120 



THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



J. H. Parsons, N. Y. — The Striped Cucumber-bug {Dia- 

 hrotica vittata, figured Practical Entomologist I, p. 110,) 

 was ascertained, by Dr. Shimer of Illinois, to reside in 

 the larva state inside the stems and roots of the vines or 

 other plants that it infests. The writer in the Agricultu- 

 rist, in saying that the eggs of the *'Squash-bug" are 

 found upon the leaves of the vines, is probably speaking, 

 not of this insect, but of the Northern Ladybird, {Epi- 

 lachna borealis, figured with its larva, Practical Extomo- 

 LoaiST II, p. 42;) for he distinctly states that the larva is 

 "hairy." The insect (Coreus <m(j.5, figured Harris Tnj. 

 Ins. p. 194,) which is properly called "Squash-bug" is evi- 

 dently the one which the same writer subsequently re- 

 fers to as "a large black bug near the roots of the plants." 

 Thus we see that three distinct insects — two of them Bee- 

 tles and one of them a True Bug — are all popularly con- 

 founded under the common name of "Squash-bug." In 

 the same manner there are, as I have shown in the Prac- 

 tical Entomologist (Vol. I, No. 12,) three distinct larvse 

 — two of them producing four- winged flies, and one of them , 

 which is a "measuring-worm" or "looper," producing a 

 moth — which all feed on the Gooseberry and Currant, and 

 are all popularly confounded under the name of "Cur- 

 rant-worm." The general reader usually considers sci- 

 entific nimes as a nuisance; but there can be no greater 

 nuisance than a popular name which means anything or 

 everything. 



Dr. Chas. Carpenter, Ohio. — The minute and almost mi- 

 croscopic creatures, which you have ascertained to cause 

 "inflamed itching blotches in the summer on the persons 

 of children and to some extent adults," are not true In- 

 sects but Mites, belonging to the same Class (Arachnida) 

 as Spiders, Ticks, the Mite that causes the common Itch, 

 the Cheese-mite, *fec. The mites which you find **in abun- 

 dance on grass, currant-bushes, strawberry-vines, Ac," 

 are, I suspect, different from the specimens sent. I am 

 acquainted with whole hosts of species found on plants, 

 some of them causing curious galls and deformations and 

 some apparently living at large; but none of them are 

 identical with those which you send, although there is 

 often a strong general resemblance. A minute red spe- 

 cies closely allied to yours {Leptit^'i autumnalis) is known 

 in Europe as the "harvest-bug," and is said to bury itself 

 in the flesh, producing tumors and intolerable itching, in 

 the time of harvest. 



G. S., Mass. — The small black Flea-beetles, swarming 

 on your potato and tomato vines and eating numerous 

 little holes in the leaves, are the Haltica cucumeris of Har- 

 ris — a very common species. They have long been known 

 to work in this manner. The single larva found on po- 

 tato vines is that of a Ladybird {CoccincUa family); pro- 

 tect and encourage him, for he is your friend. We are 

 too crowded for space now in the Practical Entomologist 

 to give an account of the habits, Ac, of the wooUen-moth. 



M. H. Boye, Penna. — The disease of your grape-vines 

 does not appear to be the work of insects; at least there 

 are no signs of the operations of insects in the specimens 

 sent. Of the insects sent, No. 1 is, as you suppose, the 

 common "Curculio" (Conotrachdus nenuphar). No. 2, 

 from Peach, is my Conotrachdus cratccgi, found in swarms 

 on the Thorn everywhere in Illinois. If this Snout-bee- 

 tle habitually infests the Peach also, it is anew fact. No. 

 3 is one of the Click-beetles, (Mclanotus communis,) and 

 burrows into fruit, such as raspberries, Ac., in the perfect 

 state. The larva feeds on rotten wood. No. 4 is not a 

 Beetle, but a Sawfly , ( Tcnthredo family, Order Hy menop- 

 tera). It is the two sexes of Dolerus arvcnsis of Say, who 

 however describes the female only. The male, according 

 to the general law which I have established among the 

 Sawflies, is much darker colored than the female, lacking 

 altogether her red markings. Many species of these Saw- 

 flies that come out early in the year haunt; as docs this 

 species, the flowers of fruit-bearing trees ; but I do not 

 believe them to be injurious. They nlay possibly even 

 be beneficial, by carrying pollen from flower to flower, 

 like the Bees, Wasps, Ac. No. 5. — The small Flea-beetle 

 is Haltica hdxines, and varies prodigiously in color, spe- 

 cimens occurring that are blue, violet; green and metal- 

 lic-brown. The larger beetle is, not a Haltica, but a 

 Bruchus, belonging to a family of the Snout-beetles, and 

 is nothing but our old Iriend the common Pea-bug, 

 (Bruchus pisi). No. 6 contains three species. The broad 

 one with flattened antenn e is Lucidota atra ; of the other 

 two the one with immaculate elytra is Fodabrus rugosu- 



Ins, the one with elytra edged with yf^llow is Podahrus wo- 

 dcstus. All three reside under bark in the larva stato, 

 feeding on bark-eating and wood-eating larvse; and in 

 the perfect state also feed, to a limited extent, on other 

 insects. The large claj' -yellow beetle with 6 black spots, 

 feeding exclusively on grape leaves, is Pdidnota punctata, 

 notorious everywhere for the above habit; the othfer is 

 one of the Capricorn Beetles, (Desmocerus paltiatus,) and 

 its larva is s:iid to bore the common Elder.. — All the spe- 

 cimens reached me in first-rate order. 



Huron Burt, Missouri. — "The scorpion or lizard-shaped 

 soft-looking insect, that preys on the eggs of the Colora- 

 do Potato Bug," is probably the larva of a Ladybird [Coc- 

 cincUa family). The green blow-flies, that haunted the 

 currant-bushes infested by Plant-lice, were attracted 

 there by the "honey-dew" exuded by the Plant-lice. (See 

 my recent Paper on this supject. Practical E.vtomologist 

 H. p. 39.J "The insect with a dark body, its back and 

 sides covered with a white woolly substance," that preys 

 on plant-lice, must be the larva of a Srymnus, {ibid. p. 42). 

 The insect that for three or four years has ruined your ho- 

 neysuckle by devouring the blossom-buds in the night, 

 is most probably some one of the numerous kinds of Cut- 

 worms that are now ascertained to mount trees for this 

 purpose. Mr. Townley, of Wisconsin, found his honey- 

 suckles to be infested by them in the same manner. "The 

 large, stinking vine-bug, with the odor of the Chinch 

 Bug," is, I suppose, the common Squash-bug. {Coreus iris- 

 tis,) figured in page 194 of Harris's book. The other in- 

 sects you mention I cannot identify from your descrip- 

 tions. 



Wm. C. Fish, Mass.— Of the two kinds of Hickory galls 

 produced by Plant-lice, the sm'ill, roundish one on the 

 leaflet, which opens with a slit below, is Caryacglobuli 

 Walsh; the large roundish one on the footstalk of the 

 leaf, which opens above usually in a cross, (X) is Carycc- 

 caulis Fitch. The Beetles sent are Serica iricolor Say, 8. 

 trociformis Burnt.) fVar. with rufous elytra), Agrilus gra- 

 vis Lee, Brachi/s Oitata Web. and Cardiophorus gagaies Er. 

 The Bug belongs to the Scutellera family and to Amyot 

 and Serville's genus Vulsircea and is very common here 

 on oaks. I do not know whether it is described or not; 

 but it is not among the species described by Say. — The 

 Cranberry galls reached me in excellent order. 



Thos. E. Koge, Westtown B. S. Pa. — I can tell you no- 

 thing about the streak of thousands of small legless white 

 worms, which you saw migratingover the sand and crawl- 

 ing over one another's backs as they traveled, except 

 that they are the larvse of some kind of Two-winged Fly. 

 The specimens sent, having been simply wrapped in pa- 

 per and enclosed in your letter, reached me dead and in 

 very poor condition. If you had enclosed them in a tight 

 tin box, along with some moist earth, they would prob- 

 ably have reached me alive and in good order, and I 

 could then have told you more about them. 



Jas. Barratt, Mass. — The monstrous yellow Butterfly 

 that you saw in the woods the last of June, could have 

 been nothing else but the large yellow Swallow-tail, {Pa- 

 pilio Turnus.) Some of the females of this species are tru- 

 ly gigantic. You will find this insect figured in Harris's 

 book, p. 263. The Rose-bug, {Macrodactt/lus subspinosus,) 

 which as you say is swarming with j'ou this year and do- 

 ing a great deal of damage, does really, as you suppose, 

 come out of the ground. Its larva lives upon the roots of 

 plants, and changes into the perfect beetle underground. 



D. W. Kauffman, Pres. Iowa State Hort. Soc. — The black 

 blister-beetles that are infesting your potato-vines this 

 year, near DesMoines. Iowa, are, as I have been informed 

 by Mr. Ulke, the Lytia {macrobasis) viurma of LeConte — 

 a species not hitherto observed to infest the Potato. They 

 strongly resemble at first sight the commcm Black Blister- 

 beetle, Li/tta {epicauta) atrata, which is said by Harris to 

 infest potatoes in Massachusetts, but may be distinguish- 

 ed by the long second joint of the antennte char.acteristie 

 of the genus Macrobasis, and especially of the males, and 

 also by having four raised lines placed lengthways on 

 each wing-ease. This last airnte neither myself nor Mr. 

 Ulke have ever known to infest potatoes, and we only 

 meet with it in the autumn on flowers, and chiefly on 

 those of the Golden-rod (Solidago). May it not be pos- 

 sible that, in some cases at all events, the former species 

 has been mistaken for the latter? The specimens reach- 

 ed me all alive and in excellent order. 



