90 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER, 



0,-t. 10. 1S2H. 



tatos, which is tlms taken notice of 

 man. 



the Scots- sects on account of tlicir apparent uninipovtance 



land insignilicancp. These may be assnred that it 



Tliis is an abstract of nearly nl! that is l<nown j is a never faihng source of the most rational en- 



respectirjp; the use and enltnre of polatos. I'ota- 

 tos were brought to Eni,Mand about l/jSG, but 

 tlieir culture spread very slowly for a long jieriod 

 ailerwards. They were first planted in tlie open 

 fields in Scotland so late as 1728. There are a 

 great \ariety of species, some of which yield about 

 twice as much as others on the same ground, and 

 with the same culture. Tlie produce in England 

 varies from 136 to 830 bushels jter acre, the av- 

 erage being about 300 busliels, or 12 tons. In- 

 cluding Scotland, liowever. Sir John estimates the 

 average at 216 busliels, or 7 tons. Where fami- 

 lies live entirely on ]iotatos, it is calculated that a 

 man, his wife, and four children, will consume a- 

 bout a ton each, or 6 tons altogether ; but where 

 milk is used, according to Dr Skene Keith's esti- 

 mate, about half the quantity will suiiite ; so that 

 among a population living in the Irish cotter's 

 mode, an acre would supply solid food for 14 per- 

 sons. A pound of oatmeal is reckoned to afford 

 as much nourishment as 6 lbs., and a pound of 

 wheaten bread as much as 5 lbs. of po'.atns. The 

 potato, as analysed by Dr Pearson, consists of 70 

 parts of water and 30 of meal. The meal is com- 

 posed of starch, or fccuhi, 16 ; leafy or fibrous 

 matter, 8J ; extract or soluble mucilage 5J ; total 

 30. 



joyinent ; and that there is as much to bo discov- 

 ered and to astonish in magnifying an insect as a 

 star. The powerful influence which insects are 

 permitted to exert over our interest, compel us to 

 notice them ; and tlieir wonderful structure, met- 

 amorphoses, and habits display the wisdom and 

 protecting power of their Creator. 



Hitherto our insects have been better known to 

 naturalists across the Atlantic, than to ourselves. 

 We have been too busy, too idle, or too ignorant 

 to give the public an account of these numerous 

 inhabitants of this new world. With here and 

 tlierc a solitary exception, Mr Say is the only 

 American naturalist who has made known to us 

 any of these curious objects. In die following 

 contributions will be described some of those which 

 are to be found in this vicinity ; a part of them 

 are supposed to be new, and others not fully in- 

 vestigated. It is thought that this nit-y be of some 

 service to those who are commencing the study 

 of entomology, and may stimulate them to pursue 

 this interesting branch of natural history, and to 

 sieze every opportunity of recording the facts, 

 whicii may come to their knowlcrtge, respecting 

 the insects they investigate. If, hereafter, it shall 

 be shown that any of them were previously known, 

 it will give us pleasure to acknowledge it, when 

 didy informed. It certainly cannot be a cause 

 for re|iroval that among the many rare, ex])ensive, 

 or inaccessilile European works on Entomology, 

 or in the very brief and unessential description of 

 others, the characters of some of these su))posed 

 nevi' species may be detected. The number of 

 known ]ilants in the United St.ites, according to 

 Mr Nuttall, is about 5000 : Mr ivirby states that 

 insects are to jilants as 6 to 1 ; according to this 

 ratio the number of our insects must amount to 

 30,000. Mr Sav has described about 1200 new 

 species, and perliaps 3 or 4 thousand may be 

 known to Europeans : still a vast number must 

 remain unnoticed. Shall those, then, \\ho have 

 studied ll\e cliaracters and investigated the habits 

 of these insects in their native wilds, delay pub- 



ciiher kinds are friendly 10 mnn, and bupjily him wlili usi'lul, pre- 1 lishing the fruits of their labors because they may 



cious. and splendid ccmimodilie'!. " The siudy of insects nius| j .,(,ssiblv, HOW and then, add a new syilonj'm to 



tie imporiaiU. For wlieii \vc suffer from llipiii, if \\c do noi know 



die cause, how arc we lo Hpply a remedy li.at may diminish or 



prevent their ravciges Ignorance in this respect often occasions 



ui 10 mistake our enemies for onr friends, and our friends foronr 



enemies ; so that wlien we think lo do <;ood we do iiarm, — dcs- 



iroying the innocent and letting llie guihy escape." 



Impressed wnh these ideas, we are liap|:_v to inform our rea- 

 ders that Dr Hakuis. (wiio is well k:i(iwn .ns the most able en- 

 tomologist in New Euglan«.l) lias consented to (urnitli lor llie Nac 



Engltunl Farmer occasional essays on llie suiiject ;if iiisecis. We 



consider ourselves as under gieat obl'oation^ lo that (jentleman 



for making this journal the chaimcl lor communicating the re- 



sulisof his researches to f'nliivators. wiio are more immediately 



interested in Ihc ubjects of his invastigaiions than any other clcss 



in the community .—KuiTOR N. F. Fap.mi;!;. 



ENTOMOLOGY, 



As a scieiice has not. till of late years been properly appre- 

 ciated. At the time when •' The Itambler'' by Dr Johnson, 

 was published in Great Britain, the pursuit was ccnsideretl as a 

 legitimate sulyect of rid'cule j and the man who spent his time 

 and money in collecting insects, and investigating their habits, 

 prope.isities. and uses, was eon'sidered as a madman, harmless 

 perhaps, but decidedly insane. Even now. in the minds of ma- 

 ny, •' the learned as well as the vulgar, the idea of the trifling 

 nature of his pursuit is so strongly associated with that of die 

 dimiimlixe size of its objects, that an eiitomoio^t is synonimous 

 with every thing futile and childish,"' 



Rlankind, however, are beginning to realize the fact, that in- 

 .^(■cts, though potty, are powerful — iliough minute are mighty — 

 that much of the good and e\Ii whicli w^enjoy anti suffer is the 

 work of their liny but countless tribes. Some kinds ol in.sects 

 are the instruments of famine, and the precursors of pestilence, 



« ONTRIBUTIONS TO ENTOMOLOGY. 



UY TIIADDEU.S WILLIAM HARIirS, M. D. 

 An interest in the science of entomology aji- 

 pears to be awiikeiied among us, and we are grad- 

 ually becoming sensible of the utility of the pur- 

 suit. To mention nothing more, the fretjuent in- 

 (luiries, made in public journals, res|K;cting the 

 economy and metamorphoses of insects, sufiicieiit- 

 ly indicate a desire for further information. — 

 'I'here may be .some who object to the stuily of iii- 



nomcnclature ? The following appropriate quo- 

 tation may well close these preliminary remarks. 

 " This procrastination on our part, in most cases, 

 springs iVom a laudable thoUi.'li erroneous motive. 

 We aim at a jioint of perfection never to bo at- 

 tained. Year after year we keep back that 

 knowledge we have already acquired, in the 

 hopes of rendering it more perfect. Nevv discov- 

 eries arise, yet we wait for more. I\Ieantime the 

 stream of hfe is slowly passing trom us ; we find 

 those discoveries on which we had built our fu- 

 ture fame, anticiiiated by contemporaries. Forci- 

 bly impressed with this conviction, I shall make 

 no apology on this, or any future occasion for lay- 

 ing befiire the readers of this journal detached 

 descriptions or isolated remarks on such new ob- 

 jects as may come before me ; imperfect as these 

 observations may be, they may s«imulate the in- 

 quiries of others; and, at all (;venls, secure to Ihin 

 countni, in some meastire, the credit of making 

 known the natural ]>rodnction:? of !ier own iiosses- 

 sions." 



For the characters of the lainil es and genera, 

 Samouelle's " Useful Compendium," — the article 

 " Entomology" in Brewster's Encydopedia, or tlie 



3d volume of Cuvier's " Regne Animal," may be 

 consulted. 



Ordkk Coleoptera. 

 Family C'icindelida, 

 • Genus Cicindela. 



The insects of tius genus frequent dry and san- 

 dy places, and some species are very common in 

 our highways- They fiy swiftly, and fretpiently 

 alight at a short di.stauce from their starting point. 

 They are rapacious and devour such small insects 

 as they can seize. There may often be observed 

 small round holes in the ground fre()tieiUed by Ci- 

 cindeke ; tliese are the habitations of the larva;. — 

 By passing down a straw as a director, and care- 

 fully removing the earth, we can obtain the larva. 

 It has a soft, cylindrical, whitish body, with corne- 

 ous, purple or green head, thorax and jaws. There 

 are 6 legs near the head, an anal prolog, and a 

 pair of tubercles surmounted with hooks on the 

 eighth segment. When in ambush it remains near 

 the surface, the head closes the hole, and thus con- 

 ceals the pit and its sanguinary inhabitant from 

 those incautious insects which may be passing 

 over it. These are siezed in a moment and con- 

 veyed to the bottom of the retreat, to be devour- 

 ed at leisure. Tiie tubercles and hooks assist the 

 insect in its frequent motions up and down, and 

 the large concave surface of the head serves as a 

 basket to hold the earth whicli it excavates in fab- 

 ricating its burrow. The mouth of this is careful- 

 ly closed with earth when the larva has attained 

 its growth ; it then becomes a pupa, and alter 

 some time emerges in its ]ierfect state. Tlie Kev. 

 L. W. Leonard, of Dublin, N. H. kept one of these 

 larva in a vessel of earth, and fed it daily with 

 small insects, till it underwent its metamorphosis. 

 There apjiear to be two broods in the year, one 

 makes its apjicarance in August and September, 

 and the other in the following Ajiril and May, 

 having remaiued pupa diiring the winter. 



C. denficulata. Brilliant pyiished green ; man- 

 dibles elongated, slender ; each elytron with 3 un- 

 equal marginal spots and terminal btmch white. 



Length near half an inch. 



Head green, blueish and lungiiudimilly corru- 

 gated and in the male with long white hairs be- 

 tween the eyes; four basal joints of the antennae 

 brassy green, remaining ones piccous ; labruni tri- 

 dentrate, witii 6 marginal punctures, of the male 

 white edged with blackish brown, of the ftjinale 

 entirely greenisii black ; mandibles very long, 

 slightly arcuated, slender, greenish black, above 

 with a linear, basal, white spot ; paljii brassy green 

 ill the male, greenish black in the female ; eyes 

 brown. Elytra brilliant lerugirous green, in cer- 

 tain positions blue or [lurplo, with very minute dis- 

 tant punctures, a series of deep punctures with el- 

 evated centres near the suture, an abbreviated 

 series of similar punctures near the pumeral an- 

 gle, and a few scattered ones around the scute! : 

 external margin with three white spots, one of 

 whicli near the middle of the margin is large and 

 triangular, tlie apex of the triangle pointing to the 

 suture ; one very small and rouniled between the 

 ibrmer and base of the elytron ; ami the third or 

 )>osterior one elongated longituilinalfy into an ob- 

 long oval shape, not (piite attaining the inargin, 

 and confluent behind the terntiual lunule. Pei'tus, 

 postpectus, aiul thighs green, with white decumb- 

 ent hairs. 

 Variety a. Elytra purplisli blue. 



b. Anterior spot of the elytron wanting. 



c. Anterior spot wanting, triangular out 



