THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



117 



able to eat: and, consequently, he thought it 

 must inevitably soon die. One day, liowcver, 

 tlu-ee large, dark, pear-shaped larvie emerged 

 from its body, from the region of the kidneys, 

 and dropped on the bottom of the cage. These 

 Mr. II. placed on a pot of earth, and the next 

 morning one of them liad gone into the ground, 

 and the other two had changed into blunt, oval- 

 shaped pup:e on the surface of the earth. After 

 this the Squirrel recovered its health, ate, and 

 became as lively as usual, and in due time was 

 set at liberty. One of these pupa; died, and re- 

 mains a pupa still, and from the other a fly only 

 partially emerged, and died in the eflbrt, and it 

 also remains so still. From the one which bnried 

 itself, however, a perfect fly in a few days 

 evolved, which in every respect corresponded 

 with the one in my collection. I afterwards 

 sent my specimen to Baron Osten Sackeii, whilst 

 lie yet resided in "Washington, and he pro- 

 iionnced it Cuferel/ra biiccata, Fabr. 



So you see here was a case where these bots 

 were not found in the scrotum of the animal at 

 all. The coincidence is also singular, that both 

 those that came under the observation of Dr. 

 Fitch, as well as of my own, were always in tlic 

 Striped Squirrel, a species wliicli our hunters 

 never pretended were emasculated by other 

 species. Tlie matter does not seem to be quite 

 c'lear yet. S. S. I!. 



Lancaster, Pa. 



[It appears to us that, if tlic above facts prove 

 anything at all, they ratiier lend to confirm Dr. 

 Fitch"s tlicory than otherwise. It is not stated 

 that the sick Squirrel was a female, or that if a 

 male, it was unmutilated when it recovered its 

 health and was set at liberty. As to the para- 

 sitic larvae emerging "from the region of the 

 kidneys,"' it is not difficult to understand that 

 three such large lai-vie as must be those of this 

 Fly, which is llie size of a humble-bee, would 

 soon entirely consume the testicles — supposing 

 them to have been originally located there — and 

 be compelled to stray off for foo<l into the ad- 

 joining regions of the body of so small an ani- 

 mal as a Striped Squirrel. In one of the two 

 cases recorded by Dr. Fitch, a single grub was 

 actually found alive inside the scrotum of a 

 Squirrel caught by a cat, and from this grub the 

 fly was bred the next summer. In the second 

 case two apparently immature grubs were 

 found, considerably torn and injured, in the 

 scrotum of a Squirrel that had been shot; audit 

 is expressly stated that, even by these two 

 partly-grown grubs, the testicles appeared to be 

 entirely consumed. Hence we may safely infer 

 lliat as manv as three such grubs could not 



reach maturity in the body of a single Striped 

 Squirrel, without consuming otlier parts besides 

 tlic testicles. — Eds.] 



Notes on the Periodical Cicada — It does ovijiosit 

 in Evergreens. 



f:,l!tori> American Eiiiomologi^i : 



In the interesting account of the Cicada sep- 

 femdecim. in No. 4 of the Amkhican Entomolo- 

 gist, on page 65, you say that " the females 

 deposit their eggs in the twigs of diflferent trees, 

 but never in evergreens.'" I had noticed them 

 with some attention during the past season hei-e, 

 and enclose you these specimens of their w^ork 

 in tln-ee of our commonest evergreens — Thuja 

 occideutalis, Juniperus virginiana and Abies 

 canadensis. I have so far been unable to find 

 any traces of their work in either of our common 

 pines — Finns Austriaca, P. strobus or P. sylves- 

 tris. Should I succeed in finding them in these 

 pines I shall seiul you a sample. 



Your reference, page (36,- to the fungus found 

 in the posterior part of the abdomen of the 

 Cicada sejjtemdcriiii. confirms my observations 

 here, except that the ''mould"" seemed to be a 

 drying up of the contents and membranes of 

 the abdomen, generally of a brown color, and 

 dry and brittle. I found that in manj- cases the 

 male organs of generation remained so firmly 

 attached to the female during copulation that 

 the male could only disengage himself by break- 

 ing away, leaving one or two posterior joints 

 attaclied to the female, and it is these mutilated 

 males which I found aflected by the peculiar 

 fungus mentioned, and therefore concluded tliat 

 the " dry rot "" might be the result of tlic broken 

 membranes. I never found one thus atl'ected 

 in the very early part of their season, and I 

 never found a perfect male thus att'ected. But 

 (his is not positive proof. 



Their ravages on jmrts of the young orchards 

 in this vicinity were very severe — some young 

 pear and apple trees being very much injured. 



Allow me to thank you for the clear and pop- 

 ular manner and style of your paper. I hope it 

 ma\- be as successful as it deserves to be. 



Truly, K. H. Wakdki!. 



(LKVES, Ohio. .Jan. 2>. IMi'.i 



[We examined the twigs with a good deal of 

 interest, and found that the eggs had hatched in 

 all but one specimen of Abiejt canadensis. Will 

 our correspondent make still further investiga- 

 tions and report whether the eggs in this tree 

 have generally failed thus to hatch? Those eggs 

 whicli failed to hatch are solid and discolored, 

 while the shells of those that hatched are ex- 

 tremely fine and silveiy. — Eds.] 



