178 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[December, 



state that tliis Second Annual Exhibition will 

 be held on Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tues- 

 day and Wednesday the 14th, loth, 17th, 18th 

 and 19th of January, 1881. The list is ex- 

 ceedingly liberal, and the facilities to exhib- 

 itors and visitors ample and judicious. 

 Copies of the premium list may be obtained 

 from the Recording Secretary, Mr. J. B. 

 Lichty, southeast corner of Centre Square and 

 South Queen street. [Em buildiiig.) 



HORNED FUNGUS EATERS. 

 Some person, unknown to us, sent us in a 

 neat little paper box, by mail, thirteen speci- 

 mens of Bolitophagus cornutus, three of which 

 are males, and ten females. These are very 

 dark brown (nearly black) insects, about ten 

 lines in length, externally rough or tubercu- 

 lated, the males being distinguished by two 

 horns projecting from the thorax forward, 

 and from which is derived their specific name. 

 They belong to the Heteromorous Coleoptera, 

 subsection Stenelytra, and family Helo- 

 TiojE. They are usually found in woody 

 fungi belonging to the genus Bolitus. The 

 larvse feed on tliis fungus in its softer state, 

 and the mature beetles are frequently found 

 secreted within the fungus in its dry state, 

 and there they are also frequently found 

 hibernating during the winter season. We 

 know of no special damage they do to anything 

 else. The Boliti are usually found attached 

 to dead trees, stumps, logs, fence rails, &c. 



HONEY BEES AND GRAPES. 



From the proceedings of the seventh annual 

 meeting of the " Entomological Club of the 

 American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science," which convened at Boston, 

 Massachusetts, in August last, we extract the 

 following in relation to the question of bees 

 destroying grapes ; and although, perliaps, 

 not conclusive, yet such high authority must 

 be our justification in our alluding to a 

 subject which the affirmative in this locality 

 believe was settled against the bees auriug 

 the last season. 



Prof. Cook read a paper on the '' Contribu- 

 tions of Agriculture to Science." 



"Dr. J. G. Morris, of Baltimore, inquired 

 whether Prof. Cook had ever tried to starve 

 bees, and then furnish them with grapes in 

 order to learn whether they would puncture 

 the grapes for the sake of obtaining the juices. 



Prof. Cook said that he had not done that, 

 but that he had placed bruised grapes before 

 them, which tliey sucked, and then he had 

 placed whole grapes before them, but they 

 would not puncture the skin. In response to 

 a question. Prof. Cook stated that while he 

 had never known bees to eat meat, yet they 

 would suck the juices from meat. 



Possibly this knotty problem might be 

 solved by some such exiieriment as that sug- 

 gested by Dr. Moiris, and yet it may not be 

 quite certain that bees, in confinement, would 

 puncture sound grapes if they coidd.. On one 

 occasion we captured a common wasp (Po- 

 llutes,) that appeared to be " stylopized," and 

 confined it in a glass jar, the mouth of whicli 

 we covered with gauze, placing, also, sugar 

 and pieces of sweet apples in tlie jar, with a 

 view to develop the stylops. At first the wasp 

 partook of the food, but when it discovered that 

 it was a prisoner, it utterly refused to ap])ro- 

 priate any more, and manifested great anxiety 

 to escape, and absolutely starved itself to death, 

 although surrounded by an abundance of 

 food. Bees miglit act similarly, although 

 they might not. The thing should have been 

 tested last grape season, but we believe it was 

 not. The experiment ought to be tried next 

 season, at least, and the question .settled, if 

 possible, so thai the clamor against the bees 

 might be forever hushed if they are innocent. 



Some animals can be fed and will thrive in 

 confinement — indeed may not know or care 

 that they are confined ; but all are evidently 

 not of that nature. About four years ago we 

 received two live "Horned-frogs" {Phryu- 

 osonia) from Texas, which we kept for months 

 in a cage, placing before them both living and 

 dead insects, but we never could ascertain 



that they ate one of them ; but were always 

 trying to get out of the cage, and finally died. 

 Again, last summer a specimen of Ph ri/uosoma 

 found its way up to Chicago, in the custody 

 of a member of the Republican Convention, 

 from whence it was brought to Lancaster, 

 and donated to the Linnoean Society. We 

 had this subject in our possession for two 

 months, but it would not eat. When we first 

 received it, it was in a fine, healthy and 

 plump condition, appearing to have been 

 recently gorged with some kind of food ; and 

 on examining its /feces we discovered tliat it 

 coutauied fragments of grasshoppers — the 

 femers and tihias of Cahptinus being recog- 

 nized. Having practically solved the problem 

 involving the specific food of the " Horned- 

 frog, "we plumed ourself on being able to 

 domesticate the animal, and instruct others 

 who possessed these hannlcss pets. Therefore 

 we placed before it, at intervals, fresh and 

 living specimens of our Red-legged grass- 

 hopper (Caloptinsfemer-rubrum) h\it it did not 

 seem conscious of their presence. They hopped 

 all around it, over it, in front of it, and on it, 

 but it never attempted to appropriate a single 

 one of them, dead or alive. As they died we 

 removed them and introduce living ones with 

 the same result. At length the animal seemed 

 to have evacuated the entire contents of its 

 bowels, and became lean, lank, limp and 

 sluggish ; but never ceased, dm'ing the two 

 mouths of its incarceration, to make the most 

 energetic eflbrts to escape from its confine- 

 ment. Sometimes we pittied it, and some- 

 times we were "nettled" at its persevering 

 obstinacy. If we took it out of its cage and 

 laid it on our hand, on a table, or on the floor, 

 it never made any attempt to escape, although 

 it freely moved about ; but return it to its 

 confinement, and it would immediately mani- 

 fest a disposition to be out of it, and in free- 

 dom. 



Now, if we were to forcibly confine bees 

 within a limited space, to see whether they 

 cut the skins of grapes or not, it is likely they 

 would manifest the same stubbornness. 

 Practical beekeepers know how obstinate and 

 heady bees are when they seem to be set on 

 doing just the opposite that their keepers 

 desire. 



Mr, H. M. Engle informs us that he tied 

 paper around his clusters of grapes to protect 

 them against the incursions of bees. In some 

 of these he found bees and wasps, and the 

 fruit cut and greatly damaged, and in others 

 in which no insects were found the fruit was 

 entire. This would seem to be conclusive, 

 but in reality it is not — the wasps may have 

 done the cutting, and the appropriation of 

 the bees an aftermath. Even in those where 

 only bees were found, the wa.sps not being 

 honey gatherers, may have regaled them- 

 selves and fled. It is essential to the proper 

 solution of the question that the bees; be seen 

 committing the act with which they are 

 charged. It must be borne in mind, too, that 

 in this experiment the insects entered volun- 

 tarily through apertures that had not been 

 securely guarded. Had they been captured 

 and forced in, the result might have been 

 different. As a parallel to Shakespeare's 

 "Let me not ^■iiou; that I am i-obbed, and I 

 am not robbed at all." Let the bee not know 

 it is restrained or imprisoned, and it is not 

 restrained at all. 



We ofl'er these suggestions in order to assist 

 those who propose to experiment intelligently 

 next season, aud until such intelligent experi- 

 ments are made, the question cannot be re- 

 garded as settled. We are not among those 

 who deem it impossible that bees should cut 

 the skins of grapes and other tender skinned 

 fruits, as is plainly set forth in our paper on 

 the subject published in the September num- 

 ber of The Farmer, page 131 ; but, although 

 we have watched them "time and again," on 

 our own premises, during the whole season, 

 we have never seen them do it. We have never 

 seen them in the act We have seen them 

 from the ripening of the early " Hartford Pro- 

 lific " to the late "Isabella^", flying about the 

 clusters and alighting (^n th'em, but we have 



never seen them attempt to puncture them ; 

 whilst, at the same time, under the vines, 

 scores of bees might be seen engaged in 

 greedily extracting the juices from the re- 

 jected skins, or ruptured grapes that had fallen 

 from the vines ; and yet we do not regard 

 evaii this as conclusive evidence in their 

 behalf. 



THE CODLING MOTH. 



Our recollections of this insect, or rather of 

 its larva, go way back to about 1822. We 

 may have noticed it prior to that period, but 

 we are quite sure we saw it very frequently 

 during the winter of 1822 and 182.3. In the 

 autumn of the year first named, we first 

 "hired out" on a farm, and continued in 

 that occupation during the next ensuing five 

 years, or until the month of July, 1827, and 

 every winter at least, during all that period 

 we saw scores of those larvse or "apple 



a shows the interior of an apple, the darker part being 

 the iiurrow of the worm. 6 the calyx, or point where the 

 ef^gs are deposited by tlie moth; c is tlie full grown worm; 

 d is the naked pup »;"/ is the moth in its natural position 

 at rest; g is the same with the wings expanded; h is the 

 head and tirst segment magnified; and i is the coccoon. 



worms," as they were usually called. They 

 were not pai-ticularly regarded as a pest, but 

 were rather considered as matters of course, 

 and little or no complaint was made about 

 them. Apples were abundant and cheap 

 every season, especially every alternate season, 

 which was denominated the "apple year." 

 No one thought about a remedy to destroy 

 them, and it is doubtful whether any one 

 would have gone to the trouble to apply a 

 remedy, had one been known. Among these 

 worms may also liave been the larvse of the 

 Curadio, but of this we knew nothing. To us 

 then, they were all perfect creations, and we 

 did not know them or suspect them to be any- 

 thing else but worms, and able to beget other 

 worms — indeed, we regarded the larger ones 

 as the adults, and the smaller ones as the 

 young. As to their eventual transformations 

 into moths or beetles we had no suspicious, 

 and our elders .seemed to know no more about 

 them in this respect than we did. During 

 the apple-butter and "schnitz" making 

 season, hosts of these lettle worms were en- 

 countered in the apples, of various shades of 

 color, white, red, pink, and of yellowish or 

 greenish tints. Lively little fellows they were, 

 and when disturbed by cutting or biting into 

 an apple, they would very actively leave their 

 burrows and scamper over the outside, unless 

 they were cut through or bitten into. From 

 about midsummer until autumn, when the 

 apple crop was gathered, the ground under 

 the trees was usually shoe-deep with apples, 

 and it would be safe to say that nine out of 

 every ten of these contained at least one 

 worm, or an unoccupied "worm-hole." Occa- 

 sionally, in or about the seed cavity, we would 

 find a whitish , sluggish worm that did not at- 

 tempt to escape, and although they were 

 shorter and more plump than the others, we 

 had no special suspicions that they belonged 

 to a different order of worms. Perhaps ob- 

 servations of this kind may have been made 

 fifty years before we made them as a boy, and 

 that the Codling is a very old insect. In those 

 days we needed no microscope to examine 

 •those worms, for our eyesight was sharp 



