36 



THE AMEEICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Unfortunately, out of the six larva; captured by 

 frieud Leming, only two reached me alive, he hav- 

 ing packed three together iu one box, and three in 

 another. The consequence Tvas that, when they 

 reached me, there was but a single one remain- 

 ing in each box, the survivor in either case hav- 

 ing devoured his unfortunate comrades. The 

 old poets tell us, that lion will not prey upon 

 lion, nor tiger upon tiger; but, for the credit of 

 the Bugs, I am sorry to be obliged to confess, 

 that almost all the cannibal species will, when- 

 ever they get a chance, eat one another up alive. 

 This, however, though certainly not a very 

 amiable propensity of theirs, we must, I sup- 

 pose, overlook and pardon, in consideration of 

 tlie great practical benefits which they confer 

 upon the human race, by keeping within some 

 reasonable bounds the multitudinous tribes of 

 plant-feeding insects. 



This journal has already been extended to 

 such an exorbitant length, that 1 will only say 

 in conclusion that I left the pleasant regions of 

 South Illinois on June 30th, and on July 2d met 

 the ad interim Committee of the State Horti- 

 cultural Society at the house of Mr. D. B. Wier 

 at Lacon on the Illinois river. I subsequently 

 passed some very agreeable days at Champaign 

 with "Rural," and reached llock Island July 

 11th, having been absent from home 2.5 days, and 

 traveled altogether, by railroad and steamboat, 

 about 1.500 miles. 



Nothing, in the course of this Southern tour, 

 surprised me more, than the wholesale manner 

 in which pip-fruit in the South is punctured and 

 ruined by various kinds of snout-beetles. In 

 the North it is quite unusual to see an apple 

 bearing the well-known crescent-cut of the com- 

 mon Curculio; but in the South I estimated 

 that, upon an average, every apple bore three 

 such cuts; and Dr. Hull, whom I consulted 

 on the subject, told me that he did not consider 

 this by any means an extravagant estimate. 

 When I got to Lacon, which lies but little to the 

 south of Rock Island, the comparative immunity 

 of the apple-crop from this grievous pest became 

 apparent at once ; but in Madison Co., in Jersey 

 Co., in Macoupin Co., in Union Co., in Pulaski 

 Co., and in Champaign Co., the apples seemed 

 to be almost universally crumpled and gnarled 

 by the punctures of fruit-borers. Nor must we 

 lay all the damage by any means at the door of 

 the Curculio; for, from about a quart of punc- 

 tured apples gathered principally at Champaign, 

 I have bred since I returned home, within the 

 space of a month, no less than seven specimens 

 of the four-humped curculio (Anthononuts i-gib- 

 bus, Say), and only two specimens of the genu- 

 ine Plum Curculio. 



^ THE STING OF THE 17-YEAR CICADA. 



Our remarks on pagOjS of No. 1, attributing 

 the reputed stinging ,of the 17-year cicada 

 (locust) to the Digger wasp, Stizus grandis of 

 Say, have elicited communications from two of 

 our correspondents. Mr. F. "VV. Collins, of 

 Rochester, N. Y., has witnessed four periodical 

 returns of the " locust," and on each occasion 

 has heard of individuals (generally boys) being 

 injured by them. After giving a description of 

 the method of ovipositing he says : 



In every c.ise of locust stinging that has come to 

 my knowledge it has Ijieen where they occupied the posi- 

 tion long enough to drill a hole with their long ovi- 

 positor. 



If the locust can drill a hole in the limb of an oali 

 tree, it follows that if undisturbed, it might make a 

 hole in a boy's scalp, or through the flesh of a man, or 

 any otlier animal. Though this rarely occurs, it is not 

 impossiMi-. ;iiiil I :mi led to beUeve it more probable 

 than the iMiriiri tlii.,,iy. 



Till' -ooiid cmumunication is from Richard 

 Richardson, of j22 Arch street, Philadelphia. 

 He says : 



I have received the tii'st number of the Amencan 

 Entomoloiiht. and enclose one dollar, the subscription 

 lor one yrar 1 am plcasid iliat you have taken in 

 hand t!ir'-\iliji'.'t ni' rnluiiMilnuy in a 'inipular form, and 

 hope yi 111 may -ur.-cr.l in ihr mt.-riiri^o. I have been 

 mui-h iii;i ri--l'il ill ImmUii^ (i\ ,!■ ■ -N,!. I ,"■ and am much 

 l)lea>r;l \, i;'i ilii- . -nil UN in - in i ::1 , l.iil wish to make 

 the I'liii ■ "■ ■ ' , ' ■ ■• ' ■ iiiitli il ■ ■Tlie Bug 



Huiiii I i ! II i"iiir.Utinging 



ofpi r-i .1 '. i' I. ,, -.,.,. I,: , ,,ii ..1 Lin .asbeing 

 dour 1. , , 11 In ._. 1 \\,>ii r.iit the 



last 



positur. 

 head, wi 



I i Ilia M'litemicriiii mav, under 

 II-. iiulii I a wound with the ovi- 

 Man- ,-miiinr,l in a lioy's hat on his 

 lii'al jn-iipiai-ilv -Irnim- in deposit the 

 ..nerin- hut ilie l,M\~ >rali.. Ibrin- 

 her .similar iareuni>lanee.~. Certainly 

 it ean penetrate hard wuud, could 

 • He.sh, if so disposed. 

 iMins to be stung by the wasp with 

 lit, though more severe than from 



frequently seen them dragging locusts into their holes 

 in the ground. 



The following extract from a letter received 

 in 18G7 from Mr. Benj. Borden, of Norristown, 

 Montgomery county. Pa., also touches on this 

 point. Though ho has heard of severe suffering 

 being produced by their sting, he has never been 

 able to satisfactorily trace up a case : 



In the summer of 1866 my attention was called to a 

 colony of large wasps or honiets near this town. A 

 company of ns armed with pick and shovel paid them a 

 visit. They were located on the side of a stone pike: 

 they burrowed in towards the centre of the road. Hard 

 ground appeared to be no obstacle; when they encoun- 

 tered a stone, they turned and went around it. The 

 burrows were about three feet long, with two or three 

 galleries about one foot long. Each gallery terminated 

 m a chamber considerably enlarged. In each of these 

 chambers, they appeared to have reared one young. 



