THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



47 



space of three or four miles rouud Rock Island, 

 111., there is scarcely a small bird of any kind to 

 be met with at any time of the year, except Swal- 

 lows and Martins and birds of passage on their 

 travels, in consequence of the hosts of idle gun- 

 ners from the city who are all the time making 

 war upon them. Yet I could never perceive that 

 Noxious Insects are more numerous or more de- 

 structive in this vicinity, than in localities where 

 small birds abound. Possibly, however, this may 

 be due to the insect-devouring propensities of the 

 very large number of Dragouflies, or Snake-feeders 

 as they are absurdly called, (^LiheUula family,) and 

 Devils Darning Needles, (Agrion family,) which 

 breed in the rivers that surround us on both 

 sides, and in our numerous Bayous and Swamps. 



B. D. W. 



ANSWERS TO OOERESPONDENTS. 



J. Pettit, C. W. — Your inseeta are named as follows : 

 1st. Elapkt'us cicafricosus Lee. 2nd. Lebia scapularis Dej. 

 .37-rf, ITelophoriis scaber Leconte, kindly determined by the 

 describer. 4th. A variety of C/erus nigripes Say, accord- 

 ing to Leconte, to whom I forwarded a specimen. It diflers 

 from the normal form in the anterior J of the abdomen 

 and elytra and the entire head and thorax being black 

 instead of red both above and below. Several years a^o 

 I took hundreds of specimens of the true nigripcs off an 

 ash-tree in April, where the larva had evidently been 

 preying upon the larva of IfijlefiiniLs aculeatus Say, which 

 occurred on the same tree in similar profusion, issuing 

 out of numerous holes in the solid wood. Every one 

 of these specimens was of the normal color, with no 

 perceptible variation. Hence, I am disposed to regard 

 the so-called variety as a distinct form. Whether or not 

 you choose to call it a distinct sjiecies, depends upon the 

 meaning you choose to attach to the word "species;" and, 

 after all, is merely a question of words and not a question 

 of facts. For myself, I fully believe that these two forms, 

 as well as all the species of the genus Clcrus, are aborigi- 

 nally descended from common parents. But still, as they 

 do not aj^pear to graduate into one a.nother, or to occur in 

 company with each other, I should call them distinct 

 species, though the differences are merely colorational; 

 just as I believe, with all the best authors, that Colitis 

 philodice is specifically distinct from C. eurj/fheme, though 

 these two butterflies merely differ in the one being sul- 

 phur-yellow and the other a Aeap rich orange-color, bih. 

 Hydnocera pallipennis Say. ^th. Photinus neglectus Lee. 

 *Jth. Anobium noiatu-m Say. I thought Say's description 

 rather inapplicable, but Dr. LeConte tells me that he has 

 typical sjjecimens from Melsheirrier and that it is rightly 

 named. 8iA. Cryptarcha anipla Erichs. 9^/i. Flaiydema 

 flavipcs Fahr. 10th. Gaurotes cyanipennis Say. llih. Lep- 

 tura capitata Newman, determined by LeConte. Very 

 like L. americana Hald., of which I took last year many 

 specimens issuing out of a decayed white Elm, but diflers 

 in being much smaller, in the elytra being much more 

 coarsely punctured, and especially in the space behind 

 the eyes being much less inflated. V2th. Adimonia exter- 

 na Say. 13th. Tingis ciliata Say. You say that you found 

 this little Bug " in great numbers under the bark of But- 

 tonwood [or Sycamore] trees, in the winter, but that you 

 never met with it in the summer." You will find it in 

 the latter part of the summer, in profusion, on the under 

 surface of the leaves of the same tree, in company with 

 its larva, lazily sucking the sap therefrom just like an 

 Aphis. I was not previously aware that this insect hy- 

 bernated in the imago state, and the fact is an interest- 

 ing one. Many AiMs, and probably all that feed upon 

 annual plants which perish in the autumn, hybernate in 

 the imago state. Otherwise it would be difiieult for such 

 species to survive from year to year. 



Of the above 13 insects, Nos. 2, 5, 6, S and l."! are com- 

 mon with mo. Nos. 1 and 12 are very rare with me. Nos. 

 9 and 10 do not occur in Illinois, so far as I know. And 

 Nos. 3, 4, 7 and 11 are new to my collection. I shall be 

 pleased to hear again from yon, as often as you wish. 



Misfl Marion Hobart, 111. — The apple-tree Barklouse 

 which you send is the terrible Imported Barklouse, (^s- 

 pidlotus conchiformis,) which is just reaching the western 

 extremity of Northern Illinois in the course of its travels 

 westward. When first introduced into any neighborhood, 

 it is certain death to any tree that it attacks, unless arti- 

 ficially destroyed : but in the course of seven or eight 

 years, the Ladybirds that prey on it increase so much as 

 to measurably check it. In k paper which appeared, with 

 illustrations, in the last number of the Practical Ento- 

 mologist, p. 32, I have given the best directions in my 

 power for destroying this abominable pest; but to make 

 the thing complete, there is required a series of experi- 

 ments which would absorb much time and trouble, and 

 which at present it is "nobody's business" to make. 



The "small oval black shining objects" nearly twice as 

 long as wide, and when immature of a grass-green color, 

 are, as you riglitly suppose, the eggs of the common 

 Plantlouse of the Apple-tree, {Aphis mali). On the gene- 

 ral subject of these Plantlice, I have prepared a long 

 illustrated Paper, which appears in this number of the 

 Practical Entomologist. Ladybirds are said to feed up- 

 on plantlice, eggs of insects, (fcc., in the perfect or beetle 

 state, but not to nearly so great an extent as their larvae 

 do. 



Geo. Scarborough, Kansas. — If you wish to go deeper 

 into Entomology than the works you already have en- 

 able you to do, you had best take up some particular Or- 

 der of Insects to begin with. Otherwise the field is so en- 

 ormously wide, that it would require a whole Number of 

 the Practical E-ntojiologist to catalogue the requisite 

 books. Many of these books, too, are in Latin, French 

 and German, and I do not know whether you read these 

 languages. Coleoptera is the only Order of Insects that 

 has as yet been tolerably well worked out in this Counli-y ; 

 and even in that Order there are some groups, for example 

 the Snout-beetles {Ourculio family), about which compa- 

 ratively little is known by any N. A. Entomologist. Say's 

 works treat pretty fully of all the Orders except Lepidop- 

 tera, and contain many colored plates ; but you cannot 

 use Say to any good advantage without a previous know- 

 ledge of other authors. The price of his Entomological 

 Works is $20, and they may be had of Bailliere Brothers, 

 New York. Even in England, where Entomology has 

 been extensively studied for more than half a century, 

 tliey have no reliable work which treats exhaustively of 

 all known English Insects, as Gray's Botany does of all 

 Phanerogamic Plants found within a certain district in 

 the United States. And even in England there are only 

 a few Orders of Insects — Coleoptera and Lepidoptera and 

 to a certain extent, Hymenoptera — that have been pretty 

 well worked out. You must not be surprised therefore, 

 that the Entomological Student is surrounded on all sides 

 by difficulties in this country, where ten years ago an 

 Entomologist was almost as rare a bird as a Black Swan. 



JESS- Answers to Thomas T. Smith, W. C. Fish, George 

 Haines, C. Morau and L. D. Morse will be given in the 

 next number. 



Fruit-growers' Associations. 



One of the most practically useful movements of the 

 day, is the formation of Local Associations among men 

 devoted to Fruit-growing in various parts of the country. 

 By this means, not only is the experience of each indivi- 

 dual member thrown into the common stock, but by the 

 adoption of proper rules and regulations, they are enabled 

 to concentrate their energies against any particular Nox- 

 ious Insect. For example, if only a single Orchardist 

 destroys all the Caterpillar nests on his apple-trees, it 

 does comparatively but little good ; but if a whole neigh- 

 borhood unite in so doing, the caterpillar will soon be- 

 come quite scarce. The Fruit-growers' Association, of 

 South Illinois, held a very interesting meeting in Decem- 

 ber, 1866; and we notice that the Lake Shore Grape-grow- 

 ers' Association will meet at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 3rd 

 Wednesday of February, 1SC7. Success to them both. 



Errata. 



Vol. II, Page 27, column 2, line 7 from bottom, before 

 '6th, T7'ogosifa'* insert "5th, Calandra (Sitophilus) gratia- 

 •ia, the Grain Weevil." 



Page ?,:>, oolumn 1, line 15, for '•1861" read "1867." 



