 

 known lines: 



"A kettle of scalding-hot water injected 



Infallibly cures the timber infected, 



The worm it will die but the man will recover." 



The species that chiefly infests pine timber in Illinois, 

 is the Ftinus brunneus of Duftschmidt, a chestnut-brown 

 species aboutjinch long, with antennre as long as its body. 

 But diflferent kinds of timber are aflTected by diff'erent spe- 

 cies. The time of the year at which the timber is cut has 

 nothing to do with the presence of these minute borers. 

 "Kyanized" timber — i. e. timber saturated with a solu- 

 tion of corrosive sublimate — they, will not attack. The pin- 

 holes seen in timber growing in the woods are mostly 

 produced by other beetles belonging to the genus Tomic- 

 us, and the Scolytus family. 



J. B. Ellis, N. J.— The scientific name of the Moth 

 that produces your corn-worm is Keliothis armigera, and 

 it is identical with the larva that burrows into the bolls 

 of the Cotton in the South, and is known there as ** the 

 boll-worm." The chief difl'ercnce seems to be, that in the 

 Southern States there are three broods of larvae every 

 year, and in the Northern States only two. Mr. Glover 

 gives the following, as proof of the identity of the cotton- 

 feeding larva: "I have frequently taken the worms from 

 unrip-» ears of corn and fed them entirely on cotton-bolls, 

 as alaw the worms from cotton and fed them on corn, and 

 in no case did the change of diet appear to aflect the 

 health of the caterpillars in the least, as they went 

 through all their transformations in exactly the same 

 manner, and when the perfect moths made their appear- 

 ance they could not be distinguished from each other." 

 (Agr. Bureau, Monthly Rep., July, 186li, p. 284.) 



Geo. W. Koblnson, N. Y. — The worm you send, is not'a 

 true Insect, but belongs to the genus lutm in the Class 

 Myriapoda or thousand-legged worms. As with the wire- 

 worms, which are the larvfe of certain Click-beetles (JSla- 

 ier family), the body is elongate-cylindrical, hard and 

 horny, ?'ut it is readily distinguishable from these by 

 having r, very large number of legs strung all along its 

 body, inatead of only six legs pl.xced at the front end of 

 its body. The account you give of its operations is some- 

 thing quite new, no species o{ lulus having been hitherto 

 observed to attack living vegetable matter, though in Eu- 

 rope certain species of allied genera, (Geophilus clectricus 

 and Polydesmuscomptanatiis), have been long known to bore 

 into carrots, parsneps and potatoes, and thereby greatly 

 injure them. So far as is recorded in such authors as are 



accessible to me, and so far as my own experience ex- 

 tends, all other species of lulua live on decaying vege- 

 table matters, such as rotten wood; and this is certainly 

 the habit of the giant of the genus, lu/us marginatus, 

 which I recently received from Ohio. ^See Practical En- 

 tomologist II, p. 10. I print in full, your account of the 

 habits of this creature, as they are not only interesting 

 but important. 



"This destructive worm has possession of the length 

 and breadth of my garden, and of many others in the vi- 

 cinity. In the day time it is out of sight, inhabiting the 

 ground, but is often found on turning up a stone or apiece 

 of board. During the night it travels about on the sur- 

 face of the ground. Often in digging I have found a nest 

 of them, from the patriarchs of a mahogany color, down 

 to such as were no bigger than small pieces of white 

 thread. The indictment against them is this : They feed 

 on the fine fibrous roots of most plants, but are especially 

 destructive to strawberries. These they slowly work at, 

 gradually dwarfing them to mere weeds, blossoms and 

 fruit having vanished forever. The same dwarfing is seen 

 in many other plants, young trees and vines, which must 

 be referred to the same agency. Their scattered position 

 in the ground efi'ectually shields them from any warfare 

 that I am able to wage against them. The currant worm 

 and all others that live above board I can overcome; but 

 in respect to these pests I am only second best." 



It is a general law in the Animal Kingdom that where 

 the habits difier materially the structure differs also; 

 and your worm forms no exception to the above law. In 

 the true genus lulus, as limited by Latreille, the anten- 

 nae are seven-jointed, the second joint long" and the last 

 joint small. In your worm the antenna are six-jointed, 

 the second joint long and the last joint small. Hence we 

 may either regard it as forming by itself a distinct genus, 

 or, which I rather prefer, a distinct Subgenus or section 

 of the genus lulus. In lulus viarginatu-s Say, (known to 

 feed on decaying vegetable matter), the joints of the an- 

 tennie are proportioned as 1, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 ; in your worm 

 (known to feed on living vegetable matter) as 1, 3, 2, 2, 

 2, 1. As your worm, so far as I can find out, belongs to a 

 hitherto unnamed and undescribed species, I annex a, 

 name and description, as well as a figure, the hair-line 

 showing the true length. 



luLus MULTisTRiATiis, n. sp. ( TAc many -groovcd lulus.) 

 Body brown. Face towards the mouth, mouth, the tips of 

 all the joints of the body, and the venter and legs, all whit- 

 ish. Head glabrous and polished. Eyes black, pear-shap- 

 ed, the large end upwards, with about 5 granulations count- 

 ing from one side of the pear to the other. First joint of 

 the body glabrous and polished, and nearly as long as the 

 three succeeding joints, which are shorter than the rest. 

 All the joints, except the first and the two last, with a 

 fine, acute, transverse, submarginal stria in front, from 

 which proceed in a backward direction, nearly to the tip 

 of the joint, about 40 or 60 fine, acute, longitudinal striae, 

 with their interstices flat. Penultimate and last joints 

 with fine and shallow punctures. Last joint obtusely 

 rounded at tip, paler than the rest, and broadly margin- 

 ed all round with whitish. 



Length of the largest individual, 1.15 inch ; diameter 

 .08 inch. Described from 7 specimens. Comes near lulus 

 lactarius Say, but differs in having no dorsal rufous vitta 

 nor subobsolete lateral one, in the joints of the body be- 

 ing longitudinally striate with flat interstices, not longi- 

 tudinally carinate, and in the eye being pyriform, not 

 triangular. Neither is the line of the stigmata geminate, 

 as is said to be the case in lactarius. From I.pusillus Say, 

 it is distinguished at once by the striie being dorsal as 

 well as lateral; and from /. annulatus Say, by the joints 

 bearing each about 40 or 60 striae, instead of about 16 ca- 

 rinae. Say's other three species are quite different. 



As to counterworking this worm, as it has been hitherto 

 unknown, experience can of course teach us nothing, and 

 we can only be successful by patiently experimenting. 

 I should recommend you to begin by putting small pieces 

 of potato, carrot or parsnep, or such other vegetable sub- 

 stances as you may from analogy infer to bo agreeable to 



