ENTOMOLOGY. 



89 



•whole fields of grain. It resembles the well- 

 known meal-u-orm. Aphides, or plant-lice, also 

 feed on the turnip plant. Owing to its astonish- 

 ing fecundity — twenty or thuty generations be- 

 ing produced in a single year — the destruction 

 caused by this insect is proportionally exten- 

 sive. The fact that at one season of the year 

 they are oviijarous, and at another viviparous, is 

 a remarkable peculiarity in the aphides ; and 

 one cause of their astonishing increase is, that 

 tke sexual iutercoui-se of a single pair, without 

 any reunion, serves for all the generations which 

 proaeed from the female during the whole of 

 tliat succeeding year. The turnip-leaf miners 

 are also among the assailants of this plant. One 

 class of these (drapsapkita fiava) bores a gal- 

 lery under the upper cuticle of tlie leaf, and is 

 not visible on the under side ; while the other, 

 fphytomyza nigrocornisj bred from the under 

 side of the leaf, bores inside of the lower cuti- 

 cle, and cannot be disdngui.shed on the upper 

 side. Vasous other enemies exist in the differ- 

 ent moths of the Leodopteroas order,* all of 

 which, with different degrees of voracity, prey 

 upon the turnip crop. 



We have refrained from entering into the mi- 

 nutia; of the stracture and habits of ?ach of these 

 insects, because it would have extended this 

 article beyond the necessarj- limits to which \ve 

 are restricted. Enough has been said to show 

 that, on this branch of the subject, tlie labor and 

 success of the entomologist have shed a flood of 

 light, which develops the path to further and 

 still more useful enquiries. "With reference to 

 the remedies against these insect ravages — the 

 point to which the interest of evei-y intelligent 

 farmer imperatively urges his pursuit — compa- 

 ratively but little has j-et been effected. Pre- 

 ventives have been suggested in English books, 

 such as keeping the land free from the wild 

 mustard and charlock, which attract the turnip- 

 flea, and from other noxious breeds of insects 

 tliat feed on the various products of the garden 

 and the field — 



" But chief the forest boughs. 



That dance unnumbered to the plaj-ful breeze ; 



The downy orchard iuid the meltinj pulp 



Of mellow fruit : the nameless nations feed 



Of evanescent insects." 



An infusion of quassia, half an ounce to a gallon 

 of water, has been lately recommended in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle. Sowing in drills instead 

 of broadcast is said to have been found benefi- 

 cial ; and mixing the seed with sulphur has | 

 sometimes been of efficacy. Experimental 

 knowledge on this subject is greatly to be de- I 

 sired, and every farmer has the power to contri- 



* Leodoptera — Six feet ; four membraneous wings, 

 covered with small membraneous scales or feathers. 

 Instead of the u]i])er or lower mandibles, two hollow 

 (Uaments exi.«t, which, together, form a spii-ally rolled 

 tongrue. Exiunples : Buttei-flies, moths, and hawk- 

 moutlii?. 



bote his mite to the general store ; and apart 

 from this consideration of personal interest, the 

 attraction of the subject itself, when once he en- 

 ters upon the study of it, will increase at long 

 advancing step. 'Who can read Huber, Bevan, 

 Gould, and otuer writers on the economy and 

 habits of tlie Bee and the Ant, witluout being 

 filled with surprise and admiration at the iiTe- 

 sistible e^^dence which their system of govern- 

 ment, domestic policy and orderly arrangements 

 exhibit, of calculation, forethought, wise di^Hsion 

 and direction of labor, and unity of purpose ? — 

 Solomon had looked into Entomology vihen he 

 referred the indolent man to the ant for a lesson 

 of ^visdom ; altliougli it is said to be an error in 

 him and other philosophers, to suppose that the 

 ant lays by a store of provision for winter use, 

 when it, in fact, becomes torpid, and does not 

 either eat or drink during the period of hyberna- 

 tion. What has been taken for food, was only 

 building materials. '• Ce ne sont point des pro- 

 visions dc houche ; ce sont des simples materi- 

 aux, qiiilles font oui^rer dans la construction 

 de leur edifice, comme dies y font outrer des 

 brins, de paille," &c. But this discovery de- 

 tracts from the philosopher, if from eitlier — and 

 not the ant, as it does not lessen the proof of 

 his forecast and systematic industry. Limiaeua 

 speaks of the ants milking their cows, the aphi- 

 des, (plant lice ;) and Hiiber describes the pro- 

 cess, stating that die ants " not only suck the 

 .sweet juice which is constantly passing through 

 the bodies of the aphides, but make use of their 

 attennae during the operation, to produce a 

 ready evacuation — patting the aphides on tlie 

 sides pretty briskly," as the calf hunches the 

 udder of its dam. This fact may show that the 

 ant is not the enemy of these hemiptera,* as some 

 have supposed, and that its frequent as-sociation 

 \vith them is of a friendly character. But the 

 most startling facts related by Huber, and cor- 

 roborated by other writers, relate to the wars 

 %vagod b3' one community of ants against ano- 

 ther, and the predatorj' expeditions of the spe- 

 cies called formicans riifescens and formica 

 sanguinea, against the colonies of black ants, 

 for tlie purpose of cairj-ing off the young for 

 slaves. But they have never been charged 

 \vith selling their own children to the Turks, as 

 is said to be the practice with a nation that is 

 regarded as physical models of the human race. 

 It has been proved by experiment that the ru- 

 bescent ant has been so much accustomed to de- 



* Hemipta-a — Six feet four wings — the two anterior 

 formmg hard coverings with membraneous ends, or 

 resembling the lower ones, but being larger and 

 stronger, histead of upper and lower jaws, the or- 

 gans of the mouth are fonned of bri.stles, which com- 

 pose a sucker, and which is enclo.sed in an aiticvilated 

 sheath, consisting of one piece, of a cylindrical or 

 conical shape, and fonninp a projecting beak. Ex- 

 amples — the field and tree bugs, houA: buss. Cicada; 

 Aphides Kolx.ui. 



