268 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



A NEW INSECT DEPREDATOR, 



We have received the insects forwarded by Dea. 

 Fowlei, and they are strangers to us. As he re- 

 marks, insects will increase with improved culti- 

 vation, and every cultivator in the country should 

 attend to this subject, and endeavor to contribute 

 something towards learning the habits of insects 

 injurious to cultivation, and the best mode of de- 

 stroying them. The following correspondence 

 shows that we may have a new enemy in the field : 



Danvers, July 17, 1851. 



Mr. Cole : — I send you some insects which I 

 noticed, for the first time, on the fifteenth of June 

 last, by the side of the highway adjoining my 

 garden, and feeding upon the leaves of the weeds 

 and grasses there found growing. As these insects 

 were unknown to my neighbors as well as myself, 

 I was very desirous of knowing more of their 

 habits; I therefore sought information from Dr. 

 T. Wm. Harris, of Cambridge, concerning them. 

 My attention was first called toward these insects 

 by noticing large quantities of the leaves of the 

 burdock, completely dead, and having the appear- 

 ance of being scorched with fire. Upon exam- 

 ining them I found the under side of their leaves 

 swarming with insects, having to a casual observer 

 somewhat of the appearance of the cucumber bug, 

 but larger. When I attempted to seize them, for 

 the purpose of examination, I found them exceed- 

 ingly active, using both their wings and legs to 

 elude my grasp, and dodging from the under to the 

 upper side of the leaf They are still found where 

 I first noticed them, but in less numbers, and they 

 are now disappearing. 



At the time I wrote to Dr. Harris I had fears 

 that this insect would become troublesome to us. 

 I have since found, upon examination, that it has 

 appeared in my garden upon more than a dozen 

 dilferent kinds of plants, sucking their juices, some 

 of them to their serious mjury. I am now more 

 strongly inclined to the belief, should the insects 

 under consideration abound, that they will become 

 general feeders. Those who have been cultivators 

 for the last twenty-five or thirty years can probably 

 well remember when the ravages of the rosebuo- 

 was confined to the petals of the rose and a few 

 other plants. It is only within a few years that it 

 has attacked the grape vine, but when numerous, it 

 can now be found feeding on many plants, appa- 

 rently without much choice of food, it having be- 

 come in a iew years a most indiscriminate feeder. 

 If yon are acquainted with this insect, any remarks 

 upon its habils, or manner of destroying it, would 

 be acceptable. Yours &c., S. P. Fowler. 



Danvers New Mills, June 8, 1851. 

 Dear Sir : — I have inclosed in this letter some 

 insects, wliich I noticed a few days past, feed- 

 ing upon the under side of the leaves of the com- 

 mon i)urdock, which I do not recollect ever before 

 to have seen. With my limited knowledge of in- 

 sects I am unable to make out what they are, but 

 suppose they belong to the family of the leaf-eating 

 beetles, |)erliaps to the Cryplocephalians. There 

 is a group of insects of this genus figured in Say's 

 American Entomology, in the second volume, that 

 resembles these beetles somewhat. I could de- 



japri'ip <5niT<o nt ll>"ir linhit«. n« tlipv bavfi flOppnrr'H 



to me for a few days past, but I suppose the insect 

 is well known to you. I must confess that I enter- 

 tain great fears that it will not always confine its 

 ravages to the leaves of the burdock, but attack 

 other plants of more value ; indeed it has already 

 commenced eating the leaves of the clover, yellow 

 dock, plantain, &c., coming within its range. As 

 it is provided with wings, is very active and vora- 

 cious, and when fi)nnd is seen in great numbers, I 

 have the most serious apprehensions that it may 

 one day become a great pest to the cultivators of 

 the soil, and add one more to the number of insects 

 to be hereafter described by you as being found in 

 Massachusetts injurious to vegetation. 



My fears may be groundless, I hope they are, 

 but after many years' experience and observation 

 I have found almost invariably that new weeds, and 

 newly discovered insects, increase and spread them- 

 selves over tlie country. And I think we shall 

 find it to be a general rule, fully established in this 

 country and in England, that the higher and more 

 extensive the cultivation of the soil, the greater will 

 be the number and variety of insects and weeds we 

 shall have to contend with. I find these beetles, 

 like most other insects, can be destroyed by the ap- 

 plication of whale oil soap, those I send you having 

 been so killed. It would be very pleasing and ac- 

 ceptable to me, as well as to some of my friends, 

 to be infi)rmcd of the habits of this insect, together 

 with the best way of destroying it. 



Yours with respect, S. P. Fowler. 



Dr. T. W. Harris. 



Catnhridq-e, Mass., July 3, 1851. 



S. P. Fowler, Esq.: — Dear Sir, — Your letter 

 of the 28th June was duly received with its enclo- 

 sure of insects for my examination. The insects 

 are bugs, properly so called, and belong to the 

 order Hemiptera. They are distinguished from 

 beetles by having a kind of bill or sucker, pro- 

 ceeding from the head and bent backwards upon 

 the breast, in which respect they agree with the 

 common squash bug. I am not aware that this 

 species has been described ; but you will find it 

 named Capsus tpiatlrivitta/us (the four striped Cap- 

 sus) in my Catalogue of the Insects of Massachu- 

 setts, appended to the second edition of Prof. 

 Hitchcock's " Report of the Geology &c. of Massa- 

 chusetts," p. 578. An insect, belonging to the 

 same group, is described in the work on destruc- 

 tive insects, p. 161 &c., under the name of Phyto- 

 coris Ilneolaris. Of the habits of your insect I had 

 no particular infptmation before the receipt of your 

 letter. Some of my specimens were taken in July, 

 1829, on grass, in Milton, Mass., and others were 

 received from New Hampshire and from Maine. 

 All the plant bugs are eminently injurious to vege- 

 tation. Some seem confined to particular kinds of 

 plants, as the great squash bug, above named ; 

 others are more general feeders, as the little Phy- 

 locoris, and the species that you have sent to me. 

 They exhaust plants by puncturing them with their 

 bills and sucking out the sap. 



I have found no remedy so useful to protect 

 plants and to destroy the small kinds of bugs, 

 aphides, &c., as the solution of oil soap, and am 

 glad that you tried it upon the insects under con- 

 sideration and found it effectual. 



Respectfully yours, T. W. Harris. 



