1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



course the ladies were nice) we had at Columbus? 

 I did not hear a profane or vulgar word. There 

 was no evidence of smoking-, and so, of course, not 

 of drinking. Get people interested in bees and 

 flowers, and the vices have far less show. I am 

 glad then to do any thing I can to aid our bee-keep- 

 ers in this wise and very laudable desire to know 

 more of flowers and whatever pertains to our in- 

 dustry. 



Mr. S. S. Saumering writes me as follows: "In- 

 closed please find two specimens of plants which I 

 should like you to name for me through Glean- 

 ings. The one with yellow flowers has ceased to 

 bloom; the other is now in full bloom, and contin- 

 ues In bloom for about three weeks. Both are 

 great favorites with the bees. They grow about 

 two feet high. The yellow one has a single stem, 

 the other a branching one. I find them growing 

 side by side by the acre in old pasture-fields. " 



Strange to say, these are the plants most inquired 

 about at Columbus. The white, many - flowered 

 plant is one of the asters. These asters are very 

 beautiful, and very excellent honey-plants. From 

 letters which I have received, these plants are wide- 

 spread throughout the United States. The yellow 

 flowers are goldenrod. These are also very beauti- 

 ful, not only in color, but in grace of form. I think 

 both ABC and Bee-Keepers' Guide have fine illus- 

 trations of both these plants. 



SPIDEK, AND BEETLE. 



The beetle which Mr. Hailes sends is one of the 

 family BuprcstidcB, or flat-bodied borers. It be- 

 longs to the genus Chrysobothris. By looking at my 

 maple-sugar book, page 15, we see a good figure of 

 C. femorata, which is a very destructive borer in 

 the apple and maple trees. This one from Texas is 

 the same form, but a little larger. It is dark gray 

 in color, with four brassy spots on each wing-cover. 

 The three anterior spots on each side are in a line, 

 while the two posterior spots are nearer together 

 than either pair of the other six. This insect bores, 

 as a grub or larva, in some of the Texas trees. The 

 grub appears to have a big head. This insect is al- 

 so new to my collection, and I am very much pleas- 

 ed to get it. 



The red specimen was ground to powder. I can 

 only say it is a species of spider. It is easy to dis- 

 tinguish a spider from an insect. The adult, or 

 imago insects, all have six legs, while all of the 

 spider group — the true.spiders, the scorpions (these 

 include our grandfather graybeards, or harvest- 

 men, and all have segmented abdomens), and the 

 mites— have invariably, if we exclude thephytoplus 

 mites, eight legs. Insects have antennae and com- 

 pound eyes; spiders have neither. Insects have 

 three marked divisions of the body— head, thorax, 

 and abdomen, while the true spiders and scorpions 

 have only two divisions— head-thorax and abdomen, 

 and the mites are little more than a sack with legs 

 and mouth parts attached. 



Mr. J. A. Golden, Reinersville, Ohio, sends a large 

 horn-tail, Tremex Columba. This is also a maple 

 borer. See sugar-book, page 16. It is a large cylin- 

 drical insect, black, with yellow rings (<n the base 

 of the abdomen, and a strong horn-like ovipositor, 

 hence the name, horn-tail. This tremex is more 

 than 1!4 inches long, and the ovipositor reaches 

 back nearly one-half inch. It can not sting, so no 

 one need fear to handle it. It also works on the 

 elm, Cottonwood, and pear. By bending her body, 

 this insect can thrust her ovipositor into solid wood 



for more than half an inch, and so she places the 

 eggs out of harm's way. 



THE GREAT WHEEL BUG. 



Mr. Paul Peins, Martinsburg, W. Va., sends me a 

 large fine wheel bug — Priondus cristatus, Linne, 

 which, owing to careful packing, comes to me alive 

 and hungry. He asks for a report in Gleanings. 

 As this is a typical species of the predaceous bugs, 

 I am glad to give a full description of this one of 

 our most active insect-friends. 



As I have before stated, the bugs— all of the order 

 Hemiptera — have their mouth parts modified into a 

 strong sucking beak, which in this species can be 

 used with great etfect. The order Hemiptera— bugs- 

 is divided into two sub-orders— Homoptera, which in- 

 cludes plant and bark lice, cicada, and some others 

 less common and not so well known ; and Heterop- 

 tera, which includes the true bugs— bedbugs and 

 parasitic lice. The name Hemiptera— half-wing— 

 comes from the fact that the bases of the wings are 

 thickened so that the insect appears to have half- 

 wings. The word Heteropter means unlike wings, 

 which refers to the same peculiarity. 



This bug is called wheel bug in allusion to the 

 curious half cog-wheel which forms the summit of 

 the thorax. There are ten of these peculiar cog- 

 like spines, or tubercles. The general color of 

 this wheel bug is a dark gray. The strong three- 

 jointed beak is brown, tipped with black, while the 

 long slim four-jointed anteniia? are also brown, 

 with a yellowish outer half. The thin portion of 

 the upper wings is bronze-colored. As bee-keep- 

 ers know, insects breathe through spiracles, or 

 breathing-mouths, situated on the sides of the body 

 or abdomen and thorax. The spiracles show very 

 plainly on the sides of this bug. 



It has a long slim head. All such are predace- 

 ous, and so valuable aids in keeping our insect- 

 foes at bay. The rounded prominent eyes are seen 

 on the side of the head. This bug not only uses its 

 powerful beak in overcoming and sucking the 

 blood from its victims, but also to defend itself. It 

 can not only thrust this beak into our flesh, but it 

 secretes an acid poison which renders its bite quite 

 as painful as the sting of a bee or wasp. Like 

 most other bugs it secretes a very odorous— disa- 

 greeably so— liquid, which undoubtedly serves to 

 protect it from hungry birds. No bird would think 

 to eat a second one of these stinking bugs. I don't 

 think this passing of these bugs by is instinct on 

 the part of the birds; it is just good bird sense— ac- 

 tion resu Iting from knowledge gained by experience. 



This, like all other bugs, passes through incom- 

 plete transformations. Unlike our bees, whose 

 transfoi-mations are complete, the newly hatched 

 bug looks much like the mature bug, except it is 

 smaller, and has no wings. The habit of larva, pu- 

 pa, and imago, or adult, are the same, so that a 

 single bug from babyhood to old age will make 

 way with a prodigious number of plant lice, cater- 

 pillars, etc. I have often been amused to see how 

 speedily this large wheel bug will devour even 

 large grubs and caterpillars, which I have given it 

 while keeping it confined in a box. This very one 

 celebrated its arrival in Michigan by devouring 

 half a dozen house-flies which I caught and put in a 

 bottle with its bugahip. 



While these long-headed bugs are all our friends, 

 as much can not be said of the other species whose 

 heads are sunk into the thorax to the eyes. Some 

 of those are also predaceous, while others, like the 



