THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



be dead. Among vertebrate animals we find the 

 same remarkable habit of shamming death in the 

 common opossum. 



As it appears that this Grape-vine Fidia, though 

 long well known to myself and other Entomologists, 

 is a new and undescribed species, I annex a full 

 description, for the benefit of those who are curious 

 iu such matters. Farmers generally are apt to 

 think the details of differences, between difierent 

 species of insects, a matter of no practical import- 

 ance; but they should recollect, that without recog- 

 nizing the minute distinctions between the Colo- 

 rado Potato Bug and another allied species with 

 which Dr. Fitch and had confounded it, (see 

 Practical Entomologist, I, pp. 2 — 3,) it would 

 have been impossible to arrive at any correct con- 

 clusions about the habits and future progress of the 

 former. Just so with the Hateful Grasshopper of 

 Colorado. (Practical Entomologist, II, pp. 

 l-=5.) Without carefully distinguishing between 

 this insect and the Red-legged Grasshopper, so 

 common in the Valley of the Mississippi and on 

 the Atlantic seabord, our Illinois farmers might 

 suppose that they were liable any year to inflictions, 

 such as overtook Kansas and Nebraska last autumu, 

 together with the far more terrible consequences 

 which will not improbably follow, in this coming 

 season of 18 07. 



Fidia viticida, new species. Chestnut rufous, punc- 

 tured and densely covered with short grayish-white pros- 

 irate hairs, so as to appear hoary. Head rather closely 

 punctured, with a very fine longitudinal stria on the ver- 

 tex. Clypeus and mandibles glabrous and black, the cly- 

 peus with a subterniinal transverse row of punctures, 

 armed with long golden hairs, the mandibles minutely 

 punctured on their basal half. Palpi and antennfe hon- 

 ey-yellow verging on rufous, the antennra J as long as the 

 })ody, with joint 4 fully i loi)g.;r than joint 3. Thorax. 

 finely and confluently punctured, about as long as wide, 

 rather wider behind than before, the sides in a convex 

 circular arc of not quite 60°, the males with the thora.x 

 rather longer and laterally less strongly curved than 

 the females. Elytra punctato-striate, the strife subobso- 

 lete, the punctures approximate, and rather large but not 

 deep, the interstices flat and with close-set fine shallow 

 punctures. Lega with the anterior tibite of the male sud- 

 denly crooked | of the way to their tip; anterior tibiee of 

 the female as straight as the others. Length % .24 — .27 

 inch; 2 .24— .28 inch. 



Described from 5 S , 5 $ . "Very near Pachne- 

 phorus {Fidia) viticolus [-ola] Uhler, which is said 

 to be .21 inch long; but Dr. LeConte, who has ty- 

 pical specimens, tells me that that species difiers, 

 not only in being smaller, but in the thorax being 

 more strongly punctured; and that common as is 

 viticida it is as yet undescribed. A .species of 

 Fidia of which I have 2% H 9 , is identified by 

 Dr, LeConte from typical specimens as Faclinrpho- 

 rus {Fidia) lonijipes Melsh. ; and difiers from vitici- 

 da on\y in hc'ing smaller, (.19 — .21 inch,) and in the 

 ground-color being black instead of chestnut ru- 

 fous. The males have the anterior tibias crooked 

 in the samo remarkable manner as in viticida. 

 The genus Fidia, on careful examination, appears 

 to dificr from the genus Fachnej)horus only in the 

 body and legs being much longer, in the thighs 

 not being clavate, and in the above-mentioned sin- 

 gular sexual destinetion in the anterior shanks 

 (tibiae.) The reason of this last character is ob- 



vious. Fidia having very long legs, the male is 

 enabled, during copulation, to entirely embrace the 

 body of the female with his front legs; consccjuently 

 it is an advantage to him to have the tip of the 

 front tibiaj suddenly crooked inwards. Fachne- 

 2>horus having comparatively short legs, the male 

 cannot thus clasp the body of his female, and there- 

 fore it would be no advantage to him to have the 

 tips of his front tibije crooked inwards. 



It is astonishing how many different organs are 

 worked in by nature, for this seemingly insignifi- 

 cant object of enabling the male insect to grasp the 

 female firmly. For example, among the Ground- 

 beetles {Carahus family.) almost all the males have 

 either their two front feet or their four front feet 

 (tarsi,) furnished with broad hairy cushions for 

 this purpose. Among the water-beetles {Dytiscus 

 family,) many genera have, in addition, the front 

 feet of the male armed with a round flat sucker- 

 like enlargement of one of its joints, to enable him 

 to adhere to the slippery body of the female. In 

 the male Dragon-flies {Lihelltda and Agrion fami- 

 lies,) the appendages at the tip of the tail are modi- 

 fied in an almost infinite variety of curious patterns, 

 to enable them to embrace the neck of the female. 

 The male Horn-bugs {Lucanus family,) have their 

 aws enormously enlarged, lengthened and armed, 

 with teeth, for a similar purpose. And in a genus 

 of the Darkling-beetles {Tenchrio family.) known 

 as Fcnthi', a few of the middle joints of the anten- 

 nae of the male — 3 joints in one species, four in the 

 other — are dilated and furnished below with a cush- 

 ion of hairs, precisely as in the fiont tarsus of a male 

 Ground-beetle, and obviously for the same end. 

 Finally in a large and common Ground-beetle ( Ca- 

 losoma scrutator,) as has been observed by Le- 

 Conte, and in a small and rare beetle, (Xj/lophdus 

 basalis LeConte,) as was first noticed by myself, 

 the middle tibiaj (or shanks) of the male are curi- 

 ously bowed inwards for the same almost universal 

 purpose. Thus wo find that five distinct organs of 

 the body — the tarsus or foot, the tibia or shank, the 

 appendages at the tail, the jaws aud even the an- 

 tennae — are variously modified in various .species, 

 and perverted, so to speak, from their normal func- 

 tions, in order to facilitate the reproduction of the 

 species. 



Whether, with the old school of philosophers, we 

 believe that each species of insect was originally 

 created by the great Author of Nature, with all its 

 present organs precisely as they now exist — or 

 whether we believe, with a more modern school, 

 that in pursuance of certain laws of variation and 

 inheritance, originally established by the same great 

 Author of Nature, the insects found in one geologic 

 epoch have been very slowly and gradually modi- 

 fied and developed into those which occur in suc- 

 ceeding geologic epochs — the mind is lost iu admi- 

 ration at the beautiful and harmonious co-adapta- 

 tions which we continually meet with, as page 

 after page we turn over the Great Book of Nature. 



B. D. w. 



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 Entomologist. Will not each present subscriber try to 

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