THE- PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



103 



extract the larva, glance at it with a lens, and I knew at 

 once what kind of insect had made the gall. 



The calerijillars feeding cm the leaves of the same "Tex- 

 as Mustang" Grape-vine, which you send, belong to two 

 ditferont species of Sawfly (Tenthrcdo family). More than 

 this I cannot tell you, as the species are both unknown to 

 me. The larvse of the Sawflies, although they belong to 

 the same Order (Hymenoptera) as the Bees, Wasps, Ants, 

 &c., yet have the general appearance of the larvie of the 

 Moths, which belong to the Order Lepidoptera. They 

 may be distinguished, however, by usually having from 

 18 to 22 legs, (whereas the larva of no moth has more 

 than Ifi legs,) and by the pro-legs or sham legs behind 

 the 6 true legs in front being not furnished with the nu- 

 merous minute and almost microscopic little hooks gene- 

 rally found in the larvce of the moths. Tliey differ also 

 in other respects, which it would be tedious to particu- 

 larize. 



Willie C. Fish, Mass. — The flat bark-beetles are Prome- 

 topia 6-viaculata, Say. The larger Tomicus is pini, Say ; 

 caWi^rap/iiis, Germar, (^ e-reswa, Say,) is very similar, but 

 one-third longer. The smaller Tomicus agrees with the 

 description of puaiUus, Harris ; but as that species is said 

 by Fitch to inhabit the trunks and limbs of sapling pines, 

 and yours inhabits small twigs, your species is not impro- 

 bably the European ramulorum, which closely resembles 

 puniUas, and has the same habits as your insect. 



Aculens, Kentucky. — This Journal is not the place for 

 long and purely scientific discussions about Guest-gall- 

 flies. For such I must refer you to my Papers on the 

 Willow Gall insects, published in the Proceedings, and to 

 Baron Osten Sacken's Papers on Cynipidce in the same 

 publication. I will only say here, that I have proved 

 that certain species belonging to certain genera are Guest- 

 gallflies, and not true Gall-makers ; whence it is reasona- 

 ble to infer, in the absence of any proof to the contrary, 

 when other species belonging to these genera are bred 

 from galls, along with species belonging to genera known 

 to produce galls, that the latter are Gall-makers, and the 

 former Guestflies. As to the Blackberry Gall, as you send 

 no specimens of the insects bred therefrom, I cannot tell 

 you what they are, whether the gall-making Diasirophus 

 or the guest-gallfly Aula^; but you can easily land out by 

 referring to Osten Sacken's Paper. If you are correct in 

 saying that the wing of the larger fly " has but one vein," 

 it is not a Gallfly at all, but a Chalcis By and a parasite. 



The green Cicindela, which you speak of, is probably 

 sexguttata, Fabr. I cannot identify a Cuccine.lla from a 

 curt description and a pen-and-ink sketch. Send speci- 

 mens always, if you want the correct name for any insect. 

 It always saves both parties a deal of unnecessary trou- 

 ble ; and one insect named with certainty is better than a 

 dozen guessed at. 



Samott Casii, Kentucky. — The nfilk- white "miller," 

 expanding about an inch and a half, which you send, is 

 the common Arctia Virf/inica. Thie larva is a hairy ca- 

 terpillar, swarming in every garden in the Northern 

 States, and feeding upon the leaves of almost everything. 

 I once found a large brood of them on an apple-tree; but 

 more usually they infest herbaceous plants. In color this 

 larva varies most astonishingly, ranging from almost 

 white, through various shades of tawney, to almost 

 black. It is an unmitigated pest, and both larva and 

 moth should be slain without mercy, wherever they are 

 found. The snout-beetle which you send, is the same JSpi- 

 coerus imbricatus, to which I recently referred in this Jour- 

 nal, Vol. II, p. 81. You say that " something has caused 

 a number of your one-year old apple scions to crack near 

 the bottom," and that you found a single specimen of the 

 above Snout-beetle in one of the cracks. Possibly he 

 may be the author of the mischief: but from analogy I 

 should rather infer not. As you say that the diseased 

 young trees contain no borers and no signs of borers, and 

 that" the cracked place averages from half to two inches" 

 long, I am at a loss to know what can have caused it, and 

 can therefore indicate no remedy. 



Thos. McGraw, Wise. — The cocoons sent are those of 

 the gigantic moth Atlacus cecropia. Usually but one or 

 two larvfe are found on a single tree ; but a case has been 

 recorded in the Prairie J^armer, where this larva swarmed 

 on a particular tree. Respecting the above moth, see an- 

 swer to Thos. T. Smith, Practical Entomologist II, p. 55. 



S. Davis. Ill- — I gave the information you desire in the 

 first uumbei yi the current volume of this Journal. 



Addison Kelley, Ohio. — The insect infesting your 

 grape-vines is the common Grape-vine Flea-beetle, (Hal- 

 tica chalybea), figured and noticed Practical Entomolo- 

 gist, II, p. 5U. Bee also I, p. 40, for an excellent account 

 of this insect by Mr. Kirkpatrick of your State. 1 have 

 recently ascertained that it passes the winter in the per- 

 fect state, coming out early in the spring to lay its eggs 

 on the young shoots. Hence, by destroying a single one 

 at this early season of the year, you stop the propagation 

 of untold thousands thereafter. You remark that, " if 

 not picked off and destroyed, it often kills the vine by 

 destroying the buds, so that the vine dies down to the 

 root." Hence, as it seems, it would be well worth while 

 to go over your vines in early spring, and kill as many 

 of these blue-coated gentry as you can find on them. 

 The popular belief that it deposits its eggs " in the bark" 

 is, as you rightly suggest, an error. The following ac- 

 count of the depredations of this beetle, is copied from the 

 Proceedings of the Alton, (III.) Horticultural Society, for 

 May 2, 1867:— 



Dr. Hull presented specimens of the Hallica (graptodeni) 

 chalt/bea, or steel-blue flea-beetle. He had found them 

 very numerous. Has had them in his grounds for some 

 years, but was not aware of their habits until taught by 

 experience, and had not consequently looked to their de- 

 struction as a necessity. The experience of last season 

 was of such a character as to leave no doubt, but that to 

 grow grapes successfully they must be first destroyed. 

 The spring of 1866 they were very numerous, and before 

 he was fully aware of his danger his grape crop was near- 

 ly destroyed. This spring, in a small vineyard, one of 

 the first planted, they swarmed by thousands, and he had 

 burnt them out, by surrounding "them with fire and let- 

 ting the fire run in the dry grass through it. It was a 

 rough remedy, but as his crop was destroyed, he let the 

 beetles follow suit. 



H. B. Howarth, Wise. — The small two-winged fly, with 2 

 dark bands on each wing and the head prolonged on each 

 side into a short pillar, at the tip of which the eye is 

 placed, is the Sphyracepkala brevicornis of Say, subse- 

 quently described by Fitch as Sph. subbi/asciata. Late in 

 the autumn I have found this insect retiring for the win- 

 ter, in prodigious numbers, into the cracks in limestone 

 clifl's on Rock River, Illinois. Say found considerable 

 numbers in a similar situation on the Upper Missouri in 

 1819. By some unaccountable oversight, l)r. Fitch asserts 

 that in Say's species the tip of the wing is dusky, (JV. Y. 

 Pep., I, p. 70); whereas in reality Say describes the tip of 

 the wing as glassy transparent, just as it is described in 

 Dr. Fitch's sujiposed new species. Yet it is solely upon 

 this illusory difference that the so-called new species sub- 

 bi/asciata is based ! It is by similar confusions and in^'s- 

 tificalions, and the lust of species-grindilig closet-natu- 

 ralists to immortalize themselves by giving names to 

 their fancied new species, that synonyms arejjiled moun- 

 tain-high, one on top of the other, till science becomes a 

 mere mass of verbiage, instead of being what it ought to 

 be — a systematized accumulation of facts. 



C. H. R., New York. — The large dark brown beetles, of 

 which you dug up such numbers from an old clover sod, 

 are the common "May-bug," (Lachnosterna querci7ia), the 

 larva of which is known everywhere as the " White 

 griffe,'* being white with a red head, and is very destruc- 

 tive to the roots of various plants, particularly to straw- 

 berries and lettuces, and also to young trees in the nur- 

 sery and to tame-grass meadows. If you had let these 

 beetles alone, they would have come out of the ground in 

 May. You will probably find these larvce very injurious 

 to the strawberries and pear and apple stocks planted on 

 your clover sod. Both the specimens sent are females. 



" Josh." N. Y. — The moth is Arctia virgo, Linn. Of the 

 beetles, the large elongate brown one is Orlhosoma ci/lin- 

 dricum. Ditto shorter, Lachnosterna quercina. Black, 

 with many-grooved elytra, Harpalus caliginosus. Black, 

 with 3-keeled elytra, Silpha surinamensis. Black, with 

 red scutel, Penthe obliquata. Bl.ack, wrinkled, Osmoderma 

 scabra. The insect without wings or elytra is the larva of 

 a Blatta (cockroach.) The best work for you to begin 

 with is Harris's Injurious In.iects. Your specimens reach- 

 ed me all broken to pieces, and the numbers you had at- 

 tached to them loose in the box, the box itself being 

 pressed as flat as a pancake. I cannot for the future 

 undertake to name specimens that reach me in such mise- 

 rable condition. 



