56 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL QUACKERY. 



We clip the following paragraph from the 

 loim Homestead of July 22, 1868: 



The Curculio.— a correspondent of the Canada 

 Farmer wi'itiiis I'rom Sarnia, savs that he saveil his 

 Dlliiii-^ from tlic cHrculio in flii> fnllnwin;,' maniipr: He 



111 du 



raisini; a large crop of plums. 



This reminds us of a letter to a noted quack 

 wliich we once came across, and which read as 

 follows: — "Dr. Ccreall, De.arSir, Iliad a pain 

 in my stomach yesterday; so first of all I took a 

 dose of your never-failing electric oil; then I 

 tried a dose of Dr. Humbug's infallible elixir of 

 lime ; and lastly I swallowed a dose of cold-drawn 

 castor oil. In three hours' time my stomach was 

 all right again. Please let me know whether it 

 was the electric oil, or the elixir of lime, or the 

 castor oil that cured me. Yours truh-, Samuel 

 Simpleton." 



We incline to believe that it was the "jarring 

 the trees " that saved the plums ; and that the 

 " tanner's oil " and the " chloride of lima" might 

 just as well have been daubed on to the roof of 

 the house, for any eflfect that they had towards 

 keeping ofi'thc cui-culio. Will people never find 

 out that curculios can fly, and that attempting 

 to head them off from crawling up the trunks 

 of plum trees by oily bandages is all a matter of 

 moonsliine I 



THE CRUEL BCGHUN'TERS. 



Entomologists are often accused of cruelty, for 

 sticking a pin through a living insect, and allow- 

 ing the insect to remain impaled alive till they 

 are ready to dispose of it. " Sec how it strug- 

 gles !" some humane person exclaims, who has 

 just been swallowing a few dozen raw oysters 

 in the agonies of death; "what dreadful tor- 

 ttires it must endure!" 



In reality, however, it is the conflnemcnt, and 

 not the wound made by the pin, that the insect 

 objects to. You may take any iiight-fljiug 

 moth, and slyly transfix it by a pin to the object 

 on which it is silting in the daytime. It will 

 neither flutter nor struggle. Now watch it as 

 evening approaches. It begins to struggle most 

 violently, and most persons would believe it to 

 be in extreme agony. The truth of the matter, 

 however, is that it now wants to be flying 

 abroad, and is flitttering to get free from the 

 pin. If it is the pin that is hurting it, why did 



it not flutter by daylight, wheu the pin was first 

 stuck into its body? 



The British entomologist, Stephens, tells a 

 story of a dragon-fly that he once caught, which 

 upon his directing its tail to its mouth by way 

 of experiment, actually bit oft' and ate four 

 joints of its own abdomen, and then having 

 accidentally escaped from him, flew away as 

 briskly as ever. Many such facts as these are 

 known to every field entomologist, and the}' 

 arc utterly inconsistent with the hypothesis that 

 insects have auy nervous system, susceptible of 

 the feelings of paiu and pleasure, such as man 

 and the other higher animals are provided with. 



HOXEY BEES E.\TING GRAPES. 



It will have been observed that we adduced 

 satisfactory evidence in our last number (p. 33), 

 that the Honey-bees habitually gnaw holes into 

 peaches and quinces. The following letter, 

 wliicli we copy from the Ohio Farmer, seems to 

 prove that they also destroy grapes. We arc 

 sorry to impeach the character of an insect 

 whose reputation for honesty and industry has 

 been blazoned forth, from the days of Solomon 

 to those of Dr. Watts ; but truth is truth, and 

 must not be smothered up: 



I Iiave Ijccn iiuu-li annoyed this fall liy the Honey-bees 

 taking my grapes. They eonnneneed abont two weeks 

 ago ou my Concords , and lo savi' tliiui from complete 

 destruction I was obli,-i-l in \,irk I m fore fuhy ripe. 

 "When the injury was lir.-l . li-. n\ nrd, I thought the 

 robins and blue jays wcrr tlic ;;uilty I'artics, but have 

 since learned that we had a worse foe than the birds 

 to deal with. The bees will puncture the skin of the 

 grape and extr.act the sugar, when the fi'uit immedi- 

 ately shrinks up, and soon rots unless used at once. 

 My Dianas, Tsracllas, Drlawarrs, and l!o-rrs' Hy- 



bein; lain-, ar.- not uiurh di.-liiil.rd vrl , ahliough I 

 havenolir.al >r\ri-:d pla.T^ whvyr Ihr liri>arr at work 

 iin tliriii 1 Ihink. without duubl, they ha^ e destroyed 

 nil,' li\i-lirl lit Dianas, that grew upon three thrifty 

 \ ill. -. and iHol.alily as many Delawares. Several of my 

 iiri^liliiii'v lia\r siiilcred In the same way. I would 

 lil>i' to hrai- fioni those more extensively cnpged in 

 .urape culture, as tbis is the fii"st time I ever heard of 

 bees taking grapes. 



Respectfully yours, T. W. 



Kichmond, lud., Sept. 12th, 1S6S. 



ly We shall feel much obliged to our sub- 

 scribers, if, wheu sending their own or the 

 names of others, they will mention what num- 

 bers have already been received. Our forms 

 were not stereotyped, and we supposed we had 

 printed a sufficiently large edition of our first 

 issue to enable us to send back numbers, for at 

 least a year to come, to all subscribers who 

 should want them. The demand, however, has 

 been beyond our liighest expectations, and we 

 find it necessary to be sparing. In ordering the 

 Entomologist, therefore, please state whether 

 or not back numbers have already been received. 



