114 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[August, 



the contrary, they have not yet been identi- 

 fied, nan. -id specifically, and described. The 

 field seems to be still open to discovery, and 

 if you can succeed in breeding and identifying 

 the gnat that causes these trumpet-galls, you 

 will subserve science, and add a scientific 

 " feather to your cap." We must confess we 

 have failed in every attempt to rear them. 



ABOUT HAIR-WORMS. 



(GordiiM, ele.) 



MrLLERSVii,LE, July 3, 1^84. 

 Prof. S. S. Rath von. —Dear Sir: I take 

 the privilege of sending you a curious worm, 

 (il I may so call it,) that was pumped from 

 one of our never-failing wells of this village. 

 It was handed to me by a Mr. Henry, and my 

 opinion asked in reference to it but had to 

 plead ignorance. Therefore I send the speci- 

 men to you for your examination and opinion. 

 I would like to hear what class it belongs to, 

 and whether it is of a common occurrence. 

 By letting a little light shine on the subject, 

 you will greatly oblige. 



Yours respectfully, B. F. H. 



Pine Grove, Pa., July 28, 1884. 



Prof. S. S. R.vthvon.— Dear Sir: I send 

 you with this mail, a vial in a block ot wood 

 containing a worm which was brought me by 

 a neighbor, the worm having been in an apple. 



Please inform us through the Farmer 

 what it is. Yours, &c., 



W. H. S. 



Within about the space of one year, we 

 have received three specimens of Gordius or 

 "Hair-worms," obtained under the most di- 

 verse circumstances, and from localities re- 

 mote from each other, and which constitute 

 three difterent varieties, if not distinct 

 species. 



The first specimen was black in color, ob- 

 tained in the northern suburbs of Lancaster 

 city, and about eight inches in length. This 

 was found protruding from the body of a 

 large black *beetle about two inches, and 

 then drawn out by the hand. 



The second was of an ash-brown color, be- 

 tween eleven and twelve inches in length, and 

 was pumped up out of a "never-failing well " 

 in Millersville, in this county. This now 

 holds the distinction of being the longest and 

 the thickest we have never seen, and may be 

 a distinct species, as the anterior end is 

 trilobed instead of bilohed. 



The third specimen is white in color, taken 

 out of an apple, at Pine Grove, Pa., and is 

 about six inches in length. It seems to be 

 conceded that the first stages of these animals 

 are passed within the bodies of other animals, 

 but it is not clear how they get there. Nor is 

 it clear how they get into an apple, (we have 

 one found in the seed-cavity of an apple) nor 

 how they get into a head ot cabbage, {we 

 also have one or two found near the centre of 

 a compact head of cabbage.) They are said 

 (o deposit their eggs in water, or in damp or 

 marshy places, and the eggs, or the young 

 when first excluded, being very small, are 

 somehow appropriated by the animals. 



The generic name of these animals is said 



♦The person who drew it out and presented it to us 

 did not l<now the name of the beetle, but from his de- 

 scription we infer it was the common " Dor-l)eetle," 

 (Coprit caroliiui.) we have taken it from the " Red- 

 legged Grasshopper." and from Hakpai,id/E. 



to be derived from Gordius, King of Phrygia; 

 relating to a knot in the harness of his chariot, 

 so intricate that it baffled every eftbrt to untie 

 it. The oracle having declared that he 

 who untied the knot should be the con- 

 queror of the world, Alexander the 

 Great, made the attempt, but fearing 

 lest, in the event of his failure, it should be 

 considered as a bad omen and interpose an 

 obstacle to his future conquests, he cut it 

 asunder with his sword, and thus either ful- 

 filled the oracle or eluded it ; just as his friends 

 or foes chosed to construe it. Hence these 

 Hair-worms being often found tied up in a 

 tangled knot, received the generic name Gro?-- 

 dius, and the most common species the specific 

 name equnticns, from being usually found in 

 water. These animals do not all belong to the 

 genus Gordius however, but to several other 

 genera. Those we found in grasshoppers were 

 Filaria, not so long nor yet so firm in texture 

 as the gordians. 



They belong to Clvier's second family of 

 the Abranchious Annelides (that is, they are 

 destitute of bristles,) which also includes the 

 leeches, besides many other curious forms. 

 They are usually found from six to sixteen 

 inches in length, but it is on record that speci- 

 mens have been found three feet in length. 

 Some difference of opinion has long existed as 

 to which end constituted the head or the tail ; 

 one class regarding the bifid or two lobed end 

 the head, and the other class that the conical 

 end is the head. Some naturalists have dig- 

 nified these annelids by erecting them into a 

 distinct order, named Gordiacea, and sepa- 

 rating them from the Filarians, and one 

 writer describes a species eleven inches in 

 length, that he took out of a Uarabusviolaceus, 

 a violet colored ground beetle, hardly an inch 

 in length. And it is also on record that if 

 they chance to emerge from their victims in 

 dry weather, or in a dry locality, they allow 

 themselves to be dried up and become hard 

 and brittle ; and yet, as soon as a shower of 

 rain falls upon them they relax and become 

 active as ever, and immediately start off to a 

 a suitable place to deposit their eggs. These 

 eggs are deposited in a string, like a a fine 

 string of minute beads. 



Of course the notion that these animals are 

 " animated horse-hairs," is utterly falacious. 

 Their bodies are a series of very distinct 

 articulations. The Linnsean Society of Lan- 

 caster has a specimen in which the eggs are 

 distinctly visible within the body of the adult. 



CLOVER MIDGE. 



We failed to develop to the mature state 

 any of the "clover midges " alluded to in our 

 July number, but we accomplished something 

 quite as satisfactory and calculated in some 

 measure to quiet the apprehensions of the cul- 

 tivators of clover. We placed about a dozen 

 small clover heads in a gla,ss jar, intending to 

 add some fresh earth, which, through unre- 

 mitting secular occupation we entirely forgot, 

 until we deemed it too late. These clover- 

 heads were infested by about thirty individuals 

 of the larvae of CecifZom>/!"a legmninicla, Lint., 

 and as many of them appeared on the outer 

 surface of the heads we supposed them near 

 their pupal change, for which reason we did 

 not immediately supply them with earth. In 

 cleaning out the jar, on the first of August, 



we discovered in the bottom about a dozen 

 shrivelled orange-colored larvae of the midge, 

 and about as many specimens of a small 

 species of "Chalcis-fly," from which may be 

 inferred that the "bane and antidote" are 

 traveling in company in Pennsylvania. This 

 chalcidian h,as (in some specimens) iridescent 

 wings ; white feet, with a dark spot on the 

 femer of the anterior pair and the head 

 (which is proportionally large), the thorax and 

 the abdomen, a very dark burnished green, or 

 greenish black ; and about the size of Petro- 

 malus pupanmi, which we have bred from the 

 pupae of Pieris rapoe, resembling that parasite 

 in size and color at least. We have an im- 

 pression that the parasite of the "clover 

 midge " has been named and described, but at 

 this writing we have not immediate access to 

 it if it has. 



On the whole, we do not think that because 

 the midge was abundant in Dauphin county 

 the present season it will necessarily be as 

 abundant, or more so, next season, although it 

 may have had an injurious ett'eet upon the 

 quantity and quality of the present season's 

 crop of clover seed. Time alone, however, 

 can truly demonstrate this. 



THE "KING BIRD." 

 The " King-bird" or " Bee Marten ( Tyran- 

 niis Carolinensis) in some localities also called 

 "Tyrant Fly-catcher," is wholly, solely and 

 unreservedly an insectivorous bird. It feeds 

 on nothing else, and like the swallows, it only 

 comes amongst us when we have insects for 

 it and its young lo feed upon, and it leaves us 

 as soon as no more winged insects abound. It 

 does not root around among rubbish for in- 

 sects, but usually occupies a perch and waits 

 for them, taking them generally " on the 

 wing." Prof. Thomas G. Gentry, in his 

 " Life Histories of the Birds of Eastern Penn- 

 sylvania," enumerates and names thirty-seven 

 distinct species of insects that have been 

 found in the stomachs of King birds ; and the 

 caterpillars, or larvae of about twenty-five 

 species, that they have fed to their young, 

 before they have been able to help themselves. 

 Among these insects are included some of the 

 most noxious species ; some that are ne .tral 

 and also some that are insect friends. This 

 bird makes no discrimination (neither does 

 any bird for that matter); to him an insect is 

 an insect, and that " fills the bill," so far as 

 he is concerned. 



Nevertheless, the King-bird has his fault, 

 and according to some people, a very grave 

 one. He seems to have a penchant for bees, 

 and some say for honey bees ; but possibly not 

 because it is a honey bee so much as because 

 it is an insect. Some ornithologists have 

 feebly defended him, alleging that he only 

 destroys the drones, but Prof, Gentry is con- 

 vinced otherwise, through personal observa- 

 tion. Still, this is a mere bagatelle, when we 

 contemplate his whole character. "For its 

 wholesale destruction of man's worst enemies, 

 it merits his unstinted praise," is the testi- 

 mony of an intelligent authority. We have 

 deemed this much necessary at this time, in 

 view of the ruling of one of our city alderman, 

 in a case of shooting a King-bird, brought 

 before him July 31st, in which a young mam 

 was heavily fined. 



