no 



THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



common Entomological Sweeping-net — i. e. a bag of 

 strong cloth fusteued to a hoop of strong iron wire, and 

 the hoop attached to a short stafi' — you may, by brushing 

 the herbage backwards and forwards, catch any number 

 of these Lady-birds. They are readily distinguishable 

 from all other common insects by having only three 

 joints to their tarsi or feet. 



Miss Isaure A. Pluoke. N. Y. — The elongate, red, long- 

 horned beetle, fully half inch long, that you found on 

 milkweeds. (Asclepias), are the Tctraopes tornator of F.i- 

 bricius, and belong to the Cerambi/x family. I find them 

 every year abundant on the same plant, and mixed up 

 with them in small numbers, a species very closely re- 

 sembling them, but ditfering, among other character.?, by 

 the antenncB being beautifully banded with bl'ick and 

 white, instead of being plain black. This last is the 

 Tetraopes femoratus of LeCoute. The short-oval beetles 

 over quarter inch long, with cream-colored wing-cases, 

 dotted and streaked with black, are not Ladybirds, as you 

 suppose, but leaf-feeding beetles, belonging to the great 

 Chrysomela family. They are the Chrynomela bignbyana of 

 Kirby ; and I have ascertained Ihat the larva, which is a 

 miniature edition of that of the Colorado Potato Bug, feeds 

 on Willows. There is a very closely allied species — the 

 Chrysomclaphiladelphica, of Linneeus — which scarcely dif- 

 fers, except in the thorax being dark bottle-green, instead 

 of rust-red behind and cream-colored in front. What 

 this last feeds on in the larva state, I do not know, and 

 should be glad to hear. It is very rare with me, though 

 common elsewhere; the other one is tolerably common 

 here. You may always distinguish Ladybirds (Cocci- 

 nclla, family), from any other beetles that you will be 

 likely to meet with, by their feet (tarsi) having only 

 three joints ; whereas all the Chn/mmela family, some 

 of which are spolted much like Ladybirds, have foui- 

 joints to their feet. This criterion is of great practical 

 importance, beca\ise with a single exception (Epilach- 

 na borealis, figured Puactical E.xtomomogist II, p. 42), 

 all the Ladybirds are our friends, preying upon other in- 

 sects, and all the C hn/somclas are our enemies, feeding 

 upon the foliage of various plants. 



As to what you take for living "animals, found in 

 eggs," I think you mu.st be mistaken. What you send 

 appears to me to be merely a \yart of the egg itself, proba- 

 bly developed by a short incubation. Certainly it is not 

 any insect, and is therefore out of my jurisdiction. I 

 know of no such living animals ever having been found 

 in bird's eggs l)y any one. As to living parasites in the 

 figgs of insects, that is a dilTerent affair altogether. 



p^ Answers to J. .T. Kellv, V. T. Chambers, William 

 Kite, E. T. Snelling. .In' . lvli;crton. Saml. D. Martin and 

 G. W. S., Conn., will be given in the next number. 



FERTILIZING PLANTS. 



Few entomologists are aware, what an important 

 part is played by insects in fertilizing certain kinds 

 of plants. The old idea among Botanists was, that 

 hermaphrodite flowers shod their own pollen upon 

 their own .stigmas, thus, as stock-raisers term it, 

 " breeding in-and-in." But it has recently been 

 shown, that there is an almost infinite variety of 

 contrivances in Nature to prevent this, and that 

 in many such cases bees and other insects, flying 

 from flower to flower, convey the fertilizing pollen 

 from one flower to another, and that without their 

 agency either no seed at all, or seed inferior, both 

 in quantity and quality, is perfected. It is remark- 

 able that almost all flowers which are fertilized by 

 the aid of insects are gaily colored, so as to attract 

 insects; and Mr. Darwin observes that he does not 

 know of a single flower, fertilized exclusively by 

 pollen blown upon it by the wind, that is not of a 

 dull unattractive appearance. B. D. w. 



THE PEACH WORM. 



Dried peaches, as is well known, are often so 

 much infested by a small worm as to become worth- 

 less. But it has not yet been recorded, that this 

 worm is the larva of a small moth or " miller," be- 

 longing to the same family (^Tiiiea family) as the. 

 well-known moths which destroy woollen clothes, 

 furs, carpets, &c. Having myself bred very nu- 

 merous specimens to the perfect state, I am enabled 

 to identify it as the same insect, (^Ephentia zrse,) 

 which was long ago described by Dr. Fitch as in- 

 festing " stale Indian meal and emptying cakes made 

 thereof," (A^. Y. Rep. I, p. 320, and Plate IV, fig. 

 1,) and which Dr. Clemens states to feed on " rye, 

 corn, clover-seed, garlie-heads and preserves, espe- 

 cially those contained in jars." {Proc. Ac. Nat. 

 Sc. Phil. ISGO, p. 20G.) While in the larva state, 

 it is preyed upon to a very considerable extent liy 

 a small Ichneumon-fly, snd also by a small Scorpion- 

 like Spider with claws like those of a crab — tlic 

 Gheh'fer ohlonr/ns of Say. B. D. \v. 



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