THE AMEEICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



49 



diction, to our list of Potato-bugs, thus swelling 

 the whole number from ten up to elevep. 

 Wlicnever Blister-beetles of a jet-black color 

 are found eating- jiotato vines in the latter part 

 of August or in September, they probabl}- be- 

 long to this species ; but whenever such insects 

 occur in July, or early in August, they will in 

 all likelihood be found to be the same Black-rat 

 Blister-beetle wliich we have illustrated on page 

 -'4 of No. 2, Fig. U b. 



^Ye have heard from so many sources that 

 both the Striped and the Ash-gray Blister-bee- 

 tles prey not uufrequently upon the larvse of 

 the Colorado Potato-bug, that the fact may now 

 be considered as indisputable. As authorities 

 for those statements we would quote, among 

 many others, Abel Proctor of Jo Davies county, 

 111., and T. D. Plumb of MacUson, Wis. 



■ ' When dog eats dog, then comes the tng of war j ' ' 



when rogues fall out, honest men come by their 

 own. And now that certain potato-bugs have 

 taken to feeding upon other potato bugs, the 

 American farmer may justly lift up his voice 

 and shout for joy. 



POPUL.\R N.iMES AND SCIEXTIFIO NAMES. 



While, to suit the taste of the general reader, 

 wc have adopted the plan of always giving the 

 popular name of an insect, as well as the scien- 

 tilic name, we are not insensible to the great 

 uncertainty in the application of the former, espe- 

 cially when unaccompanied by the corresponding 



technical term. If, for instance, a person tells 

 us that his garden is ruined by "Wire-worms," 

 how arc we to know whether he means a snake- 

 like kind of thousand-legged worm (class J/yria- 

 pocla), belonging to the genus Juhis (Fig. 49), 

 [Fig.M.] oj. the larva of a Click-beetle 

 {Elater family. Fig. 50), such as is 

 represented in Figure 51? For both 



[Fig 51.] 



these kinds of animals — the second 

 Color-Pitchy black, of wMch is a truo insect, while the 

 first is not — are popularly known in America as 

 "Wire-worms." To give a second example of 

 the wide difference in the meaning of the same 

 popular name : In the United States, a genus I 



belonging to the class of Spiders (Arachnida) , 

 with a small oval body and enormously long and 

 slender legs {Phalangium) , is popularly called 

 "Father Longlegs," or "Daddy Loiiglegs," 

 while everywhere in England the very same 

 name is applied to a genus of large long-legged 

 Gnats (Tipula), wliicli are properly called in 

 English "Crane-flies," but which are some- 

 times in the United States dubbed "Galliuip- 

 pers," and absurdly supposed to have the same 

 power of drawing blood as the common Mos- 

 quito. 



Among auimals more highl}- organized 

 than insects, we meet with the very same un- 

 certainty in the use of popular names. If, for 

 example, a sportsman chooses to tell us that he 

 has shot ten "partridges," before we can find 

 out what particular bird he has killed, we have 

 to enquire in what State he was raised. If he 

 learned the English language in one of the 

 Northern States, he means that he has killed ten 

 RuflTed Grouse or Pheasants ( Tctrao uynbellus) ; 

 if in one of the Middle or Western States, he 

 means that he has killed ten Quails {Ortyx vir- 

 (jiniana). As to the popular term "Gophei-," 

 it is absolutely impossible even to guess, when 

 we hear that a hundred " Gophers " have been 

 trapped on a particular ftirm, whether the Thir- 

 teen-striped Ground-squirrel {Si:)ermophUus 13- 

 Uneatus), or the Pouched Gopher {Gcomys 

 hursarlus) is referred to; for these two widely 

 distinct auimals are both of them, in popular 

 American parlance, called indiscriminately 

 " Gophers." 



The modern fashion of christening every 

 organic being by two diflerent and often very 

 distinct names— the one scientific, the other 

 popular — often leads to such inconveniences and 

 anomalies as these, not only in Zoology, but 

 also in Botany. For ex.ample, the Dyer's Oak 

 of botanists {Quercus linctoria) is pojjularly 

 called " the Black Oak," while the true Black 

 Oak of botanists (Que7-cus nigra) is known to 

 woodsmen under the name of " the Black Jack 

 Oak." Again, two entirely distinct plants 

 {Lachnnnthes tinctoria and Ceanofhiis ameri- 

 canus) are both called by the Englisli name of 

 •• Red-root;" .and two quite different trees, the 

 one a true Poplar (Fopulus), the other a Tulip- 

 tree (Lirlodendron) , go by the popular name of 

 Poplar, the one in the East theotheriu the West : 

 while everywhere in the United States anotlicr 

 of the true Poplars is popularly dubbed, not 

 Poplar, but Cottonwood. On the whole, popu- 

 lar names, from the uncertainty and looseness 

 with which they are applied, are a far greater 

 nuisance to the priesthood of science, than the 

 most crabbed and crack-jaw scientific names can 

 possibly be to the laity. 



