116 



THE PilAGTICAL EiNTUMULOGllST. 



to another, just as they now increase, from a slen- 

 der start in the spring, but in the same geometric 

 progression, till about the close of the summer 

 they become almost an unbearable nuisance. 



B. D. W. 



A PLANT eSOWING OUT OF AN INSECT. 



Mr. Gilbert, of Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa, sends 

 nie a specimen of the common " White Grub," or 

 larva of the May-bug, (Lacknoste.i-na querchia), 

 with a root over an inch long, and also a short 

 sprout, growing out of the two corners of its mouth 

 in the place where the lower pair of jaws or "max- 

 illas" ought to be. So firmly is the plant imbedded 

 in the mouth, that it could not be detached by any 

 reasonable force after the specimen had been well 

 soaked in hot water. It is said to have been 

 "found by Mr. Paulding in wet soil, about IJ 

 inches below the surface, and when found the 

 shoot was of a light green color and thrifty." 



But the most remarkable thing is that, as Mr. 

 Gilbert informs me, " there were large numbers of 

 such specimens turned up by the plough, and the 

 root came from the worm in exactly the same part of 

 the body in all ; in some there was a shoot starting as 

 well as a root." " Mr. Paulding," it is further re- 

 marked, " has planted out some of them to see 

 what they will result in." 



If only a single such specimen as the above had 

 been met with, we might account for it by sup- 

 posing, that the larva had accidentally died with 

 the undevoured seed of some plant in its mouth, 

 and that this seed thereupon vegetated and grew, 

 using the body of the larva as manure to aid it in 

 its growth. But how can we account for the 

 " large numbers" of these specimens found in one 

 place, at one time, and by one man ? I can only 

 explain these singular circumstances by supposing, 

 that some particular kind of seed is poisonous to 

 this larva, although the instincts of the larva do not 

 prompt it to reject such seed as food. Hence it is 

 to be hoped that Mr. Paulding's experiments will 

 be continued, until he clearly ascertains what plant 

 is produced from this vegetative larva. Possibly 

 we might turn such knowledge to practical account, 

 by sowing this particular kind of seed in places 

 infested by the White Grub, and especially where, 

 as with young trees in nurseries, we cannot con- 

 veniently reach our enemy with the plough, the hoe 

 or the spade. B. D. w. 



THE IMPOETED GOOSEBERRY SAWFLY. 



In my Article on this insect in the last number 

 of the first Volume of the Pr.\ctical Entomolo- 

 gist, I showed that the fact of the larva changing 

 in its last moult to green, and losing the numerous 

 black, hair-bearing tubercles that characterize it so 

 remarkably in its early stages, had been overlook- 

 ed by certain authors both in Europe and America. 

 Hence, I doubted whether such a change invari- 

 ably took place. But Dr. Smith having kindly 

 sent me a number of these larva? in a very early 

 stage, I have clearly ascertained that it does ; and 



a correspondent from Columbia County, N. Y., who 

 has also been investigating the same question, has 

 arrived at the same result. After the last moult 

 the hirva invariably becomes of a very pale green, 

 with the 1st and 11th joints, more or less of the 

 anterior part of the 2nd and the posterior half of 

 tlie 12th, all bright gamboge-yellow. 



According to the gentleman referred to above, 

 this is the third year that they have been troubled 

 by the ia.sect in Columbia County, "and so great 

 have been their ravages this year in Canaan, in that 

 county, and various other places, that even helle- 

 bore in very large doses has not proved a sufficient 

 remedy." Columbia County lies to the east of the 

 Hudson River ; so that if, as it appears, this pest 

 was originally imported from Europe at Rochester, 

 N. Y., it has already travelled eastward 225 miles. 



THE COLORADO POTATO BUG. 



As I predicted, this insect has now spread into 

 Southern Michigan and Western Indiana. Accord- 

 ing to Dr. Warder, it occurred in the latter locali- 

 ty even in 1866. A correspondent from Leaven- 

 worth, Ks., indignantly denies that this insect ever 

 infested the Potato in his State, and accuses me of 

 slander in making such an assertion. If he will 

 refer to the Practical Entomologist, (Vol. I, 

 p. 1,) he will find that Mr. Murphy, of Atchison, 

 Ks., had his potato-vines overrun by them in 1861; 

 and so recently as 1866 Prof W. S. Robertson, of 

 the Indian Orphan Institute, Highland, Ks., men- 

 tioned the fact that they were abundant in his vi- 

 cinity in a letter to me. If Leavenworth has hith- 

 erto escaped their ravages, it is no more than what 

 I have recorded as having happened elsewhere. 

 Last year, for example, Putnam Co. in Illinois es- 

 caped the Colorado gentlemen, though they swarm- 

 ed in the two Counties immediately north and south. 

 This year, as the Papers state, Putnam is swarming 

 too. B. D. w. 



APPLE-TREE PLANT-LICE. 



{Aphis mail.) 



I had noticed the eggs of this insect to be unu- 

 sually abundant last winter on Apple-trees, and as 

 soon as the first warm days caused the buds to ex- 

 pand a little in the beginning of May, the young 

 larvfe gathered in swarms upon them ; and this not 

 only on the tame Apple-trees, but also on the wild 

 Crab-trees. As I had received the eggs of this in- 

 sect from various Narthern States, with accounts 

 of their being very numerous everywhere, I hence 

 inferred that our Apple-trees were going to bo 

 much troubled by Plant-lice in the spring of 1867. 

 (See Answer to Peter Ferris, Practical Ento- 

 mologist, II, p. 97.) 



Now mark how dangerous a thing it is to pro- 

 phecy, except in the single case where a prophet 

 has the power of fulfilling his own predictions, as, 

 for example, when a physician predicts the death 

 of his patient. In the middle of May we had in 

 the North Western States one or two pretty sharp 

 frosts, which, however, did no material injury to 

 the fruit, as the blossoms were not expanded. But 



